Arrival, Music and Sonu

“Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.”–Victor Hugo

Having carried on about Sonu Nigam last week, I thought it best to weave the theme of music into Indian Arrival Day, which we celebrated last Saturday. In any case the Dharmic Sabha brought the artiste both to raise funds for the shelter for abused children and also to kick off its Arrival Day celebratory activities.

And what a celebration it was! There’s no question that Sonu Nigam is a very talented artiste. Accompanied by an expatriate female singer Gungan Singh, Sonu yet carried almost the entire three hour show without a break. As the president remarked it was a display in stamina if nothing else.

The artiste complimented the audience for their eclectic taste in music and confessed that it was only ‘in this part of the world’ he could sing a bhajan at a concert! The crown went wild to his classic praise to the Divine Mother “Tum Binti suno sabki”. For a sold out audience that included, from grandparents to toddlers, Sonu was able to belt out something for everyone.

From “Pathar Ke Sanam” from the sixties for the President to the Shukran Allah of the present for the youths the crowd was rocking.

In between, Sonu displayed his mastery of the various genres in popular music – the old classical test tune – Laaga chuneri mi daag; the love ballads like Kal ho na ho… a multitude of rock inspired songs… he even sang in falsetto! But his compliment to the crowd on their love and knowledge of music touched a deep chord in the Indian experience in Guyana. Music was always an integral aspect of Indian culture and the Indians that came to Guyana brought their music to their new homeland. In fact during the hard and brutal days of indentureship along with their religion in which it was integrally blended, it might have literally kept them alive.

The Indians of the Bhojpuri belt from which most of them originated had their own special twist to their music – they were mostly set to faster beats – even the religious ones. The Chutney music that is so popular in the Caribbean today is derived from the bawdy Bhojpuri songs the women would sing at the “Maticore”. Sonu Nigam did genuflect to the genre by belting out “Phulowrie bin chatney kaise bane?” Gradually, just as in India, the folk songs are dying out and being replaced by the commercialised ‘filmi’ music from Bollywood. But what Sonu Nigam demonstrated and explicitly stated was that the musicians were all still being trained in the ancient ragas so that even when they innovated and brought in western and other influences they were perfectly aware of what their standards were.

Music, they say, is a universal language and this is very evident in the Indian experience in Guyana. Unfortunately, there are some that still have the old colonial snobbery that ‘western’ music is somehow ‘better’ than that from India. When you think of it, and certainly if you were at the Sonu Nigam concert, it is the snobs’ loss.