Kaushiki Chakraborty

She is the living Goddess Saraswati on earth. Goddess Saraswati is regarded as the Indian goddess for knowledge, arts music and wisdom and is the epitome of knowledge and music. When someone has a good voice then he/she is said to have the voice of Maa Saraswati.  At the same time she is regarded humbly beautiful. Comparing Kaushiki Chakraborty to the goddess is no surprise as time and often she has been referred to as Maa Saraswati. She not only has a golden voice and a great command over classical, she is equally beautiful and humble.

Kaushiki Chakraborty is the daughter of renowned Indian classical vocalist and composer Pandit Ajoy Chakrabarty of Patiala Gharana. Pandit Ajoy Chakrabarty is regarded as a legend of the classical arena and received almost all highest award of country (Padma Shri) and state. It was under his guidance and leadership that Kaushiki Chakraborty started her career when she had shown interest in music at the tender age of 2.

Kaushiki Chakraborty started learning Indian classical music and vocal from a very early stage of her life. Belonging to a family of musicians gave her a platform to start. She started training under Pandit Ajoy Chakrabarty’s her father and mentor’s guidance and at the same time she imbibed great moral values from him too. He was a not only a great singer and musician but has very strong moral values which Kaushiki picked up.

In one of the videos here he is seen teaching her daughter Kaushiki as he talks about:

•  How we need to understand what the kids want,
• They are super-fast learners and
• We should not super impose anything on them; rather try to tap the potential in which they are strong.

She would always start her performance with the words “Please pardon me if I make any mistake” despite scaling the Everest of Indian classical arena. It is very difficult to perform Indian classical vocal and it take years of patience and practice, even then people make mistakes.

I was longing to meet and attend her live show since long; even send her a tweet at the beginning of this year, to which she responded. I was fortunate to attend her concert on 03^rd April 2016

I was stunned with her humbleness as she gave so much of time to her fans, she fulfilled almost request of all sorts, be it autographs or selfie, she is so calm and composed which is inspiring in itself. That’s how you become a great person in life. She gave autograph to my daughter who also enjoys her music and spoke to us too.

She has a strong fan following in Europe and US and all shows are packed round the year.

My Connect

Thanks to technology and google, Whilst listening to a song in you tube the suggestions came up with recommendations to the same song sung by Kaushi Chakraborty. Thereafter there was no looking back and the song was Lagi Lagaan Pati Sakhi Sang, Raag Hansdhwani

My Pick

It is very difficult to pick one song from her collection, sharing a concert held at Oranjerie Theater in Roermond, The Netherlands:

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K FOR KENNY ROGERS

K for Kenny Rogers is another country music artist and is best known for his single The Gambler which won him the Grammy Awards.

The Gambler was written by Don Schlitz and after a few rejections it was sung by a few which did not get clicked. Later Johnny Cash also picked it up but it was the version of Kenny Rogers which created the magic of The Gambler and it is still one of the best songs which come to mind when you think of country music, trains, gambling, cards and drinks. Amazing song, amazing guitar, amazing voice powered with the best lyrics – it was the golden time when this got composed.

My Connect

I heard the Gambler on radio while I was returning from work; it was strong enough to make me search the song on internet and kept listening to it for a few days.

My Pick

The best song which I like is The Gambler, enjoy it here:

 

(All April I will be posting about my favourite music artist(as part of the A to Z Challenge), songs or bands and my memories around them and this will help us connect and discover new artists and music genres.)