A musical revolution in Punjab’s economic capital

The mornings at Excise and Taxation Colony,where veena maestro Misra,who is also the Additional Commissioner,Customs and Central Excise,lives,start with sweet music played on the string instrument. Misra,a distinguished left hand artiste,can play three varieties of the instrument with equal flair — the Rudra veena,the Saraswati veena and the Surbahar.

And he has created a new type — the Golden veena — which he claims will help find newer audience and add glamour quotient to the musical instrument.

“I have crafted this veena,made from bamboo,with the help of local artisans. We have plated it with gold leaf and used gold pigment. Since gold is a metal and it changes the tone of the instrument,the tonal quality of this veena is better and its impact greater,” explains Misra.

This 45-year-old Indian Revenue Services officer was attracted to the string instrument “during my schools days at DPS Delhi”. “Later,in college,I met K N Iyengar who was an amateur Khayal teacher and he had a 150-year-old veena. I heard the instrument once and was hooked to it,” says Misra,who is also a singer trained by Dhrupad maestro Ustad Zia Fariduddin Dagar and his disciple Nirmalaya Dey.

Misra adds: “I have done extensive research in the art of making veenas and have made many Rudra veenas. My aim is to make this instrument,which all of us have seen since our childhood in the hands of Goddess Saraswati,adapt to modern times. I have created veenas that have moveable frets,instead of fixed. While certain changes have been made in its physical form,I have also worked on the musical content. I have incorporated modern poetic texts in order to popularise the classical musical forms of Khayal and Dhrupad. The older forms,which are mainly in Brij or Awadhi bhasha (language),cannot be understood by many among the modern listeners.”

During his concerts,Misra has used contemporary themes in Hindi poetry and has experimented with mukta chanda (free verse) in the contemporary Hindi literature. He has also introduced mukta chanda to the Pada singing style of Dhrupad.

The officer,however,rues the fact that Punjab or the Punjabi music has no room for veena. “Even the Gurmat Sangeet,which uses traditional musical instruments,does not include veena. Above all,there are very few people here who enjoy Indian classical music,” says the officer,who misses the concerts that are a regular part of the Delhi circuit.

Nevertheless,though his job of sorting out the customs issues of local industrialists keeps him busy,there is not a single day when Misra does not sit with his beloved instrument and let the music flow.