Abhilasha Mohan Interviews Jyoti Prakash Das, Icon of Assamese Modern Music

MUMBAI: Abhilasha Mohan recently had an interview with Jyoti Prakash Das (J.P Das), the luminary of Assamese modern music. Who is known for his eternally memorable melodies.

How was your childhood and How did you get into music?

I was born in Dibrugarh at my maternal grandparent’s place and after 3 months I went to Shillong, while I was around 14 years my Father gifted me a guitar, at that time the guitar costed around 100 rupees. Since my father was a musician, I had access to different types of music and musical instruments and he put me into training under a classical music teacher from Dhaka East Pakistan, thats how my musical journey started.

Whom did you listen and who inspired you to become a musician?

Since I was in Shillong I was more interested in western songs, I loved country songs, mostly which were dedicated to family and may be that’s one of the reason that made me a family man. I listened to radios from Djakarta, they played Good English songs at that time. And also about inspiration, I was inspired by my father and nature. I listened to whistling off the birds while my way to school and Shillong the place itself is so close to nature it gave me chances to connect with nature and its beauty, the beautiful sky, the sound of wind all fascinated me to relate them with music. And because my father was a musician that was a push to understand music more and go deep into the world of music. I remember at that time I had my Khasi friend who used to ask me about the guitar and wanted to play it, they will ask with their broken Hindi like ‘Guitar tu Thora do na, hum bajayega’, Everyone around me were interested in music and musical instruments. So yes, In short my Father was my inspiration, who introduced me to the world of music.

How do you define music?

For me, MUSIC, these five words can become a dictionary.If you are able to understand music it’s a heavenly thing that you achieve. The reason I used the word heaven is because music have been practised or known since the days of God, the truest sense of God. In a nutshell, music is a dictionary of sound.

What is your advice to today’s youth who aspire to become a musician or create melodies?

At present it is difficult to give advice because each individual got his own point of views. Still I would like to say that lyrics should be good and it should help to educate people. The songs should be relatable to the listener and should reflect their own culture. I would request the artist to make songs featuring the beauty of Assam I would encourage them to use beautiful Assamese words such as ‘Senai, jaanmoni, xuoroni’ , these words seem to have been lost. The word ‘Jaanmoni’ is mostly used in assamese Bihu songs but it doesn’t have to be exclusive to that genre. The word ‘Jaanmoni’ can be used in modern songs as well, Basically the integrity of modernity and Assamese culture. At present times because of the influence of social media everyone runs to become famous. One cannot become famous, fame will come to you as you go on doing good work, good Music. I would also encourage young artists to read all Assamese book and Assamese lyrics actually the authentic Assamese lyrics and literature is from beyond Nagaon, I am talking about the local lyrics which was found in the roots of upper Assam. I would recommend books of Bhupen Hazarika lyrics of Nirmal Prabha Bordoloi and Keshab Mahanta to name a few and there are lot of other artist unless you read you cannot learn.

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