Sept_13

BONDS
SUDAKSHINA SARMA WITH
PRAYASH, SREEDHARA AND
TUHEEN, Guwahati
For Sudakshina Sarma, singing has always been her first
love and, at 80, her once-golden voice is gradually fading.
But what better legacy than to pass on the talent to
her grandchildren? Sudakshina has four grandchildren,
three of whom are already writing their own lyrics, apart
from singing for albums and at public functions. The
fourth, six year-old Sreedhara, is well on her way too. Sudakshina
learnt the basics first from her mother and then
her elder brother and legendary singer Bhupen Hazarika.
“Music is in our blood,” says grandson Prayash, 23, who
has dedicated his latest song to his granny. Why, Sudakshina’s
now-deceased husband Dilip too was a well-known
singer and led the Rabindra Sangeet movement in Assam.
“My grandchildren have got their talent from both sides
of the family,” reveals Sudakshina, whose sons and daughters
too inherited her talent. “We have grown up on music
but aita would insist that all of us begin with Mor pasolir
bagicha [my kitchen garden], a children’s song written by
Bhupen-koka,” smiles Tuheen, 28, who is working on an
audio-visual album where his grandmother has sung a
devotional song. It seems Sudakshina’s gift to her grandchildren
is touching lives in ways she had never foreseen.
Her granddaughter Treen, 30, who lives in Mumbai, has
written and sung a song for the Delhi gang-rape victim,
in Assamese.
—Tapati Baruah Kashyap
S Bhattacharjee
54 harmony celebrate age september 2013