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| Kalpana Patowary in Mathura & Vrindavan. |
Krishna…..kanha….lalla…from the early
childhood days heard a lot about HIM. Even in our evening prayer Ma used to
pray only Him, but not in its idol form. Ek saraniya naam dharma or Vaishnavism
is very much prevailed in Assam. MAHAPURUSH SRI MANTA SANKARDEVA and his disciple
MAHAPURUSH SRI MANTA MADHAVDEVA were the preachers of Bhakti movement in Assam.
So in Assam Krishna janmastami is very largely celebrated. Time passed by..somehow it so happened that I
got introduced to Bhojpuri musical culture, and to perform I have to travel a
lot through Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Recently I was invited to TAJ MAHOTSAV in
Agra. As you all know to reach Agra you have to come to Delhi to take any
flight and you have to cross Mathura-Vrindavan to reach Delhi. So how could I
miss this opportunity to meet my childhood deity, hero, sakha….oh I was so
exited you know…but I didn’t have so much time to explore the whole area as
there are above 5000 mandirs. So I selectively chose to start from GOKUL. Lots
of small streets, gallis… Many thousand years ago Kanha with his friends might
have roamed around here-“Makhan Chor”, how he used to tease all the
Gopis…through these streets. I was literally in front of Kanhas house. The NAND
MAHAL - I don’t know-but I got a little emotional. Lalla ko ma ne kaise bada
kiya hoga..mitti khane pe yashoda ma ne kaha-muh kholo-she saw the whole galaxy
inside his tiny mouth..Now Nand Mahal is turned to a mandir, and Kanha is there
in a form of golden abode. The local panditji said here one should remember
their parents..so I donate something remembering ma-papa. Then I thought of meeting RADHA RANI. To meet
HER i had to go to VRINDAVAN. As an artiste this was the most exciting part of
the journey. In The LEGACY OF BHIKHARI THAKUR there was one track namely
RAASLEELA. While rendering my voice, I imagined the blue moonlight atmosphere
of MADHUVAN, tried to find the Radha deep inside me. And now this was time to
physically experience it to some extent......green lush bushes were in front of
me…the locals said these are symbolically the Gopis performing leelas with
Krishna. The place have a mystical feel. There is also a shringar kakshs of
Radhika. One kinnar was sitting there. I took some bangles exchanging it for
101 rupees. In my day to day life I never like to put bangles but that day I
was very happy to feel the feminist of myself…the trees look like as if it is
in a “Alingana” mode. Then while
returning I went to Mathura to the jail premise where Kanha was born, from
where later Vasudeva transferred him to Nand Mahal.
