Surabhi
Surabhi – singing songs in the south-west
Having lived in Wales for most of the past 9 years, Surabhi is now living in Ashburton, Devon, with friend Yatro, and beloved dog, Sairsha, who accompanies her on long walks in the countryside.
Surabhi went to Poona with her parents, Vachana and Tejas in the late seventies aged only 16. She was later one of the early arrivals on the Ranch and back in Poona 2 was a cleaner in Lao Tzu.
Surabhi and Sairsha
Given her extraordinary voice, I expected her to have had considerable formal voice instruction but, although she had classical music training, it was only when she fell in love with Adarsha, guitar player supreme, that she really began to sing, starting things off with a song she herself had written. With Adarsha and later Prabodh and various other musicians like Vikas and Tanmayo, she went on to record a few CD’s of mostly Gaelic Hebridean music.
Demand for her singing is rising in the south-west where she is doing gigs with Adarsha and Mike Edwards, a cellist. The three have formed a small group called ‘Presence’.
But it is as a singer for the band, ‘One hand Clapping’, that Surabhi is perhaps best known to sannyasins. About 2 years ago, Amlas at Croydon Hall invited her, Adarsha, Somesh and Prabodh to come and play for a satsang and, as time went by, the musicians became regular visitors, enthralling people there with their beautiful sound. Vikas, from London became a regular and then last year Manu and Tarisha joined them which, Surabhi says, was a huge turning point as they now had a drummer, Manu! With Tarisha and Surabhi’s voices harmonising so beautifully there is a new dimension to the band. At the recent summer festival at Croydon Hall we were all flying sky high during the satsangs and evening meditations as well as thoroughly enjoying more rock ‘n roll stuff with a beat on Saturday night.
Music has always been a huge part of our lives as Osho sannyasins and we are indeed fortunate to have such inspired musicians as Surabhi and the band to enrich our meditations and to play so joyously while we all have fun dancing and singing along with the universe (to paraphrase my favourite Osho song!).
You can contact Surabhi at the following telephone number: 01364 654 732.
www.presence.org.uk
Text and photo by Veena - July 2006
