NEW DELHI: There are three cardinal principles of a typical khatti. One, it has no time limit; two, one has to attend it irrespective of difficulties/problems; and three, it is your warm huddle away from home.
Debashish babu ensured Sunday evening that a khatti has to be a khatti and it has to be a khatti. For the people who are not initiated into khatti so far in life, khatti can be defined as an undefined, free-flowing, agenda-less, format-less, nothingness which describes all the members of the khatti as intellectuals (for various reasons). It is the lifeline of social life without any social boundaries. Any age, any degree of success, any level of social standing is welcome in a khatti.
Extremely addictive, inevitably romantic with dashes of nostalgia and comprehensively all-encompassing. Sunday evening, at the Odia festival in Siri Fort, it was the sheer joy of being “unplugged”.
Who cares as to who sang in sur and who didn’t? We care about being in the family.
From all corners of NCR, from Orissa (Babula and Pinku babu flew down from Bhubaneswar for the event), and cutting across age groups it was a perfect huddle. It is easy to lament the erosion of culture, but it is painstaking to craft a huddle like this, in a prime hub of culture, Siri Fort auditorium in Delhi.
The first step to a love affair is a meeting of minds and the first step to a meeting of minds is mining music and culture. Without a meeting of minds and the twinkle of four eyes, can we dream of a romance?
Debashish babu and the team including the poetic and springy Biswajit babu (lolita labanga lata) and the venerable Debjit Sir threw a bash for all Oriyas. Thanks to them for being the hosts. In fact, in a khatti, there is no place for thanks and plastic courtesies extended because khatti is a matter of heart and not of head. Heart knows no prescriptions, it is seamless, unbridled and boundary-less.
Sunday evening, the music was hearty, straight, unadulterated. Debashsish babu is a compendium of Oriya music journey. He needs support. All of us, the brilliant, cosy, Oriya family should do our bit to assist him in this. His passion is our passion. That’s what’s the underlined pinciple in a khatti. A common passion.
From the inscrutable, divine genius of Balakrushna Saheb to the God-given gift, Dynamo Rituraj, the journey is indeed the life of a river: jare bhasi bhasi ja. We could be shy but there is an ethereal beauty in coyness. Rituraj, am sure would always be rooted as he is today. That’s baisi pahacha, the steps of life, struggle and dignity. The beauty of a khanqah – it is a place for gatherings of a Sufi brotherhood, it is its synergy and combined energy.
Make IPROCH an expansive khanqah, for an Oriya khatti is no less divine. Orissa, we prostrate!
Charudutta Panigrahi, from the Khatti in Delhi