#129 The Teacher’s Story- Gita Mehta
Master Mohan was a humble music teacher. He was once a
promising young singer, but on the day he was to record his first record, his
pure, young voice broke and he never recovered from that heartbreak. He is liked and
respected by just about everyone except his own family. His wife is an angry judgmental
woman who resents his failure.
“Everyday his wife reminded him how his voice had not
mellowed in the years that followed.”
“Her taunts re-opened a wound which might have healed if
only Master Mohan’s wife had left him alone.”
“Although he tried Master Mohan could not stop coughing. It
was a nervous reaction to his family’s ability to silence the music he heard in
his own head.”
Music was his only solace, his only love, his only reason
for living. One day Quawwali singers from Nizamuddin were coming to perform for
a weeks worth of concerts. Nizamuddin was where Quawwali music was invented 700
years ago. He went to each night, enjoying not only the music but the break
from being judged and insulted by his family:
“The more the singers were carried away by their music the
more Master Mohan felt the weight that burdened him lighten, as if the ecstasy
of the song being relayed from one throat to another was lifting him into a
long forgotten ecstasy himself.”
After one concert he stayed to hear a young boy sing. Imrat
was being accompanied by his sister who could no longer take are of him. Imrat
had a talent not seen in 500 years:
“Such a voice is not human. What will happen to music if
this is the standard by which God Judges us.”
Master Mohan agreed to take the child to his home and become
his music mentor. Because his family’s hatred of him, they mistreated the young
phenom. So, the Master took his lessons to the park, where people began to gather in
large numbers and pay tribute. All of the tribute went to the boy and his
sister, and even when he signed a music contract Master Mohan wanted nothing
for himself.
This story is a love letter to music, and to all those that
love and teach music with passion. Music is religion and love and life.
Everything else can be tuned out.
Notable Passage: “He only saw the power of the morning raga
and dreaming visions of light he pushed his voice towards them, believing sight
was only a half-tone away.”
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