Part 6

As I was walking towards the lounge area I heard the maid call to Birgitta to say that the band had arrived. I followed her voice to the front door where I could see a mini-bus in the driveway with the girls, now in varying colours of the outfit I now wore, unloading their bags and their instruments.

I saw that they were being led by an older woman in a western business skirt suit and, when I walked out onto the doorstep, there was a sudden silence. Tavleen stared at me and said “Geet? Oh my God, girl, you are magnificent!” I went down to them and they clustered around me to give me a hug. I was then confronted by the older woman who said “So, girls, this is the new dholak player with the good voice. I am happy to meet you, my dear, the girls have told me all about the tryout last week and I have been looking forward to meeting you. I am Janet Patel and, yes, I am Anglo but married to a Punjabi man. I manage these young ladies and I have a contract in my bag which we can talk about after I have seen you perform.”

I helped them take their instruments through to the music room while Birgitta and the maid took their bags up to the two twin guest rooms on the top floor. When we had sorted out the instruments and Tavleen had put us into our places that we would start our show with I saw Janet take some photos of us. We did look like a rainbow of colour alongside each other. Tavleen said “I think a jam session raga would be a good place to warm up with” and Husnia began picking a tune with us all joining in and, as before, getting more complicated as we loosened up.

Now a raga is as long as you can make it. I had heard of a show where a sita player spent some hours just exploring one tune and no-one left. We didn’t go that far but we played continuously for nearly an hour with the melodies swirling around; sometimes with us singing, other times just with instruments. During the session Janet was joined by the ladies of the family. When we stopped we didn’t actually stop as Kajari immediately started with the opening tune of a hymn and I started to sing it using my fado style. As I sang the last words Husnia twisted the tune to the one I had sung at the tryout and I sang that with as much feeling as I had the night before. Actually, some of that feeling was because I realised I needed a pee as soon as we had finished.

When we stopped I held up my hand and said “Bladder problem, time out” and headed for the door. Aganee said “second on the right, dear” as I was passing and I thanked her as I left. When I was relieved and had washed my hands I went back into the music room. Grette hugged me and said that her sangeet will be talked about for years to come if we played like that on the night. Janet was in a huddle with the girls and beckoned me to join them. I went over and she said “Geet, I have not heard the girls play with such verve and gusto as they have this morning. We have just discussed it and we want you to be part of the band and to be the lead singer as your voice and delivery is so distinctive it will set the tone for the whole band. I have a contract here for you to sign and it is the same as the others because we do think that you are already their equal.”

I looked at the others and they all said “Please join us” so I signed. I did have a quick read and saw that I was on a base wage that was almost what I was earning in the office but there was an added clause about bonuses based on performance fees. Janet said “There is a show already booked on Saturday night. It’s a reception to a semi-modern Indian wedding. After that we have the sangeet and reception for Grette, the week after. I have the feeling that after those events we will be getting busy and I do believe that I can lift your earnings without too much trouble when people have heard you play. Thank you all, ladies. I will let you work on more music and I will be back in a week to take you to the venue.”

Birgitta and Grette left with her but Aganee stayed. I looked at her and she said “I just want to hear you all as much as I can. I loved the music as a child and this is making an old woman very happy.” We then spent the next hour making her happy before breaking for lunch. After that we explored new songs. The girls had brought the words and music to a lot of the traditional ones and I got my book and we found some that they didn’t have. That afternoon, and for most of the week, we worked on and perfected a show that we could make last for days if we utilised the power of the raga. Aganee was with us all the way and when we had dinner on Friday night she stood and proposed a toast to five girls who will be sweeping the world.

We rested on Saturday morning and dressed in our performance outfits after lunch. Janet came and picked us up with our instruments and took us to the venue in the mini-bus. It was a reception room over the other side of our part of town and we set up our instruments. There was one major difference to the setting as, because of the size of the room, we had microphones to sing into and a tech helped us mic up the kit. No-one had arrived yet so we did a sound check with just playing and then with us singing while the tech adjusted the PA at various points around the room. Janet looked on and then led us all to a side room where we could relax and chat before the guests had filled the main room.

I was getting a bit panicky and asked Janet how many there would be and she said that it was a medium do of about four hundred. Now, when we played in the street band there may have been more than that along the whole route but usually only about fifty in close proximity at any one time. Tavleen said that I will be all right once we start to play and then Jenianna made me break out in a sweat when she said the Hidjeet family had been invited so Gaurav would be hearing me in concert for the first time!

When we got word that the guests had finished eating we walked out into the room and took our places to some polite applause, led, I could see, by the Hidjeet table. I saw Gaurav with an empty chair next to him and wondered if he had been stood up. We started with a few traditional songs and I saw a few of the younger guests leaving, no doubt to show off their finery at a local dance club. Oh well, can’t please them all. However, when we moved into the dance music of our own we had the floor packed in no time. Over the next two hours we had them dancing, singing and having a jolly good time. Tavleen said that it was almost time for us to finish and announced that we would wind up with some slower numbers so that the lovers can have the end of the evening. We did four of the love songs that we knew, me singing in fado style as I watched couples dancing in a slow embrace.

When we ended the final song there was applause and the groom’s father went around with a bowl and collected up money for us in recognition of our show. Janet took that with her after thanking everyone for their generosity. We were then asked to mingle for a while and I found myself sitting with the Hidjeet family on the vacant seat next to Gaurav, after he had plucked up the courage to hug me after everyone else, telling me that I, well the whole band, was wonderful and he wished that we could have danced but I was otherwise engaged. I didn’t ask why he was alone but Grette told me a couple of days later that he had told his date that he had found someone else.

We relaxed on the Sunday and did some practice on the sangeet songs on Monday. After that all hell broke loose as the marriage of Grette and Guntaj was the focus of the family. A traditional wedding takes almost as long as a lifetime and was held in different places on different days. The Tarik ceremony had taken place some months earlier. This is when the groom makes the formal offer of marriage and the brides’ family officially accepts it.

This week began on Thursday with the Ganesh Pooja when the two families get together in a casual day to get to know each other. Friday was the Mehndi ceremony. Here the bride and her friends have a social gathering when the bride undergoes the henna ceremony and her body is drawn on by a henna artist with some wonderful designs.

The sangeet was Friday afternoon and evening. Guptar had said it was like a ‘hen’ night’ but it turned out to be more like a big bridal shower. The venue was the reception area we had been in the week before but this time the tables were set in a more intimate pattern and we stayed in the room while it filled up with ladies in the most magnificent range of colours and fabrics and glittering jewels. Grette was the centre of attention but it was hard to pick her out among the four or five hundred women in the place.

Aganee stood beside me and told me that there would be around a thousand at the reception which would be held in a much grander hall nearer to the house. She spent a bit of time pointing out the ladies here who had daughters coming up for weddings over the next several months, as well as those who regularly held big parties. “Just so you know when one comes up to talk to you later, my dear” she smilingly said as she went back towards her place with Birgitta.

We played some quiet songs for a while but Grette called for dancing and we moved into a raga which Kajari and Tavleen turned into what sounded like a snake charmers music and I stood there playing my dholaks looking out at a scene of such sensuality it was easy to see why men were not allowed in. I had a hard time of it myself but stayed true to my new gender as I saw about five hundred women swaying to the music and shaking their bodies in a way that made me shiver. While we were playing we joined in with the movement and I found that I was really having a lot of fun, in a feminine way.

Marianne G 2021