Art Ichol Journal

Poetics of Passion
self as she broke into her ‘abhinaya’ from time to time. Tanya joined in with Gujarati
melodies that were interspersed with Maggie’s English songs, followed by Bandeep’s
Punjabi and Bengali flavours and our guest Upadhyayji’s ghazal. While others sipped
their preferred poison, the musical masti intoxicated me.
Whether it was Gopika’s infectious laughter as she doubled, tripled and quadrupled
pulling Sudeep’s leg with her sore throat and now barely perceptible voice; the
privilege of listening to Sudeep recite his own poetry; being part of Arshiya’s devoted
and earnest shaadi shopping for her son’s impending wedding, which felt like my
own family wedding; the few heart-to-heart exchanges with Sapna and Shalini about
children and music as we lazed around; the fervour with which Amitabha ‘da’ shared
his story; or the sweet affection with which Tanya, Arshiya, Maggie and Bandeep told
me that they would miss me, each with their own reason for doing so, because I was
leaving a couple of days before everyone else.
I loved every bit of our outings, jokes-song-dance-poetry-photography sessions. To
say that I made friends for a lifetime would be an understatement.
Bhavana Sabherwal is a graduate in music from the University of
Allahabad. She has also trained in Hindustani Classical Vocal Music,
under Late Pt. Ramashrey Jha of Allahabad and Shubha Mudgal.
She is gifted with a beautiful voice, is passionate about music, the
arts, culture and languages and enjoys interacting with people and
exploring creativity with children, young adults and all creative
people. She currently teaches music to children and adults.