Bharat Ratna - Ustad Bismillah Khan - Page 8

Remembering Ustad Bismillah Khan who died two- year ago on August 21

By Shivnath Jha

Bismillah:The Beginning Foundation

In the last half a century or more, no one could think of Shehnai without Ustad Bismillah Khan or vice-versa. It is he, who, in fact, gave a popular instrument the capacity and courage to rise to be admitted to the hoary company instruments of Hisndustani classical music globally.

A humble man, he believed that musicians were supposed to be heard and not seen. For him, the Shehnai was his "begum" and he had made this a known fact after the death of his wife almost 16 years back. But his begum was not there at his bed side when he breathed his last at the Heritage Hospital in the wee hours of August 21, after struggling for life for more than 96 hours, exactly five months after when he had celebrated his 91st birthday after cutting a 91 kg cake.

He died of cardiac arrest. The government announced a one-day national mourning in honour of the legend who had the rare distinction of playing the Shehnai as the Indian flag was unfurled at the historic Red Fort in New Delhi to mark the country's independence from Britain on August 15, 1947. He died without his Shehnai.

But he indeed wanted his Shehnai to be kept next to him. On August 18, when I along with my wife Neena and my nine-year-old son Aakash visited him at about 10 in the morning and enquired about his "begum", the maestro with tears in his eyes said: Begum ghar par hain, mein yahan akela hun…"

The legendary Ustad was born on 21 March 1916. His ancestors were court musicians in the princely state of Dumraon in Bihar and he was trained under his maternal uncle, the late Ali Bux "Vilayatu". He spent his child hood in the holy city of Varanasi, on the bank of the Ganga, where his maternal uncle was the official Shehnai player in the famous Vishwanath temple.

It was due to this that Bismillah Khan became interested in playing the Shehnai. At an early age, he familiarized himself with various forms of the music of Uttar Pradesh, such as thumri, chaiti, swanti etc. Later he studied Khayal music and mastered a large number of ragas.

For the Ustad, music, sur and namaz were the same thing. His namaz was the seventh suddh and five komal surs. Even as devout Shia, Khan Sahib was a staunch devotee of Saraswati, the hindu goddess of music.

For the man who took the Shehnai out of the wedding pro­cessions and naubat-khaanaas - as he brought it to the centre-stage of classical respectability, his instrument was also his Quran. Where others see conflicts and contradictions between music and religion, he saw only a divine unity.

Once Ustad had said "We reach Allah in different ways. A musician can learn. He can play beautifully. But unless he can mix his music with religion, unless he strives to meet God, he will only have kalaa (art) but no assar (mystical union). He will always stand at the ocean and never reach the heights of purity."

During the compilation of a book -Monograph on Ustad Bismillah Khan - we met several times and spent several hours with him, his family members at his house and also on the bank of the river Ganga. He had a strong feeling and regard for the people, especially the women of Mithila (north Bihar) region.

On January 26, 2006 when we met him to show the ornamental issue of the monograph (brought out to financially protect the musicians and artists) he said; "Alham Dullillah (Allah at last inspired you to accomplish a good work.)" and asked our son to give a pen. Then he wrote: 'Alham Dullillah, Bismillah Khan" and asked us to publish it on the cover page of the monograph.

Bismillah Khan had played his shehnai in Afghanistan. Europe, Iran, Iraq, Canada, USA, USSR, Japan, Hong Kong and almost every capital city across the world. The Government of India bestowed on him the title Padmashri, Padma Bhushan, Padma Vibhushan and Bharat Ratna for promotion of shehnai globally. He though felt that he had barely reached the shore after 91 years and his search was still incomplete.

On March 25, 2006 for the first time, he had celebrated his birthday with such fanfare four days after his actual birthday due to serial blasts in Benaras. He had then said "Meri antim khwahish aap log pura karen. Mujhe India Gate par bajana hai. India Gate hamara hai. Jab India Gate par Bismillah Khan ki Shehnai bajegi to puri Dilli ruk jayegi. (You will fulfill my last wish of perform­ing at India Gate where Bismillah Khan will play Shehnai and the whole Delhi will stop to listen)."

A month later, we got the permission of the Government of India and went to his place to invite him. By that time he had fallen ill. We had to extend the date from July 15 to August 9, 2006. But he was still unwell. When we reached Heritage hos­pital on August 18, he inquired about the programme and said: "Thora kamzor ho gaya hun….dekho in logon ney kya kar diya hai…..mein jald theek ho jata hun phir tumharey sath Dilli chalunga aur India Gate par shehnai bajaunga. (I have become weak…see what these people have done…I will get well and will accompany you to India Gate.)" Alas!

Until Ustad Bismillah Khan burst upon the center-stage of Indian music with his strange little instrument at the All-India Music Conference in Calcutta in 1937 at the age of 20, the Shehnai was considered an instrument reserved for wedding processions or Hindu religious rit­uals.

"I was never interested in studies. While others were at their books. I used to sneak out and play marbles or blow on Mamu's shehnai. He always knew I would be a Shehnai-player," the Ustad had said.

Many people say Bismillah Khan did not groom a disciple although he taught students when he had the time but there was no special heir. But, of his six sons (Mehtab, Nayyar. Hussein, Famin, Kazim, and Nazim) Mehtab and Nayyar play good shehnai. It may be mentioned that when Ustad Bismillah Khan played shehnai with his elder brother Samsuddin Khan, he always played down his own part as he did not wish to overshadow his brother. "Even though I have the ability, I must always remember that he is my elder brother," he had said with humility and modesty.

On August 19. when I inquired who will continue the tradi­tion of shehnai, Ustad smiled lying on his hospital bed and said: "Mehtab aur Nayyar bahut achcha bajatey hain…… riyaaz karna hoga…. dam aur shudh dono sadhna hoga…… Insha Allah. (Mehtab and Nayyar play very well… they must do prac­tice…breath and purity has to be attained… Inshallah)."

To promote his secular philosophy, we have launched a nationwide movement "Andolan Ek Pustak Se" under the aegis of Bismillah:The Beginning Foundation by publishing books one after another to protect those who have brought laurels and pride to the Independent India. We have rehabilitated Vinayak Rao Tope, the third generation of the front line leader of 1857 Uprising Tatya Tope who were living in anonymity in Bithoor village, about 20 kms from India's industrial city Kanpur. The rehabilitation of Sultana Begum, the grate grand daughter-in-law of the last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar is on card.

We pray Ustad Bismillah Khan's legacy lives on.

THE SCRIPT OF A FULFILLING JOURNEY

A spirited drive and unwavering determination saw him through this unbelievable course. To most others it may look like a scratch-to-sky scrapper story. Yet he himself prefers to confine himself to work at hand, leaving the rest to God and destiny.

As a post-graduate of the famed Patna University in Bihar, he paddled through Patna's streets for over seven years, beginning 1968, to deliver newspapers from house to house right from the daybreak before he joined as copy-holder at a Patna-based newspaper The Indian Nation in 1975 just after the emergency era.

Born in a Maithil Brahmin family in Darbhanga district of Bihar, he shed all pretensions and set out on to the path of knowledge and modern learning. Once he tasted journalism in Bihar, it did not take long to turn out to be an addiction.

Shivnath learnt the basic of his life as a newspaper hawker. At eight, life seemed a task in itself. He was refused admission to a prestigious school (Ram Mohan Roy Seminary) in Patna because he could not pay its fees. Shivnath stole Rs. 5 from his father's currency box and brought newspapers from them at State Bus terminus near Gandhi Maidan in Patna. After four hours he had earned Rs. 9.60. He got admitted in another school - T.K.Ghosh Academy - in Patna from where Dr. Rajendra Prasad, independent India's first President, did his early schooling.

Shivnath's father, late Gopal Dutta Jha, was a salesman with a publishing house (Novelty & Company, Ashok Raj Path, Patna), earning Rs. 45 per month. Shivnath was a tea and escalator boy who sold 280 copies of newspapers - The Indian Nation, Aryavarta, The Searchlight (now The Hindustan Times) and Pradeep (now Dainik Hindustan) each day. Shivnath has not forgotten his days of struggle.

In 1989, he was spotted and marked by eminent journalist Mr. M.J. Akbar who took Shivnath through the mainstream journalism by putting him as a stringer of The Telegraph, the newspaper, Akbar had launched as an editor. Thereafter, he has gone on to work under the finest editors India has known like Mr. Vir Sanghvi (SUNDAY), Mr. H.K. Dua, Mr. Prabhu Chawla and Mr. Shekhar Gupta (The Indian Express), Late C.R. Irani (The Statesman), and Mr. Akbar (The Asian Age). Besides such privileges, Shivnath has the honour of working for ANI, Dainik Bhaskar and Sahara Time, Aaj Samaj and Tehelka as well.

Any reference to Shivnath shall remain far from being complete in case his educationist wife Mrs. Neena Jha's association with the late Ustad Bismillah Khan is missed. The couple had done in the wake of public appeal for assistance made by such a legend of Indian classical music amid his declining health and reducing circumstances. In the noble endeavor that was greatly appreciated by the late Ustadji. Neena, a teacher in St. Thomas School, Indirapuram, Ghaziabad, by profession; keeps alive his passion to work for the under privileged.

Six years ago, when Ustad Bismillah Khan did not have money and resources to meet the cost of his needs, the then Government arranged for his performance at Parliament Annexe, where Khan had to virtually give a charity show for his own benefit. It was then Shivnath and Neena, who had launched a nationwide movement 'Andolan Ek Pustak Se' under the aegis of Bismillah:The Beginning Foundation to protect musicians, academicians, artists and policemen who brought pride and laurels to the nation, thought of bringing out a monograph on the life and art of the Ustad to extend financial support to him and others in need.

The duo's Monograph on Ustad Bismillah Khan was forwarded to the then President of India Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam to pay tribute to the (then) living Shehnai maestro on his 90th birthday on March 21, 2005. The book was dedicated to the newspaper hawkers and three of their journalist friends ' Sanjeev Sinha (The Indian Express), Ranjan Jha (Aajtak) and Anju Sharma (The Hindustan Times) who died in a plane crash with senior Congress leader Madhavrao Scindia.

The maestro released the monograph on his 91st birthday, i.e. on March 25, 2006. The Ustad cut a 91 kg cake. The founder of Sulabh sanitation Movement Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak and the couple presented the Ustad a three-kilogram silver shehnai and Rs 1.5 lakh to take care in the winter of his life.

Hailing their efforts, the Union Minister of Science and Technology, Mr. Kapil Sibal sanctioned Rs. 10,000 per month from his personal account to the maestro till the Ustad alive.

Shivnath and Neena's movement gained a victory of sorts after the Government of India, the Ministry of Home Affairs allowed them to invite the Ustad to play shehnai at the India Gate to pay tribute to the 'unsung heroes of World War-I, for the global peace, communal harmony and fulfill his lifetime desire. But fate did not allow the Ustad. He died on August 21, 2006.

To promote the Ustad's secular philosophy, Neena and Shivnath decided to continue their movement 'Andolan Ek Pustak Se' by publishing books ' Monograph on Ustad Bismillah Khan, India Calling (In commemoration of India entering 60 year of Independence) and Lalu Prasad:India's Miracle - one after another for the noble cause.

In June 2007, the couple identified and rescued Mr. Vinayak Rao Tope, the third generation descendants of Tantya Tope, a frontline leader and martyrs of the 1857 Uprising. Mr. Tope along with his wife Saraswati Devi and three children ' Pragati, Tripri and Ashutosh ' were living in anonymity in Bithoor village, about 20 kms from India's industrial city Kanpur. He was running a small grocery shop in Bithoor and was maintaining his family from his 'jajmans' (masters) by conducting religious ceremonies for them.

Moved by the plight Mr. Lalu Prasad offered jobs to Pragati and Tripti in the Container Corporation of India under Indian Railways. Mr. Vijay Darda, a Rajya Sabha member from Maharastra and owner of Lokmat Group of Newspapers has provided financial assistance of Rs. Five lakh to Mr. Tope. Company Affairs Minister Mr. Prem Chand Gupta has ensured that the house of Tantya Tope at Bithur would be turned into a memorial and a life-size statue of the martyr would also be installed there.

Yet, in the midst of pompous celebrations over the 150th year of India's first war of independence, a fact that rankles is that the heirs of the Mughal's last emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar, Sultana Begum, continue to languish in squalour and anonymity in a 8'x8' room at Cowies Ghat's slum located near Foreshao Road in Howrah district of West Bengal. She runs a tea-stall to earn a living for her family.

From Howrah line, Sultana Begum is wife of late Muhammad Bedar Bakht, son of Jamshid Bakht and grandson of Jawan Bakht. Bedar Bakht died in 1980. After his death West Bengal government provided her an accommodation at Trolly Gunj area but due to harassment by some local criminals, she was forced to vacate the flat.

Now, Andolan Ek Pustak Se has decided to rehabilitate Sultana Begum from the sale proceeds of the book - Lalu Prasad:India's Miracle. Two Central ministers have also hailed the efforts of Neena and Shivnath and ensured all possible support to the Mughal's descendant. Her rehabilitation is on card.

When life was a struggle our efforts paid, so there is no place of thorns in life.