Tag: rajan mishra death

‘Instead of Temple, Idols, Improve Health System’: Pandit Rajan Mishra’s Son

Padma Bhushan awardee Rajan Mishra passed away last month at Delhi’s St Stephen Hospital due to COVID-19 related complications.

New Delhi: The son of Hindustani music vocalist Pandit Rajan Mishra, who passed away last month at Delhi’s St Stephen Hospital due to COVID-19-related complications, has called on the Central government to improve the country’s healthcare system “instead of the temple, idols and the new residence of the Prime Minister”.

Padma Bhushan awardee Rajan, along with his brother Sajan Mishra, was a renowned classical singer and one of the foremost exponents of the Benaras gharana.

Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, a fellow musician and close friend of Rajan Mishra, first tweeted out an appeal for a ventilator in Delhi when the city was reeling under oxygen scarcity and steep spike in the number of COVID-19 cases. “Padma Bhushan Pandit Rajan Mishra (classical singer) urgently needs Ventilator (sic). At present, he is in St Stephen hospital, Tees Hazari, Delhi. Please help immediately,” Bhatt said on Twitter. A few hours later, he informed followers about Mishra’s death.

“He died of a heart attack around 6.30. We were trying for a ventilator but nobody supported us, nothing in any hospital. Later, the PMO reached out to help but he had left us by then,” Mishra’s son, Rajnish, told PTI.

Condoling his death Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “I am saddened by the death of Pandit Rajan Mishra ji, who left his indelible mark in the world of classical singing. Mishraji demise, who was associated with the Banaras Gharana, is an irreparable loss to the art and music world. My condolences to his family and fans in this hour of mourning. Om Shanti!”

Also read: For Pandit Rajan Mishra, Music Was Both Extraordinary and Ordinary

After Mishra’s demise, the UP government announced that a 750-bed temporary hospital, the Pandit Rajan Mishra Covid hospital, developed by DRDO would start functioning soon.

“If a person like Panditji, a Padma Bhushan awardee, who could have survived if he had got the facilities, did not get them, then what about the common man?” Rajnish Mishra said, speaking to The Telegraph on Wednesday.

“I am happy that people will be treated in my brother’s name…. As soon as it (appeals to arrange a ventilator for Rajan Mishra) was made on Twitter, BJP spokesman Sambit Patra called me up and said that 95 per cent of the arrangements had been made to admit him at Gangaram (hospital), just bring him. Sanjay Singh (Aam Aadmi Party MP) had arranged an ambulance which was ready outside, but he had the (heart) attack so quickly, ” Rajan Mishra’s brother and singing partner Sajan Mishra said.

“Father is not coming to see the hospital now nor is Ramji coming to see his temple in Ayodhya. At present, the country needs a hospital with good facilities,” Rajnish said, speaking to Dainik Bhaskar. “Therefore, instead of the temple, idols and the new residence of the Prime Minister being prepared, with thousands of crores of rupees in Delhi, the government should improve the health system. I will request the government to pay attention to the common man and his health. When someone passes away, it hurts a lot. We should all feel that pain.”

Also read: On Display in Delhi Now, a Central Vista to Criminal Negligence

“There is no point in giving a person awards or build memorials after he has died. He is not here to enjoy that,” Rajnish said and added that facilities should be provided to to people “when they are alive, whoever they are — VIP or not”. “We are all aware that the healthcare system of our country is completely shattered. If you have money to build temples or the PM’s house or Rashtrapati Bhavan — these can wait. Right now, the money needs to be invested in the healthcare system so other people are not affected the way our family was,” he said.

The central government has been pushing ahead with the Rs 20,000 crore Central Vista redevelopment project which aims to rebuild several government buildings and construct a new parliament despite mounting criticism about the expenditure involved in the project. Leaders of 12 opposition parties have written to the prime minister seeking a suspension of the Central Vista project and a diversion of the monetary resources involved in the project towards the fight against coronavirus and a free mass vaccination campaign.

“All the unnecessary expenditures, including the construction of lavish Central Vista, must be halted and all available resources must be diverted to urgent COVID response,” said a statement by Vikalp Sangam, one of several civil society groups and organisations across India that have appealed to the Union government to halt the Central Vista project.

Pandit Rajan Mishra: A ‘Sahaj’ From the Banaras Gharana

Over a career spanning more than five decades, Rajan and Sajan Mishra crafted a unique form of sahgayan, something which went beyond jugalbandi that truly represented a confluence.

Born on Hanuman Jayanti in 1951 into a family of musicians from Varanasi, Pandit Rajan Mishra inherited the rich tradition of the Banaras gharana of Hindustani music. Along with his younger brother Pandit Sajan Mishra, he debuted on the stage in 1967 at Sankatmochan Mandir. Over a career spanning more than five decades, they crafted a unique form of sahgayan, something which went beyond jugalbandi in the sense that it truly represented a confluence rather than just duet singing.

Rajan Mishra was initiated into ta’lim by his grandfather’s brother, Gayanacharya Bade Ramdas Mishra and was subsequently under the rigorous tutelage of his father Pandit Hanuman Prasad Mishra and uncle Pandit Gopal Mishra. With a tremendous resolve for riyaz combined with reflection, he was able to mould his voice into a rich and sonorous whole, capable of conveying command on his art along with an aesthetic sensibility reflective of bhava, that ever so fleeting notion in Indian art forms.

According to his own admission, “One of the best things about their teaching was that it helped broaden our perspective about music right from our childhood. They told us that we ought to listen to Ustads from different gharanas, and try to learn good things from them.”

Eminent music critic S. Kalidas reminisces, “I first met Rajan bhai in 1972 at Siddheshwari Deviji’s house and heard him and Sajan bhai on stage a little later. Rajan bhai was a formidable musician and had a wide repertoire. Over the decades, he imbibed elements from Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Ustad Amir Khan and Pandit Bhimsen Joshi as well. In a way, one can say that the uniqueness of his repertoire was the uniqueness of Banaras itself in the sense that the city was a melting pot of influences and the sources of knowledge were also multifarious.”

Representatives of the sixth generation of musicians within a family that has been serving Hindustani music for over 300 years, Rajan Mishra and Sajan Mishra benefitted tremendously from the presence of stalwart musicians in Varanasi as well as through witnessing performances of and interacting with legendary Ustads who would visit the city to regale discerning audiences. The intense self-reflection and meditative approach that goes hand-in-hand with Khayal singing was indeed a part of Rajan Mishra who was a treasure-trove on ragas and compositions reflecting the entire gamut of the rasa theory of Indian music.

The beautiful relationship between the brothers always came across on stage as well as in interviews, personal interactions and light moments. Rajan Mishra said that “it is this affection which gets reflected in our singing…”, while expressing warmth towards his younger brother who, by his own admission, moved behind him as his elder brother’s shadow, complementing his thought process and adding an evocative echo, as well as a seamless expression of a synchronised thought process.

Spirituality occupied an important place in the life of Rajan Mishra, not merely by virtue of the fact that he was born and raised in the city of Lord Vishwanath. It was the Namdhari Satguru Jagjit Singh Maharaj who guided him to adopt music full-time and offered patronage during the nascent stages of the career of Mishra Bandhu. Their lifelong bond is on display in one of the finest renditions of Raga Chhayanat, followed by the rare Raga Kusum Kedar in the presence of Aftab-e-Sitar Ustad Vilayat Khan in this recording from 1999 at Sri Bhaini Sahib.

At the same time, it is noteworthy that Rajan Mishra studied Osho with rapt engagement and often meditated on aspects of his teachings. During an audience, Osho asked Rajan Mishra what he thinks is the counterpoint to “swara” (musical note) and it became a lifelong quest for reflection when he received the answer as being “silence”. This makes so much more sense to this author as he reminisces their concerts he attended since the late 1990s and used to get struck by the pauses between a seamless thought process flowing from Rajan Mishra to Sajan Mishra and vice versa.

Rajan Mishra had a charming personality and was renowned for his sense of humour. Along with his younger brother, he would have people in splits narrating instances from their childhood, Varanasi, and their shared passion for wrestling, cricket and films. Perhaps it was this joviality in Rajan Mishra’s nature that kept the tradition of joint family alive from his father’s and uncle’s generation to his own and to his sons and their children who continue to share the same roof and eat food cooked in the same kitchen. The brothers realised a lifelong dream with the establishment of “Viram – The Gurukul” outside of Dehradun and it is noteworthy that their home in Delhi’s Ramesh Nagar is named “Swarangan”. Two bodies, one soul – with the departure of one’s body, one just hopes that the merged soul continues to sing through the body of Sajan Mishra and the family legacy continues richly through their sons Ritesh, Rajnish and Swaransh Mishra.

Irfan Zuberi is a student of Hindustani music and an audiovisual archivist.