How I met the maestro…. Ustad Bismillah Khan

I was at a wedding ceremony in Vizag, a daughter of my dad’s friend was takingthe vows and we were all there. We were almost ready to wrap up to go, and I overheard few of my dad’s friends say, "oh! The father of the bride is playing all these filmi music." Thankfully, it was sparingly not too loud, but with the backdrop of lush gardens, with lotus flowers in the nearby pond and the splashes of water fountains, beautifully laid shamiana’s, fragnance of basmati whiffing in the air…somehow the music wasn’t justifying the esteemed presence of all highly acknowleged poets and artists. Then I heard my dad say, only the shehnai of ustad bismillah khan would be the cream of this décor.  In a hurried state as if it was forgotten, the father of the bride, somehow managed to get the tape. Within minutes, the tunes and melody of the great maestro Ustad Bismillah Khan’s shehnai started to waft in that balmy air. While I was sitting there as a child no older than 9 or 10, I was converged with the rhythmic notes he was creating with his shehnai. Subconsiously, i hung on to this memory, and thought maybe i should do this for my wedding too...

Few days ago, this memory dashed to my mind, while reading some article somewhere. There was also a picture of the young maestro in his humble abode, cross legged on the floor, in his white kurta and pyjama -- you could see that with his eyes closed his heart was pouring out of the shehnai.

But today, as I opened deccan.com, one of the headlines said “Shehnai’s purest note dies”… at 90 with cardiac arrest, he bid goodbye, he rested doing what he believied in … I continued to read that he didn’t celebrate his 90th b’day (quote DC) “as a mark of protest against the Varanasi bomb blasts.” My eyes swelled at it. Here there are people with such hatred for other communities, and here's a man trying to bridge his love for his land in his own way. Unfortunately, we lost this great mind on 21st of August, 2006.
 
I’ll always remember him as a simple person who created grand music that’ll always linger in the air.

Pictures courtesy of www.rajatgoyal.com