Of Raagas and Dosas

 Hi,

         I published my last blog post 'Love hate relationship with British monarchy'  exactly 2 months back  but I found this topic lying as a draft from June 24th, unattended. I felt some connect between raagas and dosas but I was wondering how to put them in words.  As a woman, I do cooking. As a Tambrham woman, I've learnt carnatic music in my childhood (something 'mandatory ' for girls in our community to sing before the prospective groom and impress 😂😁). 

                      I revisited this page after a long time to proceed with this topic. The real learning starts only when we teach and it is true with any field. I started learning more when I started teaching music to children in my neighbourhood. The more I learn, the more I feel that I have learnt nothing. I love dosas just as I love ragas. Just like dosas being my comfort food, listening to Carnatic music everyday and identifying ragas and their characteristics have become my staple food. I don't know whether the varieties of dosas are more than the ragas in music. No one can claim the ownership other than South India when it comes to dosas and Carnatic music.  

                                                             There are 72 parent ragas (melakartha ragas) in Carnatic music from which new ragas can still be derived that need not have 7 swaras in aarohanam (ascending swaras) and avarohanam (descending swaras). So the possibilities there are endless. Some of us would have seen the roadside stalls advertising 99 varieties of dosas. Whether they make that many types of dosas everyday is a question. As an Indian woman who has to cook and as a Tambrahm woman who has learnt Carnatic music and is teaching kids, I keep thinking about these all the time. Do dosas and ragas have any connection? I will explain the connect I felt over a period of time. 

                                 

                      

                                                  The circle of Parent Raagas......

                                                 We learn the basics of  Carnatic music in Mayamalava gowla raga and not in any other ragas like shankarabhraranam, Kalyani etc. This raga's notes are symmetrically placed making it to be sung in a smooth flow making it ideal to sing the first lessons. Likewise, though the sheer variety of dosas are still invented by the passionate cooks, chefs, we can never forgo  the dosas made out of  smoothly ground and fermented batter of idli rice, urad daal, mehthi (til seeds).  Just as small kids are fed the soft dosas and idlis made out of  idli rice and urad dal as it is easy to digest, the basic lessons like sapthaswaras, Jantavarisais, Alankarams be sung much easily in Mayamalava gowla. 

                                                      I make Rava dosas, Adai dosas, wheat dosas, rice and coconut dosas, peserattus, oats dosas, ragi dosas and so on by rotation. But I feel a sense of security only when I have the 'traditional finely ground idli-dasa batter' in my fridge. Likewise, I listen and sing in various ragas everyday as a part of warm up practice before gearing up for the classes.  Some ragas like Hanumanthodi or Thodi (known as weighty raga) are tough to sing just as it is tough to digest Ada dosa (Lentils dosa) and is also heavy but delicious and filling..😅.  Just as with food, some raagas are my favourites from the rest. Kalyani, Bhairavi, Begada, Lathaangi, Reethigowlai, vachaspathi, aabhogi, Sree Ranjini, Chakravaakam are just few of them. 

                                               Just like a child being fed without given much choice, I found singing those basic lessons boring and so the raaga Mayamalawa gowla. But, after long years with music and into teaching,  I felt everything coming back in full circle just as with life. I have started to like Mayamalawa gowla much more and I feel singing in this raaga is like being in meditation. It is just like having the basic dosa from the fermented batter along with chutney, sambar, molagai powder and I get the comfort and security of coming back to base which no other variety dosa can give me!!

           

Image of plain dosa borrowed from google.

Lots of love 

Deepa   - Lover of dosas and raagas.