Magazine of March - 2010 - Rups.net

on the moon, he was so moved that he celebratedit with a sublime composition set to raga Bhairav:Aayo hai jeetke manav chandralok.So deep was his involvement with vidya-daanthat he rarely condescended to give concertperformances. But whenever he did, he emergedas a vocalist par excellence. As a classical concertperformer, what put him in a class by himself wasnot only his professional or academic achievementsbut his rare insight into the very spirit of the variouscontemporary gharana styles. He was the recipientof a gold medal as a topper at the post-graduateexamination in music, and won the Sangeet NatakAkademi Award for Hindustani vocal music in1997.In his tours abroad, Pandit Kaikini’s object wasto present to discerning foreign audiences thedifferent facets of Hindustani gayaki, theoretically,aesthetically and scientifically through his lecturecum-demonstration.At the Carnegie-MellonUniversity in Pittsburgh, he received a prolongedstanding ovation from the students and the facultymembers of the music department. What fascinatedhis audience most was the uncanny potential ofIndian classical music for extempore improvisation.After retiring from the Bhavan’s College of Musicand Dance, Pandit Kaikini had structured his leisurewisely in teaching advanced students at home. Hisentire family is into music. His wife Shashikala, avocalist in her own right, recently retired as thePrincipal of the same College. While the eldest son,Rajesh, has chosen to pursue music as ‘a hobby’;his younger son, Yogesh (adopted by his maternalgrandfather, Ratnakar Samsi), is a front-rankingtabla player of the country, and his daughter AditiUpadhay is a classical singer and teacher based inBengaluru. The veteran singer has departed. Hislegacy lives on.—————————————-Source: (1) “The Great Masters: Profiles in Hindustani ClassicalVocal Music” by Mohan Nadkarni. (2) “Loss of a legend” byAmarendra Dhaneshwar, Mumbai Mirror, page 40, January 24,2010.Kanara Saraswat Vol. 91, No.3, March 201053