Osthir- states of Effervescence (2017)
Osthir is a project where poem meets song. Ritika’s first full project as a composer, it explores the inherent musicality of literature straddling 19th century Bengal to contemporary New Delhi to Victorian England to 20th century Chile. Ritika collaborated with Mexican musician Nathalie Ramirez and Delhi-based musician Nikhil Mawkin to render this poetry into musical patterns that draw on the Baul heritage of Bengali folk music, North Indian classical music, and Neo Soul. The performance incorporates instrumentation not commonly used with these genres, including the bansuri, acoustic guitar, and the cajón.
This project was made possible by the 2016-2017 Cedar Commissions award.
Tomar Toka (The knock)
“This is a poem by my mother Kaveri Ganguly, about ‘a Knock,’ a missed opportunity, and a resolve to always address what comes knocking at the door.”
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Voice | Composition: Ritika Ganguly
Poem: Kaveri Ganguly
Flute: Anurag Rastogi
Guitar: Mintal Gazi
Tabla | Percussion: Pankaj Banai
Recorded at Mukesh Comfed Studios, New Delhi. -
When your knock fell on the door
How busy I was in useless chore
Playing my games, so worldly, false.
And now as the day shadows
I look for Him in all the meadows,
oh when will he appear again?
Slowly it’s dark and deafness reigns,
Appear, oh Lord! amidst the blinding veils.
Consent to come and enter my being
it’s you this mat awaits welcoming.
The hope I guard burns the heart
How disquiet, and yet you to the woods depart
But lo, a sudden knock on the door I hear!
Let me not but be close and near
When you bless and touch me oh Lord
No trap of illusions will ever distract my thought.
Make me drown or float, let tears flow
Unwrapped I am to set on next to you.
Hacia Adentro (The Journey Within)
A Spanish translation of a Baul song written about 200 years ago in Bangla by the Sufi saint Lalon, renowned New Delhi-based Hispanist Shamu Ganguly has perfectly retained the rhythm and rhyme of the Bangla poem in this Spanish poem. Ritika composed this as part of a larger project intended to take the message of the Baul genre of music-making to new, global audiences.
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Voice and Composition: Ritika Ganguly
Translation from Bangla to English: Shamu GangulyFlute: Anurag Rastogi
Guitar: Mintal Gazi
Tabla and Percussion: Pankaj Banai
Recorded at Mukesh Gautam Comfed Productions, New Delhi.
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Near home in the mirror-city a neighbor stays
Never can I see him, not once, on any day.
Water abounds all around
No banks, no boats to cross, can be found.
Just to see Him how I yearn
Yet in that place, how do I land?
What do I say of that neighbor’s form,
He has no hands, no feet, no shoulder, nor head he dawns
In a moment he goes above the void
In the next he is down in waters afloat.
If my neighbor would only touch me once
My mortal pains would vanish at once
Alas, He and Lalon are so close by
Yet, countless miles their union defy.
Gaanger Jol (The Waters of the Ganges)
This poem speaks about the River Ganga – a river of memory, longing and be-longing.
”Written by my mother Kaveri Ganguly and composed by me, This collaboration is a way of building proximity with my family living 10,000 miles away. Like she has done, I wanted to pay close attention to re-producing the ebb and flow of water as part of the composition itself, rather than depending on reproducing the sounds of water through instrumentation.”
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Voice | Composition Ritika Ganguly
Poem in Bangla: Kaveri Ganguly
Translation into English: Shamu Ganguly
Guitar | Arrangement: Shinjan Sengupta -
The Ganges waters, in upheaval swell
My heart remains in vacant spell.
With a boat afloat and mast upright
My herdsman is not in sight.
Deep do I go
In the love-ocean’s flow
But the heartless Him remains unseen
As here and there He hides and swims.
My search for Him knows no bounds
And lo, he just dips in a pond around
To leave me helpless here aground.
Oh lord won’t you please come near and near
Without you this state I can not forebear.