Melodies for the Mahatma

It is a part of BapuGeetika: Songs for the Mahatma, an anthology of poems written on Gandhi by a slew of writers and set to music.

The project has been created by 62-year-old Kalpana Palkhiwala, a retired government officer. An avid reader and collector of all things on Gandhi, her house in Sarita Vihar is bursting with archival material. She was “tired of the same old songs sung on Gandhi on October 2 and January 30 (Gandhi’s birth and death anniversary respectively) and the identity created through the currency notes,” she says.

Therefore, she has used uncommon poetry on Gandhi written in over 14 languages by literary giants such as Rabindranath Tagore, Sumitranandan Pant, Subhadra Kumari Chauhan, Ramdhari Singh Dinkar, Maithilisharan Gupt and Amrita Pritam, among others.

Vaishnav jan… though set to a different tune is the only popular piece of poetry in BapuGeetika, which is a 14-hour, 30-minute project and comprises 108 songs that have been set to tune, mostly, by musician and composer Umashankar Chandola over the last two years. Palkhiwala says, she was not looking for his relevance in today’s times, but only exploring the key concepts of Gandhian philosophy to reach out to children. “That is precisely why I do not want to sell this project to a music label; many have offered money. I do not want this anthology to gather dust after the first CD run,” she says. Palkhiwala wants to take this anthology to school children by holding concerts and having them include these songs in the curriculum. “The songs have been created such that anybody can sing them,” says Palkhiwala.

Palkhiwala began her career as a newsreader at All India Radio in the late ’70s and later joined the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting where she worked in the publication division. One day, Palkhiwala found herself poring over a book of poetry on Gandhi. “It was then that I knew I wanted to do this. It has taken me 20 years to compile it,” she says. She began writing to the families of these poets for permissions. She also wrote to Amitabh Bachchan for one of Harivansh Rai Bachchan’s poems, but didn’t get it.

Not disheartened by negative responses, she finally decided to put in all her savings into the project. “Despite being a government employee, I could not get funding. But friends and old colleagues came on board,” she says.

Another obstacle was that most of the poetry did not follow the basic tenets of rhyme and metre and resulted in many composers not wanting to work on the project; eventually Chandola relented. The voices, which range from those of local music teachers to students and friends, are definitely not perfect; ditto for the orchestration. But Palkhiwala has stripped it all down to the basics, such that it becomes meaningful and moving. Much like Urdu poet Shamin Karhani’s Jawan ab isska kaun de, kise ab itna hosh hai, ki aaj mulq kiske sog mein hai that gets Palkhiwala to shut her eyes and move her feet to the staccato rhythm of the dholak.