Fifty years of music

The Swar Sadhana Samiti (SSS) founded by the late Keki Jijina and his pupil the late Dr Aban Mistry marked its golden jubilee at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan on January 10 and 11, 2015 with vocal, instrumental and dance performances in 23 sub-groups. Having given performances all over the country, Jijina had in-depth knowledge of percussive instruments — bansi, violin, jaltarang, kaanchtarang, harmonium and tabla. Mistry was a musicologist, a world renowned tablavaadan in all four principal gharanas (schools). She was the first woman professional tabla artiste internationally (see "Without missing a beat,” Parsiana, October 7, 2012).

Above: Pandit Keki Jijina (left) and Dr Aban Mistry; Right: song duet

Over the years SSS has presented 640 consecutive monthly music programs, 50 consecutive annual all-India music and dance competitions and 49 consecutive Swarsadhnotsavs, their annual three-day music and dance festival.
For helping in both the golden anniversary and its annual functions, special thanks were proffered to Jiten Zaveri, Rupa Sethna, Feroze and Nazneen Katila, Sapal Jijina and Yatin Pimpale. Several of them have their children assisting them. In fact, the third generation seems as gung-ho as their grandparents! The judges too received tributes for their time and generosity.
Special mention was made in the write-up submitted to Parsiana of visually impaired artistes. Annual competitions were held at the Victoria Memorial School for the Blind to enthuse students to learn music, which fits in with SSS’s desire to encourage young talent and provide a platform for performing on stage. The SSS prides itself in being "a unique group preserving (music and dance) with neither compromise nor pomp and show” and to be presented on their stage puts an artiste in a pure-form league, it is believed.
The annual competition (always in March) was held on March 11 and 12, 2015 at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. It attracted more than 800 national entries ranging in age from five to 65, with family members making music together and even guru-shishya (teacher-student) pairs participating. The scale was wider and richer with 300 who participated on two days. Chhattisgarh, Belgaum, Baroda, Ahmedabad, Madras, Delhi, Hyderabad were all represented as were neighbors Poona and Palghar.
Most of the awards for both the vocal category and dance are donated by Parsis. Some of the trophies have been given by or in memory of Khorshed Mulla, Faredoon and Rutton Bana, Dinamai, Mehernaz and Gool Mistry, Jasmine Dastur, the Karanjias.