Bickram and Pt. Shankar Ghosh at the opening of Shankar Ghosh Academy of Tabla in Sector V. Picture by Bishwarup Dutta

A “click and mortar” tabla coaching centre has opened near Salt Lake where exponent Pt. Shankar Ghosh will train students primarily through the Internet.

A centre of the Shankar Ghosh Academy of Tabla was inaugurated on July 1 at Karmyog Ashram, Mahisbathan, adjacent to Sector V. Present on the occasion were Pt. Ghosh, son Bickram Ghosh and his wife Jaya Seal Ghosh. The centre is being facilitated by Karmyog Foundation.

“I already have foreign students learning tabla online sitting in countries like USA, Germany and Venezuela. It is convenient for both the student and teacher,” said Ghosh.

Those enrolling at the centre would be signed up for a seven-year course called Taleem for Tabla. This has been divided into 350 classes, which have been video-recorded with Ghosh teaching and will be played for students when they come to the centre. While Ghosh would only visit the centre once a month, there would be a team of ATPs (authorised training providers) supervising the classes. These trainers have been chosen from Ghosh’s senior-most students.

The ATPs will maintain a log of every student, known as taleem tracker, and its updates would be sent to Ghosh. “After every lesson, students will upload their performance on the Internet and only if Guruji is satisfied with it will the next lesson be played out for him,” said the secretary of the foundation, Atanu Choudhury. Ghosh will preside over the students’ exams and the best players will be featured on their website www.ptshankarghosh.com.

“Continuity is extremely important during training. At times, when Guruji goes abroad for shows, we have to wait till he returns to learn something new. Pre-recorded sessions and online monitoring will help us a lot,” said Supratik Chatterjee, a TCS employee who has been learning tabla since 1993.

The fees at the institute are around Rs 1,200 but vary for those enrolling from different parts of the world. The course can be altered for students who would never have to come to the centre at all. “Traditionally, the guru-shishya parampara required the student to visit the teacher’s house to learn. With technology, the teacher’s house is now the entire world and the student can learn from anywhere,” smiled the founder of Karmyog Foundation, Sourabh J. Sarkar.