A confluence of mindful music and visual expression – a Swaratma India presentation

Seven notes, seven colors, seven chakras … a mere coincidence or there is more to it?

Come, experience and find out for yourself as Indroneil, on his Indra Veena, and Manoj, on his guitar cast a mesmeric spell of mindful Indian melodies.

Visual artists and painters, in the serenity and soulfulness of the ambiance so created, unleash their imagination to translate their experience into visual expressions, corresponding to the mindful music that gets presented.

This is exactly how Raag O Rang happens.

Nothing can be more fascinating than witnessing and experiencing the process of creation – be it the potter creating forms out of the potter’s wheel, the painter bringing to life colorful expressions with her brush strokes or a musician breathing life into a melody through its rendition.

If you are a painter, sculptor or any kind of a visual artist, come join us in this mindful celebration… by co-expressing and co-creating with your tools and implements.

And if you want to savor the sheer joy and wonder of it all, as an audience, you are most welcome.

Raag O Rang is a Swaratma India initiative. Swaratma India comes with the purpose of mainstreaming mindful music by preserving, protecting and promoting the essence of Indian music – its soul.

About The Artist

Manoj first picked up the guitar at the age of 13 and fell in love with the instruments ever since. Music is a lifestyle for Manoj has pursued a degree in music from K.M. Music Conservatory in Chennai and has 3 years of teaching experience and is apparently a faculty member of Taaqademy. He has worked with many artist as a composer arranger and guitarist from Bangalore, Chennai, Darjeeling.

He started with Raag the Bang- Chennai, Naveen Sajju (State award Winner Karnataka and Music Director), The SaMaRa, and has played with Sangeetha (Katti Karnataka Rajyotsava Award Winner). Satvaanii ( Devotional Music Band), The SaMaRa ( Kannada folk music group) and has worked with many other independent artist as a recording artist and session artist.

Indroneil Mukerjee

An Indian Classical instrumentalist (Indra Veena) & Proponent of Mindful Music

He was not born in a family of musicians. He was born in the ocean of music. Ever since his early childhood days, the earliest that he can remember, music, pure classical music, was an essential element of his growing up environment. Baba, an ardent love of Hindustani Classical music, a connoisseur and also an honorary critic with the All India Radio, ensured the 'purity' of the acoustical vatavaran, so much so that his sisters had to really steal moments to listen to light or playback music on the radio.

Every month there would be private jalsas organized, in Lucknow, by Baba and his friends which would sometimes even feature artists like Pandit Ravi Shankar and Pandit V J Jog. No wonder even at the tender age of 10 or so, he could prodigiously not just recognize the ragas but relate to them.

Maddened by his need to experiment and driven by his explorative nature, one day, sometime in mid-seventies, he used his amateur carpentry skills and some elementary knowledge of physical acoustics to modify his sister's Hawaiian guitar to create what was the first version of Indra Veena. Very soon, guided by his discerning ears he was able to play ragas like Todi and Bihag.

In late eighties he got an Indra Veena professionally made and started performing in small private programs. He had no particular regimen for riyaaz. All the time he had for himself, it was meant to be spent in company with music - listening and re-listening, imbibing the essence, trying to reproduce and then listening again. There was a penchance for getting it, to express itself with all its beauty (alankar) and emotions (bhava), in entirety. In late, eighties, he had the good fortune of playing for a few concerts at the Festival of India in Switzerland. And immediately thereafter, was blessed with a few months of tutelage at the feet of Late Pandit Brij Bhushan Kabra in Ahmedabad.

Very soon he realized the disconnect. On the one hand his performer self was tugging at the egoic strings to show off and on the other the devotee in him wanted to get drowned and dissolved in the ocean of music, to which he belonged. That triggered his journey on a path of complete surrender to music and a decision to not perform. His music is his connection with the divine and he shares this connection through baithaks – interactive presentation of mindful music – with a select group of discerning audience. To bring about more peace and harmony in lives of people. He is also enabling aspiring musicians and children with talent for music as future mindful musicians.

As a Human Alchemist, Indroneil also enables self-mastery and transformation in people’s lives through one-on-one engagements.

Indroneil has founded Swaratma India with a purpose of protecting, preserving and promoting the ethos of Indian Music – its soul.

Indroneil’s vision of mainstreaming mindful music, in his own words, is

“To light a hundred lamps that will enlighten a million lives”