Shehanshah of Shehnaai - Page 4

In a glittering opening ceremony dominated by powerful men, the real stars were two frail beings.

One arrived in a wheelchair, the other walked to the stage with assistance. One was 82, the other 86.

It was a celebration of India's prodigal, and the government had pulled out all stops in hosting its Pravasi Bharatiyas, the Indian Diaspora. They were feted by the country's best, and the two frail men -- Ustad Bismillah Khan and Pandit Ravi Shankar, masters of their craft for more than 60 years -- were there on stage to welcome them.

They saluted each other in that endearing manner of Indian classical artistes, bowed to the already applauding audience and sat down. The seven accompanists formed a semicircle around the sitar and shehanai maestros, who began a rendition composed specially for the event.

The jugalbandi was perfect. The Ustad and the Pandit -- performing together for the first time; incredible given they have been artistes since the 1930s -- complimented each other at the end of each individual piece.

"Ustadji is the oldest classical artist from northern India," Panditji said before the performance, "At 82, I am the second one after him. I wish he will continue to play for many, many years."

Nazim Khan, Ustadji's youngest son, accompanied the masters on the tabla along with Bikram Ghosh. Dressed in a kurta-pyjama, the spiral-haired musician said this performance would always be memorable.

"Ustadji had instructed us to keenly follow Panditji. He said we were used to playing with him [Ustad Bismillah Khan], so we should watch Panditji, with whom we had not played before."

Sitting behind Panditji, playing the tanpura, was his granddaughter Kaveri Shankar, his late son Shubhendra's child. A professional Bharat Natyam dancer who will perform at the FICCI auditorium on January 24, Kaveri said the troupe only had a couple of rehearsals before the show.

A few weeks before the event, Bikram Ghosh was informed about the recital. An accompanist with Panditji for the last 10 years, Ghosh said the troupe's final rehearsal lasted only 20 minutes.

"I wish we could have done a longer performance," said tanpura accompanist Kinji Ota.

A student of Panditji and disciple of Indian music, Ota moved to Los Angeles from Japan. This was his third performance with Panditji.

But for Ajay Sharma, it was an association that ran into five decades. Hailing from a family of musical instrument-makers, his family has supplied instruments to Ravi Shankar since the time his father was the sitar legend's student in Old Delhi.

"I was so excited about this performance," he said. "How the minutes flew past!"

Under the flutter of pigeons that often criss-crossed the auditorium, the audience was unaware the invocation had overshot its stipulated time.

"We extended it by 10 minutes, I think," Panditji later said in the green room, flanked by wife Sukanya and Kaveri, as he waited for his car.

Glancing at the dignitaries and the huge audience, Ustad Bismillah Khan surmised the recital in one short sentence: "You all have enjoyed the performance, this has gladdened our hearts."

Sharing the dais with him and Panditji were the power centres of the Indian government -- Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, his deputy L K Advani, Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha. And sitting in the VIP rows of the auditorium were more of the famous, from politics and business, and also prominent Indians who had earned great name and wealth abroad.

All of them that morning looked utterly small. Dwarfed by the unquestionable genius of two frail legends.

Illustration: Uttam Ghosh

Inna Lilah-e wa Inna alaih-e Raje-oon

(Allah has sent us here and we all shall return to Thee).

Originally posted by: Abhilash D

Hazaron khwahishein aisi, ke har khwahish pe dam nikle,
Bahut nikle mere armaan, par phir bhi kam nikle.

really well said Abhi and so true for everyone👏

thx bob da and priya di for the articles

Originally posted by: shootingstar

really well said Abhi and so true for everyone👏

thx bob da and priya di for the articles

Yes you are right it is so true.!!!!!!!!!

Ustad Bismillah Khan

"Music has no boundaries, no language!" - Ustad Bismillah Khan

Legendary Shehnai maestro Ustad Bismillah Khan passed away on August 21, 2006 due to a cardiac arrest. He was ninety years old. The Government of India declared one day of national mourning.
He was the third classical musician to be awarded the Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian honor in India. He also had the distinction of being one of the few people to be awarded all the top four civilian awards. I had a great privilege of meeting and chatting with him during one of his concerts couple of years back. "Music has no boundaries, no language - it is a message of pure love that is divine", said the maestro. In an exclusive interview, the Bharat Ratna was anguished over the way decline in the classical music has set in our country. He said given the pace in which the things have been moving, it seems time is not far away when for listening to our classical music we have to go abroad.
He has played in Afghanistan, Europe, Iran, Iraq, Canada, West Africa, USA, USSR, Japan, Hong Kong and almost every capital city across the world.
He narrated an incident, when he was offered car, house, servants, money and even the nationality during a concert in Europe. 'But I refused all of them, and in turn asked my admirer 'can he get my 'Gangaji', the river which flows near his home in Benaras, the holy city of the Hindus, and with whose water he does ablution before praying every day.

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Despite his fame, Khan's lifestyle retained its old world Benares charm. His chief mode of transport was the cycle rickshaw. A man of tenderness, he believed in remaining private, and that musicians are supposed to be heard and not seen. Born on March 21, 1916, he was the second son of his parents, Paigambar Khan and Mitthan. He was christened as Qamaruddin initially, before his grandfather uttered Bismillah after looking at the newborn. His ancestors were court musicians in the princely state of Dumraon in Bihar, India. He received his training under his uncle, the late Ali Baksh 'Vilayatu', a Shehnai player attached to Varanasi's Vishwanath Temple. He was a devout Shi'a, but he worshipped goddess Saraswati as well. He often played at various temples and on the banks of the river Ganga in Varanasi, besides playing outside the famous Vishwanath temple in Varanasi. The doyen of Indian classical music held Shehnai first when he was probably five or six. He gave his first performance in the aristocratic city of Lucknow when he was barely 14. Ustad Bismillah Khan was perhaps single handedly responsible for making the Shehnai a famous classical instrument. He brought the Shehnai to the center stage of Indian music with his concert in the Calcutta All India Music Conference in 1937. Ustadji had a rare honor of performing at Delhi's Red Fort on the eve of India's Independence in 1947. Recalling his most memorable performances, Bismilah Khan said 'it was playing on 15th August 1947 with Pandit Nehru and host of dignitaries listening'. It was Khan Sahib who poured his heart out into Raga Kafi from the Red Fort on the eve of India's first Republic Day ceremony, on January 26, 1950. He was credited with having almost monopoly over the instrument as him and Shehnai are almost synomyms. His recital had almost become a cultural part of the Independence Day Celebrations telecast on Doordarshan every year on August 15th. After the Prime Minister's speech from Lal Qila (Red Fort) in Old Delhi, Doordarshan would broadcast live performance by the Shehnai maestro. And this tradition had been going on since the days of Pandit Nehru. The octogenarian recalling his childhood said when he was not playing Shehnai, he enjoyed swimming in the Ganges the most. He said this sport came to him naturally due to the proximity with the river. He attributes his ability to play Shehnai at this ripe age to swimming which requires strong lungs to blow the wind instrument. In one of the rare moment's music composer A.R Rehman facilitated the maestro with Amir Khusro life time achievement award. Ustad in an impromptu remark told Rehman; 'where were you, so far I have just heard of you, it is for the first time I am meeting you.' 'Nevertheless I take your name five times a day during my prayers, he quipped.' Rehman is one of the names of the God. He showered his blessings on the young musician and said 'he prays that God gives you a long life to attain the great heights in the music world.' To this Rehman shot back; 'even I take your name any number of times in a day, by saying Bismillah, before starting anything new. Bismillah means, 'I start in the name of Allah.' Rehman said that while listening to Ustad he felt crying, as so griping were his compositions. He said he was amazed that at 86, Ustad is playing the instrument like a kid. Rahman recalled, he had tried to learn playing Shehnai, but gave it up within a week finding it too difficult to handle. The maestro had some words of wise advice to the lovers of the Hindustani classical music. 'It is the duty of every elder to teach the children their musical moorings!'. He stresed that 'everything may not be learnt, but at least the basics could be grasped which is essential to understand the soul of any music.' He also confessed that 'earlier there was a lot of taboo to learn music but now things have changed for better.' Ustad Bismillah Khan will forever be remembered as one of the finest musicians in post-independent Indian Classical music, and one of the best examples of hindu-muslim unity in India. His concept of music was very beautiful and his vision, superb. He once said, "Even if the world ends, the music will still survive!"