Preparation

Preparation is very important for everything. Music, sports, cooking, farming everywhere preparation matters. I was reading about Rahul Dravid, how he used to prepare himself for matches. Preparation is an essential part of performance. Even after learning we prepare ourselves for each and every concert, for years, throughout life. Preparation changes according to the objectives. For concert we have less time to prepare. But in the case of life we need continuous and sustained preparation. Why preparation is so important..? Once, a great tabla artiste Pt. Suresh Talwalkar told, in a vocal performance ‘Laya’ starts when you start singing, not when the table starts. What a beautiful statement… I am observing how my guruji prepares for concert.According to guruji when you start thinking about concert, preparation starts. When I go with guruji for concert tours, in India or abroad, it will always be a great experience. You learn lot of things, how his approach is towards a concert, his approach to each rag, how his preparation is for a concert, how to see accompaniment artiste etc., normally I don’t ask guruji regarding which rag he is singing or what his plans are. Once I went to Calcutta ITC SRA sangeetsammelan with guruji, he sang pooriya in that concert. It was a great concert. I observed he was thinking about pooriya from morning. I asked guruji about preparation, he told when you start for concert from home, the concert will start in head, (thinking). Thinking about rag, bandhish etc., so then you will get into that mood. I saw this in other fields also, like cricket, harikatha, fine art, teaching math in IIT. You start thinking about it all the time till it starts then it will lead to a very good rendering. I saw in tv, tendulkar or dravid, they wear everything and sit in dressing room, I saw once tendulkar sitting with helmet also… I thought how many times he must have played cricket, but every match every innings is new and requires preparation. Amir khan prepares himself for his movies. Camroon , a very famous director ( titanic and avatar fame) he took 7-8 years for prepare his movie Avatar. My father’s gurujiSantBhadragiriAchyutdasji, renowned harikatha exponent, will not be talking a word before 2-3 hours of recital, like he is meditating. Every field requires preparation, maybe IT or politics, fine art or drama, music or sports. In classical music, mental practice and preparation is very important. If we prepare well we can present it beautifully.