Gayati. Live. Breathe. Sing! Informal singing by Gauri Varma

This beautiful wedding song in Hindi has been sung traditionally amongst both Hindus and Muslims of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, and belongs to the Banna-Banni genre of weding songs of Uttar Pradesh. I learnt this song from older women relatives in Patna, Bihar. They in turn had heard this song sung decades ago by an unknown Muslim woman singer from the Old City of Patna, who had been invited to sing during a wedding in the family. This unusual song has a slow, langurous sweetness as it fondly describes the heavy ornaments of the 'Banni' or newly wed bride who is steeped in fragrant 'itr' perfume. It teasingly asks her to take heed of her wedding jewellery because she has been forgetfully leaving her 'chandan-haar' necklace and heavy 'kangan' bangles on the marital bed in the mornings, presumably in a romantic stupor!

I have attempted a lively, traditional wedding song from my home state of Uttar Pradesh. In colloquial Hindi, it is of the genre of 'Banna-Banni' wedding songs, which are typical of Uttar Pradesh, though also sung in Bihar, and have been sung for centuries into the present. 'Banna-Banni' are words used to lovingly address and describe a to-be groom and bride or a just-married groom/bride respectively. In this song, a young husband is teasingly told that a demanding new bride with airs and graces has arrived. But she is also beautiful, her eyes like a forest deer, her face partly seen through her veil or ghunghat, radiant like the moon partly obscured by clouds, her voice when she speaks like the delicate tinkling of glass bangles. And with her arrival, her young husband's nights are filled with the fragrance of 'juhi' flowers.

This poignant song is from the multiple award-winning film Zakhm. The bittersweet lyrics by Anand Bakshi are perfectly complemented by the pretty, old-style melody and music by Music Director M M Kreem. This thought-provoking film brought out the suoerficiality of religious identities and the meaninglessness of communal hatred in the face of a deep, abiding, romantic love that defied social conventions and morality, and created its own Truth. For a lover, the wait for the beloved stretches endlessly, and when the beloved finally comes, it is as though the rare and precious moon of Id is sighted after a year-long wait, in the narrow cramped lane where the lover resides.

My amateur attempt at a classic ghazal by Late Mohsin Bhopali, whose birthplace I share. Based on Raag Darbaari, this ghazal has been rendered by well-known singers, notably, Munni Begum and Gulbahaar Bano. The ghazal has the elements of truly good shaayari, in its beautiful combination of simple language evoking depth of feeling, with appropriate imagery. The shaayar says that in true love, there is no worldliness and no conditionality. He also doesn't blame the beloved who chose to adhere to the pressures of society and/or proved fickle like a vagrant cloud, incapable of sustainedly providing shade. Love is essentially unconditional and follows its own inner dictates. It is as natural as the first drops of rain that cannot be stopped and its fragrance is as spontaneous as that of dry earth when it receives the first monsoon showers. In the last touching couplet, Mohsin tells his beloved that he remains steadfast in his first promise even though ages have passed since he made it, and the beloved has moved on.

This is my attempt at a ghazal rendered simply in a lilting song format, without semi-classical embellishments. A well known version has been sung by Pakistani singer Munni Begum. The lyrics tell how the path of life is marked with carnivals of unhappiness. One is surrounded by crowds of calamities and yet, is always ultimately alone. Separated from the beloved by conspiracies of this world or the reality that no one really accompanies one in this sorrowful journey. One's image is always reflected standing by oneself, whether in a single whole mirror or in the hundred pieces of a smashed mirror. This episode is also available on YouTube on my YouTube channel: Gayati. Live. Breathe. Sing!

This bhajan, adoring the powerful, beneficent deity Lord Hanuman, is a fine example of the North Indian Bhakti tradition. It has perhaps been most famously sung in modern times by the gifted devotional singer Late Shri Hari Om Sharan Written in the old colloquial ' Kharboli' /Awadhi of Uttar Pradesh, with its charming, spontaneous, fusion of words drawn from Sanskrit, local popular Prakrits, and including a smattering of indigenized Arabic and Persian words, the Bhajan beseeches Lord Hanuman for his Grace. It is believed by many devotees that, out of all deities, it is Hanuman who most quickly responds to distressed humankind in the prevailing difficult epoch of Kalyug. The bhajan is preceded by a couplet ('doha') from Goswami Tulsidas' enduringly popular prayer, the Sankat-Mochan Hanumanashtak. It then entreats Hanuman who is the eternal and most ardent devotee of Sita-Ram, who is known not only for his courage, but his ready generosity and compassion, to shower his Grace on all those who are sad, troubled and suffering. This episode is also available on YouTube on my YouTube channel: Gayati. Live. Breathe. Sing!

These sacred verses from Goswami Tulsidas' epic Ramcharitmanas are regarded as very auspicious. They describe the revelation experienced by Queen Kaushalya prior to the birth of Lord Ram. Vishnu appeared in his magnificent, all-powerful form to the Queen and conveyed to her his desire to enter her womb and be born as a human being. Unbelieving and overwhelmed initially, Kaushalya was then overjoyed and beseeched the Lord to engage in 'shishu-leela' ie. to manifest as a human baby, so that she, who longed for offspring, could be granted the unique happiness of motherhood. This episode is also available on YouTube on my YouTube channel: Gayati. Live. Breathe. Sing!

This classic bhajan in Sanskrit with a mix of mediaeval Awadhi (Hindi dialect of the Ayodhya area of Uttar Pradesh) was written in praise of Lord Ram Chandra by 16th century Bhakti poet and saint Goswami Tulsidas. It describes the beauty, valour and grace of Shri Ram as a young man in his prime. The last two stanzas describe how Princess Sita prays to Goddess Bhavaani to grant her Lord Ram as her spouse, and how her inner being thrills with joy when she senses that the Devi has granted her this boon. The bhajan composition is based on Raag Yaman Kalyaan.

This beautiful bhajan was written in Awadhi (Hindi dialect of the Ayodhya area of Uttar Pradesh), by 16th century Bhakti poet and saint Goswami Tulsidas. Full of maternal love (Vaatsalya Bhaav), it adores Shri Ram in his toddler form. The Supreme Lord Vishnu, creator of the Universe, in his baby Ram Avatar, attempts to walk and stumbles and falls onto the earth. His doting mother Rani Kaushalya runs to take him in her lap and dusts the earth off him with her saree pallu. As he toddles, the anklets on his baby feet jingle and entrance everyone. The bhajan is composed in Raag Jhinjhoti and sung to the rhythm of the folk- derived Jhap Taal beat, which create a sense of swaying, perfectly suited to the lyrics and mood of this 'badhai' bhajan which is sung to celebrate birthdays in North India to this day.

This charming bhajan is especially popular in the Mithilanchal area of North Bihar. Attributed by some to the famous 14th-15th century Maithil poet and scholar Vidyapati, the poem is in the medieval vernacular local dialect of the region (Sankrit-derived Apabhramsh/nascent Maithili). In the spirit of Bhakti (loving personalized devotion) the Devi is adored as Mother, Bhagawati, Mahamaya, Durga and her beautiful form poetically described: she sits laughing and happy, on a lotus astride her lion. Her hands hold a conch-shell and weapons to slay evildoers. She is radiant in red, like the rising sun and is the protector of those who are orphaned and helpless.