Kusumbal Dairo

Being so far away from Gujarat here in the USA, Gujaratis don't get to attend too many programs like a dairo so when artists come for their programs, the junta is very eager and excited to attend their programs. Such a program took place yesterday on Sunday, August 12, 2007 at the Sunnyvale Hindu temple here in the bay area. SwarKinnari group from Mumbai performed a dairo program that included many Gujarati bhakti geet, lok geet, lagna geet, desh-bhakti geet, songs of different relationships that we humans share, and jokes and kahevat and much more. The main singers of the group are Bhanubhai Vora, Triptiben Chhaya and Kamlesh Barot. Deepak Bhavsar was awesome on the keyboard. He has such a great command on the instrument. It was just fabulous to listen to him playing the keyboard. According to Bhanubhai, Sujitbhai Vandur played tabla, electronic drums were played by Bindesh Pandey and on dholak was Sundeep Salgaonkar.

Each song was sung after Bhanubhai talked about the significance of it, and the story and history behind the song.

Some of the songs performed by the group were:

ho raaj re... mane ker kaanto vaagyo (Zaverchand Meghani) by Tripti Chhaya

mor bani thangaaT kare (Zaverchand Meghani) by Kamlesh Barot

hovey hovey... lidho maNiyaara kero vesh by Tripti Chhaya is a song written by govaliya of North Gujarat when they meet Shri Krishna disguised as maNiyaaro. The audience joined the singer as chorus to sing "hovey hovey".

mere desh ki dharti from film Upkar was sung by all three singers: Bhanubhai Vora, Tripti Chhaya and Kamlesh Barot with the 60th anniversary of India's Independence day on August 15, 2007 right around the corner.

maari veNi ma chaar chaar phool (Avinash Vyas) by Tripti Chhaya described the married woman's emotions and how she considers her mother-in-law, father-in-law, sister-in-law and her husband four flowers in her veNi.

taari aankh no afiNi (Venibhai Purohit) by Kamlesh Barot

nayan ne bandh raakhi ne (Bakrat Virani 'Befam') by Kamlesh Barot

pahela pahela yug ma raaNi (Zaverchand Meghani) by Kamlesh Barot and Tripti Chhaya was a duet depicting the relationship of Bhartruhari and PingaLa. It was very nice to listen to their story from Bhanubhai before the song.

Next, Bhanubhai spoke of the relationships of children with their parents. He said it so beautifully and also talked about their album/program on parents. He said that their goal for this program was not to earn money but to make people realize the value of parents. He said that the artists would feel greatly valued if after watching their program a member of audience would go get their parents back at home from a senior home/ghardaa-ghar. He also said that there are two times in the life of parents when they cry:

1) dikari ghar chhoDe tyaare (when a daughter leaves their home)
2) dikara tarchhoDe tyaare (when a son disregards/illtreats the parents)

Then, a medley was performed by all three singers that included the songs like taari vaanki re paaghalDi nu, maNiyaaro te haalu haalu, sona vaTakDi re, ame mahiyaara re, oDhaNi oDhu oDhu ne uDi jaay.

The topic of parents lead to songs of parents and children.

dikaro maaro laDakvaayo (Kailash Pandit) by Tripti Chhaya

taari naavDi ne dubva nai daiye by Tripti Chhaya was about the story of Jesal Jadeja and Sati Toral. I forget the first line of this song now.

dikari to paarki thaapaN kehvaay by Tripti Chhaya

rang re kasumbal me to kesuDaa no by Kamlesh Barot was a lagna/sagaai geet.

chhanu re chhapnu (Avinash Vyas) by Tripti Chhaya was a song of newly wed daughter-in-law who scolds her noisy anklets while sneaking away from rest of the family members to meet her beloved husband.

koN halaave limbDi by Tripti Chhaya was an emotional song of love that is shared by brothers and sisters. It is a story of a sister named Sonbai who is so eager to send raakhDi to her brother from her village where her in-laws don't allow her to meet any of her family members. She waits and waits under a tree until the end of the day only to find no one who is going to her village with whom she can send her parcel to her brother. A snake comes and bites her and she leaves her life in hope of meeting her brother just once. Triptiben sung the song so nicely and made many audience members shed tears.

rakt Tapakati sau sau jhoLi of Koyi No LaDakvaayo (Zaverchand Meghani) by Tripti Chhaya was about a young soldier who is lying bleeding, badly injured at the end of the war for independence. When everyone has their relatives coming to take them back home, no one comes for this brave soldier - no mother, no sister, no lover, not a single person comes for him. Everything about this song was perfect.

ho raaj mane laagyo kasumbi no rang (Zaverchand Meghani) by all three singers

The program concluded with a couple of desh-bhakti songs.

dil diya hai jaan bhi denge from film Karma by all three singers

mile sur mera tumhara by all three singers

Jai Jai Garavi Gujarat!
Jai Hind!

Kusumbhal Dairo Photos