Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The performance by classical vocalist Kaushiki Chakraborty captivated the audience at Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya (IGRMS) on Saturday under an event ‘Poonam-37’. She presented a song in evening raga ‘Vihaag’.
“If you listen to this raga while looking at the moon, you will feel a different kind of light inside you,” she said. She said that Bhopal’s audience are connected to Indian traditional music because of its heritage and history. She also praised the young audience at the museum and said, “It is my biggest blessing that they listen to good quality Khayal, Thumri, Kajri, Dadra music.
In the journey of Hindustani Raga, I realised that these people will preserve and carry forward this tradition of singing. Wherever you look, you can see the stage and when I look from here, I see a family.” Milind Kulkarni accompanied her on harmonium, Yashwant Vaishnav on tabla, Murad Ali on sarangi and Subhash Gadkoti on tanpura, Divyanshu Shukla and Vidya Subramaniam on vocals.
Kaushiki attended Sangeet Research Academy and was one of the exponents of Patiala gharana. Her repertoire covers pure classical, Khyals, Dadras, Thumris etc. and several other forms of Indian music.
She is the recipient of 2005 BBC Radio 3 Awards for World Music in the Asia-Pacific category. She is the daughter of Hindustani classical vocalist, Padma Bhushan Ajoy Chakraborty and she has held performances with him as well as her husband, Parthasarathi Desikan.
In 2020, she was awarded Nari Shakti Puraskar. Kaushiki is also a trained Carnatic Classical Vocalist. She has performed in many prestigious venues in Europe and the United States of America.
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