A Bharatanatyam performance has a nattuvanar. “In Bharatanatyam, the cymbals are used by the nattuvanar or conductor to keep time,” Sruti magazine explains. The nattuvanar also recites the rhythmic syllables of the dance.
A dancer’s blog describes the role in one sentence: “The Nattuvanar cues, shapes, and supports the dancer’s every move.”
Yeh dosti. This friendship. The song from Sholay (1975) was composed by R.D. Burman, with lyrics by Anand Bakshi, and sung by Kishore Kumar and Manna Dey. The five-minute song sequence took 21 days to shoot.
“Yeh Dosti” has been called the ultimate friendship anthem, Wikipedia notes. In 2010 it was used “to symbolise India’s friendship with the United States during a visit from President Barack Obama.”
In classic Hindi film music, Goan musicians worked as arrangers for the composers. The composer appeared “under the designation ‘music director’ in large type in the credits.” The arrangers were listed in small print. One of them, Frank Fernand, said: “We arrangers did all the real work.”
Sebastian D’Souza, for example, was a permanent assistant to the composers Shankar and Jaikishan from 1951 to 1975.
Saathi haath badhana. Friend, lend a hand. The song comes from the film Naya Daur (1957). Sahir Ludhianvi wrote it, O.P. Nayyar composed it, and Mohammed Rafi and Asha Bhosle sang it.
Gharana means family or lineage. In Hindustani music, a gharana is a community of performers who “share a distinctive musical style that traces to a particular instructor or region,” in the words of Britannica. Traditionally, disciples moved into the home of their teacher.
A study of how Hindustani vocal music is passed on, from Macquarie University, found that teachers instruct their students “largely without the aid of writing or notation.”
Adda is the Bengali word for long conversation among friends. The historian Dipesh Chakrabarty, in his essay “Adda, Calcutta: Dwelling in Modernity,” describes it as “the practice of friends getting together for long, informal and unrigorous conversations.”
In 1983 Manna Dey released the song “Coffee Houser Sei Addata,” about the adda at the Coffee House on College Street in Kolkata. Gauriprasanna Mazumdar wrote the words and Suparna Kanti Ghosh the music. The song remembers seven friends who met there. In a 2006 BBC Bangla poll, listeners ranked it fourth among the greatest Bengali songs.
The singer Kesarbai Kerkar began to train under Ustad Alladiya Khan in 1921. According to Wikipedia, she reportedly set a condition that he “should not train other disciples except them.” Alladiya Khan died in 1946.
In May 2006 the singer Girija Devi tied a sacred thread on the wrist of the singer Malini Awasthi at her home in Varanasi. The ceremony is the ganda bandhan. “Gandabandh is a traditional knot-tying ceremony, which cements the relationship between a guru and his shishya,” wrote The Tribune. “Usually performed on an auspicious day, it heralds the beginning of teaching.”
Pandit Jasraj, the newspaper reported, holds the other side of the bond. A guru cannot demand respect. He has to command it with his conduct.
In 1933, at the age of 11, Bhimsen Joshi left his home in Dharwad to find a music teacher. He traveled to Bijapur, Pune, Gwalior and across North India, until his father found him in Jalandhar.
In 1936 the singer Sawai Gandharva accepted him as a student. Joshi lived in his teacher’s house, in the guru-shishya tradition, the bond of teacher and disciple. He later received the Bharat Ratna.
“Behno aur bhaiyon, aap ki khidmat me Ameen Sayani ka adaab.” Sisters and brothers, Ameen Sayani offers his greetings and his service. With these words Sayani opened Binaca Geetmala, the Hindi film song countdown that began on Radio Ceylon in 1952.
He reversed the usual order, “brothers and sisters.” At its peak, the show had about 400 radio clubs, and thousands of listeners wrote to Sayani every day.