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PATRICK NGCOBO: A LESSON IN
STRENGTH AND CULTURE
We are all modern Indians. Modernized Indians. Modernizing
Indians. Modernized up to that extent that
we do not even know what our culture is and what our traditions
are. You ask a young urban going on
the road, What is the next album of Shakira?There will be an
instant reply. You ask another question,
Do you know who Tansen and Thyagaraja are?The upcoming citizen
of India thinks and thinks, but I
am sure he finally gives it up. Such is the fate of Indian
traditional music today, but ONLY IN INDIA. There
is an excellent patronage to this music in most other countries
of the globe. Cleveland Thyagaraja
Aaraadhana is the best example to this. The migration of the
traditional Indian musicians to these far off
places suggests a considerable amount of lack of encouragement
in the mother land though some of
them had gone there with the motive of spreading our culture. It
is fortunate that they are successful
there.
However, did you know that there are foreigners who are
proficient in our music? I too did not till very
recently. The other day when I was casually turning some
Wikipedian pages, I landed on the List of
Carnatic Singers. I found one Patrick among the orthodox names
like Deekshithars, Murthys, Sastris,
Nairs, etc. At first I checked my impulse of considering him a
foreigner thinking he may be one of those
Keralite Christians who gave a fair patronage to the traditional
Carnatic music. But when I saw his last
name Ngcobo a moment later, I was indeed surprised and thinking
of a possible African descent, I
immediately clicked on the link attached to his name.
I came to know that he is indeed an African of Zulu lineage
living in South Africa. I wondered how he
came to be a seeker of Indian music.
The increasing curiosity made me click on the BBC news page link
located at the bottom of the
Wikipedia page.
There it was written, the whole saga of Patrick Ngcobo and his
Carnatic music. It was mentioned that
Ngcobo was once very much impressed by a song of Sri K.J.Yesudas
and being himself inclined to music,
decided to pursue the style of music that was very pleasant to
his ears. He was fortunate to find Sri
Yesudas who being a wonderful human being had instantly agreed
to teach him on the only condition of
Patrick coming to Madras.
Then there is the mention of hundreds of hurdles and adversities
Patrick had faced, starting from thepoverty that made it difficult
even to cross the boundary to the difficulties in practicing the
great
intricacies of Carnatic music.
After his formal training with Sri Yesudas he left India to his
home place planning to make this as his
profession. He believed his thoughts are justified by the
presence of a large Indian population in South
Africa. But much against to his idea, he did not receive that
amount of encouragement which he had
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expected though he has sung in many concerts in Botswana. He
says he want to sing in South Africa and
it is remarkable that he expresses a lot of hope in singing
Carnatic songs throughout the world.
Now the story is over. What is its moral, then?
It is a lesson to all those youngsters, who are running madly
after the foreign customs and traditions,
drastically endangering the culture of homeland.
It is a point of proof of the virtues of our traditional music
when it had made a foreigner strive for it.
It makes us salute the individual who has become a patron of
such an alien music, fighting the countless
adversities that came his way. He could have been very peaceful
without all these. But he did not care
for all these and was finally very successful in pursuing his
goal. This indeed showers us in a great
inspiration.
