A Bay Area Boy Finds His Musical Passion

What is Indian Classical Music?

I used to be so perplexed by this thing we call Indian Classical Music. When I was little, it was nothing less than bizarre to me how my entire family could be fascinated and intrigued with music that was incomprehensible to me.

Yet, I find myself after all these years wondering how my life would have changed if I never discovered this music and my passion for writing about it. My name is Rohit Upamaka, and I’m a rising Junior at Mission San Jose High School. I’ve lived in the Bay Area all my life. I want to share my journey of discovering this music form and how it has now become my passion.

Baby Steps

As a 4-year-old, I remember my mom taking me to music classes where I learned devotional songs. I did not know the language, but something about the tunes and the rhythm attracted me to them and I returned an eager student every week.  The “Aunties” who taught me these songs taught me basic concepts like regular beat cycles and phrase patterns, which gave me the start that I needed within Indian classical music.

Later, as a teenager, I spent several years learning how to play the piano. I could not help but compare what I knew about Carnatic classical to the piano. I found myself going on musical tangents, trying out all the different melodic modes that I had been taught in Carnatic music on the piano to see how they meshed. The connection between these two art forms oriented my mind toward Indian classical music even more.

Discovering the music

My journey finally led me to Hindustani Classical music, which is the form of music followed in North India and parts of the Middle East. I heard my brother playing the tabla and singing for hours on end; at first, I found it incessant, but in time, I came to realize the beauty and the intricacy of everything to which I was privy. The creativity it takes to sing for long periods, the ability to modulate one’s voice to ensure the greatest amount of control upon each note, the technicalities of breathing, and the skillful presentation of a raga all drew me closer and closer to Hindustani music.

Aside from my formal training in Hindustani classical music, which has been a large part of my life for a long time, I found my passion through reading and listening to independent blogs and, of course, YouTube. The recordings and writings of the stalwarts of the current and past generations were a key part of my learning; when I didn’t have a guru to explain certain topics immediately, YouTube became my teacher.

A musical framework

I formed an extensive file in my mind of all that I learned about Hindustani classical music and its nuances: the frameworks of thaats and ragas, strict adherence to rhythmic cycles, and the room for improvisation within the contours of the song. The old gharane, or independent schools of teaching music, piqued my interest; it became my goal to investigate the most representative figures of those schools of music and discern the differences between them. This took me down a rabbit hole of permutations and combinations that so many people had used in their specific ways to enhance the scope of Hindustani music.

After I wrote and published two novels of my own, I decided to combine two of my favorite things–Hindustani music and explanatory writing–to provide a beginner-to-intermediate-level perspective on the nuances of this kind of music that were so foreign to me when I first began. My goal is to create a more inclusive and accessible environment for those in the Bay Area and outside to recognize Hindustani classical music as a prominent music genre that’s deserving of appreciation, not only from stalwarts of the style and well-educated people but also from anyone who simply wants an entry-level understanding so that they can see all that it has to offer.

As Pandit Ravi Shankar said, “Music is the universal language that can bridge cultural, social, and linguistic barriers.”  I hope to understand and help interested listeners delve into the ocean of knowledge. This will be fun and deeply satisfying; that I promise!

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