One of the most fascinating things in the world must be the bonding between twins. Twin brothers or sisters are said to be able to share each other's feelings intimately, almost like telepathy. If that is the case it must be magical. But something that fascinates me equally would be musical siblings, namely those who perform as a duo, like Bombay Sisters, Hyderabad Brothers, Priya Sisters (still remember seeing them in concert, they seem to have such a pleasant personality that radiates with the sunny smile as well as the voice). I'm not sure there is such a tradition in classical music of other cultures in the world. It's simply wonderful how these duos manage to sing as one, or at least complement each other. The thing between siblings is that the voices would be very similar, so while the listener may or may not be able to distinguish between the two, they just blend so well together. Anyway they must certainly spend an incredible amount of time practising together to achieve a perfect coordination.

Even for instrumentalists, it can be quite a phenomenon. Just went to a concert by Ganesh and Kumaresh here some days back. The brothers have grown up practising vocals and violin together, so they would play in the same style and even though it's not like voices of siblings, the effect of two same instruments playing together like they do is still something unique, completely different from say two musicians having a musical dialogue in Jugal Bandi, which often feels more like a contest. Two is a nice number because solo is just solo whereas multiple violins would be an orchestra, but when two violins play together like they do, there is a special resonance, not just when they play a tune straight in unison, but especially when they alternate higher notes with lower notes, or touch the lower strings now and then as they play running notes. The nice thing about Ganesh and Kumaresh is that they are relatively accessible, as in they don't do so much stuff like an hour of alapana, improvising on a raga into high abstraction. I imagine they must be popular among the younger generations, because they also add special effects here and there, not too often, just now and then which makes it more memorable, for example somewhere in the concert they would do a jump or a quick brush of the bow, in some piece they would end with a straight but staggered bow, or one of them would be doing a pizzicato. One brother would even sing in between. I enjoy their playing of Amrita Varshini - which as it is, being the raga said to invoke rain, has a quality of urgency. They played it with alternations and stop-starts and went speeding towards the end, so you really feel the notes falling down like cascades of water. Towards the end of the concert, they switched into a different mode as they played short items of favourite tunes. I like their rendition of Bo Shambo, which was played with long, firm bowing giving a booming sound which befits the majestic atmosphere of the song, with just flashes of the rapid bowing here and there.

It's often said that music is a universal language. About that I always have my doubts. I mean even in Western pop music which is supposed to be a big melting pot, blue-eyed soul just doesn't feel like the real McCoy generally, it's like they used to say you have to come from the deep south to sing the blues, it's like white boys can't rap and black boys can't rock and all that. Similarly, you can't expect Chinese pop music to become popular among Indians now, it's like asking people who are used to tea with sugar and milk to suddenly switch to drinking pure green tea, they will say there is no taste. Or ask a Chinese tai-chi person to dance to African rhythms; he will just find it funny or think one probably has to practise some voodoo in order to get into the mood. I'm not saying cross-cultural learning is impossible. There can be Europeans who learn Indian music and dance well too and vice versa. But these are exceptions. You cannot force people to do it, or it just becomes a politically correct but superficial thing. There is beauty in cultural diversity of the world. At the same time, it is a warm and wonderful feeling when you are among family and friends who speak the same language as you and understand the same music as you. It is indeed wonderful how two or more persons can communicate with each other through music, speaking the same musical language as you may say. In such moments, music seems to bind souls together, and such a feeling must be as close to divinity as you can get.