ABOUT RUCHIRA Ruchira, an outstanding vocalist groomed in the Kotali gharana has earned an enviable distinction amongst the younger musicians in the realm of Hindustani Classical Music. The competent upholder of this rich heritage was born in 1975 in high traditional family of educationalists, arts and music. She had the privilege of being initiated to this parampara and went under the protégée of the great maestro musician Pandit Manas Chakraborty, her one and only Guru. The master mind of her guru noted the quality of her gifted and rare voice and creative capabilities. Being a perfectionist and trend setter his strict and vigilant guidance moulded her musical genius into a unique blend of highest order. Her gayaki speaks out for her keen interest in aesthetics, spiritual awareness and serenity which is seldom found in modern days. She carefully keeps up with the purity and nuances of the Kotali gharana aligning with the multifarious gayaki of her Guru and his predecessors. The flawless manner in which she brings out the texture of the ragas and taans shows that a rigorous training, hard, and sincere labour has gone into her making as a vocalist and culminated her craftsmanship to what it is- perfect and finished to every detail. Her cognition and remarkable ability to execute intricate combinations of notes in rare ragas, specially her delineation of innovative sargams and taans confirm her eagerness to reach out to wider and wider dimensions. Her voice, the crest of a class can execute a total feast of melody and classicism in khayal, thumri and other semi classical forms. Her music is not only perfect craftsmanship but a rare blend of immaculate precision and emotive imagination, which takes the listeners into a peaceful journey through the unseen and unheard marvels of a new world. She craves for perfection and attains it with ease, the more she attains bigger becomes her reach, richer she becomes newer becomes her dimension. To her, Music is not only an art to perform but a love to live with - it’s a voyage towards eternity that can only be realized by feeling one and the same with Music.

HERITAGE The Chakraborty family of Kotalipara, Faridpur, of the then East-Bengal, is believed to have been drawn towards Indian Classical Music long time ago. One of the ancestors of the family is known to have received training from Seni Gharana and brought the trend. Tarapada Chakraborty’s father Late Pandit Kulachandra Chakraborty and his uncle Late Pandit Ramchandra Chakraborty had their training from Ustad Jahur Khan of Khurja Gharana. Ramchandra had the honour of being the Dwarpandit (court scholar) and the distinguished musician of the Maharaja of Natore. Thus, both the brothers had a wide contact with many leading musicians of their time and had a phenomenal collection of musical wealth. Having moved to Calcutta with this rich inheritance, Tarapada Chakraborty first took lessons from Late Pandit Satkari Malakar especially in Khayal and Tappa. Later, under the guidance of the Great Maestro Late Sangeetacharya Girijashankar Chakraborty, he acquired the distinguishing features of various Ragas, styles and traditional Dhrupad, Dhamar and Khayal bandishes of different gharanas mainly, Seni, Betia, Delhi, Gwalior, Rampur, Agra, Rangila, Jaipur and Kirana. Girijashankar being a pioneer of Thumri style of singing at that time gave Tarapada Chakraborty an intensive training on the Thumri style of Kirana and Beneras gharana as well. In fact, it is quite discerningly evident that Khayal received a rare authenticity and completeness in the heralding voice of Sangeetacharya Tarapada Chakraborty in his own way. Sangeetacharya Tarapada Chakraborty, the pioneer of this Kotali Gayaki is the legend adored all over India for his contribution towards Hindustani Classical Music. His worthy son Pandit Manas Chakraborty, now the reigning Khalifa of Kotali Gharana is the devout pursuer of various sources and streams of Indian Classical Music. Enriched by his keen interest in Indian Philosophical tradition of all the existing gharanas and having been exposed to the corresponding confluences in his family’s assertively partisan art of music focused his attention on the necessity of discarding in order to select and the necessity of differentiating in order to unite. The Maestro has boldly made the manifold moves of his style to manifest an integrated oneness of the eternal Indian ethos and by now, has initiated a new dynamics of allegiance to the human efforts towards life and its values. Thus, presenting the obscure reality of music in a tangibly graceful, elocutionary form with his undaunted kalabant gayaki, nayaki and majestic mijaaz has made him an ‘institution by himself’ in the international realm of Hindustani Shastriya Sangeet. His contribution in Indian Classical Music for the last fifty years is undoubtedly worth-mentioning and as a Guru he is great. The schooling of Indian Classical Music through the mentors of his family and the torchbearers established around the globe has already entered the seventh generation. Practically, Pt. Manas Chakraborty is the new trend-setter of this Kotali-gayaki. His co-efficiency has earned a unique style which although endures many diversities with that of his father’s proclamatory approach, but at the same time very convergent at the philosophical end and its manifestation reveals the ultimate shape of ‘Kotali Gayaki’.