Guest article by Subodh Agrawal
(Subodh makes an appearance as a guest author after about two years, of which I am responsible for a few months in scheduling his article. He makes up for it by presenting a selection of film songs and classical pieces which best represent Bihag and its variants. As he explains, Bihag is the raga of love in its myriad forms: Happy, sad, expectant, despondent etc. His writing is as usual sure, fluent and crisp, and demystifies the raga for the lay listeners. Thank you, Subodh for another excellent article in your series, hoping, as you are assuring us, that we would now be getting offerings from you regularly. – AK)
Let me begin with a few words of apology and explanation. The last article in this series appeared about two years back. Readers of SoY and AK have often egged me to get back into action, but I have not been able to respond. Most of last year was lost to my habitual laziness. I thought of starting again with the New Year but then a series of problems with my internet connection alternating with problems with my own health took care of most of this year. Fortunately, I have recovered fully now and the internet also seems to be in a good mood for the past couple of weeks, so here is my much belated post in this series.