Gurmat Gian Group: An Interview With One Of Its Members

Last week, I posted on the Gurmat Gian Group’s performance of classical keertan. This all Sikh women’s group, expect for a tabla player, is based in Ludhiana, Punjab. This week, I wanted to share a brief interview with one of its members, Keerat Kaur.

1.  How did you come to join the Gurmat Gian Group? How long have you been with the group?  How often does the group meet?
The Gurmat Gian Group was formed by my mother Gurpreet Kaur. My mother Gurpreet Kaur and myself used to do kirtan in the weekend gatherings of Gurmat Gian Missionary Trust. These programmes are held every Saturday and Sunday. Impressed with our singing, we were asked by the organizers and especially by Rana Inderjit Singh to train young boys and girls to do kirtan. Now Gurpreet Kaur takes regular classes at the Gurmat Gian Missionary College where many girls and boys of different age groups are learning kirtan.
Encouraged to go in to recording Gurabni Kirtan lead to the formation of Gurmat Gian Group which now has 5 CDs to its credit.

There are 5 Cds recorded till now.

1. Saajanara Mera Saajanara
2. Mera Baid Guru Govinda
3. Tere Kavan Kavan Gun Keh Keh Gava
4. Mo Kao Taar Le Raama Taar Le
5. Mohan Ghar Aavoh Karo Jodariya

And 4 more already recorded to be released in due course.
These are all Audio Cds. Mera Baid and Tere Kavan Kavan are also available as VCDs.

Our group has also sung shabads for the recently released animation movie “Sundri”.

2.  Is there any purpose behind the group being only women?  Was it intended to be a women’s only group or it just happened?
When the group started, there was no specific aim to form an all women’s group. This just happened and we plan to keep it this way now.

3.  Does a woman play the tabla?

There is no woman tabla player. Right now, there are 3 members of this group, Gurpreet Kaur, Japjit Kaur and myself. There are no other members of the group as yet and we select the instrument players including the tabla players according to the requirements of the compositions.

4.  How has being in this group added to your spiritual development as a Sikh?
We started as a group, with an aim to record and spread gurbani kirtan beyond our small weekend gathering of families. A typical recording preparation takes at least 2 months of  6-8 practice hours a day. We feel lucky to be able to spend this time singing Guru’s bani. Every shabad is practised 60-80 times before it is recorded. Every time we sing a shabad, we feel that we learn something new which we did not understand in the previous practise. This definitely has helped in our spiritual development.