In the year 1990, I was very fortunate to have had the honour of performing in Iraq for the music lovers of Baghdad. I was very blessed that I could offer my respect at the Shrine of Hazrat Ali, also known as Masjid Ali or the Mosque of 'Alī, located in Najaf, Iraq. Each year millions of pilgrims visit the Shrine and pay their tribute. I met numerous artists and musicians who were well known in the circle including Munir Bashir, often called the King of Oud (an instrument commonly used in Arabic, Greek, Turkish and Persian countries). The Arab world refers to specific melodic modes as maqam. Like Indian Classical Music, based on rules, they improvise too. And like Ragas, they have various maqams, each with its own mood and entity. There are between fifty and seventy maqams, many of which have sub-styles. My association with oud continued in the years to come as I made an album called Ancient Sounds in the year 2009 with Rahim Alhaj who is now based in the US. The album went on to get a Grammy Nomination in 2010 in the Best Traditional World Music Recording category. Rahim was forced to leave Iraq due to his activism for peace in the nineties and began his life in Jordan and Syria, finally moving to the US. It really saddens me to see the sad plight of Iraq yet again. I pray for eternal peace and harmony for the region and in fact for the world!

Seeing all the temples, mosque, and churches all over the world, I am amazed to see how they are considered vastly different -- and become a source of conflict and strife -- when the sacred truth is that all the religious buildings are made out of same sentiment of love and oneness of the individual soul (atmaa) with the universal soul (Parmatmaa). We all come to this world in the exact same way and also go away in the same way. Who created this huge void between humanity through highlighting the differences between shrines, nations, communities and religion? Why should we accept it and not challenge it with an alternative notion of oneness versus divisiveness? I hope that through music, being the food for the soul, we can make a salutation to unity through forging greater peace, goodwill and understanding, so that the vast divide and chasm that has taken place between the West and the East today, and between the Islamic and non-Islamic world, due to ignorance, deliberate or otherwise, can be reduced if not eliminated.

I find that our mind is like any living organism. It must be nurtured, and needs the right stimulation to develop and grow into a sensitive mind that is tolerant of the beautiful and abundant diversity surrounding us. We need ways to feel “oneness” whether through music, poetry, dance or any other medium that touches not just the intellect but also the soul. As we use flowers -- for welcoming, for worshiping and honoring our Gods, and in celebration and sorrow -- no matter what our race, origin, religion or language, we similarly arrange musical notes into 'bouquets' or compositions which display all our human feelings and emotions. Musical vibrations of “Sarod” can convey beautiful moods and emotions and have the ability to mold and shape our consciousness. I wish to have my music shape the consciousness in a way that contributes to oneness. I would like to continue to deepen this experience and make more and more people aware, around the globe, of the long lasting impact and benefits of Indian classical music versus the mainstream Bollywood music that provides fleeting and momentary relief.

Unfortunately today, most people, rich or poor, have lost patience with classical music in their search for a “quick fix” for entertainment. However, I find that those who persevere, find lasting peace and fulfillment. I often speak about this vocally in my concerts and encourage the poor to pursue this wonderful art form that has been practiced in India for centuries to find themselves and their inner voice. Classical Indian instrumental music, such as what I play on the Sarod, is pure sound. It needs to be experienced and felt. Since there are no lyrics, there is no language barrier between the performer and the listener, and that is why I feel my music transcends all barriers and classes.

As they say that change is the only thing that is constant in this world. Something on the new govt>>

I remember the historical days of Doordarshan when it was the only channel our country used to watch. Several of my telecasts of the ‘National Programme’ or a ‘Sunday cinema’ had the entire Nation watching either by choice or no choice! Fortunately Doordarshan has so many historic recordings of great masters and the documentary films of eminent creative people. I wish we could all see these more often. All India Radio which is also known as AIR was the only companion before television came to our lives. AIR also has very rare recordings of great masters but I am not sure about the condition that they are in. Like so many our old originations of India like the judiciary, ASI, DDA, MCD or NDMC, AIR too continues to follow rules and regulations laid after the Indian independence. I hope the new government will review these ideas and bring out the changes. I will remain indebted to AIR for exempting me from an audition back in the day. AIR has a rule that every performing artist should go through an audition and after that musician is given grades like A, B, C and finally the artist is granted a ‘Top Grade.’

I remember my father and guru Ustad Haafiz Ali Khan Saheb coming all the way from Gwalior to broadcast in AIR Delhi. At that time the fee for top grade artist was only Rs. 150/-.Now days, the high officials of All India Radio are very kind and compassionate and have granted top grade to so many deserving and also undeserving musicians, who are perhaps not even locally known. Young musicians especially under 40’s who are established and accepted by the music lovers of India whether they have applied or not applied for broadcasting on AIR, automatically should be granted and offered Top Grade. I am both happy and sad that AIR is living up to the tradition of patronizing their favorite musicians by helping them through audition and promoting them from B to A and A to Top. Common Men of India is listening to FM Radio and various other channels. Only very few people are interested in listening to AIR and their classical musicians. The rules and regulations needs to be reviewed urgently. Till date I could not understand the relationship between Prasar Bharti, All India Radio and Doordarshan. Doordarshan should have their own system of audition and inviting artists. Why should they depend on the gradation granted by All India Radio. It is my humble appeal to the next minister of I&B to kindly review the ancient rule and regulation of AIR which is indeed very unhealthy and injurious for the talented young musicians of India.

Today we have about 400 TV Channels and there is a constant competition of presentation in the field of classical music also. Especially our younger generation has to give more importance to the presentation so that people who are listening or watching us should receive lots of peace tranquility and happiness from our music. I am so happy that India’s first 24 hour classical music channel 'In Sync' has gone on air. The channel focuses on concerts by musical stalwarts and also promotes young talent. In Sync has nearly 150 hours of content lined up of both live concerts and also very elegantly shot studio recording. Truly a pleasure to watch and of course listen! Apart from live concert recordings and studio performances, the channel also airs programs that have semi-classical music to offer along with educating and informing the different 'ragas' in Indian classical music between shows. Bollywood songs which have their origins in classical music are also featured. Interestingly they also air music that is ‘in-sync’ with the time of the day.

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I was invited by the then Prime Minister Mr. P.V. Narsimha Rao for a dinner at his residence when Prince Charles and the late Lady Diana visited India in 1992. The Prime Ministerhonoured me greatly by not only seating me on the same table as the royal couple, but also ensuring that I was directly facing Princess Diana. During dinner, Prince Charles asked the Prime Minister why Muslims and Hindus are always fighting in India. Everybody looked at Mr.Narsimha Rao to hear the answer. To my utmost surprise the Prime Minister looked at me and said ‘Khan Saheb will answer’. I promptly said to His Highness that ‘it’s not the problem of peace loving Hindus and Muslims. It’s the problem of extremists and militants’. Radicals, extremists and militants exist in every religion and country. Such elements capitalize on extremism for personal gains consequently hindering national unity and development. However, music and other forms of creativity can bridge the faultiness and differences created by such effects, among the people. Infact, while honouring legendary the singer Fareeda Khanum of Pakistan with the Haafiz Ali Khan Award (An award instituted in my father’s name since 1985) in Gwalior, I mentioned ‘Zameen ka batwara hota aaya hai lekin Swar ka batwara naheen hosakta’.

I have great regard for our current Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh and his humanistic capabilities. I hear people talking that he gave his best as our Finance Minister. He brought in the economic liberalization that we are enjoying even now. It is important to have a government that comprises of well-meaning and well-qualified politicians to bridge the differences created in the national fabric by the above mentioned trends and really take the country forward. To this effect, people simply just becoming politicians may just not do not because they don’t mean well or dont have the capability. It is simply because effective running a government requires training. For instance, one won’t ask an artist to run a multinational corporation. The artist will fail in this task not because he didn’t want to succeed, but because he is not qualified to do so. There was a time when creative artists were honouredby the Government by making them Members of Rajya Sabha without any political expectation. Now days, every Rajya Sabha member is branded with A B or C political parties. I have been watching Artists as ministers and members of Lok Sabha, some more active and some rarely attending Rajya Sabha. My Guru and father often said Ek Saadhe SabSadhe Sab Sadhe Sab Jai the English counterpart being Jack of All trades, Master of None! I only hope that the people of India choose the right party and Prime Minister to govern our country. We need to honour each person for their creative and professional skill in the area in which they participate. Mixing these up could cause national inefficiency at a time when we need to take our country forward. I hope India votes wisely!

It is also important that political and cultural progress go hand in hand. Our ex-Prime Minister Mr. Rajiv Gandhi realized this. He established the Zonal Cultural Center and dedicated it to the development of arts and culture. However, gauging by the results of this Center in the last thirty years, it can be said that this establishment hasn’t lived up to its expectations. I would be happy to spear-head this committee to help it achieve its original objectives and to develop it further. My inspiration to this effect would come from my music and many other creative personalities,sportmen, and scientists who have/are contributing immensely to our national growth. I was very honoured to have performed in 1999 in Mumbai for Sankara Nethralaya, the legendary charitable not-for-profit eye hospital in Chennai for the great Dr. SengameduSrinivasa Badrinath. I am very happy to perform this month for the Centenary Celebrations of the Shroff Eye Centre. The Shroffs have been pioneers in the field of professional eye care in northern India for four generations. They laid the foundation for the humane family traditions of eye care. They provide for patients from all walks of life, including the weaker sections of society, with the best possible eye care using the latest technology and equipments. As artists, we feel humbled to come for causes like these.

It was indeed a moment back in time for me to perform recently for Gandharva Mahavidyalaya which celebrated its 75th anniversary. Located in New Delhi, this epic institution was founded in 1939 by Vinaya Chandra Maudgalya who took inspiration from the principles of the great musical icon Pt. Vishnu Digambar Paluskar. It was initially established in Prem House, Connaught Place, finally branched out in old Delhi at Kamla Nagar near Delhi University. The institution today is guided by a Music Advisory Board composed of learned and veteran Artists of India. In fact, my very first break in a major festival in New Delhi in the sixties was for Gandharva Mahavidyalaya. The 8-day festival titled ‘Tarpan’ was a homage to the pioneering efforts of Vinaya Chandra Maudgalya towards his contribution the propagation of the Gandharva Mahavidyalaya that entered its momentous year! Post partition, Delhi had a cultural vacume as the the music capital back then was Lahore. However, the establishment of this institution along with the its festival titled Vishnu Digambar Jayanti made way for many other Festivals and institutions who took inspiration from Vinaya Chandra Maudgalya . The organization contributed greatly in imparting training to entire generations of music lovers and bringing classical music into the cultural mainstream. The 75th year festival featured some of the best talent amongst the younger dancers today, interestingly paired with an established guru and senior exponent of another style; an extremely wonderful concept that will surely benefit from the novel association and be exposed to unique inputs that will further their own understanding of the form. The other days had both instrumentalists and Vocalists from the Classical fraternity. I am very happy that Madhup Mudgal and his sister Madhavi Mudgal have taken forward their father’s legacy and prophesy to such great heights.

I remember a very interesting incident that took place in New Delhi’s Sapru House during the ongoing Vishnu Digambar Jayanti during the sixties. I was concluding the all-night session in the wee hours of the morning. I made an announcement to the audience to guess the Raga. Vinaya Chandra Maudgalya and Pandit Jasraj who were in attendance in the front row said it was Anand Bhairav, which it of course was. However, from somewhere in the hall, a voice said that he didn’t think so! I looked at the person and it was Prakash Vadhera, a flutist and also a disciple of Vinaya Chandra Maudgalya who was now a journalist for a reputed National Daily. It was a testing moment for me as I could have lost my temper towards his inappropriate comment in a concert hall especially when his own guru confirmed what the Raga was. By god’s grace, I used humor as a tool and told him that I made the effort for Anand Bhairav, but maybe I failed. At which the audience laughed and I saw him walk out of the hall. Reviews back in the day made a big impact, especially to younger artists. We all go through highs and lows but the mantra is to keep walking as it’s a long journey. I remember a reading a review once in a national daily as a young musician that said ‘Not yet Ustad!’

I hope and pray that through music there should be peace all over. So many countries like Syria, Egypt today are facing war……

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I am very sad to see the way in which Nido Tania died. Racial profiling in India amongst Indians is truly a sad moment for humanity. I got married in the year 1976 to a girl from Assam. I have travelled and performed all over the North East. The people there feel neglected even today. In fact, outside their province, what they go through is very sad. I have heard of numerous cases where North-Easterns are discriminated against in the work place and educational institutions, especially in metropolitan cities. I hope that the people of India especially the Government of India considers the appeals and demands for equality made by the people of the North East. I pray that Nido Tania's soul must rest in peace and that that such gruesome acts of hatred vanish from the face of the planet.

A reason for such profiling could be that, unfortunately today most of our schools, colleges have become money making industries just like politics has become a profession. Students have become clients! Education is disseminated on the basis of class rather than equality. However, on the other hand, there are some schools and colleges in our country that are trying to keep the egalitarian culture alive and are indeed making a great effort to impart values and knowledge beyond books and classrooms.

I have visited most of the schools of India, including, Doon School, Mayo College and the Scindia School. I also recently visited Atul Vidyalaya in Valsad, Gujrat. It was a pleasant surprise to see the school and meet the students who were so talented and respectful. All the staff members and administration were kind and warm. The spirit of the school is Col. Sekhar. It has a beautiful ambience, a creation of Shri Kasturbhai Lalbhai, one of the foremost Indians of his times, who left his indelible footprints across the fields of education, culture, economy and religion. They also have the Atul Institute of Vocational Excellence for vocational training for the tribal students. I will always remember the concert in Atul Vidyalaya. It was beautifully organized in an open air amphitheater where a very large number of people were present. In 1984, I had the honour of visiting Rishi Valley School near Bangalore. During this trip, I still remember the love and warmth I received from revered Jaddu Krishnamoorthy, the great philosopher and guide.

I was very happy to see the guru-shishaya parampara being upheld in these schools as well as others that I have visited across our country. It is this legacy that will facilitate the growth of knowledge and wisdom in harmony with well-deserved Indian traditions, in current times. I am really proud of the achievements of mankind but technology must be cultivated in harmony with peace and tradition. What worries me is that the future children of this world should not behave or look like Robots. To ensure thus, it is vital that modernization must be accompanied by a reverence for India academic traditions which have been valued through times.

It's been ten years since the sitar poet and patriarch, Ustad Vilayat Khan passed away. I recently attended a musical tribute in the memory of the legend On the occasion of the 85th birth anniversary of Master Luthier Bishan Das Sharma. It was presented by his son Sanjay Sharma who along with his brother Ajay Sharma are taking forward their father’s legacy of fine instrument making and inventing experimental instruments. I was very happy hear Vilayat Khan's son, Hidayat Husain Khan accompanied by Akbar Latif and Babar Latif Khan, sons of the great Latif Ahemad Khan of the Delhi school. -AAk

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Dancing is such a beautiful expression of human body and mind. It’s almost surrendering to God Almighty. Today the whole world is watching dance, especially on TV. Perhaps Madhuri Dixit has become the symbol of beauty and graceful Dance today. In Indian history, Lord Shiva, also known as Nataraja, Lord Krishna and Lord Ganesha danced. There is a great contribution of male Dancers in India. The most graceful male Dancer of India today is Birju Maharaj and all his ancestors, especially, his father Achchan Maharaj and his uncles Shambhu Maharaj and Lachchu Maharaj was all epic. There were great Dancers from Jaipur School too like Sundar Prasad, Narayan Prasad and Jiya Lalji Kundan lal Gangani. Historically when woman were not accepted or not given permission to perform on the stage, Men use to dress up like women and perform. There was a tradition of Bhaand Mandli performing where Men use to do acts where they played various female characters. A trend very popular now on TV!

Lachchu Maharaj who lived in Mumbai was the Guru of so many Dancers in India. He was the choreographer of the legendary Classic Film Mughal E Azam. How beautifully he dance directed the diva Madhubala while dancing 'Mohe Panghat pe Nandlal Ched Gayo Re' the song composed by Music Director Naushad and sung by Legendary Lata Mangeshkar.First time when I met Lachchu Maharaj, I was around Twelve years old. He offered my father lot of respect like his own brother. He would tell me 'Come to Mumbai with me; Hero Banadoonga!' however you should learn some Dancing. ‘On one occasion, without waiting for my consent he held my hands and began teaching me Kathak! I danced along as a mark of reverence for him. I continued learning suddenly from a distance he saw my Father coming he shouted Beta Bhaag Khan Saheb is coming. He knew my father’s mind that he didn’t want me to be a dancer.

While all the Classical Dances were at its peak, the Legendary Uday Shankar became the Face of Indian Dance. He created a new method of Dancing. He was the most famous dancer internationally and in India too. Later Ram Gopal also became a well-known Dancer. There is a huge list of male Dancers of India but the few names that are immortal for their contributions in their respective forms are Vempati Chinna Satyam, Gopi Krishna, Ramankutty Nair, Gopi Nath, Kelucharan Mohapatra, Lakshminarayana Shastry, Prahalada Sarma, DebuPrasad, Kitappa Pillai, Satyanarayana Sarma, CV Chandrasekhar, CK Balagopal, A Lakshman, K Kalyana Sundaram Pillai, Jatin Goswami, Raja Reddy, .VP Dhananjayan, .Singhjjit singh, Astad Deboo, Pratap Pawar, Durga Lal, Akram Khan, Rajendra Gangani, Ratikant Mohapatra, Jayarama Rao, Santosh Nair, Shashidharan Nair, Mayadhar Raut, Hare Krishna Behera and Chitresh Das.

Dance and music are deeply interrelated. This year marks the thirtieth anniversary of my tribute to Saint Tyagaraja in Tiruvaiyaru where I became the first North Indian classical musician to play the saint's kriti in Raga Sriranjani. I went from Thiruvaiyaru from Madras to participate in the Thyagaraja Aradhana. The late Violinist Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan had invited me. Since musicians are required to play only Thyagaraja's compositions at the saint-composer's samadhi, I learnt the Sriranjanikirtanai ‘Sogasuga mridanga talamu'.”If music is about solidarity of human hearts, for me it is cohesiveness of time, tradition and topography. A wonderful and strange mystery of Indian classical music is the fact that one can spend a lifetime trying to attain knowledge and perfection and still feel that one has only touched a mere drop of an ocean. Along the Journey of searching and discovering, the learning never stops. Its understanding changes with every year a musician lives. This is true Sadhana. Some of the greatest sadhaks in Indian classical music were Swami Haridas, Swami Tyagaraja, Swami Muttuswamy Dikshitar, Swami Shyama Shastri, Purandara Dasa, Swati Tirunal, Baiju Bawra and Miyan Tansen (from where my family gets its musical lineage). They are responsible for the solid foundation of the art in both north and south India.

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On the very onset, I would like to wish all the readers a very Happy and Musical 2014. New begins, new chapter are always a fascinating aspect of life. Recently, I was channel surfing and I saw a live telecast of the ongoing historic Baba Harballabh music festival that takes place in Jullundur, Punjab, every year. The Festival was celebrating its 138th year. I saw and heard a young girl, Anupama Bhagwat playing sitar and along with a young Tabla player Nitin Mitta. I had never seen or heard about these musicians but the way Anupama began her recital, my interest was building more and more. After a long time, I heard a female instrumentalist playing with so much commitment and dedication. I was pleasantly surprised to hear her music especially as women in India are so caught up with social and domestic pressures that they are very unable to pursue careers especially creative ones, or are not allowed in many cases to continue after they are married. Today we find more sitar players following Vilayat Khan or Ravi Shankar including their relatives and students too. There were always very fewer female Sitar players. Two ladies who became famous in the eighties were Kalyani Roy and Jaya Biswas. I too have few lady Sitar students, two who are doing extreamly well in their careers, Saroj Ghosh and Smita Nagdev. Saroj joined University of Chandigarh as a professor and Smita is performing world over.

There are so many unknown or rather lesser known gurus of music today who has really created great artists. One such artist was Bimalendu Mukherjee, who had invited me to Bhilai in Madhya Pradesh for a concert. I still remember his son young Buddhatiya Mukherjee was standing in the wings throughout my concert. Latif Ahmad Khan was playing Tabla with me. After concert Bimalendu Dada (as I called him) invited us for dinner at his residence. After dinner around at 2am, he wanted us to listen to his young son Buddhaditya. We shifted to his practice room where he was ready with electronic sound amplification. He began Raga Lalit and he was brilliant. I knew he was gifted and talented, a very promising representative of Vilayat Khan’s school. Among the old legendary Sitar greats were Imdad Khan, Enayat Khan, Vilayat Khan, Ravi Shankar, Mushtaq Ali Khan, Abdul Halim Jafar Khan and Nikhil Banerjee etc.

Sufi saint Hazrat Amir Khusro, created Sehtar (it’s a Persian word which means instrument of three strings), later on it became Sitar. Besides the Sitar, he created many styles of singing as well, including Qawwali and Tarana.

The descendants of Tansen played the Rabab, Rudra been, Sur Singar and Sitar. Legends like Raheem Sen, Amrut Sen, Niyamat Sen and Lal Sen. In fact Amrut Sen became the fountain head of Sitar style of the family of Tansen. Some of these artists lived in Gwalior, Rampur and Jaipur. Jaipur was always connected with Dhrupad and Khayal but there were great Sitar players in Jaipur. There was another great sitar player of Jaipur among the Senia tradition, the legendary Amir Khan (not the famous Vocalist), the brother-in-law of Amrut Sen. Amir Khan was also court musician for the Scindias of Gwalior.

Inayat Khan Pathan started the ‘Sufi Order’ in the West in 1910. He wrote many books on music connected with Sufism and travelled overseas the same year. In the year 1908 he recorded for Victor Records in Kolkata. Inayat Khan received the highest recognition and honors for his artistic accomplishments. The family settled in Suresnes, a suburb of Paris. Sufi Inayat Khan’s memorial is on the out skirts of Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia’s Dargah in New Delhi. He created a school of spiritual training with groundbreaking insight on the unity of religious principles and the coming awakening of the human spirit to its inborn spirituality and mysticism.

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It is very heartening and in fact a matter of great joy and pleasure to see that in spite of recession all over the world, the Western world has given top priority to art and culture. Currently, India Council for Cultural relations (ICCR) is presenting a Festival in Belgium called Europalia that began in October 2013 will conclude by end of January. Europalia is a major international arts festival held every two years to celebrate one invited country’s cultural heritage. Since 1969, Europalia has organized some twenty-two festivals. I took part in two concerts in Belgium and Amsterdam in between two very important projects in France with my Sarod Concerto called Samaagam. I was extremely honoured to present Samaagam in all the French satellite cities with Orchestre National d'lle de France and with Orchestre d'Auvergne, both conducted by a brilliant Swiss conductor, Kaspar Zehnder. The concert in Paris at Théâtre du Châtelet had a live web cast! As I have mentioned in my earlier articles, this concerto was originally made for the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Over the years many reputed orchestras have presented the project. Any collaboration, especially with an Orchestra connects me to the harmony and peace as it symbolizes a universal and collective effort towards a common goal, which pretty much is life itself. There is so much to give and take from both our ancient system of music, Indian Classical or European Classical.

The day Nelson Mandela died, I was performing Samaagam with Orchestre National d'lle de France in Mennecy. I dedicated the evening to Nelson Mandela along with Dr. Martin Luther King and Mahatama Gandhi. Prior to the Concerto, I began playing the most popular song that championed Apartheid, ‘We shall overcome’. This song is sung today all over the world in more than three hundred languages conveying the same message. In our own country all the schools of the nation sing the popular Hindi version ‘Honge Kamyab’. This melody is very close to our Indian Classical music’s beautiful Raag Bilawal. After we shall overcome, I played Vaishnav Janato and Ram Dhun. The two most connected songs with our Father of Nation Mahatama Gandhi. I visited South Africa on numerous occasions, the last was during the centenary celebrations of the Satyagraha movement, in presence of our honourable Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh.

The internet has really made life easy and also difficult for some people but it has connected us with the world. I have not yet given up on a desktop and still try my best to understand this great achievement of human beings to the world. In fact, now days, People are buying musical instruments online and also learning music. Indian Musicians have created institutions and music academies in cyberspace. It’s really a great achievement but to understand the depth or to become the representative of Indian Classical music, one has to serve the Guru or must have a guru who could constantly guide and bless. Indian music is highly rich in technique and various kinds of expressions. The word improvisation has been attached to it since last 40-50 years but the essence of our music lies in slides and glides. In European music they have Staccato and various other kind of expressions. I salute to their notation system. And there have been great composers like Beethovan, Bach, Mozart. I listen to their music most of the times.

In olden days, to help the students of Sitar or Sarod, there used to be instruments of lesser strings, in many cases, minus sympathetic strings. Sitar was cheaper too and convenient for beginners. Similarly Sarod also had lesser strings for the benefit of the students. Simplifying concepts for students and beginners is very important. Our duty is to help the students so that their life becomes easier. Instrument makers have become brands as they are the official makers of famous musicians. Tonal quality of each instrument sounds different because all these instruments are handmade. Also every musician has a different vision and imagination of sound and music. If our classical music was more popular 50 years back reason was the stature and caliber of our great musicians was very high. If you think that young musicians are not enough today perhaps you are mistaken. The number of young musicians are plenty in the field of Sarod, Vocal, Tabla, Sitar etc. We never had so many musicians specially Tabla player in the world 50 years back. Time will prove how many become torch bearers or the face of Indian Classical music. next

After a long time I saw a brilliant movie in flight produced by Yashraj films! The name of the film is very interesting and earthy called Band Baja Baraat. The whole concept of the movie was so unique and fresh. I must congratulate the young vibrant Anushka Sharma and highly talented Ranvir Singh, I am sure they will achieve their goal in a short time.

For any celebrations in India you need a Band, to suit the ambience of the celebration. The word BAND has multifarious and a multidimensional meaning. In Delhi itself, there are about 1000 groups of bands by the names of Shiv Mohan, Master Chawla and Jea Band etc But about 100 groups are the best. One could write a history on these struggling bands and how they began in India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

During the wedding processions people dance and shower money on the bridegroom in the shape of coins and also notes on the vibrant tune of the band (now mainly film songs). The currency flows. I remember the time when these wedding bands even played Come September! The poor members of the band who are generally underpaid patiently watch our age old vulgar expression of love and money. Bride and bridegrooms are almost worshipped like The Almighty - God.

The wedding celebrations are the big events. To have music in the wedding celebrations was always considered auspicious. In our country, music or appealing sound was always preferred as ‘swar hi ishwar hai’. Historically wedding songs were performed by the women of the family, now day’s people hire professional female singers. At one time, the Shenai became an integral part of Indian weddings. But it always depends on the desire of the Bride and the bridegroom what kind of music and artist, musician they would like to invite. Similar concept was observed down south. The diva M.S Subbulaxmi and several other great musicians performed in weddings in south and north. There was a time when I myself performed for weddings of the Birlas, Goenkas in Kolkata and Mumbai.

One of the patrons of Indian Classical music was babu Kishori Raman Prasad in Varanasi, his son Shri Raman, my friend, got married in 1964, In their historic Palatial house which was built in 1939. After my sarod Recital Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan Saheb sang and the evening was concluded by Ustad Vilayat Khan’s sitar. Tabla accompaniment was provided by Pandit Samta Prasad and with me it was Kishan Maharaj. The entire city of Varanasi enjoyed this musical feast. In the year 1974 my friend Mr. Arup Sarkar got married in Kolkata. His father revered Ashok Kumar Sarkar was fond of Indian Classical music and he admired most of the classical musicians especially my father Haafiz Ali Khan Saheb, Enayat Khan Saheb and legendary Ustad Fayyaz Khan Saheb. Arup bhai was deeply involved in classical music and because of him I could play Rabindra Sangeet and could record an album ‘Tribute to Tagore’ with legendary Suchitra Mitra. At his wedding there was a great singer Sharafat hussain Khan Saheb of Agra Gharana. Vilayat Khan Saheb was also invited but due to sudden injury he could not perform. I was very fortunate to have played with living legend Hiru Babu (Hirendra Kumar Ganguly) on the tabla and finally Samta Prasad.

I feel sad that now days, concerts at wedding are done in a rather inappropriate manner. While understanding that it's a celebration, it feel that a moving crowd or service happening while the performance it on is not giving any respect to music or the artist. I always take the example if my concerts for HRH prince Charles who always on all occasion stuck to theater style seating and no service while my concert was in progress. I always prefer to perform in closed auditorium where people can experience the innermost sound. But sometimes the organizations chose oceans as a back drop and erect a stage in fancy situations. I am caught unaware in most cases and it becomes a great challenge for my sound engineer to overpower the natural sound of the waves and oceans. However, it visually very appealing, especially festivals in Goa and Malabar!!!

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The birth of a child in any family always gives rise to a flurry of discussion and debate for any parents. When the time came, I had already decided to call my elder son Amaan, which in Urdu means 'most lovable' and also 'tranquility'. It is different from Aman which means 'Peace'. For our second child we had also thought of a name in advance but one day, a very respected Moulvi from a famous shrine in Najafgarh, visited our humble house and suggested the name Ayaan. It has a lovely meaning- 'Gift of God'. Again there are variations of Ayaan with single A and even an O. When it came the turn of Ayaan and his wife, Neema, to name their children, we did not want to give our opinion or suggestion and left it to them to decide the names. We are very happy with the names they thought of for their twins, Zohaan and Abeer.

In the olden days, people used to name their children after gods and goddesses like Shiva, Ram, Krishna, Ganesh, Lakshmi, Parvati, Sita, or after religious figures like Mohammad, Ali, Hussain, Moses,John etc. It is a wonderful thought, that one is invoking blessings each time one remembers or calls their children’s' name. At times Children can be addressed by their parents in a very casual manner, even with abusive language or intonation, until such time that they grow up to be well adjusted adults. People do not see the disrespect in giving these names to their children. I personally feel such sacred names should treated with care and always be called with reverence and love.

In our culture, whether we name our children after gods, emotions or qualities or by the looks or behaviour of their child after birth, every name given to a child is like a blessing by the parents for their children to face the world with. Sometimes we decide the names of our children are by naming them after persons and personalities that we feel a strong connection with. I remember once I met the famous hair designer Habib Saheb. He mentioned that when his wife was expecting they happened to be watching my concert on TV and when their son was born they called him Amjad.

We often come across people who have changed their name for various reasons. In fact my name given by my parents was different. My present name was given to me by a holy man who use to come to our residence in Gwalior when I was a child. He was fond of music and used to always be singing or humming a popular tune, "Madeena na dekha tau kuch bhi na dekha". In the world of cinema there are many actors who changed their names and spellings to grow faster or to appear more accessible to the public. The greatest example is Yusuf Khan who became the legendary Dilip Kumar. In our Indian classical music field, the great vocalist, Sivaputra Siddharamayya Komkalimath became famous as the legendary Kumar Gandharv.

Nowadays, there is a fad to change ones name or its spelling at the instance of astrologers and numerologists who seem to be doing good business. I think Destiny-Taqdeer-Muqaddar plays important role in one’s life but hard work and discipline play an even more important part. Whatever your name, one has to become a Karmayogi to succeed in any profession today. Particularly in Music, as even talent needs constant nurturing.

If you see our Rag Ragini system, Out of the hundreds of Ragas, very few are popular or well known, such as Bhairavi, Darbari, Malkauns, Yaman, Khamaj, Pilu . Similarly there are various kinds of Instruments but very few like Flute, Sitar, Sarod and Santoor are more popular. Similarly, certain names at certain times tend to become more popular than others. I am happy to say that I have come across many Amjad’s, Zakir’s and Bhimsen’s in recent times. But this sometimes results in some funny or unfortunate experiences. In the field of classical music, there are numerous instances of artistes bearing the same name. In Pakistan, there were so many Ghulam Ali-s’, that an additional term had to be added to the names to understand who exactly the performer was. That’s how we came to know of Bade Ghulam Ali Khan Saheb. Poor Chhote Ghulam Ali somehow never got recognition and hence remained ‘Chhota’ and was eventually forgotten! In present times, we are all familiar with Ghulam Ali, the renowned Ghazal singer who is a multidimensional genius. So, on that note; the next time you go for a music concert, do take the trouble to find out who the performer actually is. It may not be the person or the instrument you expect it to be

music@sarod.com

I saw Mr. Sunil Dutt for the first time in the film ‘Mother India’. He gave the epic performance as Nargis’s son and eventually got married to her in real life. I remember very regularly that he and Nargis with so many other artists use to go to remote places to entertain the Army Jawans especially in the North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA). I have been a great admirer of Dutt Saheb and Nargis. What a beauty! I met her only once in New Delhi where she was coming out of Cottage Emporium located in Janpath, I held the door for her. What a personality! She was wearing a white sari. I venerated her work right from the fifties. Nargis’s mother, Jaddan Bai, was a great singer and an artist par excellence. There several are old recordings of her singing.

I was invited to give a musical tribute by Mr. Sunil Dutt on the occasion of centenary celebrations of Satyagrah of Mahatma Gandhiji (2006). Though the co-ordination took few months, finally a representative of Dutt Saheb came and apologized and conveyed that ‘Dutt Saheb was planning to offer you half an hour to perform but now he can only give fifteen minutes; therefore he is embarrassed to invite you for fifteen minutes only’. I told the messenger that the celebration is to pay respect and remember Mahatma Gandhi, so I feel highly honoured to offer my Sarod rectal even if it’s for five minutes. It was a very memorable concert that took place at Sabarmati Ashram Early morning at 5.30am. I saw and meet all the young and old Congress Party members including the gracious Sonia Gandhi. After my concert Sunil Duttji met me very warmly as always and again apologized for the duration of the concert. May his soul rest in peace! After the concert I visited Gandhiji’s Samadhi and offered flowers. Mr. Ahmed Patel (General Secretary of Indian National Congress) on behalf of the Congress Party was also involved with the planning of the event. I feel sad to have seen Sanjay Dutt suffer so much right from his early years. He has been a very talented actor and has carried forward his parent’s legacy to great heights creatively. What he delivered in films like Munnabhai and Vastav have truly been remarkable. We are all praying for Sanjay Dutt’s early release so that he can continue to give his best to the world and be there alongside his family.

I am very happy to know that The Indira Gandhi National Center for the Arts is celebrating its silver jubilee. IGNCA, was established in memory of our late Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi. This center carries forth her views on art and culture which projects creativity as critical to human evolution. The Center views art holistically and includes a whole range of artistic fields, including literature, multimedia, theater, crafts, music, dance and painting. The Center hopes emphasize the need to utilize the arts to invoke human evolution, both in India and abroad.

Kapila Vatsayan, founder director and chairperson of IGNCA is an epitome of knowledge and grace. She is a scholar of classical Indian dance, Indian art and Indian architecture and art historian. She received blessings from Legendary Achchan Maharaj, Fayyaz Khan Saheb, Abdul Kareem Khan Saheb and Kesar Bai Kerkar who were all Strong Pillars of Classical Music. Her contributions to the Nation, especially in the field of Art and Culture will always be remembered.

I am also happy to see that The India Habitat Center in New Delhi has completed 15 years of programming. I have always admired their methods of presenting concerts. This institution has become an iconic landmark of the city and is representative of the pulse and beat of the spirit of the nation. I hope that it continues to flourish as it is and remains a center-point for the meeting of minds and artists.

Amjad Ali Khan

I saw Mr. Sunil Dutt for the first time in the film ‘Mother India’. He gave the epic performance as Nargis’s son and eventually got married to her in real life. I remember very regularly that he and Nargis with so many other artists use to go to remote places to entertain the Army Jawans especially in the North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA). I have been a great admirer of Dutt Saheb and Nargis. What a beauty! I met her only once in New Delhi where she was coming out of Cottage Emporium located in Janpath, I held the door for her. What a personality! She was wearing a white sari. I venerated her work right from the fifties. Nargis’s mother, Jaddan Bai, was a great singer and an artist par excellence. There several are old recordings of her singing.

I was invited to give a musical tribute by Mr. Sunil Dutt on the occasion of centenary celebrations of Satyagrah of Mahatma Gandhiji (2006). Though the co-ordination took few months, finally a representative of Dutt Saheb came and apologized and conveyed that ‘Dutt Saheb was planning to offer you half an hour to perform but now he can only give fifteen minutes; therefore he is embarrassed to invite you for fifteen minutes only’. I told the messenger that the celebration is to pay respect and remember Mahatma Gandhi, so I feel highly honoured to offer my Sarod rectal even if it’s for five minutes. It was a very memorable concert that took place at Sabarmati Ashram Early morning at 5.30am. I saw and meet all the young and old Congress Party members including the gracious Sonia Gandhi. After my concert Sunil Duttji met me very warmly as always and again apologized for the duration of the concert. May his soul rest in peace! After the concert I visited Gandhiji’s Samadhi and offered flowers. Mr. Ahmed Patel (General Secretary of Indian National Congress) on behalf of the Congress Party was also involved with the planning of the event. I feel sad to have seen Sanjay Dutt suffer so much right from his early years. He has been a very talented actor and has carried forward his parent’s legacy to great heights creatively. What he delivered in films like Munnabhai and Vastav have truly been remarkable. We are all praying for Sanjay Dutt’s early release so that he can continue to give his best to the world and be there alongside his family.

I am very happy to know that The Indira Gandhi National Center for the Arts is celebrating its silver jubilee. IGNCA, was established in memory of our late Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi. This center carries forth her views on art and culture which projects creativity as critical to human evolution. The Center views art holistically and includes a whole range of artistic fields, including literature, multimedia, theater, crafts, music, dance and painting. The Center hopes emphasize the need to utilize the arts to invoke human evolution, both in India and abroad.

Kapila Vatsayan, founder director and chairperson of IGNCA is an epitome of knowledge and grace. She is a scholar of classical Indian dance, Indian art and Indian architecture and art historian. She received blessings from Legendary Achchan Maharaj, Fayyaz Khan Saheb, Abdul Kareem Khan Saheb and Kesar Bai Kerkar who were all Strong Pillars of Classical Music. Her contributions to the Nation, especially in the field of Art and Culture will always be remembered.

I am also happy to see that The India Habitat Center in New Delhi has completed 15 years of programming. I have always admired their methods of presenting concerts. This institution has become an iconic landmark of the city and is representative of the pulse and beat of the spirit of the nation. I hope that it continues to flourish as it is and remains a center-point for the meeting of minds and artists.

Amjad Ali Khan

There was a time when Indian classical music and dance were at their peak in Rampur, Uttar Pradesh. According to my guru and father, the Legendary Haafiz Ali Khan, Nawab Hamid Ali Khan was very knowledgeable about Indian classical music. In fact, they both were students of Ustad Wazir Khan, who belonged to the lineage and legacy of Tansen. After the death of my grandfather Nanneh Khan, my young father went in search of a job and arrived in Rampur. At that time Rampur was the hot seat of Music. Among the court musicians, there were so many great artists including the legendary Kathak dancer, Achchan Maharaj , the Guru and father of Birju Maharaj. He was also my father’s contemporary and dear friend. Their ancestors Kalka Bindadin established the Lucknow school of Kathak.

In those days Rajas, Maharajas and Nawab’s used to make very strange and challenging requests to artists with the hope to boast about their gems in court. According to my father who was there, Nawab Hamid Ali Khan surprised Achchan Maharaj with his very unconventional and unkind request to climb up the stairs while wearing his Ghungru’s (Bells). The Nawab wanted that while descending there should not be any sound or noise of the Ghungru’s. A Kathak dancer s wears 150 Ghungru’s in one foot and another 150 in other foot! Achchan Maharaj accepted the challenge and came down through each step without any sound. It was so gracefully and elegantly done that all the private audience were dazed and stunned.

The legendary Sitara Devi, her two sisters Alaknanda, Tara and famous nephew Gopi Krishna belonged to Benaras school of Kathak. In fact, I am fortunate to have seen and met Sukhdev Maharaj too who was the father and Guru of Sitara Devi The film Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baje by veteran filmmaker V Shanta Ram made Gopi Krishna and Kathak dance popular. It’s a beautiful film and every Indian should watch it to experience old world culture. Title song was sung by the Ustad Amir Khan and the music director was Vasant Desai. There is a great contribution of Banaras Gharana to make Kathak dance popular. Jaipur school of Kathak has also produced great masters like Hanuman Prasad, Jiya Lal, Sundar Prasad Narayan Prasad, Jai Kumari ,Kundan Lal Gangani and Roshan Kumari. These artists became an integral part of all the music and dance festivals held in India, especially from the sixties till the eighties. Later Durga Lal shot up very fast as a young Kathak dancer. I must also mention the contributions of Raigarh Gharana of Kathak. Maharaja Raigarh for some time had Achchan Maharaj and Guru Jia lalji as court dancers. From all these branches there are so many outstanding young and old dancers performing all over the world today.

For as long as I can remember, the first mantra taught by my father, was to be a good human being and to be a symbol of the etiquette and manners. In spite of being the monumental icon of music that he was, he continued to be an individual full of humility and a high sense of simplicity. In recent times, I often question the effectiveness of his humility in the world that we live in. However, I have understood the importance of what family means from my parents. In this context, I must mention TATA capital’s Do it Right Project. Tata Capital's initiative is what India is and has been. We must design a better tomorrow for our children with these beliefs. Children may close their ears to instruction but their eyes are always open to standards. We believe that by doing the right thing we can plan a better future. The idea is to inspire our children to always take the right path, through our feelings & actions. I recorded a song that was penned by Gulzar Saheb and composed by the dynamic trio of Shankar, Eshaan and Loy for the initiative. I hope that our country realizes and understands this message which is much needed today for the youth.

Amjad Ali Khan

People believe their eyes when they see paintings and buy them for five crores and don’t spend any money for rest of the art work. Nobody train or teach buyers which kind of paintings to be bought or which artist is better than other.

Similarly for music people believe their ears may be ten percent for the eyes too. But while watching idiot box (TV) listeners believe 80% eyes and 10% ears.

Now a days there are organizations they claim they are teaching or training listeners, especially in the schools and colleges. They get support from the government and corporate. But the truth is it’s a futile exercise.

Historically listeners always believe their own ears and eyes. They don’t need trainers and teachers how to listen to the music and who to listen to. But some musicians and musicologist seems to be very worried about the audiences all over the world especially in India. From the time Doordarshan, the idiot box came to our lives, I have seen and heard many discussions on classical music. They seems to be worried about the audiences reactions, attendances and the future of music.

They are also worried about the corporate world not patronizing enough. Unfortunately most of the classical musician busy connecting his legacy to Tansen, Thyagaraja or Swami Haridas. It is great if you are born in the family of musicians it also a big curse for some who become arrogant, conceited and wild in their dealings.

I give more credits to musicians whose father were not musician and they were not born in the family of musicians and yet became the symbol of music like Ravi Shankar, Alla Rakha, Hari Prasad Chaurasia and Ustad Allaudin Khan Saheb, they all struggled for the gurus.

Music is like a perfume it grows on you, you don’t need guidance always believe in your natural instincts. Always feel free what you prefer to listen to. But please look for appealing music not loud noisy music it’s not healthy.

There is no dearth of audience for classical music of Europe or India. Especially in our country, school and college students should be asked which musicians or artists they would like to listen to. Let there be voting NGO’s impose some artist on the students. They should feel free to choose whom they like listen to . Since last 30 tears organizers decides the names of the artists and impose on the students. It is not good for the students of India, whether schools or colleges.

The best example is blind schools, I have served many blind schools in India and realized the value of sound and music in the life of blind community. The sound in the world of blind people is the brightest light, We, Amaan and Ayaan always look forward to serve our music for the blind community and their cause.

Grammer is good and essentially to learn in every field but you cannot impose grammer on the audience. My guru often said when on the stage musician should never think that the audience is his or her students, concert hall is not a class room and please don’t show all your knowledge in your each concert, other very important point we are also not appearing for a test while performing.

According to my guru how to present your music is a different kind of art. Very few can guide you, especially not your own guru. No book on music could guide you how to present or what to present. There are so many young talented musicians not getting proper encouragement. We must encourage musicians especially under 40’s. They are quite established in their own career.

I am grateful to the whole world for honouring creative people especially France. I feel France has honoured maximum number of Artists especially Indians. I am grateful to the Ambassador of France H.E. Mr François Richier for launching my recent book ‘My father our fraternity’ by Roli Books in Delhi. It was great pleasure talking to Vidya Shah a very talented and graceful musician.

It was such a distinguished audience and the atmosphere of that evening I and my family will always remember. Our family will remain be grateful to the Maharani Yashodhara Raje of Gwalior for her very kind gracious words. We are indebted to every member of French Embassy especially the head of Alliance Française Mr. Max Claudet and Ms. Narayani Hargovind.

music@sarod.com

I mourn the passing away of the great Violinist Lalgudi Jayaraman, whose artistry made him a legendary figure. He was a purist whose work spanned six decades. We had collaborated together at many duet recitals from 1976 to 1985 and performed at many concerts and festivals together in India and overseas. We also recorded the first North and South Indian duet album called ‘North meets South’, which was released in 1983. His passing is a great loss to the music industry. Needless to say, he will live forever through the music and his great work.

I always felt connected to colours, fragrance and beauty through the sound of music. The amalgamation of music, light, colour, expression and freedom, is the best manifestation of joy and can be used as a method of healing. The joy in this must be experienced. It is really sad we lost another great artist recently, Ganesh Pyne. I have been very fortunate to have received so much love from the art world. I will always remember the warmth and kindness of Bikash Bhattacharya who made such great master pieces in acrylics, water-colours, conté and collage. I was very fortunate that he made several of my portraits out of which two were used as album covers for my recordings, ‘Dawn Dreams’ in 1989 and ‘Tribute to Tagore’ in 1990. LPs were still in circulation then and one could have such wondrous ideas for the large LP covers and back cover spaces! For ‘Dawan Dreams’, he made a Conté crayon sketch of me which was so unique where only the Sarod strings and my figures were in colour and the rest of the painting was simply black and white. I thought that it was such a powerful expression towards music. I was very saddened by his passing away in 2006 after a prolonged illness. I am so happy to see Sanjay Bhattacharya take his legacy forward.

In most cases I have always felt that an artist is so connected to music. There has to be a connection! Right from Rabindranath Tagore (who was a musical genius), Gaganendranath Tagore, Abanindranath Tagore, Jamini Roy, Hemen Majumdar, N.S Bendre, K.H Ara, V.S Gaitonde, M.F Hussain, Ganesh Pyne, Bikash Bhattacharjee, Jogen Choudhary, Akbar Padamsee, , Jehangir Sabavala, S.H Raza, F.N Souza, K.K Hebbar, Somnath Hore, Tayyab Mehta, Sanjay Bhattacharya, Anjolie Ela Menon, Manjit Bawa are all our country’s treasures. It is indeed wonderful to see the art industry flourish by such leaps and bounds. The art market indeed has come to recognize and value really good quality works. These demonstrate the maturing of the market and the collectors especially in art auctions. The results from an auction indicate a consistent demand from collectors for top quality and rare works with important attribution.

Interestingly, there were a few musicians who had a deep passion for art and sculpture. The great Tabla Maestro of Varanasi Kishan Maharaj, made a beautiful life-size sculpture of Lord Ganesh playing the Pakhawaj. It took him months to complete the project and at the inauguration, he had all-night concert recitals by me, Bhimsen Joshi and Ravi Shankar in the year 1966. Kishan Maharaj could also make beautiful portraits. In my school days, we all had to attend painting classes. I realized that I was the worst student. I could not draw or paint any appealing figure. However, my younger son Ayaan has been interested in sketching and painting Ganesha’s from a very young age. In fact, once Vikram Seth had come to visit me and I gave away a painting that Ayaan had made of Ganesha writing under a palm tree. Since I gave it without his approval, Ayaan who was seven had an idiosyncratic moment regarding my giving away his work, much to my embarrassment, I had to call Vikram and ask him to send it back. However, in 2003 in London, much to my surprise and to Ayaan’s honour, when Vikram Seth released the book coauthored by Amaan and Ayaan on me, he carried the painting which was framed from back then. He narrated on stage and said that when he returned the painting back then, he had made a photocopy!

Before I conclude, I must add that my heart goes out to all the victims of the Boston bombings. It’s also very sad to hear about the five-year old rape victim that is fighting for her life in New Delhi. It’s sad that in spite so much of unpleasantness that the world has seen in the recent years, man continues to be a symbol of hatred!

I recently performed in Kerela to a very distinguished and invited audience which included the great poet and lyricist in Malayalam cinema Prof. ONV Kurup and K.C. Joseph the cultural minister of Kerala. Every year the Kerala Government honours an artist with the Swathi Thiruna Award. This year’s awardee was the great composer V. Dakshinamoorthy who is ninety four years old. He is a veteran Karnatic musician and music director in Malayalam, Tamil and Hindi films. I was very honoured to meet him along with the Chief Minister Mr. Oommen Chandy. I am in love with Kerala and the people of this beautiful state. I still remember my first visit to Kerala in the late seventies. I was invited by a dynamic organization called Soorya which is dedicated to art and artists. The man behind this organization, Mr. N. Krishnamoorthy, is multi-dimensional and multi-faceted, promoting art and artists in Kerela and all over the world.

I am so happy that, this year, we celebrate a centenary milestone to showcase the cinematic heritage of the Indian film industry over the last 100 years. In India, we all grow up listening to film songs or watching movies which makes these hundred years very symbolic to what we are as a nation, both socially and psychologically. Like millions, I am happy that Pran Saheb was bestowed with the Dada Saheb Phalke Award. I am also a great fan and admirer of legendary the Pran Saheb. I had the honour of meeting him on a few occasions.

Recently the West Bengal Government honoured my father and guru, the Sarod icon, Haafiz Ali Khan by naming a road after him in New Park Street in Kolkata. This road is now called Haafiz Ali Khan Sarani. The road renaming committee of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation has finalized this which was announced by the chief minister Mamata Banerjee at an event in Town Hall along with 17 new roads on the names of legends of India including Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Debabrata Biswas, Salil Chowdhury, Nilratan Sarkar, and Ashapurna Devi. The town hall was packed with the presence of so many creative people.

I recently gave a message for the Srimanta Sankaradeva Movement initiative. Srimanta Sankaradeva was a saint-scholar, playwright, social-religious reformer and an iconic figure in the cultural and religious history of Assam. He molded Assamese Society and gave it its culture, literature and its social equality His literary and artistic contributions are living traditions in Assam even today. The creative process is intrinsically spiritual and vice versa. Every individual has his or her own take on spirituality. However, for me spiritually or a connectivity with god gives me a certain level of satisfaction and also self-confidence which I cannot do without. It is very easy to renounce the world! But, to live and face today’s world is very difficult and challenging. Being a world citizen today, my spirituality or spiritual beliefs give me strength to face the world of glamour, politics, fundamentalists and radicals of today. Therefore, as mentioned, there are times when I get off stage and realize what I did. You are taken over on many occasions and hence you become just the mediator of that cosmic power. It is through my music that I make and perpetuate my connection to the Divine. In this connection, there is no hate and there is no will. So I believe!

music@sarod.com

I recently performed in Kerela to a very distinguished and invited audience which included the great poet and lyricist in Malayalam cinema Prof. ONV Kurup and K.C. Joseph the cultural minister of Kerala. Every year the Kerala Government honours an artist with the Swathi Thiruna Award. This year’s awardee was the great composer V. Dakshinamoorthy who is ninety four years old. He is a veteran Karnatic musician and music director in Malayalam, Tamil and Hindi films. I was very honoured to meet him along with the Chief Minister Mr. Oommen Chandy. I am in love with Kerala and the people of this beautiful state. I still remember my first visit to Kerala in the late seventies. I was invited by a dynamic organization called Soorya which is dedicated to art and artists. The man behind this organization, Mr. N. Krishnamoorthy, is multi-dimensional and multi-faceted, promoting art and artists in Kerela and all over the world.

I am so happy that, this year, we celebrate a centenary milestone to showcase the cinematic heritage of the Indian film industry over the last 100 years. In India, we all grow up listening to film songs or watching movies which makes these hundred years very symbolic to what we are as a nation, both socially and psychologically. Like millions, I am happy that Pran Saheb was bestowed with the Dada Saheb Phalke Award. I am also a great fan and admirer of legendary the Pran Saheb. I had the honour of meeting him on a few occasions.

Recently the West Bengal Government honoured my father and guru, the Sarod icon, Haafiz Ali Khan by naming a road after him in New Park Street in Kolkata. This road is now called Haafiz Ali Khan Sarani. The road renaming committee of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation has finalized this which was announced by the chief minister Mamata Banerjee at an event in Town Hall along with 17 new roads on the names of legends of India including Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Debabrata Biswas, Salil Chowdhury, Nilratan Sarkar, and Ashapurna Devi. The town hall was packed with the presence of so many creative people.

I recently gave a message for the Srimanta Sankaradeva Movement initiative. Srimanta Sankaradeva was a saint-scholar, playwright, social-religious reformer and an iconic figure in the cultural and religious history of Assam. He molded Assamese Society and gave it its culture, literature and its social equality His literary and artistic contributions are living traditions in Assam even today. The creative process is intrinsically spiritual and vice versa. Every individual has his or her own take on spirituality. However, for me spiritually or a connectivity with god gives me a certain level of satisfaction and also self-confidence which I cannot do without. It is very easy to renounce the world! But, to live and face today’s world is very difficult and challenging. Being a world citizen today, my spirituality or spiritual beliefs give me strength to face the world of glamour, politics, fundamentalists and radicals of today. Therefore, as mentioned, there are times when I get off stage and realize what I did. You are taken over on many occasions and hence you become just the mediator of that cosmic power. It is through my music that I make and perpetuate my connection to the Divine. In this connection, there is no hate and there is no will. So I believe!

-Amjad Ali Khan

music@sarod.com

I feel embarrassed or rather find it technically impolite to say that I create Ragas. A new Raga is like a new born Baby. A Raga for me is not just a mere scale. It is much more than that, perhaps like a living identity. When a child is conceived, in this case a Raga invoked, how can you not accept the Raga? The Raga would ask me ‘Do you know me?’ and I say ‘I don’t’. Then I have to give it a name and hence the Raga becomes mine, just like my own offspring. Many might find this humorous but I have woken up on many occasions with answered musical doubts in my dreams. As an artist, our minds work twenty four seven around music. I would like to believe that the motivation for this is, spiritual. What should be the duration of a Raga? What kind of tempos and rhythm should be tested to bring out the essence and right kind of positive effect? Though the guru of every classical musician taught the Raga and compositions within the Raga, no guru could make a standard or a rule book about the duration of a Raga. For some odd reason, this was always left to the disciple or student to decide how long or short him or she would like to perform. The purity of a Raga also depends and varies from artist to artist and school to school. In many cases, even the treatment to the Raga varies. I only wish the guru’s advice their students to be more precise while presenting a raga. The time has come for the better presentations especially with regards to the duration of the raga and its execution. Every raga has its limitation, less or more. Even a musician is limited every instrument has tremendous limitations. The track of time was lost because of huge stature of certain musicians listeners. The music becomes repetitive and boring, if the improvisation is done more than the requirement and the demand of the raga.

All the historical great musicians became well known with their three minutes recordings of 78 rpm of HMV (now Sa Re Ga Ma) and Hindustan records. Later 45 rpm came in followed by LPs then CDs /DVDs and now itunes. According to all the ‘greats’, including my father, music is the name of quality not quantity. Very few musicians are trendsetters. Today, ninety five percent of musicians are following conventional way of presentation but if we look deeper we will realize that tradition itself allows innovations. Often a three minute film song by any playback singer becomes more appealing than a long rendering of a Raga. The interesting aspect is that any song classical including a popular film song is based on the age old seven musical notes Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni. What matters eventually is the music, the effect of music and the realization of the twelve notes of music.

Although, Carnatic instrumental music is a unique tradition in itself with the use of instruments like the Veena, Violin, Nadarswaram etc, they revolve around instrumental interpretations of vocal forms. There of course elements common to both vocal and instrumental music down South. However, sense of proportion was not an issue down South. On many occasions during my concerts in Chennai, it was complete bliss to see the power house of Carnatic music, M.S Subbalakshmi, Semmanguddi Srinivas Iyer and D.K. Pattamal together. I am so happy to see so many wonderful artists of the younger generation of the Carnatic tradition like Vocalists T. M. Krishna, Sikkil Gurucharan, Abhishek Raghuram. Of course, there are many artists who never got their dues but most of them have been recognized, in some way. I very strongly feel that today there is an audience for all kinds of Music. The main reason for the people to attend a concert is that they love their favorite artist. Age does not matter, because our music and the relationship are timeless and ageless. I am so happy to say that there are so many young talented musicians all over South and North especially in the generation of my sons, Amaan and Ayaan.

It’s great to imbibe cultures from all over the world but let’s make ourselves proud of us. The main problem now is tolerance. All the unpleasantness and tensions are a signs of our intolerance. Like music, I hope India becomes a symbol of humanity, love, peace, coexistence and tolerance. I pray that India sets examples for the entire globe. I hope we are able to show the world that we can do without arms, war and weapons. I also hope that we are politically stable and refined! This is the India I’d love to see.

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I was invited to the Jaipur Literature Festival last month by the minister for art and culture of Rajasthan, Beena Kak. I was happy to learn that the festival, held at Diggi Palace in Jaipur, is the largest literary festival in the Asia-Pacific region. We need festivals of this nature where literature, music, workshops and other interactive activities come together to form a creative environment. It was interesting to see how the audience—which consisted of Indian as well as international readers, writers and other enthusiasts—made the festival an unforgettable event for authors across the globe.

I was invited to speak about my recent book, My Father, Our Fraternity. The book details my father's musical legacy, his fraternity and my journey through the same. I was in conversation with the author of The New World and The Immortals, Amit Chaudhuri. His involvement in music came as a pleasant surprise to me. Though we spoke about the book, I was impressed by his interest in the technical aspects of the sarod. Our conversation was followed by a musical tribute to Rabindranath Tagore by my sons Amaan and Ayaan.

I would also like to congratulate all the winners of this year's Padma awards. Personally, I am very disappointed with regard to these awards in the field of Indian classical music. I fail to understand why such awards are only given to musicians who are above the age of 70. There are many talented young musicians in the country. Recognising their capabilities and giving them such prestigious awards will only encourage their growth in the world of music. I feel the Government of India should hire an agency that can handle an online voting system to make sure that the most deserving artistes are recognised and awarded at the right time and age. Like elections are held to choose political leaders, the same procedure should be applied to choose the winners for all government awards in our country. Let the people of India decide who to support and choose. While receiving the Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize in Japan, I was surprised when I was told that they consulted 5,000 cultural organisations from around the world before giving the honour to me.

I feel sad to see so many classical musicians who have not yet received a Padma award. Very few musicians are selected to perform in the music festivals all over the country. Some are busy giving lecture demonstrations and other musicologists are busy teaching and earning a good amount of money from institutions in India and abroad. The most important aspect of creative art is that artistes should be given encouragement and awards at the right time. This will help the growth of art and artistes in India greatly, and also the dissemination of Indian culture abroad.

Earlier, winter used to be the concert season in India. But now, as the world is shrinking into a global village, even in the west concerts are taking place during winter. I hope that soon we will have concert venues of international stature in India, and that the legacy of forums such as the Jaipur Literature Festival spreads to Indian classical music as well.

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The year 2012 ended with a gruesome act—the gang-rape and murder of a 23-year-old woman in Delhi. I feel man has become the symbol of hatred. And the fact that we call our nation Bharatmata has become a matter of shame.

I don't know what can create compassion in human beings; but I feel an invocation of inner kindness and peace in all human beings could alter social mindsets and prevent the recurrence of such acts. I also feel the role of women in society should be respected. Women are highly creative beings. If we as a society respect this, we will begin to see them as equals.

While honouring women for their creativity, one can draw inspiration from Maharashtra, which has produced many women musicians of the highest stature, such as Kesarbai Kerkar, Hirabai Barodekar, Mogubai Kurdikar, Kishori Amonkar, Gangubai Hangal and Lata Mangeshkar.

Though our aim should be to respect women, we should also try to eliminate abusive behaviour as a whole from our society. Creativity is an antidote to corrosion. The problems of violence in our society will reduce if we focus on music, creativity and peace.

Two male artistes from Maharashtra who had been an integral part of the music scene were the late Dr Vasantrao Deshpande and the late Purushottam Laxman Deshpande. A literary genius, P.L. Deshpande, or Pu. La., as he was fondly remembered, was a novelist, lyricist, music director and playwright. He observed the world astutely and incorporated his findings in his writings, which were also laced with a sharp sense of humour. He travelled widely and his experiences were documented into what later came out as two of his famous travelogues, Apoorvai (his visit to Europe) and Poorva Rang (his visit to Southeast Asia).

P.L. was a fine orator and his speeches had a strong mass appeal. The audience listened intently to every word he said. He was a master at taking potshots at political figures through his writings. He wrote several Marathi plays, many of which are still presented in contemporary avatars. Through his writings and plays, he explored different aspects of human behaviour. He put together the many imperfections in social interactions in an entertaining way. His writings are valuable both as a resource of history and a social narrative of the 1900s.

A doyen of Hindustani classical music, Vasantrao Deshpande created an inimitable style. He also performed in some Marathi musical plays that played an important role in the history of Marathi musicals. His grandson Rahul carries forth the legacy of Deshpande. Rahul started the grand initiative called Vasantotsav, a three-day annual musical festival held in Pune, which has completed five successful years.

I would like to congratulate the brilliant Sai Shravanam of Resound India studio in Adyar, Chennai, for recording parts of the soundtracks used in Ang Lee's movie Life of Pi, which has been nominated for 11 Oscars. I would also like to congratulate the Carnatic music vocalist Bombay Jayashri for getting an Oscar nomination for her song in the movie.

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I am always worried that I should never be the cause of humiliation to music especially while travelling and performing abroad. My sons and I feel like Ambassadors of our country and every member of a group should remain in complete discipline while representing their country. For the sake of the promotion and propagation of Indian culture, our government has been giving grants to many cultural organizations in all over India to educate young musicians and dancers. I am sure the young students are committed and dedicated to taking full advantage of the opportunity to learn the art and also carry it forward. None of the famous musicians of today represent any institution. In fact, most of them learnt under the Guru Shishya Parampara, which is the age old system where the Shishyas lived with the Gurus and also served as the Guru like domestic help. The purpose or philosophy behind this was not to only learn the music but to absorb and understand music as way of life.

Classical music or musicians can’t be promoted. They are not a product like instant coffee or shower gels. If the fragrance of music is appealing you don’t need to impose or force it upon people. I believe that to see a positive and constructive future for music, all the classical events should be ticketed and most of the proceeds could be offered to artists who are needy and/or ailing. All over the world and all over India except perhaps Delhi, people buy tickets to attend classical music concerts. Buying the ticket is giving respect and also patronage to Art. Organizations on the name of promoting classical music have started an ‘all are welcome’ or ‘all free events’. This will, in time, prove to be disastrous for the future of this timeless art form. Anything which is free loses its sanctity!

Recently, my sons Amaan and Ayaan were invited by the Baba Harivallabh Sangeet Sammelan held in Jalandhar. This was their 136th year and makes this the oldest music festival of India. I was invited for the first time in the year 1964. My grandfather Nanneh Khan and my guru and father Haafiz Ali Khan Saheb also paid their homage to the Saint Baba Harivallabh. This music season, I concluded the Chinnaiyil Thiruvaiyaru music festival in Chennai on Christmas day. The quality of audience in Chennai is always so inspiring. I also recently performed in Pune with Zakir Hussain after a gap of twenty five years! I was back in Pune a week later to perform a tribute concert at the prestigious Sawai Gandharva music festival. This was the first time the creator of this festival and my elder brother Bhimsen Joshi was not in the audience. I missed his presence very much. I am grateful to the Police and all the officers of administration of Pune who relaxed all the rules for me to continue my concert till the time audience desired to hear my music. There were over fifteen thousand people in the audience.

I am so happy to know that the State of Bihar is to enter its 100th year with much fanfare. From the time when I was seventeen or eighteen years old, I have been invited to perform in Bihar almost every year. I remember all the great classical musicians and dancers in Patna during the occasion of Durga Puja celebrations. Among the classical musicians we will always remember the celebrated dhrupad singer Ram Chatur Malik. The singing diva Roshan Ara Begum, the daughter of Legendary Abdul Karim Khan Saheb of Kirana Gharana, was born in Patna. Sitarist Rameshwar Pathak and the Sarangi genius Bundu Khan Saheb also lived in Patna. Interestingly even the Shehnai Maestro Bismillah Khan was born in Dumraon in Bihar. A famous Sarod Player of Bihar DevNarain Jha was the disciple of my father Haafiz Ali Khan Saheb. Due to Political reasons music festivals in Bihar could not flourish for many years. I am very happy to know that present Chief Minister of Bihar Mr. Nitish Kumar, is taking interest in art and culture and encouraging music festivals all over Bihar. The richness of the culture and diversity can be listed endlessly. It is important to preserve the vibrant heritage of this state as India progress into the global age.

I wish all my readers peaceful harmonious and musical 2012.Hope all of you achieve everything you deserve and desire. God bless!

The meaning of education in our family was Indian classical music connected with deep routed traditional values, spirituality, commitment, dedication and total surrender to the God Almighty and the Guru, who was my father too, legendary Haafiz Ali Khan Saheb. I cannot remember a particular day that I was initiated into the world of music. It was a part of me from as early as I can remember. Indeed, I cannot think of a moment when music has been separated from my life. It is a way of life.

There is a very deep message of meditation and spirituality associated with Ragas in general. Ragas have a certain calmness and depth that an artist is able to achieve with the choice of Ragas that we have in our treasury of music. A raga is made of a set of ascending and descending notes within a certain discipline. But it is much more than a scale which also refers to the set of notes. A raga has distinctive features with prominent notes, combinations of notes and timings of the day and season. However, there is no logical explanation as to why a raga is seasonal really or for that matter why certain ragas with the same combination of notes become a morning raga or an evening raga. However, Ragas have a distinctive feature in approach, movement, aesthetics and feeling.

It is hard for an Indian classical musician to mention the Ragas or the Taals (rhythmic cycles) beforehand because the decisions are made very near to the concert date, perhaps on the day of the concert itself! Since we don’t have a written score, it also has something to do with the accommodation of moods and emotions of an artist on that day. I treat every Raga like a living entity. A mere scale is not a Raga. A scale is more like a skeleton. Even though the literal meaning of a Raga is Improvisation within a set framework of ascending and descending notes, I feel a Raga has to be invoked. Since my childhood, I always wanted my instrument, the Sarod to be able to express the entire range of human emotions…to Sing, Shout, Whisper and cry. All the emotions! It has been a long journey so far and by the benevolence of the heavens, the Sarod has become far more expressive than it was 25 years ago.

I feel it’s very important to have a personal rapport with any artist you perform with as natures reflect in music. An interesting aspect of Indian Classical music is that, here you have two, three or four people on stage, who don’t know what the other is going to do and yet have to perform like a rehearsed orchestra! Therefore our role as performers is really that of three people, i.e., the performer, the composer and the conductor. Three in one!

While I was recently in Kuwait, I heard very beautiful and appealing Azaan (call of the prayer) from so many different mosques. I have often felt uplifted or elated with the kind of appealing Azaan I hear in that region. As a musician, I exactly know the technical musical notes behind every melody especially of the Middle East which are very close to our Indian ragas like Bhairavi, Bharaiv, Ahir Bhaira and Basant Mukhari. I heard the stories from my father about Hazrat Bilal who delivered the first Azaan. In India I feel all the Muizzin (The person or Moulavi who recites and performs the Azaan) should be trained properly especially of important mosques of India in every city. Many Maulavis and Mutavalis used to come home and learn music from my father and how to recite the Azaan, especially the ones from All India Radio. This reminds me of my childhood days in Gwalior; Adjacent to our home, there is an ancient mosque; very badly maintained and in the most dilapidated condition. several times I requested the MP waqf board to take care and maintain this beautiful historic mosque but till date the mosque looks deserted and in a sad condition. Whenever my father would deliver the Azaan back in the day, the entire area of Jiwaji Ganj in Gwalior use to realize the difference of the Azaan delivered by great Khan Saheb.

Carnegie Hall! A name that has surpassed its own time! Every part of this hall is steeped in music. Inside lies the sacred stage where the best musical gems of the world have displayed their magnificent skill and virtuosity. The hundred and eleven years old building that stands in New York City’s fifty-second street. It continues to embrace musicians from all over the world and stands as a testimony of some of the greatest musical extravaganzas of all times. Carnegie Hall's main auditorium seats 2,804 on five levels. It was named for the iconic violinist Isaac Stern in 1997. Stern played a major role in saving this Hall from demolition in the 1960s. I have had the honour of performing at Carnegie Hall on numerous occasions. the energy of New York adds volumes to the symbolism of the hall. I had visited New York for the first time in 1963 as a part of my first foreign tour. Ever since, I have had a very nostalgic relationship with this city. There have really been some very memorable moments and concerts in this city of my life. I even remember the time when Amaan and Ayaan gave their US debut here in 1991 for the Asia Society after which they were just adored and blessed by the listeners. Thus, I was deeply saddened when the attacks of September 11 happened in 2001. I have expressed remorse over these very traumatic attacks many times. My wishes go out to all the families who lost their loved ones in and were affected by these mortifying attacks. Gripped by the trauma of this day, we all hoped that the world would see peace in the years ahead. However, over eleven years after these attacks, we are still confronted with the fear of terrorism. Wars are continuing endlessly and so many lives are still being lost. Hatred stemming from the fear of war and terrorism is affecting human relationships across fault-lines. These aspects sadden me a lot. I hope that we find our way to peace as one human race. I hope we stop focusing on our differences. Music is a common denominator that unites people across the globe. I hope that in the days to come, we use this medium and other creative field to encourage unity among the people of our world that are currently being torn apart by so many differences.

I am so happy to see that under the Chairpersonship of the eminent Bharatnatyam Danseuse, Leela Samson, the Sangeet Natak Academy continues to serve the world of arts with utmost dignity and grace. Leela Samson and my wife Subhalakshmi, were contemporaries during their years in Kalakshetra under the tutelage of the great Rukmini Devi Arundale. I remember the time when Ms. Nirmala Joshi was the first secretary of SNA and the first batch of the awardees and fellows in the year 1952-53, were Ustad Haafiz Ali Khan Saheb, Kesar Bai Kerkar, Prithvi Raj Kapoor and Semmangudi Srinivas Iyer etc. It’s wonderful to see how they continue to give salutations to artists, now of all age groups. My felicitations and congratulations go out to all the winners of the London Olympics 2012. Mery Kom, Saina Nehwal, Sushil Kumar, Yogeshwar Dutt, Gagan Narang and Vijay Kumar. I am very happy that the ‘under nineteen’ cricket team has won the world cup in Australia. I feel very happy when sportsmen are honoured at a relatively young age for their achievements. That boost and encouragement makes all the difference. I wish we could incorporate that system in the creative fields too! Heartiest congratulations to the young Captain Unmukt Chand and his entire team. It’s very interesting to know that many artists have been great sportsman too! However, they could never pursue their interest as destiny had other creative plans. Many of my contemporary artists have been very good batsman and bowlers! I unfortunately didn’t make it to that list.

A raga has distinctive features with prominent notes, combinations of notes and timings of the day and season. However, there is no logical explanation as to why a raga is seasonal really or for that matter why certain ragas with the same combination of notes become a morning raga or an evening raga. Seasonal ragas have always been an integral subject in the world of Indian classical music. Spring, Monsoon and many other factors associated with nature have very strong representation in the world of ragas. Personally, I have had some very memorable concerts where I have played the ‘Rainy Season Ragas’ Mian Ki Malhar, Megh Malhar. I recently I composed my first Malhar Raga, Sawan Malhar. My Guru and father Haafiz Ali Khan Saheb did not believe in a long interpretation of a Raga. He was known for his purity of Ragas and also for his aesthetic sense, preciseness, colour and beauty in his music. He did not believe in too much elaboration and extended improvisation. For him, Raga was a living entity and if tortured by any musician, the Raga too could curse! For my guru an appealing interpretation of a raga of fifteen minutes was a complete raga for no book or shashtra mentions how Indian classical music should be presented being an oral tradition.

In the sixties and seventies, there was a phase in which classical musicians took great pride in playing Ragas for two to three hours nonstop. Frankly, after maybe an hour, it was all repetition. However, due to artists wanting to prove a point, a section of listeners drifted away to easy listening. The length or style of presentation of Indian Classical Music was always a personal choice. I believe that by playing the essence of a raga for a shorter period, you are not diluting it. I believe in being traditional and not conventional. In the early eighties, I had recorded an album of short pieces (based on Ragas) in one album. At that time, I was of course criticized for not going into too much ponderous detailing. I am happy to see that today this has become a trend.

There is a very old story about a young musician who sang for the first time on the stage. Seeing two thousand people in the audience the young musician was overtly inspired and lost track of time. After two hours the musician opened his eyes and was disappointed to see only two people sitting. The musician thanked those two people and said ‘you two are the most knowledgeable people; non-musical people have left the auditorium’. Out of the two, one said ‘I am sorry I am waiting to windup the stage and the PA system’. The musician thanked the remaining one person sitting in the hall who replied ‘I am waiting for my turn to perform’. The musician was totally shocked and disappointed. The message of this story shows the importance of sense of proportion and brevity in any profession.

Professional entertainers back in time were called ‘Bhaand’ in rather crude light. Rajas, Maharajas and Nawaabs had an official Bhaand as their court entertainers along with many other court interests. The closet western counter part to the Bhaand was perhaps the ‘Court Jester’ who entertained the Emperor with music, juggling, clowning, and by telling of riddles. The Shehnai prophet Bismillah Khan carried that era of entertainers with him and always had one or two comic performers in his group of musicians. Some musicians were known to create and compose hilarious jokes. No matter whether the musician was successful or struggling, they enjoyed and shared their good or bad with humour and also stood by each other. People of India think of classical musicians to be always very serious. But I have met the best mimics and actors in Indian classical musicians. They have a great sense of humour and phenomenal stalk of jokes!

According to folklore it is believed that Lord Ganesha use to play the Pakhawaj. A low, mellow tone is one of the leading characteristics of Pakhawaj. It is the standard percussion instrument in dhrupad style of singing and also for Rudra Been players. Historically, ancient drums were of one piece like Dhol, Dholak, Naal, Mridangam and Pakhawaj. The sound of the Pakhawaj is very rich and sonorous. While learning the traditional age old Pakhawaj style techniques, a student would be introduced to a number of different strokes which produce a variety of distinct sounds. Legend has it that during a concert, the Pakhawaj player, broke the instrument broke in two pieces because of the intensity with which he had to perform. Yet, he would continue to play with the broken pieces, and to his own surprise it worked and this is how the new instrument called Tabla was born.

In our family my forefathers played with the Pakhawaj. Along with many vocalists and instrumentalists, Gwalior was known its Pakhawaj Players. I have heard many concerts of my guru and father with great Pakhawaj players like the legendary Parvat Singh and Madhav Singh. There was a long lineage of Pakhawaj players like Kudeo Singh of Datia in the state of Madhya Pradesh, Zauravar Singh, Parvat Singh, Madhav Singh and Gopal Singh. There is a story about Kudeo Singh, who was a great devotee of Goddess Kali when the Maharaja of Datia challenged his artistry by asking him, to tame a wild elephant. Though Gopal Singh of Gwalior was a Pakhawaj player, he was a regular Guitar broadcaster on All India Radio. He very inspired by the Sarod of Haafiz Ali Khan Saheb which made him add more strings to his Guitar to match the Sarod. A trend that has now become popular among many Guitar players!

I also enjoy playing to the accompaniment of the Pakhawaj occasionally because of its very masculine and robust sound. I have played with Gopal Das, Arjun Sejwal, Bal Krishan, Pagaldas of Ayodhyay and Purshottam Das of Nathdwara and his disciple Fateh Singh Gangani.

Mridangam is a South Indian version of the pakhawaj. It bears a strong seeming resemblance to Pakhawaj but there are major differences in composition and technique. I had the honor of playing with some of the great Mridangam players of South India like Umayalpuram Sivaraman, Palghat Raghu, Vellore Ramabhadran, T.V. Gopalakrishnan, Yella Venkateswara Rao, etc. I also had the honour of meeting and hearing one of the greatest Mridangam icons, Palghat Mani Iyer, when I played at the Rishi Valley School (Andhra Pradesh) at the invitation of the great Jiddu Krishnamurti. Palghat Mani Iyer played many duets with the trinity of our Tabla kings Kishan Maharaj, Alla Rakha and Samta Prasad. Both Pakhawaj and Mridangam have very distinctive sound and character, fortunately we still have outstanding players of both instruments in India and abroad. I think young Pakhawaj or Mridangam players should be encouraged. There are so many talented young musicians in every field. I really feel proud to see the talent and commitment of our young musicians.

Historically there was no custom or system of rehearsing before a concert. In those days, organizers use to decide which tabla player or Pakhawaj player will accompany the singer or the instrumentalist. Musicians could only meet before the concert in the dressing room and discuss what Taal (rhythm time cycle) the main artist will perform. Both the musicians use to be tense and worried about the end result since in many occassions, they were performing together for the first time! Some musicians never discussed this till the time of the concert only to give a good or bad surprise to each other.

Practice is very important to a good musical performae. At the time when electricity was not in every house (just like our recent power cut!) of India, great musicians practiced all night with very large candle lights. One candle lasted several long hours. Interestingly, some musicians were known as artists who have practiced to the duration of five burning candles, or six burning candles. It was a way of expressing pride and industry talk about the intensity of an artists practice sessions of long durations!

I have felt the involvement of the people in selecting the future President of the United States of America, from the moment I arrived in the United States in 1963.

I have heard so many speeches of Barack Obama and Mitt Romney on the TV, even before he became the President of the US. I have admired President Obama as an orator and a welcoming person. He genuinely believes in humanitarian service and tries to bring people together. His election in 2009 was a historic change for the country. The time in which he took over the Presidency was a difficult one for the US. The country was already struggling with the recession, war and excesses of the past.

The national problems that Obama took over were grave and require time to be bettered. Obama is a capable leader and with time he could better national problems even more. Thus, he should be given a second chance. It was my honour to meet Presidents Clinton and GW Bush when they visited India, during an official dinner given by the President of India. It’s a pity I could not meet with President Obama when he visited India. I am hoping to meet him in the US at an appropriate occasion.

It is a coincidence that India is also going through the process to elect a new President. I still remember the few months before Pratibha Patil Devi Singh became President and when she was the Governor of Rajasthan. At an open air concert at a park in Jaipur, Governor Pratibha Patil arrived on time to attend my concert. There were about five thousand people in the audience. Vasundhara Raje, the Chief Minister, had some important engagement at the last minute and was slightly late, and the organizers decided to start on time, because the Governor had been waiting for a long time. Time has flown so fast that I can hardly believe that it has almost been five years and her term as President is almost over.

I had the honor of meeting the first President of India, the Late Dr. Rajendra Prasad, in the year 1960, when my Guru and father, Ustad Haafiz Ali Khan saheb, received the Padma Bhushan from him. After the President had retired and was living in Patna (Bihar), he requested me to perform for his family and friends. It was a great honor for me to perform for them, with Kishan Maharaj on tabla. I also remember meeting other Indian Presidents, while receiving various Padma awards from them. As a young boy, I remember seeing Dr. Rajendra Prasad honoring my Guru and father with the first Sangeet Natak Academy award and fellowship in the years 1952 and 1953, along with many great creative people, such as Vidwan Semmangudi Srinivas Aiyer, Prithvi Raj Kapur, Kesar Bai Kerkar, etc. Two other wonderful memories come to mind – the late President KR Narayanan visited my birthplace, Gwalior, and presented me with the “Sarod Samrat” award, on behalf of the people of Gwalior. President APJ Abdul Kalam also visited Gwalior and “Sarod Ghar” there. In addition to the Presidents mentioned above, I will always miss Dr. Radha Krishnan, Dr. Zakir Hussain, Dr. Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, Mr. VV Giri, Dr. Sanjiva Reddy, Mr. Zail Singh, Mr. Venkataraman. My journey of growth and life is connected with every President or Prime Minister of India. I will remain indebted to them for their love and encouragement.

I have read the names of the contenders doing the rounds for the Indian Presidency. I am sure they are all deserving, especially the name of Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. I am sure whoever is deserving, capable and good for our country, will be selected to lead our great nation. These are such historic times that in five thousand years, Egypt is having the first free election for a President. This is a victory for freedom in the world, and I hope it translates into future peace for all of us. I look forward to meeting the future Presidents of India and the USA, as well as the future Prime Ministers of India and future leaders of other countries. I hope they are all committed and dedicated to promoting world peace, which is most precious to each and every person in the world.

After my residencies in York University in England and Washington University in Seattle in the past, staying in the Bay Area for three months and teaching at Stanford University is the longest duration of my teaching in any university. We are so proud of all the Indian’s who have been graduates here including the tycoon Mukesh Ambani. I am very happy with the students in my residency. They are all musicians of various subjects like vocal, opera, violin, cello, flute, Oud, Tabla and also young conductors. I am really enjoying working with them. I am not teaching Sarod to all but trying to make them feel music. Most of them belong to the European system of music. Most of the people read and write music. So I am trying to make them experience the Indian oral tradition of music, the world of rhythm and the huge oceanic world of Raga. My son, Amaan has been a great force in assisting me in all possible ways, during this residency. Apart from my concerts within the US, I perform on two consecutive days at the end of the residency including a performance with the Stanford Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Jindong Cai, and at the Mozart and More concert where I present my Sarod Concerto, Samaagam.

I recently received an invitation from the Center for South Asian Studies at Stanford to attend a lecture on Gandhi by eminent Gandhian, Mr Narayan Desai who is now in his eighties. He has written many books on Gandhi. It was an honor to have met and heard his personal experiences of Mahatma Gandhi. It was also an honor to meet American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist Joan Baez. I always admired her beautiful voice for longest time. Narayan Desai had very good musicians who were singing kabir bhajans in between the lecture which was a great experience. Like many, I always admired and have great reverence for Mahatma Gandhi. I have perhaps been one of the first few instrumentalists to have played vaishnav janato and Ram dhun on the Sarod on numerous occasions including the 100 years of Satyagrah in Durban in the presence of the former South African president Mbeki and Dr Manmohan Singh and also at Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmadabad. In fact, I also invoked a Raga called Bapukauns on the Mahatma’s 125 birth anniversary celebrated at by Unesco in Paris.

Over a span of years now, it has been my desire to compose music for and with children. In the West, music plays an important role in the day-to-day life, beginning with school. It is unfortunate that we in India do not stress on the importance of music, especially at the elementary level. And yet, we grownups are guardians of the culture and traditions of the past. It is our responsibility to ensure that the future generations inherited all that we have inherited. Therefore, culture should percolate to the very roots of society, making the children proud of their heritage. The responsibility to inculcate a sense of music in the young does not rest solely with schools. The task must begin earlier, at home. To successfully influence impressionable minds, music, especially vocal, should be part of elementary education, along with classical dance. A country wide programme of this nature will help the growth of more musicians and dancers and encourage all people associated with the arts.

I have always been surprised that in India, we do not have a popular version of the commonly sung ‘Happy Birthday.’ In 1984, I had recorded an album called; Amjad’s Sarod Sings with Children and created a birthday song in our national language. Music has its own world where both the artist and the listeners are lost in a realm of dreams and fantasies. Have you ever wondered about music? And what its basics are all over the world, the same seven notes are the foundation of music; what to us is Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni is Do Re Me Fa So La Te to the West. These simple sounding notes enraptured the whole world in pleasure. Characteristically, drawing from these seven notes or twelve notes (when flat and sharp) we can sing Bhajans in temples, Qawwali in Dargahs, Hyms in Churches and Shabads in Gurudwaras.

-Amjad Ali Khan

After a long time, I met the legendary Lata Mangeshkar (Lata Didi as I address her) at Mukesh Ambani’s celebration party for Indian master blaster Sachin Tendulkar’s 100th Century. Her sense of humor even at this age is amazing. I sat next to her along with my wife Subhalakshmi and she did not allow us to leave her alone. I have had a very beautiful relationship with Lata Didi all these years and she truly is a symbol of grace, dignity and of an icon stature. The love and respect that she has always bestows upon me and my wife is beyond reality. I had dedicated a Raga in memory of her father; the great Master Dinanath Mangeskar called Magresh in 1990 on the occasion of his birth anniversary in an album titled Arpan. I was so thrilled with Sachin’s request to Lata Didi to sing the evergreen song Tu Jahan Jahan Chalega Mera Saaya Saath Hoga; a beautiful song in Raga Anandi composed by my friend who was like a brother to me, Madan Mohanji. Like every Indian, I too am so proud of Sachin and his achievements.

I recently received an invitation from the Center for South Asian Studies at Stanford to attend a lecture on Gandhi by eminent Gandhian, Mr Narayan Desai who is now in his eighties. He has written many books on Gandhi. It was an honor to have met and heard his personal experiences of Mahatma Gandhi. It was also an honor to meet American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist Joan Baez. I always admired her beautiful voice for longest time. Narayan Desai had very good musicians who were singing kabir bhajans in between the lecture which was a great experience. Like many, I always admired and have great reverence for Mahatma Gandhi. I have perhaps been one of the first few instrumentalists to have played vaishnav janato and Ram dhun on the Sarod on numerous occasions including the 100 years of Satyagrah in Durban in the presence of the former South African president Mbeki and Dr Manmohan Singh and also at Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmadabad. In fact, I also invoked a Raga called Bapukauns on the Mahatma’s 125 birth anniversary celebrated at by Unesco in Paris.

After a long time I met Abhishek (whom I have known seen grow up) and Aishwarya Bachchan. The day I tied the Ganda (a sacred thread that a guru ties his shishya)to Amaan and Ayaan, Abhishek was also there as six or seven year old learning Sarod at that time because they were all in the same School. Ganda Bandhan is a beautiful ceremony where the Guru accepts the disciple or vice versa. The legendary superstar Amitabh Bachchanji always had serious involvement in music. I remember once playing Dholak with him as he sang one of his very popular songs Mere Angneme Tumhara Kya Kaam Hai in early seventies in Mumbai. His interest in music along with so many other magnanimous facets and love for the Sarod is truly overwhelming. His constant quest to rediscover himself is an inspiration of us and also for the generations to come. I had the honour of spending many timeless moments with the great Dr. Harvansh Rai Bachchan on numerous occasions and also played for him on his request. I have had the honor of meeting Jaya Bachchanji’s father Tarun Bhaduriji and his wife(Bouwdi as I called her) often when we would be in Bhopal. All of us have spent beautiful moments together.

In 2005, I had a concert in the beautiful city of Salisbury in UK at the Salisbury Festival. What was a very rare feature was an ‘In Conversation’ the following day after my concert between the great author and poet Vikram Seth and me on music. Vikram is one of the very few authors who have been trained in Indian Classical music. Therefore the feeling and connect that he has with music is very deep rooted and pure. We had a very interesting exchange on music, gurushishya tradition and on the concept of Indian Classical music as a way of life. We summed it up with an audience request to Vikram to read out his famous poem, The Frog and the Nightingale which speaks about the vicious side of a creative mind! Interestingly, my ongoing residency at Stanford is called Indian Classical Music: A way of Life. This is Open to students with experience playing a musical instrument (including voice) from any musical tradition (e.g., Western music or Indian Classical music). No previous experience with Indian music is necessary. There is room for music beyond technical brilliance and firework mastery. There is a word of punctuation even in music. Appeal, Aesthetics, Poise are all musical terms for me. I am very happy to the progress of the students who are realizing and feeling music as a way of life as my course enters its third week.

The music, I know is the music given to me by my father who was also my guru, Ustad Haafiz Ali Khan. This is the music I know. Everything I have played in my entire life can only be a result of the legacy that has been bequeathed to me by my father. The Guru Shishya Parampara is a very appealing and sacred title. Shishya in Hindi and Shagird in Urdu have the same meaning which is student. This age old relationship is diluting and also dying fast. The role of Guru was challenging and equally challenging was the role of the student. Most of the established musicians today belong to this era and time. There use to be test of a Shishya’s patience and dedication. Eventually very few Shishyas or followers could survive those vigorous and emotional tests. India is the only country where we had various kinds of Gurus in every field. Unfortunately some Gurus have taken advantage of their innocent followers. To achieve anything you need determination and hard work. The greatest example is the Guru Dronachrya and Eklavya relationship. Though the Guru was helping his favorite Shishya Arjuna but with determination, devotion and love for the Guru Eklavya also achieved what he wanted.

I feel so thrilled to see the technical industry completely taking over the music world by storm. It seems that now an artist is incomplete without being well versed technology, particularly sound technology and its intricacies. One has to do everything from handling a laptop on stage to playing a raga created in the 15thcentury! I have rarely concerned myself with the technical aspects of the music recording process which seems to consume the present generation of both musicians and music lovers. Finally it is the substance of music that matters. However well or uniquely the music is recorded, it is the music that makes it worthwhile and not the recording technique. We listen with enchantment on shellac (the technique is now outdated and obsolete), 3 minutes old records of musicians like late Bade Ghulam Ali Khan or D V Paluskar recorded 40-50 years ago. These 3 minutes of recordings possess three and a half life times of pure bliss. That is because the art was greater than the recording technique. Though I have many studio recordings, personally I am a supporter of live recordings. They have the immediacy and surprise of public concerts. There is the old saying that, ‘aspects of music, cooking and a turban never come out the same way twice'. These recordings come out with a particular magic on these occasions. They will never be repeated. Next time around they may be better but never the same, I feel that those who will listen to a live recording of any artist will feel the electricity that accompanies concerts which is its principle thrill and pleasure. That it can happen in this fashion again and again in the lives of so many musicians is what has kept this art alive and rich through all these centuries. A live recording, which has no retakes, is indeed a tribute to the art. It is time now we must realize we must learn to balance technology with Tradition.

My second presentation of my ongoing 4-concert residency at the Wigmore Hall in London had its sell out second concert featuring Sanjay Subrahmanyan from the South Indian tradition followed by my performance. I presented my concert in the Dhrupad style that is a rare style of classical music in which the use of embellishments does not exist. The usage was more of long glides both for vocalists and instrumentalists. I was accompanied by Fateh Singh Gangani on an ancient drum called Pakhawaj. It is the standard percussion instrument in the Dhrupad style. The pakhawaj has a low, mellow tone, very rich in harmonics. The larger bass-skin is played with the left hand, the treble skin by the right hand. The bass face is smeared with wet wheat dough. The bass skin is traditionally prepared for playing with the instrument by a batter of flour and water which is freshly applied each time to receive its low-pitched resonance making it sound very majestic.

I always look forward to performing in Mumbai’s St. Xavier’s college music festival. The Festival, which is now known as Jan fest takes place every year towards the end of January. It is special for me because I along with Zakir Hussain performed at the inaugural concert in the year 1975. At that time they called the team Indian Music Group or IMG. I miss the presence of Chandu Kapadia and Trilok Telang, old group of students at St. Xavier’s. I also remember Father Alvares’s, the principal of the college at that time. I was so touched and moved to see the involvement of the students and the entire members of staff including the present father, when I performed at the festive this year. The most satisfying aspect is of course that everybody buys tickets for three days. I concluded the festival. Along with St. Xavier’s Festival, Kolkata hosted its oldest music conference, Dover lane Music Festival. Back in the day, music festivals were called conferences in Bengal. After many years, I chose to perform in the evening of the second day at the Dover Lane Festival as opposed to concluding the festival. My older son Amaan, played a day after me at the same festival. For five days, this Festival is always a sell out!

Last month a new instrument was born called Erod, an instrument which I’d like to call an extension of the Sarod. My older son Amaan has been working towards an Electronic Sarod so as to achieve a new sound for his concerts where there was a struggle with other forms of sound textures. The acoustic Sarod cannot break certain sound barriers at certain experimental concerts especially with drums and guitars so this is indeed a dream! The Erod has been designed by the young instrument maker Sanjay Sharma. Cutting edge design and master-luthier craftsmanship are uniquely combined to create a Sarod that offers outstanding playability matched with incredible practicality. The electronic Sarod helps sound output at concerts. I feel very happy and proud that in spite of Amaan and Ayaan’s experimental journey, they are very proud to be Indian Classical musicians and see the EROD only as a ‘musical flirtation.’ It is heartening to see the growing interest, especially among the younger generation, in Indian classical music. Young people should experience all kinds of music but on a moderate volume. From my young days, I use to accept invitations to perform in prominent Schools and Colleges of India. It is my appeal to all the Colleges and Schools of the World to invite musicians directly. In fact that is most satisfying for any creative artist if they are invited by the educational institutions. My recent performance in IIT in New Delhi was a great experience.

I have always admired the European system of music. In fact, all my past residencies in Universities have had students of western classical music learn our musical way of life. In fact, the name of the course of my residency at Stanford this spring is called Classical Music: A Way of Life. My aim is to teach student musicians, to perform and appreciate Indian Classical Music, and shares my own experiences as a classical musician raised in the traditional system of music discipleship. My past residencies at York University in UK, Washington University in Seattle and Stony Brook University in New York are open to students of all instruments and from any musical tradition. No previous experience with Indian music is necessary.

I am always worried that I should never be the cause of humiliation to music especially while travelling and performing abroad. My sons and I feel like Ambassadors of our country and every member of a group should remain in complete discipline while representing their country. For the sake of the promotion and propagation of Indian culture, our government has been giving grants to many cultural organizations in all over India to educate young musicians and dancers. I am sure the young students are committed and dedicated to taking full advantage of the opportunity to learn the art and also carry it forward. None of the famous musicians of today represent any institution. In fact, most of them learnt under the Guru Shishya Parampara, which is the age old system where the Shishyas lived with the Gurus and also served as the Guru like domestic help. The purpose or philosophy behind this was not to only learn the music but to absorb and understand music as way of life.

Classical music or musicians can’t be promoted. They are not a product like instant coffee or shower gels. If the fragrance of music is appealing you don’t need to impose or force it upon people. I believe that to see a positive and constructive future for music, all the classical events should be ticketed and most of the proceeds could be offered to artists who are needy and/or ailing. All over the world and all over India except perhaps Delhi, people buy tickets to attend classical music concerts. Buying the ticket is giving respect and also patronage to Art. Organizations on the name of promoting classical music have started an ‘all are welcome’ or ‘all free events’. This will, in time, prove to be disastrous for the future of this timeless art form. Anything which is free loses its sanctity!

Recently, my sons Amaan and Ayaan were invited by the Baba Harivallabh Sangeet Sammelan held in Jalandhar. This was their 136th year and makes this the oldest music festival of India. I was invited for the first time in the year 1964. My grandfather Nanneh Khan and my guru and father Haafiz Ali Khan Saheb also paid their homage to the Saint Baba Harivallabh. This music season, I concluded the Chinnaiyil Thiruvaiyaru music festival in Chennai on Christmas day. The quality of audience in Chennai is always so inspiring. I also recently performed in Pune with Zakir Hussain after a gap of twenty five years! I was back in Pune a week later to perform a tribute concert at the prestigious Sawai Gandharva music festival. This was the first time the creator of this festival and my elder brother Bhimsen Joshi was not in the audience. I missed his presence very much. I am grateful to the Police and all the officers of administration of Pune who relaxed all the rules for me to continue my concert till the time audience desired to hear my music. There were over fifteen thousand people in the audience.

I am so happy to know that the State of Bihar is to enter its 100th year with much fanfare. From the time when I was seventeen or eighteen years old, I have been invited to perform in Bihar almost every year. I remember all the great classical musicians and dancers in Patna during the occasion of Durga Puja celebrations. Among the classical musicians we will always remember the celebrated dhrupad singer Ram Chatur Malik. The singing diva Roshan Ara Begum, the daughter of Legendary Abdul Karim Khan Saheb of Kirana Gharana, was born in Patna. Sitarist Rameshwar Pathak and the Sarangi genius Bundu Khan Saheb also lived in Patna. Interestingly even the Shehnai Maestro Bismillah Khan was born in Dumraon in Bihar. A famous Sarod Player of Bihar DevNarain Jha was the disciple of my father Haafiz Ali Khan Saheb. Due to Political reasons music festivals in Bihar could not flourish for many years. I am very happy to know that present Chief Minister of Bihar Mr. Nitish Kumar, is taking interest in art and culture and encouraging music festivals all over Bihar. The richness of the culture and diversity can be listed endlessly. It is important to preserve the vibrant heritage of this state as India progress into the global age.

I wish all my readers peaceful harmonious and musical 2012.Hope all of you achieve everything you deserve and desire. God bless!

I have often observed that many North Indian classical musicians, both vocalists and instrumentalists often looked down upon lighter aspects of music like popular songs. I feel that playing songs on a classical instrument is perhaps a very great challenge and to play it as the songs have been interpreted is indeed a responsibility. Back in the day, many of our great vocalists often recorded songs both devotional and nationalistic of 75 rpms and EPs. We can never forget the celestial version of D. V. Paluskar’s Payoji Mainay or Omkarnath Thakur’s Vanday Mataram. Contemporary classical vocalists too have contributed to popularizing certain devotional songs and bhajans. The story of the instrumental world was rather different. It was somewhat a taboo to play songs or not play songs by choice. The closest an instrumental got to playing songs were just lines of popular thumri songs etc. However, to play a song as it was composed was not in the system on instrumentalists and even if it was, the version would keep changing almost like a Chinese whisper! South Indian instrumental music however is a unique tradition in itself with the use of instruments such as the Veena, Violin and Nadarswaram etc revolves around instrumental interpretations of vocal forms. The universal character of music is that every song is always based on the same twelve notes. With all the amazing discoveries happening today, no one could create a thirteenth note!! I always was keen on bridging gaps between a classical listener and an uninitiated listener and therefore became one of the earlier instrumentalists to convey the message of playing and recording songs like Vaishnav Janato, Ram Dhan and Tagore’s Ekla Cholo very intensely for the past many decades. In fact, I recorded whole albums with such songs like ‘Tribute to Tagore’, a project with Suchitra Mitra which had over eight songs of Tagore. I had also recorded an album for children in 1984 which even had me playing ‘Old McDonald had a Farm’! The frenzy and excitement that a child would have on listening to these songs was a treat. The initiation was done.

More recently I recorded an album of Christmas Hymns and Carols. For the longest time, I had always wanted to perform the beautiful Christmas hymns and carols. The prospect of performing these occurred in 1995 at the Church of Northern India located in New Delhi. It was an atmosphere which was most memorable for me. When I played Silent Night that evening, the lights went off for a while in the Church and candles were lit up for that piece. It has ever since been a project that I wanted to record. Due to my travel and concert commitments, this idea took a back seat until 2006. So twelve years later, I was able to make this dream a reality. This album is only my interpretation of the evergreen and popular Christmas hymns and carols. I have played all the hymns and the carols and improvised them within the same notes. I recorded Joy to the world, The Lord is my Shepard, O come All ye faithful, We Three Kings, Silent Night, We wish you a Merry Christmas, O Lord and Master of us all and of course Jingle Bells.

Through this album, I also pray for the peace and harmony in the world. Today, man has become a symbol of arrogance and hatred. I hope and pray that we always have kind people in the world and that there is love around us. Like air, water, flowers and colour, music too has no religion, but every religion needs them. I feel connected to every soul and every song in the world. Our gods are common and the message is all the same. I wish all my readers Merry Christmas and a very Happy and Musical 2012. -By Amjad Ali khan

I have often observed that many North Indian classical musicians, both vocalists and instrumentalists often looked down upon lighter aspects of music like popular songs. I feel that playing songs on a classical instrument is perhaps a very great challenge and to play it as the songs have been interpreted is indeed a responsibility. Back in the day, many of our great vocalists often recorded songs both devotional and nationalistic of 75 rpms and EPs. We can never forget the celestial version of D. V. Paluskar’s Payoji Mainay or Omkarnath Thakur’s Vanday Mataram. Contemporary classical vocalists too have contributed to popularizing certain devotional songs and bhajans. The story of the instrumental world was rather different. It was somewhat a taboo to play songs or not play songs by choice. The closest an instrumental got to playing songs were just lines of popular thumri songs etc. However, to play a song as it was composed was not in the system on instrumentalists and even if it was, the version would keep changing almost like a Chinese whisper! South Indian instrumental music however is a unique tradition in itself with the use of instruments such as the Veena, Violin and Nadarswaram etc revolves around instrumental interpretations of vocal forms. The universal character of music is that every song is always based on the same twelve notes. With all the amazing discoveries happening today, no one could create a thirteenth note!! I always was keen on bridging gaps between a classical listener and an uninitiated listener and therefore became one of the earlier instrumentalists to convey the message of playing and recording songs like Vaishnav Janato, Ram Dhan and Tagore’s Ekla Cholo very intensely for the past many decades. In fact, I recorded whole albums with such songs like ‘Tribute to Tagore’, a project with Suchitra Mitra which had over eight songs of Tagore. I had also recorded an album for children in 1984 which even had me playing ‘Old McDonald had a Farm’! The frenzy and excitement that a child would have on listening to these songs was a treat. The initiation was done.

More recently I recorded an album of Christmas Hymns and Carols. For the longest time, I had always wanted to perform the beautiful Christmas hymns and carols. The prospect of performing these occurred in 1995 at the Church of Northern India located in New Delhi. It was an atmosphere which was most memorable for me. When I played Silent Night that evening, the lights went off for a while in the Church and candles were lit up for that piece. It has ever since been a project that I wanted to record. Due to my travel and concert commitments, this idea took a back seat until 2006. So twelve years later, I was able to make this dream a reality. This album is only my interpretation of the evergreen and popular Christmas hymns and carols. I have played all the hymns and the carols and improvised them within the same notes. I recorded Joy to the world, The Lord is my Shepard, O come All ye faithful, We Three Kings, Silent Night, We wish you a Merry Christmas, O Lord and Master of us all and of course Jingle Bells.

Through this album, I also pray for the peace and harmony in the world. Today, man has become a symbol of arrogance and hatred. I hope and pray that we always have kind people in the world and that there is love around us. Like air, water, flowers and colour, music too has no religion, but every religion needs them. I feel connected to every soul and every song in the world. Our gods are common and the message is all the same. I wish all my readers Merry Christmas and a very Happy and Musical 2012. -By Amjad Ali khan

I recently released a collaborative project between folk singer-songwriter Carrie Newcomer. A love for haunting melody lines, an attraction to compelling rhythms and a sense of deep spiritual grounding are the connecting threads in this new collaborative project.

All profits from the Everything Is Everywhere project will go to the Interfaith Hunger Initiative (IHI), an all-volunteer not-for-profit organization bringing together two dozen faith communities in the Indianapolis area who work together to end child and family hunger. IHI work to create a system of access to food through pantries in central Indiana and schools in foreign countries, feeding and supporting thousands of children and families.

I was back in Bucharest, Romania after sixteen years! I was invited by the Romanian Government in their annual music festival in memory of their legendary composer and conductor maestro George Enescu. The George Enescu Festival is the biggest classical music festival and classical international competition held in Romania and one of the biggest in Eastern Europe. Enescu's close associate George Georgescu organized the first festival in 1958 which included a performance of Bach's Concerto for Two Violins with Yehudi Menuhin and David Oistrakh as soloists. The festival now is held every two years This was the first time they included Indian music or world music in their festival roster. The Festival was in for twenty five days long. My humble salutations go out to the western world for the love and honour they have always given to Art and Artists.

On my very brief return to India, I got to know that my dear friend and the iconic cricketer, Mansoor Ali Khan Patuadi was not keeping well and was in the ICU at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital. My wife Subhalakshmi and I went to visit Tiger (as we all fondly called him) who was by then in a deteriorating state. We met his entire family who were beside him and were told that he had only a few hours. The same evening, the shocking news about his passing away was officially announced. I was able to attend Tiger’s cremation the next day at his family estate in Pataudi. The large number of crowds that gathered at the cremation made it rather hard to move things smoothly but by god’s grace, everything was performed as planned. It felt so ironic and strange that just a few months back on January 5, we were all at the same estate for Tiger’s seventieth Birthday celebrations. It felt as if time just stood still.

I have known Tiger and his graceful and elegant wife, Sharmila Tagore (fondly known as Rinku by friends) from the seventies. I recall so many evenings, meetings, moments that we all spent together which have always been so very special. Tiger was an extremely private person and led his life with dignity, grace and sheer magic. His was a charming personality who became a symbol of his craft and captured the imagination of cricket fans. Not many now that Tiger himself was a very fine flautist and had great interest in music. I remember both Tiger and Rinku attending many of my concerts in Mumbai and Delhi. I feel so happy and proud to see that Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi’s legacy is further carried forward by his talented children in such diverse mediums. I will miss him immensely and pray to almighty that his soul rests in peace.

True to age-old tradition, Indian classical musicians have always followed the timings of ragas, especially those for mornings and evenings. Every musical composition in the world is based on seven or twelve musical notes. Some ragas are designed to be rendered at noon, while some are made for early evening hours, some for late evening and some others for late night. In India, not just musicians but organisers also follow this convention religiously.

I was pleasantly surprised when I received an invitation to play at the Edinburgh International Festival held last month. The specialty: I was asked to play only morning ragas. The evening ragas, apparently, would be presented by Ravi Shankar. The Edinburgh Festival, which began in 1947, is one of the oldest music festivals in the world and this year it was dedicated to Asia. The participating artistes were fromIndia, China, Korea, Indonesia, Japan and Vietnam.

The brochure of the festival is a collector’s item by itself—with in-depth information on the artistes and their art forms. I was back at this festival after eight years and was glad to find that my performance at the Queens Hall opened to a packed house at 11a.m.! My ties with Scotland go back to my Sarod Concerto Samaagam that was premiered at Orkney Islands a couple of years ago.

For over 60 years, the Edinburgh Festival has brought in artistes from around the world to Scotland’s beautiful capital city. The director of the festival chooses and invites the artistes, ensembles, companies and orchestras. The founders of the festival aim to “provide a platform for the flowering of the human spirit”. They also believe that if the festival succeeds in its artistic ambitions, it would create a major source of revenue for Scotland.

The realisation that a world-class cultural event, which brings together people and artistes from around the world, would also bring significant changes to the social, cultural and economic fabric of Scotlandremains relevant even today. The city and the country play a crucial role in the success of the festival, and its residents are its best ambassadors.

The Edinburgh music festival is at the core of ?the city's 12 major year-round festivals. Collectively, they offer a diverse and distinctive experience, promoting cultural understanding, generating about £261 million additional tourism revenue for Scotland and sustaining 5,242 full-time jobs.

It is also truly inspiring to perform in a city with a strong musical history. As part of my recent tour of the US, I was thrilled to perform in the land of Louis Armstrong, the iconic American jazz trumpeter and singer—New Orleans, Louisiana. It was after many years that I was visiting New Orleans, especially after it was hit by Hurricane Katrina. The energy and feeling of playing in the birthplace of jazz was uplifting. Though jazz evolved from the work and creativity of many people and places, one can trace its roots to the city.

New Orleans also respects its artistes. The airport’s name was changed to Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport in honour of the maestro on his 100th birth anniversary. I wish we, in India, too, honoured our gifted artistes in a similar way.

-By Amjad Ali khan

Historically many great vocalists were Sarangi or Tabla players in their formative years. The Sarangi is very difficult and challenging instrument. After years of struggle, it achieved the status of a solo instrument. Traditionally the Sarangi was always considered an accompanying instrument, like violin in south India. Both the instruments were the first preference of every vocalist as a support. Like the Sarod, the Sarangi also does not have frets, reeds or bars, but the technique is so different. Sarod is played with a plectrum on the right hand made of coconut shell where as the Sarangi is played with the bow in the right hand and to perhaps bring out a tone closest to the human voice.

Amidst my father’s generation of Sarangi players, the most revered and famous was the legendary Bundu khan of Delhi. The other great Sarangi players were Ghulam Sabir khan, Hanuman Misra, Ram Narayan, Shakur khan, Sagiruddin khan and Ghulam Jafar khan. Among the Sarangi players of Benarus, I would like to mention Gopal Mishra who was always invited to every music festival of India. His brother Hanuman Mishra (father of Rajan Mishra and Sajan Mishra) was equally great. I am happy to say that Rajan Mishra and Sajan Mishra have become the identity and torch bearers of the Benaras Gharana. Most of the folk music from Rajasthan always had the Sarangi as a permanent feature. Gradually Sarangi became a constant companion of every Singer whether the genre was Classical or Folk. Sultan Khan who belongs to Jodhpur, Rajasthan gave a different dimension and canvas to Sarangi, and inspired so many young Sarangi players. After shifting to Mumbai he made a name for himself all over the world. All the music directors of the film industry gave him so much love and work that most of the film songs had Sarangi pieces by him. One of the most popular pieces by him was being in the movie Umaro Jaan set to the music of Khayyam. Sultan khan became a weakness of every vocalist. While in Mumbai, he made a few albums where he also sang and endeared himself to a new breed of listeners. In fact, many music directors became his students. For the longest time he was a permanent fixture for Zakir Hussain’s tabla solos and ensembles. I am happy to see and hear so many young Sarangi players all over India. Fortunately the future of this beautiful instrument seems quite bright. These days Sultan khan has shifted to his birth place Jodhpur.

All the musicians, especially of India are like one joint family with our own humble missions of life. I have had the most wonderful memories with Hariji, Shivji, Jasrajji, Zakirji and Sultan bhai wherever we have been together in India or overseas. When you talk of flute, Lord Krishna’s face comes to our mind. But also you remember the name of Pt. Hari Prasad Chaurasia. Hariji has inspired many young flutists and has given a different meaning to tonal quality. His whole approach is so fresh and unique. Mewati Gharana perhaps could not have been in limelight if Pt. Jasraj was not the torchbearer and representative of his unique style. Pt. Jasraj‘s mellifluous voice and his approach to singing became a household name. In spite of so many popular classical singers around, he carved niche for himself. I am happy to see that many of his talented disciples and followers will carry forward his legacy.

In August 1999, Amaan and Ayaan had gone to Ladakh for the shooting of the National Anthemproduec by Bharath Bala Films along with many senior artists including Shiv Kumar Sharma and Sultan Khan. I was in New York at that time so I was unable to be a part of the shoot. Due to bad weather no flights were coming into Ladakh. The day the only Indian airlines flight landed in Laddakh there was total chaos. Priorities were only given to VIPs and the airport had a few hundred passengers stranded. Sultan khan and Shiv Kumar Sharma very generously offered their seats to Amaan and Ayaan to make sure that they fly out first. Our whole family will remain be grateful and indebted to Shivji and Sultanji for their kind gesture and love.

The passing away of MF Hussain marks the end of an era of a monumental chapter of Indian Art. The world of painting and the artist community will always miss him no end. Though he died in London, I am sure that the Indian people and the Government of India will create a beautiful memorial in India as a tribute to a legendary artist.

I have known Hussain Saheb, as I called him, for the last four decades. On several occasions he attended my concerts especially in Mumbai and Delhi. I remember in the year 1991 in London we had a collaboration concert conceived by my dear friend Mr. Sam Bhadha at 51 Buckingham Gate. It was a very distinguished audience and it took place in a beautiful ambiance. The canvas of Hussain saheb placed on was on my left side of the stage. I started with the traditional Raga Malkauns which is a pentatonic Raga (a Raga with Five notes). Hussain saheb was seated in the front row and after ten minutes walked towards the canvas. His canvas was also facing the audience so I could not see what he was painting. As my tempo increased I could hear the sound of his movements of the brush. After the concert I went up to his canvas and saw the most beautiful piece of art with vibrant colours. I felt he transcended the idea of five musical notes of Malkauns and painted Lord Krishna with four Gopis. That painting was auctioned after the concert fetched a lot of money for a Museum in London.

The second joint venture took place agin in London in 1994 where Hussain Saheb was to be joined by his son, Shamshad Hussain and daughter Raisa Hussain while I would play along side Amaan and Ayaan. Unfortunately Hussain Saheb fractured his leg and we had to hold the event without his presence. Mr. Amitabh Bachchan who was present in London fr that event very graciously recited verses from Madhushala, his father’s iconic poem.

Over the years, we kept meeting at airports, social get-togethers, dinners etc. I am amazed to realize how he could maintain the old world culture with the contemporary world. As an artist, the kind of rapport and relationship he maintained with people of all ages all over the world was truly amazing. In a typical old world culture manner he would drop in un announced because he was passing by. Now a bygone aspect of human relations! I would always say that it’s a great honour and pleasure and it is your right to drop by as and when you feels like coming, He was so kind and gracious that he offered to paint all our walls to which my wife could not make up her mind and lost the golden opportunity!

More recently, for Ayaan’s wedding I had requested Hussain Saheb to create a card; some how we lost the communication and one month before the wedding we all went to Dubai to perform, Hussain Saheb was in audience and after concert he gave a wondrous painting meant for the wedding card. On his invitation, next day we visited his beautifully done up home in Dubai. He showed us his spectacular latest work inspired by the cult film Mughal-E-Azam. This was indeed the last time I met him. Its really sad he had to emotionally suffer and live in exile in his last years. , I wish he was preserved the way Picasso is preserved in his own country.

I was raised by my parents with the thought that we cannot see the Supreme Power but we do feel the presence of the power that brings us and takes us away from this world, constantly. In our family we surrender and bow down to that Super Power. My Pitah-guru guided me to realize God through our sound and music. My parents taught me to respect all faiths and religions, and to bow down and do pranam to all the learned mahatmas and messengers of God, to receive their blessings.

I had the honour of meeting Satya Sai Baba in the mid 1970’s. I was going through an emotional turmoil in my life at that time. The Police Commissioner of Bangalore then was Mr. Nizamuddin. Mrs. & Mr. Nizamuddin took me to Puttaparthi. That was the first time I received blessings from Baba. Mr. Nizamuddin’s wife Lakshmiji was physically challenged and could not walk without crutches. Every time I used to perform in Bangalore, Mr. Nizammuddin was seen carrying his wife in his arms into all my concerts. In the year 1975, I expressed my desire to Mr. Nizamuddin to meet Satya Sai baba. I will always be indebted to them for taking me to Puttaparthy. It was of course a much smaller set up back then. On arrival in Puttaparthy, Sai baba appeared and met all of us. He materialized ladoos and distributed them to all of us. Perhaps knowing my mind and desire for pure ghee, Baba mentioned that ladoos are made of pure ghee. Gradually, Baba invited all of us separately to his private chamber. While talking to me, I am sure Baba could read all the unrest and disturbances going on in my mind. I had requested him for his guidance on whom I should marry. He very profoundly said that Assamese girl is very good for you. This Assamese girl was to be Subhalakshmi Khan, who was Subhalakshmi Borooah earlier - a great Bharatnatyam dancer and a disciple of legendary Rukmini Arundale. Following this and after my marriage to Subhalakshmi, we were invited to perform on at the 70th birth celebration of Baba in Puttaparthi. Baba has always had special feelings and relationship with all the musicians of India. I was pleasantly surprised to see so many musicians of various styles and genres of music there. I remember Smt. M. S. Subbulakshmi telling me once that Baba is Saakshat Paramatma. We all performed in the presence of Baba and thousands of his devotees and followers who came from all over the world, numerous times. There were many other occasions on which my family and I visited Puttaparthi and Whitefield. We were very fortunate that few times we got the ‘interview’ with Baba and we sat near him in a very special room. It has always been a spiritual bliss to hear Baba’s preaching. During his discourses many times he sang with his divine and appealing beautiful voice. This shows the connection Baba had with music.

Both my sons, Amaan Ali Khan and Ayaan Ali Khan have received lot of love and blessings from Baba. We are amazed to see Baba’s energy and vision to create the best hospitals, schools and colleges, and of course the tube wells that Baba allotted all over the village around Puttaparthi. This is a dedication and commitment is a testimony of his humanity and love.

I do meet and see lots of his devotees all over the world. I am sure lot of people have benefited and achieved their goal of life while serving Baba and the organizations all over the world. It has always been an honour, pleasure and privilege to be around Baba as and when the opportunity arose.

I was very blessed to have performed at his last birthday celebrations along with Amaan and Ayaan in Puttaparthi in November last year. By this time, Baba looked frail and was on a wheel chair. It was very sad to see him in this condition. He blessed us after the concert. He will always be remembered for all the good work and love that he spread amongst human beings.

May his soul rest in peace!

-Amjad Ali Khan

It was Indira Gandhi’s far sightedness and commitment to the Indian cultural legacy that she felt the need to connect the world, through art and traditional music of India which gave bith to the first festival in the year 1982 which was held in UK and later on in USA and France. The Following prime ministers Rajiv Gandhi, Narashimha Rao, Atal Behari Vajpayee continued the same tradition of India festivals all over the globe. I would like to congratulate the present President and (Director General) DG of Indian Council of Cultral relations (ICCR), Dr. Karan Singh and Mr. Suresh Goel for the India Festival that took place in Canada and Washington DC earlier this year. This was the first India festival in Canada and it was an honour to perform for the inauguration on Ottawa in the presence of Canadian Prime Minister Mr. Steven Harper who inaugurated the festival.

As a young musician, I remember meeting the first DG of ICCR, Mr. Inam Rehman (as that time the similar post was addressed as secretary ICCR). My first interaction with ICCR was in 1966 when I was one of the participants in a delegation which included playback singer Hemant Kumar and Bharatnatyam Danseuse Yamini Krishnamoorthy. I was accompanied by the great Kishan Maharaj on Tabla. Our Indian ambassador in Afghanistan was Gen. Thapar. It was a memorable experience. The King of Afghanistan Zaheer Shah and his family members bestowed a lot of love and warmth. The Jashan-e-Afghanistan festival was the yearly event and musicians were invited from all over the world. It was indeed the glorious period of Afghanistan. The country was sheer poetry! Second interaction with ICCR was in 1967; a delegation was prepared for the inaugural Air India flight to Mauritius. The other artists were the legendary Bharatnatyam Dancer Indrani Rehman (who in later years was a teacher at Julliard School of music in NY). At that time the Prime minister of Mauritius was Mr. Ram Gulam. The leader of the Indian delegation was Mr. Sapru, who was a Member of Parliament of Rajya Sabha that time. There have of course been a long association ever since but It is always a great pleasure and honor when ICCR or the Indian government invites an artist to represent India overseas.

As an artist, I hope that every creative genius is preserved and protected the way Shakespeare in England and Beethoven in Germany has alongside their work. I am very grateful to the Government that a road in the name of the monumental icon of Indian classical music; my father and guru Ustad Haafiz Ali Khan Saheb was inaugurated by the Honourable Chief Minister, Smt. Sheila Dikshit recently in New Delhi. This is the 2nd entry road to Nizamuddin Railway Station. This is the only road named after an artist after Tansen and Thyagaraja in the capital city. This road is about 300 meters long. The Givernt of India has also released a stamp in the name of the Maestro in the year 2001.

Recently, I was playing a series of concert in the US including the Savannah Festival in Georgia and at the Place of Fine Arts in San Francisco. I was playing in Savannah with Zakir Hussain; I think we played together after a gap of seven years in the US! We have a wonderful audience and also had many artists like Daniel Hope, Bela Fleck and Edgar Meyer in the audience. Amaan and Ayaan had played at the same festival a few years ago with the guitar cult figure, Derek Trucks.

I felt very sad to see the people of Japan suffering on account of the tsunami, the nuclear leakage that followed and the threat of earthquakes. When I see such devastation and disasters, I wonder about the power that creates these disasters. Which power creates earthquakes and tsunamis?

How can we explain a natural disaster? My prayers got out for all who have suffered in irreparable measures. I am sure that the whole world prays for Japan and that such a disaster never takes place again. I would like to appeal to the United Nation and the other world powers to take a decision to destroy all the nuclear weapons and order a complete BAN on the production of such weapons in the world. I am sure that all the peace loving and creative people of the world are with me in this appeal. We are seeing what this procurement is doing in Japan. Japan has already suffered from a nuclear attack in 1945. This ban is very important for world peace, especially today, when even more countries are procuring nuclear arsenals mainly to ensure political deterrence.

I am sad to see the current situation in Libya as well. It’s really very unfortunate. As a world traveler musician, I have been hearing the name of General Gaddafi and his activities for a long. However, I never imagined that Libya would become a international battleground. In spite of severe recession in the World, especially in the US, how could the united nation allow the western forces to strike Libya? I think it’s a threat to the world peace. The whole world and United Nation should immediately take a decision to find some other way to handle Libya problems by peaceful means.

If we look back we have lost the beautiful countries like Afghanistan and Iraq. The world kept watching the destruction. Although it was important to oppose violent forces in these regions, it was not necessary for Western forces to annihilate the entire fabric of these countries and overstay their peace-keeping visit. I am afraid that I can see a similar future of Libya. I very strongly feel the problems of Libya should have been handled by the neighboring countries. I hope that they will commit and dedicate their lives to furthering only peace and harmony in the world.

I really feel very sad to see Muslims killing Muslims on account of Shia and Sunni, even today. With all respects to all the priests of all the revered religions, I pray that only love and compassion should be inject and transmitted among children of the world for their bright future. It is our duty to grant peace and smiles to the younger generation of today and tomorrow so that they can achieve their destination and goal, without fail.

After all these years, I finally performed recently in Saudi Arabia in Dammam. I wonder why it took so long. Arabian influences on Indian music have been very historic. The performance was organised as part of an Indian business summit and cultural festival. India and Saudi Arabia have been at crossroads of exchanges. Culture, arts, ideology as well as economy - for thousand years India and Saudi Arabia have been partners in these fields and have reached a common ground which is echoed by their influences to each others cultures.

I felt very sad to see the people of Japan suffering on account of the tsunami, the nuclear leakage that followed and the threat of earthquakes. When I see such devastation and disasters, I wonder about the power that creates these disasters. Which power creates earthquakes and tsunamis?

How can we explain a natural disaster? My prayers got out for all who have suffered in irreparable measures. I am sure that the whole world prays for Japan and that such a disaster never takes place again. I would like to appeal to the United Nation and the other world powers to take a decision to destroy all the nuclear weapons and order a complete BAN on the production of such weapons in the world. I am sure that all the peace loving and creative people of the world are with me in this appeal. We are seeing what this procurement is doing in Japan. Japan has already suffered from a nuclear attack in 1945. This ban is very important for world peace, especially today, when even more countries are procuring nuclear arsenals mainly to ensure political deterrence.

I am sad to see the current situation in Libya as well. It’s really very unfortunate. As a world traveler musician, I have been hearing the name of General Gaddafi and his activities for a long. However, I never imagined that Libya would become a international battleground. In spite of severe recession in the World, especially in the US, how could the united nation allow the western forces to strike Libya? I think it’s a threat to the world peace. The whole world and United Nation should immediately take a decision to find some other way to handle Libya problems by peaceful means.

If we look back we have lost the beautiful countries like Afghanistan and Iraq. The world kept watching the destruction. Although it was important to oppose violent forces in these regions, it was not necessary for Western forces to annihilate the entire fabric of these countries and overstay their peace-keeping visit. I am afraid that I can see a similar future of Libya. I very strongly feel the problems of Libya should have been handled by the neighboring countries. I hope that they will commit and dedicate their lives to furthering only peace and harmony in the world.

I really feel very sad to see Muslims killing Muslims on account of Shia and Sunni, even today. With all respects to all the priests of all the revered religions, I pray that only love and compassion should be inject and transmitted among children of the world for their bright future. It is our duty to grant peace and smiles to the younger generation of today and tomorrow so that they can achieve their destination and goal, without fail.

After all these years, I finally performed recently in Saudi Arabia in Dammam. I wonder why it took so long. Arabian influences on Indian music have been very historic. The performance was organised as part of an Indian business summit and cultural festival. India and Saudi Arabia have been at crossroads of exchanges. Culture, arts, ideology as well as economy - for thousand years India and Saudi Arabia have been partners in these fields and have reached a common ground which is echoed by their influences to each others cultures.

Performing art is such a precious gift of God; it is really difficult to evaluate the caliber and greatness of the Artist, especially a musician till the time you listen to him live or through recordings. No book could do justice to musicians and their contributions towards their chosen instruments or Vocal music as eventually; it’s the work that matters. As a musician I feel sad to see that there are many books only on few musicians, though we had so many great musicians, especially in the generation of my father and Guru Ustad Haafiz Ali Khan Saheb; but one has to struggle to find books on other great masters. By in large, people only wrote on those musicians only who became famous nationally or internationally. The kind of books available on great musicians in the market is written mostly by people who are not musicians. These kind of books are quite misleading, most of the writers don’t not understand the intricacies or the techniques of Indian Classical Music, but surely every body has their right to express their opinion on the Artists they like and encourage. I think we need more competent writers who understand music and also they should be kind and impartial.

There are few books written by musicologists or unknown musicians. Fortunately or unfortunately every classical musician is religiously committed to his Guru and Guru’s Gharana(musical identity)only. No classical musician would like to praise or highlight any other musician until he or she is paid to do so!. Historically there have always been very few musicians (like today) who became heartthrobs of the nation or the world. ‘Survival of the fittest’ is quite true even now. In recent times, we have seen some very successful musicians and seeing their journey, behavior and way of life, I got the impression and vibrations as if music should begin and end with them. However, we must not forget that music exists in every living being and music will always be there till the universe exists; every musician is like a mere traveler in this huge universe in search of depths of music and rhythm.

The era of music critics is now almost a bygone chapter. Days were fixed for music reviews in Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai and Delhi. There were always reviews and articles on Films (which continue enormously even now!), Paintings and Dance etc. Among the music critics, some were also musicologists and some unknown frustrated musicians. Very few non musicians were critics but some musicians performed better as critics then the rest. It’s natural that they all had their favorite musicians. Certain critics wrote superlatives and glowing tributes to the worse concert of their favorite musician or dancer. Thank God that era is over in a few cities of India. But in the US, Europe and rest of the world, music and dance reviews are still on and also considered important and essential for performing arts. In our country music and dance critics really ruled from the late sixties till late eighties. Due to shortage of space in certain news papers and highly commercial consumerism, very few newspapers are still committed to Classical music reviews. As an Artist I feel there is no need for reviews any more. These kinds of reviews have ruined the carrier of so many young musicians and dancers. It is better to have interviews or articles on Artists.

In performing arts, it is always advisable to attend the concert of your favorite musician and listen to his or her recordings. Books or news papers reviews can’t evaluate or judge the caliber and great or smallness of the musicians. The most valuable document is if an Artist him or her self write his Auto biography or the experiences of his journey. I am presently busy writing a Book on my father and guru Ustad Haafiz Ali Khan Saheb. Though it does talk about the man, the music and the father he was, it also speaks about that entire era and covers many parts of my musical journey too along with reminisces of that time and my interactions with my contemporaries. I have covered many aspects and also mentioned many things that I never did in my interviews or articles in the past.

-AAK

Bengal historically has been a very important center of Art, especially Indian classical music. I am really amazed how the people of Bengal could admire and appreciate all kind of art and sports. How could they balance films, Rabindra Sangeet, Baoul, Passion for Foot Ball, Theatre, Classical Music Mishti Doi and Sandesh!

There was a time when there were about thirty music festivals every year all over Kolkata. In the year 1958, I was invited by prestigious Sadarang music conference to perform A solo in the morning session. My father Ustad Haafiz Ali Khan Saheb was scheduled to play in the late night session. Few names of yearly music festivals (ironically called conferences)I still remember are All Bengal music conference, All India music conference, Tansen music conference, Park circus, Madhya Kalikata, Uttar Kalikata, Nishith, Suresh sangeet samsad, Uttarpara Sangeet Chakra etc. Now among the oldest music festivals only Doverlane Music Conference takes place every year from 22nd to 26th January. Lots of NRIs from all over the world always attend this prestigious music festival. In fact, they plan their trip keeping the dates of this festival in mind!

For longest time, out of love and reverence, music festivals in Bengal addressed and printed my name as ‘Ostad’ Amzad Ali Khan. Every corner of Bengal made me feel at Home and encouraged.

I have experienced the meaning of Bhakti and Surrender in Bengal. Maa Kaali onwards to Ramkrishna Param Hans dev, Maa Sharada, Shri Arobindo Swami Vivekanand to almost cult figures like Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, Uttam Kumar and Satyajit Ray. They are very much alive even today and they will always be the symbol of Bengal. For me, the interests of people in tradition the culture matter the most and Kolkata excels in these aspects. Their respect for art and artists is truly exceptional. The historic and religious places in this city have surpassed their own time. I have had the good fortune of visiting the Kalighat temple, Dakhineswar, Belur Moth and of course the evergreen Victoria memorial. I have been deeply inspired by the folk music of Bengal. Over two decades now, it has become a part of my concerts. My respect and admiration for the great Rabindranath Tagore made me record an album called Tribute to Tagore where I have played over ten beautiful songs composed by him. In 1971, I became the first musician to perform a solo nightlong concert that went over nine hours in this city and after thirty-two years, another nightlong took place in 2003 that had my sons, Amaan and Ayaan perform solos before my concluding item. This undoubtedly proved the quality and strength Kolkata music lovers have to hear three Sarod recitals one after the other! This was perhaps the heaviest and challenging classical music night! The most beautiful thing that this city did was that it made me meet my wife Subhalakshmi in 1975. I saw her brilliant Bharatnatyam performance and we got married the following year in Kolkata.

Even during the British rule, Kolkata was the great attraction for music and Dance. My father Ustad Haafiz Ali Khan Saheb use to spend lot of time in Kolkata. According to him, there were few other contemporary musicians like legendary Sitar Player Enayat Khan Saheb, Vocalist Fayyaz Khan Saheb and Vocalist Abdul Kareem Khan Saheb, Smt Kesar bai Krekar were the heroes of every music festival.

The thirties onwards, there were more chamber concerts or private music concerts (Baithaks). As a young boy, I had the honuor of listening to so many great musicians! All over India it use to be a dream of every Patron of music to bring the best musician to there palatial house. I personally enjoyed playing so many chamber music concerts all over India, especially in Bengal and Maharashtra,

Every young musician or Dancer even now tries their best to appear in kolkata. I am very fortunate that from the age of twelve I gave my maximum concerts in Bengal. The people of Bengal are emotional; often they have shown displeasure by reacting in cricket stadiums, theatres or cinemas if they act is not up to the mark! In my young days while sitting in the audience in music festivals, I have seen artists been shouted at from the Balcony with terms like Ata ki hochche? (What is happening), Ektu mon diye Bajaan(please play with heart and soul). I was so shocked to experience that conversation between the audience and the Artist. Even today, I am quite tense and nervous when ever I am on the stage, especially in kolkata.

Platter of fact

I am happy and proud that the US President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, visited India, and that the visit was fruitful and successful. I am sure that India and the US will work collectively towards creating a brilliant, peaceful and harmonious atmosphere, especially for our younger generation.

My first foreign tour was to the US way back in 1963. I remember that, back then, there were only a few Indian restaurants, and pizza from Italy was becoming popular among Asians. Now it has become popular all over the world. The western world gradually patronised the concept of fast food brands like McDonald's, Burger King, Pizza Hut, Kentucky Chicken and, of course, Subway. Such items came to be addressed as junk food. All these brands have come to our country, too. Parents all over the world have always talked about junk food but could not help the situation. The results are frightening.

Obesity has become one of the most common problems all over the world, especially in the US. This leads to subsequent problems such as depression and anxiety. Failure to eat healthy food that lightens the mind leads to stress and health complications at a very young age. It becomes even more critical today when people are mostly on the go. They fail to eat home-cooked and healthy meals. During the short ten-minute break they get, they are compelled to eat junk food to satiate their hunger.

I am well aware about the concern Obama has for health care. I think the US and the rest of the world should seriously think about how we can save children from the consequences of gorging on junk food. I strongly feel that our country should also come forward and actively participate in a campaign of this kind.

As a child, like most Indians at that time, I enjoyed having pure milk products such as rabri, malai and pure ghee. I remember my mother making ghee out of malai (collected from boiled milk every day), especially while having rice with arhar dal. Two spoons of malai ghee would create magic! Now, of course, I stick to a low-carbohydrate diet as per my sons' suggestions.

In olden days, our wrestlers always had lots of almonds and large quantities of pure milk after their workouts. Our ancestors ate all kinds of rich food and also lived long. My guru and father, Haafiz Ali Khan Saheb, died at age 95 in 1972. Gradually, I adopted a way of life where I eat just to live. Fortunately, I am not a slave to my cravings. I enjoy all kinds of food from all over the world including occasional junk food. But I always try to ensure that, overall, my diet is balanced.

As a nation, we must encourage an awareness of healthy eating among our youngsters. We must teach them that eating is not bad and that we can eat as much healthy food as we like. However, an abundance of junk food and high-stress lifestyle could create physical and mental complications much earlier than predicted.

Amjad Ali Khan

It was a great honour and pleasure for our entire family to recently meet the Secretary General of the United Nations, Mr.Ban Ki Moon . We were pleasantly surprised to hear a line of Hindi language addressed towards my wife Subhalakshmi, ‘Namaste ji, Kya Haal Chal Hai (How are you?). I am told that Mr.Ban Ki Moon’s son-in-law is an Indian and also his advisor is our honoured Indian Diplomat, Mr.Nambiar.

Indeed it was a great honour to perform for the United Nations and its distinguished audience which included a large number of Ambassadors, top UN officials and Indians in the highest echelons of business and academia in New York. The Ambassador of Pakistan along with those of several neighboring countries attended the concert.

The iconic United Nations building in New York is the centre of much activity. It is used every day by the representatives of the 192 nations that are members of the United Nations. Diplomats from around the world meet here to carry on the business of international relations. They mediate between conflicting nations; they try and prevent conflicts and they attempt to create rules that will give people of the world their fundamental and human rights. Very occasionally, this building is also the venue of cultural functions. Some famous concerts have been held here in the past to promote noble causes and to further worthy objectives. Famous musicians from around the world have on these occasions been given the honour of performing in front of an audience that truly represents the world and the diversity of mankind.

Humanity has many races, many colours, many cultures, many beliefs and many ways of life. It is, however, united in its common desire to live in peace and harmony; in its common aspiration to strive for prosperity and knowledge; and in its common appreciation for beauty.

The United Nations is an institution that represents this endless striving of man for a better world. It is an institution born of the horrible suffering of the World Wars of the past century and the determination of those who lived through these terrible wars to ensure a better tomorrow. The blue flag of the United Nations carries these hopes and aspirations. It is a heavy burden, but it is burden that this institution and the sentiments that it represents has carried with remarkable success during the past six decades.

I was, therefore, very pleased when Hardeep Singh Puri, currently our Ambassador to the UN, and his wife Laxmi Puri, also a former Ambassador of India, during one of my recent trips to New York, developed the idea of a concert that would project India’s classical culture to a UN audience. I felt that this would be an excellent opportunity for us to pay homage to the victims of terrorism across the world and to draw the attention of the world to the unique Indian ethos of secularism and tolerance that has so many lessons for a world that is so divided. I along with Amaan and Ayaan accordingly played at the United Nations on September 9, 2010. The concert was entitled “An Ode to Peace.” Significantly, the concert, was held scheduled 2 days before the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in New York.

Our concert was very well received and conveyed the message of love, peace and harmony in the world. The theme of the concert and its timing, in the prelude to the 9/11 anniversary, found particular resonance in the UN. The music that we chose to play were the favourite songs of our Father of Nation, Mahatma Gandhi – Vaishnav Janato and Ram Dhun followed by Tagore’s Ekla Cholore follwed bt a traditional night Raga.

By god’s grace, I was told by Mr.Anupam Ray, of the Indian Mission to the UN and his wife, Amit Goldberg Ray, that our music transcended time and space and projected India’s classical civilization and its many facets to this distinguished audience. Both the UN Secretary General and the Indian Ambassador spoke of the power of music to bring people together. Music is a part of the common heritage of mankind and is the only language that is understood by all.

Amjad Ali Khan

It is a matter of great joyous and honour that the whole world is celebrating 150th birth centenary of legendary Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore. In my childhood my father who was my Guru, Ustad Haafiz Ali Khan Saheb of Gwalior introduced Tagore and his musical thoughts to me. According to my father, Gurudev was very fond of my father’s Sarod. On a few occasions he had requested my father to play in his plays and also for his own peace of mind and creative satisfaction. He often requested my father to play only alaap of various ragas. While in Bengal I got the opportunity to listen to Rabindra sangeet of various musicians and singers. Initially, I was not drawn towards Rabindranath Tagore till the time my dear friend Mr. Arup Kumar Sarkar introduced me to certain songs and gradually introduced me to the great Suchitra Mitra. With the request of HMV (which is Sa re ga ma now) I recorded a CD with Suchitra Mitraji that featured some beautiful compositions of Rabindranath Tagore and the CD was titled Tribute to Tagore.

Historically, classical musicians of India did not have great respect for Tagore because Tagore took liberties of adding certain notes in every raga when he composed his poetry. But with my personal experience, I realized that he took liberty according to the need and demand of his poetry. That’s the difference; only a legend takes a liberty and to him a world compromises of aesthetics and not Mathematics. While preparing and working on the songs Suchitraji and I decided and realized that a genius can only take such a musical authority.

Rabindranath Tagore was well versed with European music and he could play the piano beautifully. His musical training was credited to Vishnupur Gharana. He created the timesless and beautiful institution called Shanti Niketan. I had the honour of visiting Shanti Niketan in the year 1966 and later visited and performed most memorable concerts in and around Shanti Niketan. I feel honored and privileged that Viswabharati University showered their love and blessings by bestowing Desika Uttham (Doctorate) on me. I always look forward to visit Shanti Niketan because one feels the presence of Rabindranath Tagore in that institution

I am grateful to the West Bengal Government especially Revered Somnath Chatterjee, whom I address as Dada who invited me and my sons, Amaan Ali Khan and Ayaan Ali Khan to perform in the new auditorium dedicated to Tagore called Geetanjali.

I am very happy today that there are so many young talented Rabindrasangeet singers and Tagore has conveyed the message of love, compassion, romance and unity of the world through his poetry beautifully. In the album of Tribute to Tagore, I had to memorize each and every phrase so that I could do justice to the compositions of great Rabindranath Tagore. Sarod being very difficult instrument it does not have frets or bars like sitar or guitar. The finger board is made of steel and it is absolutely slippery. To bring out the crystal tone or human expressions, I have to press the strings with the edge of my left hand finger nails. In my right hand I hold a plectrum made of coconut shell which is called Java. Among the songs of Tagore, my most favourtie ones are Aami tare khuje berai, Kaun khela je khelbo kokhon, chander alo and ekela chalo re.

It was always a taboo to play a song on the Sarod the way it has been sung by a singer. With the blessings of my Guru and God, I have been able to sing these songs through my Sarod the way Suchitra Mitraji sang. After playing the complete song phrase by phrase, I improvised within the discipline of the musical notes of the song. I am very happy and honored that our CD, Tribute to Tagore, has reached all over the world, especially among the Bengali community who love Rabindra sangeet. I look forward to recording more songs again with a talented singer. I wish a very prosperous and happy Durga puja to all the devotees of Maa Kali and also to the people who are celebrating the 150 years of the monumental icon whom we call Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore.

Amjad Ali Khan

All India Radio (AIR) made significant contributions to the lives of classical Indian musicians and their passionate listeners across the country after the patronage of the British Empire ended in 1947. There was a time the annual output of Indian music on AIR was 50,000 hours and the number of artists on its rolls were nearly 10,000.There are close to 234 radio stations across India. It was quite prestigious to Broadcast or perform for AIR. Many musicians use to print ‘AIR Artist’ on their visiting cards or residence name plates.

I still remember that in New Delhi AIR my father and Guru Ustad Haafiz Ali Khan Saheb received the check of Rs 150/- after his broadcast. This was the fee for a ‘top grade artist’. AIR still has a system of grading artists. As I understand, ‘top grade’ persists even today, rung above an ‘A Grade’.

Since the last ten years Prasar Bharti has been responsible for the present and future of AIR and Doordarshan. I am told by some staff artists that which ever Artists retire, there is no new recruitment. My sincere good wishes and sympathies lie with the artists and their families working with AIR and Doordarshan. We must protect and preserve the legendary AIR Archive so that even a common person can enjoy the music of great masters. AIR always offered a balanced range of music which included Film Music, Folk Music, Bhajan, Ghazal, Qawwali, Urdu, Hindi Poetry Sessions and lots of light classical music which was also known as Sugam Sangeet. There were brilliant music composers in every Radio Station

After 1947, many young Indians were sent to proper schools and colleges to achieve formal degrees or diplomas to get a proper job in government offices. Most of these musicians or musicologists were absorbed by AIR and music departments in various universities and institutions across India. The music scene changed for the better as this absorption occurred. Discipline and punctuality towards the commitment of concerts was one of the most evident phenomenons of this effect. Majority of musicians are educated today and also performing all over the world. I am sure they are satisfied with their achievements.

While on duty and working for various government organizations, some musicologists contributed very positively to the world of music through their sincere work by writing books and becoming music critics, writers or performers. However, some also got committed to negative activities such as, destroying the great recordings of legendary musicians who belonged to different Gharanas (Schools). This destruction happened mainly due to the ruthless rivalries that existed between Gharana.

It’s a pity that we could not save many of our old heritages of precious and historical recordings, especially in AIR and Doordarshan. We must save our remaining treasure of great masters lying in our Achieves of AIR, Doordarshan, Film division NFDC, and our National Achieves. Security measures need to be improved and a stricter set up needs to be incorporated. Having said that, I am very happy to know that old recording of AIR and Doordarshan are now being released on DVDs and CDs. I am told that these are quite well distributed.

Madhya Pradesh in literal terms means Central Region or Central India. This region is very diverse. It is really difficult to understand the complete flavor or character of this state. The region is rich in archeological remains. It is also home to hundreds of species of birds and animals. It has a long legacy of Rulers/Raja Maharaja’s who also belong to political parties and groups, including musical ones. I feel sad to see Atal Behari Vajpeyee’s deteriorating gradually. The Former Prime minister of India belongs to Gwalior, my birth place. I always admired him and had great regards for him. I remember reading once that even Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru admired him and apparently mentioned that Mr Atal Behari Vajpeyee was ‘a right man in a wrong party!’

Madhya Pradesh also had a long history was of professional dacoits and Baaghis (rebels). The most popular of the latter, was Man Singh and today there is a temple of Man Singh in his honor in the village of Khera Rathore, near Gwalior. His fore fathers were also rulers of some areas. Maan Singh was like ‘Robin Hood’ for the poor people. The world saw the impressions of Central Indian phenomenon in my friend Shekhar Kapoor’s film Bandit Queen. This film was on the life of the late Phoolan Devi (1963 – 2001), who eventually won a seat in the Lok Sabha (Lower House of the Indian Parliement) in1996!

In the year 1955, as a young boy I saw three dead bodies tied to a charpoy in a vertical position resting on the back side of a Truck. Thakur Maan Singh, along with his son Subhedar Singh was displayed at kampoo parade ground in Gwalior. It was the talk of the town!

The Famous writer and a journalist Mr. Tarun Bhaduri (father of my friend and actor Jaya Bachchan) wrote a beautiful book in Bengali (Abhishapto Chambal –Curse on Chambal) on the lives of Dacoits of The region, which derives its name from Chambal River and has been a safe haven for gangs of dacoits for a number of decades. A popular legend says that this was the birthplace of Kunti, mother of the Pandavas. The Last time I met and saw Dada (Dr. Tarun Bahaduri) was in Breach candy Hospital Mumbai, just before he passed away.

Another memory that comes to my mind about Madhya Pradesh is related to the first death anniversary of my elder brother Ustad Rehmat Ali Khan in 2004. My family members had invited me to perform in Bhopal on this day to commemorate it. I booked the late Shafaat Ahmad khan for the Tabla accompaniment at this concert. After the gap of few weeks Shafaat came to me and advised me to change the date of this concert because the Cricket World Cup was taking place on the same day. As a result, he was of the opinion that no one would come to the concert. I was familiar with Shafaat’s love for cricket. So I told him if, ‘he was interested in the world cup, he was most welcome to stay back to watch it. I would arrange another Tabla player.’

Shafaat said that he had offered this suggestion because he was concerned about my prestige and worried about my humiliation. I said that it was not a regular music festival. It was my brother’s death anniversary! I could not change the date of the concert. I would pay my homage in an empty Hall if that was required. On the said date, on our arrival at Bharat Bhavan, we could not believe it but the Hall was over crowded. I never saw such an audience before at the same venue. In spite of the World Cup, the people of Bhopal bestowed their love and blessings.

I was so sad to hear the verdict on the Bhopal Gas Tragedy. My prayers go out to the families of the victims who suffered so intensely and continue to do so. I remember that soon after the Gas tragedy, I had played a ticketed concert where the denominations were very highly priced in New Delhi in aid of the victims. It was organized by St. Stephan’s Collage. I also released an album called ‘In Aid of Bhopal Gas Victims’ the following year with HMV (now Sa Re Ga Ma). I hope that the struggle for justice by the people and the families affected is achieved in time. I also pray that this kind of a tragedy, which has perhaps been one of the biggest industrial disasters, never happens anywhere in the world.

After achieving our independence in the year 1947, every year we celebrated and also felicitated, remembered and offered homage to all our Heroes, Freedom fighters, soldiers and especially, our father of nation Mahatma Gandhi. Every year we also celebrated our Republic day, which commemorates the date on which the Constitution of India came into force replacing the Government of India Act 1935 in the 1950, with the same warmth, gusto and fervor.

Our immediate rulers or forefathers were the British. Every Indian no matter what he was, a Raja Maharaja or a commoner had great admiration especially the way they use to dress up and the way they lived in a comfortable lifestyle, but at the same time, Indians had a tinge of inferiority complex. But they all wanted to look like the British and also behaved like them. (They were called Bada Sahibs) and also use to dress and eat on Tables and chairs, like a Bada sahib.

In fact, we Indians completely disconnected our selves with mother earth or ‘the ground.’ Even the lower middle class families began demanding dining Tables, chairs and Sofa sets as Dowry from the helpless families of the girl child for their living or drawing rooms. I personally feel that sitting on the chairs all the time is so unhealthy! I think the concept of a couch potato arises from here! Thanks to our old world heritage of Yoga, suddenly or gradually it is in vogue to ‘be connected to the ground’ and finally the world realized the importance of the ground or mother earth. In fact, the tradition of sitting on the floor and eating has been timeless in India and perhaps a very fascinating aspect of Indian history. For lunch and Dinners Muslims traditionally use to spread beautiful piece of cloth on the ground called DastarKhwan and Hindu’s preferred Thali, Banana Leaf or Pattal etc. Thank God because of our music, I have spent thousands of hour’s of quality time on the floor while at concerts, practicing or doing Sadhna at home. Although, I personally admired the European world; I wish we could learn the meaning of discipline and consideration as well from them.

Most of our affluent or rich class of Indians went abroad to the best of universities like Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge, Wharton, Stanford and Columbia etc for their higher education. It was all the more important for us being the third world country to have the best of education, especially to face the World. Considering multiple problems of each state of our country, I only hope every Indian in any corner of the country could have proper food, Water, Shelter and Electricity soon. The Incredible change within 63 years of India’s history of independence is phenomenal. Majority of Indians, no matter what age group they belong to, are unable to adjust and survive this drastic change of economical crises and constant deterioration of values of our old world culture. For this change it is difficult to blame any one political party or the system.

Today all the NRI,s and people of India are looking for a visionary strong dynamic young leader who could represent every region and religion of our country.. We need some one who could represent India more convincingly and communicate with the World with utmost humility and dignity.Traveling in India and all over the world, I could gather and understand that people are looking for another Mahatma Gandhi to emerge from the young India. However, today I can see a great change for the betterment of the Indian political system and approach. Many youngsters are entering in the political Arena and all the political parties, especially congress are encouraging and giving them very important responsibilities Many young MP;s are already made ministers and giving their best performances. There is a great expectation and hope from Priyanka and Rahul Gandhi in particular. I am very happy to read through the news papers that Rahul Gandhi invited Mr. William Henry Bill Gates III to his constituency, Amethi. I wish him and all the People of Amethi all the very best and my personal best wishes for great results in the future.

I was so shocked to see the world totally helpless and shaken when the volcanic eruption in Iceland occurred. I felt so sad to see people crying and helplessly waiting to reach their homes to be with their loved ones. I myself was a witness to world travelers stranded and helpless. In the twenty first century too, unfortunately we are yet to know how to save ourselves from natural calamities. I don’t think that the world has ever seen something like this before. I sincerely hope and pray that we never see such a situation of this nature in our lifetimes again. I have the greatest reverence and love for all our eminent scientists because music is also part of science in many ways. At present I see all the great scientists busy reaching the moon and mars but I very strongly feel that we must commit and dedicate ourselves to the pains and agony of our mother nature.

I believe that what ever has to happen will always take place and no one can stop that. In spite of so many great astrologers, holy men and professional forecasters, disasters always take place. It’s the one and only super natural power, energy or god almighty, whatever we might call it who is deciding our future and destiny. Perhaps we don’t know how to surrender ourselves to that supreme energy or power.

Whenever I hear phrases like ‘we must love or help each other’, they sound to me like they are false illusions or almost like a dream. Today many countries are busy injecting hatred among children in their schools and colleges, by emphasizing concepts like materialism, modernization, ethnic divides and so on. Although development is important, inject discriminatory ideas in the minds of young children is a sin. We have no right to ruin the future of young children .I hope and pray that all youngsters of the world should experience peace, harmony, tranquility, equality, freedom and success. It is our greatest duty to inject or infuse love and compassion in every child of world. It is really very sad that today’s children are shooting and killing each other even in high schools? Who do we blame? I really don’t have the answer. They have become so intolerant and unkind, towards others and most importantly themselves. I feel so sad to hear about very young children needing temper counseling. Why does it reach that point? It’s high time for all of us to think about the role of schools in the world. There is definitely some thing seriously wrong in the education system. We must have a class where respected teachers only talk about human and spiritual aspects of life. In this class teachers should establish their relationship as Gurus, guides and preceptors.

For a better future of every child I feel that the respected parents would have to give more time to their child from there busy schedule. We have seen enough performances of all the respected schools of the world. We don’t want to meet or see robots produced by schools. The world will be richer and will be able to achieve its goal, if schools could contribute towards making kind and empathetic children.

Today I realize why my guru and father Ustaad Haafiz Ali Khan Saaheb did not allow me to go a boarding school in Gwalior Because of my music. He would invite all the teachers at to come home so that my valuable time of music is not wasted. Ironically, home schooling is a very common thing in the west.

More then music, my father was concerned about the ‘way of life’ that I would be exposed too, which is equally important and a part of music too. I did go to a few schools in Gwalior but my real education and lessons of love and value of care, blessings, consideration etc happened at home in Gwalior.

In the year 1957, my father moved to New Delhi. At this time I was exposed to a totally different world! But here I got a chance to see and hear great musicians and to meet important many people including Pandit Nehru and Dr. Rajender Prasad. With the persuasion of our well wishers and my father’s disciple’s and friends, I was admitted to a prestigious and important school of New Delhi. I will always be grateful and indebted to my school principal Mr. M. N. Kapoor and all the respected members of the staff and my friends for their love encouragement support and blessings. I was not very comfortable with the way of life in school. The school was teaching and preparing children to be good administrators, businessman, bureaucrats etc. But the kind of teachings I received or was receiving at home was so different! I believed in an old world culture and way of life. I felt a tremendous cultural clash especially because of my increasing musical responsibilities. After few years I left for the US for two months for a concert tour. My guru and father often reminded me that in one lifetime, one can’t do everything. I chose sound and music over books or the world of words.

I am not saying that all children have to make this exact choice in order to save nature or the world. However, I do believe that by choosing to imbibe more humane virtues in our daily existence, which are often reside in creative realms, we as a race can reverse some of the tumulus conditions confronting as a civilization.

I am very sad to see the sufferings of the people of Haiti and Chile. So many people have died and got injured. The survivors are suffering especially because they have lost their loved ones. May God give them peace and strength to bear this great tragedy.

Sri Maa Kamakhya temple in Guwahati, Assam, is considered to be one of the most important and powerful religious shrines in India. Recently we visited Assam on an invitation from the Kamakhya Debutter Board of Trustees for their 4th Kameswari Music and Dance Festival held in February, 2010. The Board Members of Kameswari Festival Committee felicitated our family. It was a matter of great honuor and privilege to be blessed along with my wife Subhalakshmi who belongs to Assam and our two sons, Amaan and Ayaan. It was a nostalgic moment to be able to offer our services to Maa Kamakhya through our music at the premises of this great shrine.

Assam is a beautiful state. People there are extremely loving, caring and are very simple at heart. The inner beauty of the people and their warmth is obvious when one interacts with them. Every time we visit Assam, our hunger to return to the state becomes stronger for the love of one and all. My knowledge of Assam and its culture was broadened by my late father-in-law Shri Parsuram Borooah (incidentally the first Assmese hero of the movie called “Joymati”) and his elder brother Late Shri P.C.Borooah, a Member of Parliament for two terms.

I have heard and also later experienced the beautiful memories of Assam and its cultural festivals. The music festivals which took place in the early 50’s in cities like Guwahati, Tejpur, Shillong, Jorhat, Sibsagar, and Dibrugarh had brought together the top legends of our country. Unfortunately, with time and political issues and its differences, culture has taken a back seat for sometime now. Hence the Kamakhya Festival was like a breath of fresh air.

Assam with its natural gift of nature God, the flora and fauna, lush green tea gardens, mountains covered with romantic clouds, oil and natural gas, one horned rhinos (only found in Assam) in the forest of the world famous Kaziranga sanctuary. It also has the silks like Endi, Pat and Muga, cane and many other handicrafts makers. Assam stands tall in the world map. I understand Assam Oil Company (AOC) is one of the oldest oil companies in India. Later, Oil & Natural Gas Company (ONGC) took over in much bigger scale. The Russian collaboration with India for drilling of oil has been a great significant achievement. This beautiful state of North East which is linked with rest of the country only by a corridor passage believed to be floating in Oil. I was told that the realization of Oil in Assam had come to the forefront by the locals when the elephants from the deep forest had the foot prints leaving oil marks. The result was the formation of Assam Oil Company.

During my several visits to Assam I realize the place of worship in Assam is called “Naam Ghar”. It is a very touching and a moving experience for me to realize that Naam Ghar literally means where you worship in the name of God. People of Assam are free and open minded. The people of the State are also know for their great sense of respect and freedom.

My humble suggestion to the Ministry of Tourism and Culture is to promote more activities of this beautiful state.

I can see a lot of developments like high raised buildings, malls, internet cafes etc, but I hope that the Government considers building few beautiful air-conditioned concert halls in the capital towns as well! The Tourism Ministry also can think of seasonal music festivals from time to time in the historical monuments of this state, especially along and in the banks of mighty river Brahmaputra and revive its glorious culture. Change is a part of our daily need. But it is also our duty to save and retain our glorious heritage.

Before leaving Guwahati I visited my mother-in-law Smt. Khiroda Kumari Borooah, a remarkable multifaceted lady. At 87 she is active, alert and dynamic. The food prepared under her supervision was truly delightful. I feel very happy and content that I married a lady from the soil of Assam.

There are many books on Indian classical music, especially ones its intricacies and its grammar. These have been written by great musicologists and theoretic researchers. However, very few performing musicians’ have written such books. Presentation of music or off a performance through words will always be a big test for every creative musician. Great musicians always took full liberties and freedom to decide how long or short the recital should be. There is no book available on the theoretic’ meters of music’ for the students which can guide them how to present or perform. Unfortunately most of the performing artists are blindly following the conventional way of presentation. Convention, I feel, is quite an unhealthy term, whereas tradition allows innovations, within the frame work as a discipline of the Raga. Since, ours is an oral tradition, rules, regulations are far too flexible.

I am very happy to see a new book on 50 Maestros 50 Recordings of Indian classical music, written by my sons, Amaan Ali Khan and Ayaan Ali Khan, published by Harper Collins. The list of musicians could go up to 100, but the requirement by the publication house was 50 only. I have gone through the book. I am pleasantly surprised to see and realize the deep understanding of Indian classical music by both the brothers. Today they themselves have become young maestros, who are busy traveling, performing all over the world. However, what touched me the most was the mention of their personal equation and relationship with most of the musicians at the end of each chapter. Something that has never been done by performing artists! Their reverence and love towards the greats like M. S. Subbulakshmi, Bismillah Khan Saheb, Vilayat Khan Saheb and Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer and many others moved me no end. During their growing years they saw many collections of records (LPs, EPs and live recordings) that I collected and was gifted over the years. However, they themselves chose which artist that they would like to listen too. Thank God that we as parents or gurus never imposed our preferences upon them.. This applies to their recent book as well. They have their own opinion about every musician in of India or and the world. I saw the boys put in a lot of hard work over the course of many months to prepare the book. To have listened to 50 hours of recordings, was a great achievement for Amaan and Ayaan. I am sure it was a musical pilgrimage for both of them. They have become much more experienced and matured as artists as a result of this experience. Their whole approach of music has been enriched and I am sure they will be able to write more books on another 50 or 100 musician in the years to come. There was great need of such a book at this time.

At the same time that this book was being prepared, we were also working on our new album, The Music Room.. The Music Room is a very special place in my life. This is the room where a legacy that has generations of nurturing, caring and preserving behind it is passed on to students, disciples and offspring. The relationship here is that of a Guru and a Shishya (Student). It is a way of life handed down to us by our forefathers that transcends the day to day relationships that govern our lives. Indian classical music is an expression of our cultural identity past, present or future. Its study is based on dedication, surrender, faith, humility, trust, spirituality and rigorous practice and discipline. The Music Room is the space devoted to the pursuit of these virtues in my life. My Years of teaching my sons, Amaan and Ayaan were quite an experience. It was a first time that I was able to hold a student on my lap! In a family where music is a way of life and is basic to life, the training starts from the moment a child is born. I remember when Amaan was born and the first time I held him, I sang into his ear. Similarly, on Ayaan’s arrival two years later, I did the same. In essence, the taleem started from that point on. However, as time progressed, all their training and musical knowledge that I have tried to bequeath to them happened in the Music Room.

Thank God, I live in the world of sound. Through sound only I have experienced God Almighty, the common energy of the whole Universe. It is sad that the world of words is ruling this world. In my life I have communicated and connected with the world through the sound of Sarod only. For our normal growth and healthy life we must read more and also listen to appealing music but please avoid noise. Noise pollution is as dangerous alarming as the pollution world is worrying about. I would like to see world happy, full of harmony, peace and good health. My sincere condolence go out to the families of those who have lost their dear and near ones in the recent Pune bomb blast at the German Bakery Café. Yet another shameful act where man is determined to further the cycles of hate and violence rather than to facilitate love and peace, among mankind.

The whole world is aware about the tragedies of the island of Hispaniola, shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic as several earthquakes struck in early January. Some reports have placed the official death toll from these earthquakes at over 70,000. People of Capital of Port-Au-Prince and Haitians and other citizens from around the world are working to rescue people trapped below the rubble of collapsed buildings. The death toll rises gradually as this process occurs.

I am very sad to see the sufferings of the people of Haiti. So many people have died and got injured as a result of the earthquake that occurred there recently. The survivors are suffering immensely. It is indeed a very sad tragedy. I pray that God gives all the affected peace and strength to bear the after-effects of this horrific disaster. I had to perform in Ahemadabad at the Saptal Festival on the next day of this tragedy. I played with a very heavy heart.

However, I was also happy to see that many of the children who became orphans in this disaster were warmly welcomed in the United States at orphanages and adoption centers. I pray that these children are able to restart the journey of their live in the new world.

I have experienced earthquakes upto 6.5 on the Richter scale in Dehradun and other part of the world. As a human being I feel proud to see the achievements of a mankind.

The whole world refers to the Earth as Mother Earth, especially in India where the Earth is called DHARTI MAA and BHARAT MAA. But yet very few people have given enough importance to find out why Mother Earth is facing challenges and suffering.

Why are we still not competent enough to store rain water? Why can’t we control the floods and draughts? We have to dedicate and commit ourselves to the environment and the future challenges of Global Warming. In spite of our great scientists and astrologers we are unable to control the natural calamities like earthquakes and tsunamis.

Since the last 30 years Ahmedabad has music festival from 1st to 13th January every year called Saptak. This year also all the greatest and the most talented young maestros gave their best performances, which included my sons Amaan Ali Khan and Ayaan Ali Khan, who performed on the 4th day of the festival. I was the concluding Artist on 13th January. There were people from all over the world (which includes great numbers of NRI’s). By the grace of God this year’s performance of mine became very memorable which went on till 2am. . There were many musicians in the auditorium. I remember going to Ahmedabad with my father in the year 1959.A Big music festival was held at the Town Hall. I hope all the old venues like Tagore Hall, Prema Bhai Hall, Town Hall etc are renovated. I also remember many memorable concerts held in the neighboring city of Baroda. I have been to many other cities of Gujarat including Navsari and Surat. I left for Mumbai by Air India the following morning where there was a two-day music festival in the memory of Pt. C R Vyas. I rested for most of the day and just before leaving for the concert hall I wanted to change few strings of my Sarod. So I opened the Sarod Box. I was shocked by the sight of my broken musical instrument! I cannot explain in words how painful an experience I had. My heart was bleeding.

I called the organizers and shared the tragedy. It was my duty to share the tragedy with my audience as well who were waiting for my concert since long. I reached the venue. It was a packed hall at the Chembur Fine Arts Society. I showed my damaged Sarod to the audience and assured them a rescheduled concert the next day. They were kind and patient. They gave me standing ovation. I told them that Air India porters mishandled my beloved Sarod. In spite of hundreds of fragile tags all over the box, they did not take proper care!

Soon after I saw my damaged Sarod, I spoke to my wife and requested her to bring my other Sarod. I performed two concerts on other instrument, at the NCPA, and Jamshed Bhabha auditorium on the next two consecutive days. God was kind, my audience was gracious and they gave a standing ovation for both the concerts.

All over the world, the musical instruments and the fragile items are handled by special team of people and also they are delivered at a separate counter which is known as “over size baggage”. Only in our country heavy suitcases and all the fragile items come through the common conveyor belt. It is a criminal offence. I am grateful to the Aviation minister, Mr.Praful Patel for his call and the concern he showed. I also received a call from the Chairman, Air India, Mr.Jadhav. I did not lodge any complaint or claimed the damages because Air India is our national carrier but in the future I expect that all the airlines, especially Air India’s porters, to have a human touch while handling fragile items, especially musical instruments. I also request them to be concerned and kind to musical instruments.

On the very outset, I’d like to wish all of you a very Happy and musical 2010. I pray that may this year be full of happiness, joy and peace. The Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) today is very well known govt. organisation. I remember meeting the first Director General Mr. Inam Rehman (at that time called Secretary). He was a disciple of my father Ustad Haafiz Ali Khan Saheb and use to learn the Sitar. At the time of Chinese aggression in 1962, I along with a few fellow musicians performed for the National Defense fund and all the money collected was given to the Minister of Culture at that time Mr. Humanyun Kabir who was very popular among creative people. The concert was held at the ICCR auditorium in Azad Bhawan. ICCR was founded in the year 1950. I very strongly feel that ICCR should revise the performance fee of creative artists. I am glad ICCR has opened up many cultural centers like Nehru Centre in London, all over the world. It will definitely help our cultural relations to be more meaningful and closer. Foreign students learning Indian music and dance should be encouraged to perform and carry forward the message of our country’s rich traditional art all over the world. So many Director Generals of ICCR came and performed their duties. The present President is Dr. Karan Singh of Kashmir; with the combination of present DG and President, who is a singer himself, the cultural world of India expect much greater performance by ICCR. It will be a great honour and pleasure to serve ICCR as and when my services are required.

I recall that in the year 1966, ICCR sent a delegation to Afghanistan. In those days every year Afghanistan use to do a festival of celebrating their country called ‘Jashn – E- Afghanistan’. The line up was the playback singer Hemant Kumar, danseuse Yamini Krishnamurty, Pt. Kishan Maharaj (who accompanied me on Tabla) and I. There were other musicians from neighboring countries too. The King, Zaheer Shah and his family liked classical music. In fact, one day he invited me to perform in the palace just for the family. His son Nadir Shah played Sitar with me and I taught him some compositions. His daughter Mariam also loved our music. At that time Indian Ambassador was General Thapar. The whole family including Mrs.Thapar was very kind, loving, and hospitable. Similarly, in the year 1967, Govt.of India sent a delegation to Mauritius headed by Rajya Sabha MP Mr. Sapru. Theartist this time were Ms. Indrani Rahman, the great Bharat Natyam dancer and Miss India 1958! Pt. Kishan Maharaj was there for tabla accompaniment once again. That was the first Air India flight that landed in Mauritius. The Indian Ambassador was Mr. Avatar Singh at that time. After 25 years of cultural silence between India and Pakistan, I was the first musician to visit Pakistan. It was again an ICCR delegation. Gen. Zia –ul Haq who was President of Pakistan at that time. Our Indian Ambassador was Mr. Natwar Singh and in Karachi, the Counsel general was Mr. Mani Shanker Aiyar.

The Bolshoi theatre in Moscow is world famous for their dance Ballets and just for the very monumental look of the theatre. Fortunately, I have seen some of their beautiful presentations in India and abroad.. The closing ceremony of the India festival, which was on for few months in Moscow, supposed to have held on the December at the Bolshoi Theatre; We were looking forward to performing there But due to last months fire in a club, around three hundred people died. The President Vladimir Putin declared state mourning in Moscow. Our Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh visited Moscow but ICCR informed us that our concert was cancelled. Our heartfelt condolences and prayers to the families in Moscow;

This is the first time ICCR invited my sons, Amaan and Ayaan and it was their first experience of a government delegation. Our concerts started from Ukraine and then to Germany. First we visited the University of Kyiv which was founded in 1834. Rector Leonid V. Gubersky honoured me with the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv Medal. The National Opera house of Ukraine also honoured us. The concert was very well received. There was a big banquet dinner after the concert. We met all the guests especially the 60 Ambassadors of different parts of the world. Every time I visit Germany, Austria or Russia, It is like a musical pilgrimage because so many great composers like Bach (1685-1750) Beethoven (1770-1827) Mozart (1756-1791) Schubert (1797-1828) Mussorgsky (1839-1881) Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908) and Brahms (1833-1897); all came from these beautiful countries. In Germany, we performed in Darmstadt-Bielefeld- Munich and Berlin.

Recently I completed my concerts tours in Kerala, Maharashtra and Bengal. In early November, I was in Chennai where the classical musicians of South India honoured me with their greatest love, encouragement and kindness. Traveling all over the country since the age of twelve I felt at home in every state of India.

In fact today I consider my self a citizen of the world. My Father and Guru Ustad Haafiz Ali Khan Saheb taught me not only music but a complete way of life. He gave importance to a code of conduct, especially with regard to the respecting manner in which one behave with senior musicians and younger musicians. He taught me the value of blessings, compassion, kindness, surrender-ness, generosity and realization of a common God. In his teachings, he often mentioned that I should always encourage young musicians and respect the musicians whose contributions are recognized by the world. In accordance with that teaching, our annual Haafiz Ali Khan Award ceremony which started in 1985 was held again in Mumbai this year. The aim of this festival was to honour living music legends from the world of Indian and western classical music for their immense contributions in their respective felids while they were at the peak of their carriers. In the past, the Award ceremonies have taken place in all the major cities of India (including Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad) and also in London and Germany. The Award winner this year was Mr. John McLaughlin, one of the greatest guitarists of our times. We are really honored and touched that Mr. John McLaughlin personally came to receive this Award. After the ceremony, the grand children Amaan Ali Khan and Ayaan Ali Khan gave one of their most memorable performances at Nehru Centre in Mumbai. We had a great number of representatives from the music fraternity. This was very inspiring. From the time my father and Guru, passed away in 1972, we observed his first death anniversary through a 17 day festival of music and dance held at Kala Mandir in Kolkata. All the great classical musicians and dancers paid their musical homage. From then on our music festival traveled across the country.

My father’s ancestral home in Gwalior was converted into a museum called the ‘Sarod Ghar’. We will always be indebted to the celebrities and dignitaries who visited the Sarod Ghar- to honor the great masters. Among these were: Congress president Shrimati Sonia Gandhi, Former Prime Minister of India Shri. Atal Behari Vajpayee, Former President of India Mr.K.R Narayanan, Former Vice President Mr Krishan Kant, Former President Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam, Raj Mata Saheba of Gwalior-Vijayraje Sindia, Finance Minister of India Shri Pranav Mukherjee, Former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Shri Digvijay Singh, Former Minister of Railway and Civil Aviation Shri Madhav Rao Sindia, Former Human Resource Development Minister of India Shri Arjun Singh and Prime Minister Dr. and Mrs Manmohan Singh.

On the subject of festivals, I was recently in Goa to attend the 4Oth International Film Festival of India 2009.This is the first time that the Film Festival had included classical musicians and their documentary films with the caption-“MOMENTS WITH MAESTROS-a bouquet of films on music exponents”

My heartiest congratulations to Ambika Soni, the Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Mr. S.M Khan-The Director of Film Festival and Mr Kuldeep Sinha-Chief producer of Film Division for including and promoting Indian classical music and their Documentary films in the Festival. Now Goa seems to have become the permanent venue for international Film Festival. This is the 6th year that the festival is being held in Goa.

This year, the festival included 25 documentary films of classical musicians (which includes north and south Indian musicians and dancers).My film [Amjd Ali Khan] which was made in the year 1990-91 by the great poet and film maker Gulzar Saheb was shown in the presence of Gulzar Saheb and Dr. Jabbar Patel. During our stay we also saw a beautiful film on the Legendary Kumar Gandharva made by Dr. Jabbar Patel and a film on the Sarod made by a young film maker, Mr Kumar Gogi.

After seeing my film I felt very sad to realize that certain portions of the film had been destroyed and I was told that it is under restoration. I was also told that there were many other films on great masters which were under restoration. It is my appeal to the authorities of Information Ministries and honorable Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh to kindly do the needful so that we can preserve the memories of great masters like Bala Saraswati and Rukhmini Arundale, the two greatest Bharat Natyam Dancers etc amongst others. To make best of these documentary films which are produced all over the world, I feel that every Indian Mission or Embassy should have a film and Doordarshan division. Through these divisions, films made on Indian musicians across the world can be streamlined into India and our archival heritage could be shared especially with the N.R.I s.

At the festival, we also collectively felt the urgent need for an exclusive and twenty-four hour TV channel which would broadcast classical music and documentary films and a radio station similar to world Space which would continuously play Indian Classical Music 24 x 7. I hope that the government of India considers our appeal so that our ancient art of Indian Classical Music can be preserved and popularized.

RI am very happy that the legendary Manna Dey received the Dada Saheb Phalke Award this year. Like all other great play back singers, young Indians, also grew up listening to Mannada (as he is addressed affectionately). He comes from a cultured musical family. His uncle, Shri K.C.Dey was also a very renowned musician. Mannada is a rare classical singer, who became famous through the Indian film songs. He interestingly also sang a duet with Pt. Bhimsen Joshi in a film. I have always admired him no end. My heartiest congratulations to Mannada and his family members for this great honour!

It has become a custom and a ritual to write an obituary or a tribute after an Artist or person after they are no more. Why should we wait for an Artist to become 80 or 90 and then consider him or her for the highest honours. I am very happy that a young sportsman receives a highest Award, honours and prizes while they are young in their thirties and at the peaks of their careers. It will really be very healthy and encouraging for the creative Artists of national and international repute, if the tributes are given while they are active and are able to perform and enjoy the honours and awards.

Speaking of Legendary artists, I have always admired the great Dilip Kumar (who’s family name is Yusuf Khan) as an actor and a human being.

Every Indian grew up seeing his movies along with the works of his contemporaries Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand and Pran. Dilip Saheb, as film industry addresses him, is a symbol of Tehzeeb and Tameez- He is truly an inborn Actor. He did not go to any acting school nor did he ever have a guru, but I am sure that he must have found his inspiration through his lives journey. I still remember his masterpiece and classic films like Devdas, Mughal-E-Azam, Ganga Jamna, Madhumati, Aan and Andaaz etc

He always had a great regards and love for Indian classical music, especially for Sarod and Sitar.In a film Kohinoor, he had to hold the Sitar and sing the very famous song “Madhuban mein Radhika Nache Re” – sung by Mohammad Rafi. I was told that to feel comfortable and to be at ease he seriously learnt Sitar for two years! A perfectionist, a poet and a great orator, he has been all this and more.

I have a few memorable interactions with Dilip Saheb and his charming wife Saira Bano. In the early 70’s there was a concert in Bangalore, organized by the late wife of former police commissioner of Bangalore Mr.Rahim N Nizamuddin, for the National Society for Equal Opportunities for the Handicap held at the Windsor Manor Hotel. Since it was a Fund raiser, the price of couple entries was Rs.1000 back then. Post the concert, the best dressed lady would get the prize from Dilip Saheb and best dressed man from Sairaji. There was the most glamorous and elite audience that evening at this event. During the interval Dilip Saheb and I had tea together. While having the tea, he mentioned “BHAI, MUJHE IS SAAZ SE BEHAD PYAAR HAI AUR MAIN SAROD LAMBE ARSE SE SUNTA AA RAHA HOON . MAASHAAALLAH AAP NE IS SAAZ KA DHANG OR DHAP HI BADAL DIYA’.

(Brother I love this instrument and I have been listening to the Sarod for a long time, but by the grace of God you have completely changed the conventional structure and flavour of this beautiful instrument.)

I was taken aback and pleasantly surprised to see and realize his involvement and interest in Sarod and music in general. At the end the best dressed lady received the prize from Dilip Saheb and to my utter surprise for the best dressed man’s prize, my name was announced. It a gracious gesture of Sairaji and Dilip Saheb!

The Last time I met him in was Mumbai. I went to invite him for my younger son; Ayaan’s wedding Reception in Mumbai. It was a memorable meeting. Sairaji is a great hostess and she really takes care of Dilip Saheb. As expected, as gracious as he is, Dilip Saheb came up to my car to see me off, in spite of my persuasion not to come out. They both very kindly came and blessed the young couple in Mumbai a year and a half ago.

Dilip Saheb is a very fortunate to seen the third generation of actors and super stars today, who continue to draw inspiration from this monumental icon of the Indian Film Industry.

“India is the only country which has two tradition of classical music namely Indian Classical Music of the South and Indian Classical Music of the North. Historically they were also addressed as Karnatak and Hindustani. However, I prefer to call it just ‘music’ as music from the North and the South are essentially the same. The base of any music in the world is common - the seven notes Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni. In western classical music, they call the very same notes, Do Re Me Fa So La Ti. Music has connected the whole world together. Music does not belong to any religion; it is the language that creates the barrier. The future of Indian classical music will always be bright. Classical music is like the sun and rest of the music that flows from it are its rays. We are very fortunate that we have had such strong pillars in music like Swami Haridas, Swami Purander Dasa, Swami Muttuswamy Dikshitar, Sama Shastri, Swami Tyagaraja, Swati Thirunal, Miyan Tansen and Baiju Bawra. With their blessings we have a large number of young talented musicians in India today.

Indian classical music is our identity whether it has been in the past, the present or the future. It does not belong only to the entertainment world, it is a way of life, it is based on dedication, surrender ness, faith, trust, spirituality, religion and rigorous practice and discipline. Anybody, no matter which gharana or guru he or she belongs to, has to surrender himself or herself to the guru and to the almighty. It is almost like entering into dark tunnel with the hope of seeing sun rays some day. It sounds very impractical, but this is how it is. There is no formula here. Many times I am questioned by people that will their son or daughter make it in the field, I have no answers because there never was and never will be a magic mantra.

However, over the years, I do a see a change in the attitude of disciples. While some are a symbol of dedication and grace, some want to become superstars overnight and in the process, defocus from their path to the extent of disagreeing and questioning with what the guru has to say! I often say this that this line is not from someone who is in search of glamour alone. Behind it come years and hours of shaping and dedication.

Today most of electronic media is only encouraging the kind of music which is not classical. But real classical musicians are not created by the media. The listeners of our country are very choosy and selective. Nobody can impose an artist on them. The only way for a young musician to make it is to work hard, practice rigorously and exercise discipline to achieve their goal of life. Not only musically but even in terms of Indian etiquette (tehzeeb and tameez). Fireworks of music alone don’t give colour and fragrance to the music that you produce.

I disagree with some people today who say that Indian Classical Music is a dying art form. We must understand a few things here; it was never for the masses to begin with. In the early years, there were only private mehfils happening, and then it came out to the concert halls. Today, musicians are performing at Carnegie Hall, Royal Albert Hall, and Sydney Opera house to paced houses. You are talking about an audience fighting against the ninety to hundred odd channels at home! Likewise in India, when I see huge venues filling up, I don’t think we can really complain. With time, it is the responsibility of the artist to let the youth relate to their music. The mainstream attention that bollywood and now the Fashion industry are experiencing, Indian classical music experiences three decades back!

In the sixties and seventies, there was a phase to carry on playing Ragas for two to three hours. Frankly, after maybe an hour, it was all repetition. However, due to artists wanting to prove a point, a section of listeners drifted away to easy listening. One must keep in mind that no books or shastras ever mentioned about the presentation of Indian Classical Music. By making it up with times, you are not diluting it at all. I believe in being traditional and not conventional. In the early eighties, I had recorded an album of short pieces (around Ragas) in one album. At that time, I was of course criticized for not going into too much detailing of Ragas, but I am happy to see that today, this has become a trend! I see a great journey of Indian classical music being carried forward by brilliant musicians of the younger generation. These people are getting a ready made remedy to work on the research and time spent by me and all my contemporaries in all these years. Thanks to the net, I pods, DVDs and CDs, we are at every home in the world.

I am very happy that there are young dedicated musicians, they are also committed performers. I wish them all a very bright and successful future and I am sure that our classical music and legacy will flourish not only in India but all over the world. I am also very satisfied with the response of whole world to our country and its tradition.” -Amjad Ali Khan

The passing away of Rajmata Gayatri Devi has been an end of a glorious era. A Symbol of beauty and grace, Maharani Gayatri Devi was the epitome of style and dignity. May her soul rest in peace! I remember many occasions when I had the honour of seeing. In 2002, soon after the Gujarat earthquake, the French Ambassador had hosted a fund raiser concert by Amaan and Ayaan. After the concert, I was sharing the same table and she was sitting right next to me. She was looking so charming and the way she was talking was full of elegance and grace. There was another occasion Jaipur, where she was the guest of honour for my concert. I was told that the Rajmata was not feeling too well so after lighting the lamp, she was to leave. I was told after the concert that apparently, in pite of her ill health, she stayed on till the end but she sat in the last row so that people are not disturbed with her movements. My last meeting with her was in 2005 in New Delhi when she released my album called ‘Portrait of the Legend’ which had live recordings of my concerts from the 80’s. It was a very solemn and beautiful ceremony. We will always miss this timeless beautiful soul.

While talking about Jaipur I am also reminded of Gwalior (My native place). Credit goes to all the rulers of the world who always gave special patronage and encouragement to all the creative people, some of them are still serving cause of love and peace through music.

Historically all creative people of the world were court musicians or artists patronized by royalty. The Rajmata Saheba of Gwalior, Vijayraje Scindia always treated me like her son, but at the same time gave so much honour and respects by calling me Khan Saheb or Ustad. She was so gracious and magnanimous; twice she invited me and my wife Subhalakshmi Khan as chief guests in Gwalior. I felt so embarrassed lighting the lamp in the presence of Rajmata Saheba. She always used to address my wife as Subhalakshmiji.

Once she directly called me, my wife picked up the phone, she said, ’could she talk to Khan Saheb’, Subhalakshmiji asked, ’who would like to talk’, she replied, ‘Rajmata Saheba’, then Subhalakshmiji said, ‘Please give the phone to Rajmata Saheba’, she replied, ’it is Rajmata Saheba speaking’. My wife was surprised and shocked at her simplicity, especially since no one likes to hold these days! Then finally I spoke to her. She called me to invite to Gwalior to perform. When I asked about the occasion, she told me that she is holding an All India women convention or conference. I very politely said, ‘Rajmata Saheba, please invite some women artist, she laughed and said that is why I would like you to come to grace the occasion and perform for the women of all the states of India. I got more worried. In Gwalior, I always stayed in a hotel but for that occasion, she insisted me to stay in the palace. She really took good care of me. I cannot forget her love and caring nature.

In the evening, I had tough time. There were only women in every nook and corner. I remember Mrs. Margret Alva was also there. I began playing and with in fifteen minutes I realized no one was attentive, some were knitting sweaters. I suddenly stopped playing and took the microphone and said that I remember one very important saying; I saw the change and there was a total pin drop silence. Everybody was attentive to hear why I stopped playing. I said once Emperor Akbar asked his wise man Birbal, ‘what is the greatest lie of the world? Birbal replied ‘Your highness, two women in a room sitting quietly’. Every body laughed very loudly and then perhaps realized the message and for the remaining two and a half hours of concert, it was a very inspiring ambience and became one of my most memorable concerts.

In the year 1990 we invited her to Mumbai as a chief guest to give away the Haafiz Ali Khan Awards. It was indeed a distinguished audience which included the legendary Lata Mangeshkar and galaxies of artists present. In her speech she said ‘As a young Maharani in Gwalior, she use to learn Sitar from my father, but she could not practice, therefore after few months my father requested her to stop learning as she had no time to practice.

Publicly she said looking at my father’s portrait ‘Khan Saheb ki mein aayogya shishya hoon and referring me she said that yeh yogya shishya hai. (She said that she is not an able disciple but Amjad Ali Khan Saheb is a able disciple of Ustad Haafiz Ali Khan Saheb). Our family will always miss her love and kindness bestowed on us by her.

We just observed the tenth anniversary of the Kargil war. Our so many young and brilliant soldiers died in this war. My prayers always go out to all the families of Martyrs of Kargil war. We are proud of the commitment and dedication of General V. P. Malik for our country. Gen. Malik has shared and specially mentioned certain names of soldiers and officers, whose contributions and services will always be remembered in our heart and mind.

Last month has indeed been a very painful and sad a moment for Indian classical music with the passing away of both Dr. Gangubai Hangal and Dr. D. K. Pattamal. It’s sad that with the passing away of these luminaries, these seats of the classical world have become vacant forever now. I pray to almighty that may their soul rest in peace and may they continue to live forever through their music and their disciple’s. Ironically, I had honored both these artists with the Haafiz Ali Khan award together in Mumbai in 1990.’

Late last year, the Violin Maestro of South India, Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan, passed away. Of my various journeys of South India, especially the one to Swami Thyagaraja’s Samadhi at Thiruvyar was only possible with the help of Kunnakudiji, because he was the General Secretary of the Thyagaraja Sabha at that time (1985). I strongly feel that realization of God, Guru and Discipline is much more in South than anywhere else in India.

To pay my musical homage to Swami Thyagaraja, I had to learn a composition (Krithi) in Rag “Shree Ranjani”. The message of the song was beautiful. I was moved! The great saint musician is praying or pleading to Lord Rama saying ‘My lord, Is it possible to understand in ones lifetime the meaning of all the seven musical notes, Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni? The opening words of the song, was ‘Sauga Suga Mridanga Taalemu’.

I still remember that memorable journey to Trichy. The Samadhi is situated on the banks of the river Kaveri. Within 3 kms of the Samadhi area, one has to walk without shoes. The whole atmosphere was full of sanctity and reverence. I was the first North Indian musician and also the first Muslim to perform at the Samadhi. Later I was told that some conservative and conventional people raised their eyebrows to see a North Indian and that too a Muslim musician performing there. I strongly feel I received blessings and love, wherever I paid homage through my music. They were all pillars of our music.

Before the concert, my Tabla player told me that some fanatics from the organization told him to go back because Tabla is not allowed on this platform. He stayed on to take my permission to go back. Finally, I gave my concert with Tabla and Mridangam together. The Mridangam player, who was absolutely new to me, could only speak Tamil. But the concert was very well received. It was a great spiritual and musical experience.

To inaugurate the Annual Thyagaraja Music Festival, the then Information and Broadcasting minister, Mr. V.N.Gadgil along with many great musicians of South which included Dr. D.K.Pattamal, Smt. M.L.Vasantha Kumari were in the audience. It was a live telecast. Generally the musicians were given 5-10 minutes to perform but it was a great honour for me that I was given half an hour. That particular concert became one of the most memorable, emotional and spiritual experiences of my life. It was the strict rule in those days that one had to sing or play only Thyagaraja’s composition. I hope that the committee, now, allows musicians who have love and reverence for the saint musician to perform irrespective of north or south. All the organizations in South India in the four states are generally called ‘Sabhas’ (organizations). Every sabha has several thousand or hundred members and each one is self sufficient financially. I wish the North also could have such financially strong cultural organizations. Unfortunately, most of North Indian music festivals including the Tansen Festival in Gwalior or Swami Haridas Sangeet Samaroh in Vrindaban are being handled, financed and organized by the ruling political party or the government.

My first journey to South India was to Chennai with my father and guru Ustad Haafiz Ali Khan Saheb in 1957. The Music Academy had a big festival where musicians from South and North were invited to participate and perform. Today the Music Academy has a huge building and a cultural complex but in those days they erected a thatch tent, almost like a big auditorium. It was a great honour and immense pleasure for me to perform with my father. The secretary of Music Academy at that time was Dr. Raghavan. I still remember the memorable performances by legendary Bala Saraswati, M.S.Subbulaxmi, Dr. Semmengudi Sriniwas Aiyar, Dagar brothers, Birju Maharaj and his uncle Shambhu Maharaj.

There was a Congress leader, Mr. G.K. Moopnar, who once invited me to his town ‘Kumbakonam’ for Ram Navmi celebrations. Mr. Moopnar was a landlord for generations and loved classical music. I was told that Kumbakonam had the maximum number of temples in India. The most important temple was called Lord ‘Uppali Appan” there and I was also informed that Lord ‘Uppali Appan’ was the brother of Lord Venkateshwara or Balaji of Tirupati.

I am so fortunate that while receiving the award from the Tirupati Fine Arts Academy by the then President of India Zail Singh, I could pay my musical salutations to Lord Venkateshwara-Balaji. In Kerala, I had the honour of having darshan of Sabrimala and with the help of the Legendary M.S.Subbalaxmi, our whole family could go to Kanchipuram and perform for the three Shankaracharyas. After my marriage to Subhalakshmi Borooah, who spent fifteen years with Rukmini Devi Arundale of Kalakshetra in Chennai, Athai, (as she was affectionately called) gave a very warm and big reception under the famous Banyan tree in Kalakshetra, the most important institution of Bharatnatyam in India today.

Over the years, I have had the honour of collaborating with the finest artists from South India. Lalgudi G.Jayaraman, Emani Shanker Shastry M.S.Gopalakrishnan, T.N. Krishnan, Doreswamy Aiyangar, Shivraman, Balamurali Krishna and more recently, L. Subramanium. The passing away of such doyens reinforces my thoughts that music knows no barriers such as north or south, east or west. More musicians must actively work towards bringing all zones of music closer in this great musical country of ours.

I am very disturbed and disappointed to see and hear about the racial atrocities and tortures in Australia. I always thought Australia to be most progressive, contented and absolutely peaceful. I have such beautiful memories of my past several tours epically at some great venues like the Sydney Opera House, Adelaide Festival etc. Seeing the sufferings and fear of Indian students in Australia, I am absolutely shocked. My sympathies are with our Indian students and every student of any country suffering on account of racial discrimination. Because of the electronic and print media, we can see and read about the problems human beings are going through. Racial problems are not a new phenomena, it has always been there from very early times. Historically people of certain countries or people of a certain colour of any country suffered the most. This included our father of nation Mahatma Gandhi who was thrown out from the train in South Africa because of racial discrimination. While touring South Africa, I visited all important places connected with Mahatma Gandhi and the freedom struggle of India. I am so proud of the people of USA, who elected and chose Mr. Barack Obama as their President. It’s really a tribute and salutation to all those who gave their lives for racial discrimination. In fact, I am also against the term ‘third world country.’ Are we really? With all our achievements and growth globally, why are we in this bracket?

I always felt happy and honored to be associated with any memorial or celebrations of Mahatma Gandhi. On his 125th birth anniversary, in the presence of our then Prime Minister Mr.P.V. Narsimha Rao, I presented and evoked a special Raga called Bapu Kauns in UNESCO in Paris as homage to the Father of Nation. I also received the Gandhi medal from the Director General of UNESCO the same day. Last time I visited South Africa, functions were held on the hundred year celebrations of the Satya Grah movement, in presence of Dr. Manmohan Singh. The President of South Africa Thabo Mbeki was also there. It was in a huge stadium. I also felt honored to contribute towards the Apartheid movement, while Mr. Nelson Mandela was in the prison.

On the request of the Late Shri.Sunil Dutt, I performed at Sabrmati Ashram at 5:30AM near Ahmadabad in the presence of all the Congress leaders especially. This was also to commemorate the Padyaatra of Baapu. Even in our own country there was discrimination. The Dalits and minorities suffered the most. The credit goes to Mahatma Gandhi who along with his like minded people dedicated their lives to peace and non-violence.

On account of discriminations in our country, India was divided in to several states. Because of vote banks, the ruling parties could not take any strong decisions for the unity and better future of India. Our entire political system is based on discrimination. Some suffer more and some suffer less. After a few years like in Europe, god forbid, every state in India may become a separate country.

No school of the world has time to teach the value of love or compassion. Every school is busy teaching only the subjects required for the examinations to be evaluated at the next class. Certain people and the countries are busy injecting hatred among the children. It is high time all schools need to reform their teaching system and their curriculum. Every child must be told about the great contributions of their parents in their life. Instead of preparing children as inhuman robots to face the violent world, we need to create a special class where children could be taught the importance of love, tolerance, patience, and compassion. Also they should be encouraged for their creative instincts. Why are children in schools shooting each other? Why are children detached from their parents? Why don’t children respect their school Teachers and Principals?

Every state of India is boasting about their educational achievements or high rates of literacy. But I don’t think education could create compassion or kindness in a human being. Yes, educated people become very clever and most of them are contributing towards violence and destruction. My education is through music or sound only.

According to my parents who were my Gurus too, there are basically two worlds of knowledge. Sound and Words; the world of language is ruling the world but very few can analyze or realize the sound. Thank God I belong to the world of Sound. Sound and Music has connected the world. Language created barriers and discrimination.

I personally feel that we the people of the world are of the same race; we also have a common God because all of us come and go in the same way from this world. It’s high time we realize and convey this message to the world.

I am really shocked and deeply sad to hear that the pop star and heart throb of the whole world, Michael Jackson died. It is really unbelievable. On CNN, Larry King is conducting interviews of celebrities of the music and film world, and also showing the family friends like Elizabeth Taylor. I am a great fan and admirer of the legendary Michael Jackson. All this time I was hoping to meet him some day some where. Some time back, I heard Michael was spending time in Bahrain. The King of Bahrain is very fond of music, and Michael was recording in this studio. I believe the King has built a beautiful studio in Bahrain. I feel sad to mention that in the year 1984, Michael’s friend approached me after my concert in Los Angeles and requested me to postpone my return to India for another week. In fact I was dying to be back home as I was missing my family. I was travelling for two months all over in the US. The friend wanted Michael Jackson to listen to my Sarod. I politely told him the reason of not accepting the concert at his residence. I feel sadder to realize that I lost out interacting and to meeting the king of pop. God had gifted him with extra sense of rhythm and grace in his dance and music. Seeing Michael Jackson’s dances through many of his music videos, I often felt as if the rhythm is moving with grace and beauty.

In our country especially in Bollywood, most of the choreographers blindly followed, and borrowed dancing techniques from Michael Jackson for the Indian movies. Many actors from the film and entertainment world were inspired by this icon. It was a very rare combination of two different art forms, dance and singing. We have many artists who manage only in one art form beautifully. How the world has changed? Today the expectation of the world is multidimensional musicians or dancers. Earlier I used to admire Elvis Presley. What showmanship he had! with similar kind of approach to music and dance. While I was in the state of Tennessee, I visited the museum of Elvis Presley. I was amazed to see the cars and clothes Elvis used. The museum in Memphis has really beautifully preserved and maintained. I am sure Michael Jackson must have admired Elvis Presley and also liked his showmanship. I salute to the dedication, commitment and professionalism of Michael Jackson. It was indeed sad to see him always surrounded by a chain of controversies. As they say, ‘men love to see heroes rise but enjoy to see them fall.’ The period for an artist after fifty is indeed the peak years of their life as here the approach and imagination of most artists takes a turn that incorporates their lives journeys, feelings and experiences. Almighty though had other plans for this sensation.

How to become Michael Jackson? This question will always be there for every dancer or singer of the world. I was told by his friend that Michael had good feelings for India and Indian classical music. He also used to have photographs of gods and goddesses of Hindu mythology. He was a very kind, generous and compassionate person. I am sure the world will always miss him. My whole family will also miss the presence of Michael Jackson in this creative world. May his soul rest in Peace!

In our country, we had great classical dancers like Bala Saraswathy, Rukmini Arundale, Sitara Devi, Roshan Kumari, Gopi Krishna, Birju Maharaj, Yamini Krishnamurthy, Indrani Rehman and now Shamik Davar for contemporary dance style. There are musicians and dancers in every country. Every country has their regional or folk dances and music. But the complete concentration on dance is only in our Hindi movies, especially on each song sequence. Historically every heroine and hero of the movies used to dance. But some ladies were outstanding dancers like Vyjayanthimala, Padmini, Ragini, Rekha, Hema Malini and Madhuri Dixit who created sensation. Among the heroes, actors like Amitabh Bachchan, Jitendra, Mithun Chakravarty, Govinda, Hritik Roshan, and Akshay Kumar are amongst outstanding dancers. The present wedding ceremonies, the sangeet dances is based on all the filmy songs which has a fast beat. Today’s young actors have to be outstanding dancers. Every artist or actor has to be multidimensional or multifaceted.

Every country is most interested in a multicultural activity today. Concerts of two musicians of two different countries or an album by two musicians of different cultures/ Keeping this thought process in mind, the world premiere of my collaborated album, Ancient Sounds with Iraqi Oud player Rahim Alhaj was on the 19th June in Albuquerque, USA. To promote the album, we tour in different cities this month and in fall.

My recent orchestral venture of my Sarod Concerto ‘Samagam’ was presented with the Taipei Chinese Orchestra (TCO), earlier in May, as they were very keen to play the concerto with my Sarod. I spent ten days with the Chinese musicians in Taiwan and experienced so much love, commitment and dedication. They have some beautiful instruments which we have never seen or heard like ZHONG RAN, ERHU, YANG QIN, BEI GEHU, GEHU, GUAN, DI, PAIGU, SHENG and PIPA (a very expressive instrument). It was a great experience when Taipei Chinese Orchestra performed with me. The concert was held at the historic and prestigious Zhongshan Hall and we received a standing ovation.. I hope that we can present the concerto with the TCO soon in India so that the Indian audience can also experience the Artistry of the Taipei Chinese Orchestra. I am currently in Europe following which I do my yearly summer school at University of New Mexico (UNM) in Albuquerque in the US. Last year also I had brilliant students who were already learning European Music. I taught them vocal, tabla, Sarod and music in General. Most students are all into European music but enjoy being with me and understanding my musical journey. All my life I have tried to make my students feel music, realize music, experience music and live for music. I am trying to solve mysteries of sound and music. What is music? Why do we need music in our lives? How to appreciate music to receive positive effects of music, why one should always listen with complete concentration? What is pure music? Etc.

Just a few days ago, I visited Turkey, what a beautiful country! Every time I visited Istanbul, I was always remembered their great architects and the legendary revered poet Rumy. I performed at ‘Camal Resit Rey’ concert hall; a very beautiful one which has an immense antique value in Istanbul. I love this city; it was a very vibrant and appreciative audience, indeed a memorable concert. I have two concerts in UK; In London I play at Kings Place and the second concert is at the Town Hall in Middlesbrough. We have such beautiful memories of so many countries and venues in this world. Today I am a world citizen, I feel, I belong to the whole world, I have a home in every music lover’s heart.

Back home, my heartiest congratulations to the Congress party for the thumping victory under the leadership of Dr. Manmohan Singh and Smt. Sonia Gandhi and all the people of India who gave such a huge mandate to the Congress party for the unity and stability of our great country. With this kind of a victory, one cannot ignore the young political leaders who have taken such a great interest for the future of India and given faith and trust to the people to bring about a change in the political approaches. The credit goes to all our young leaders for their dynamic and energetic performance during this recent election. I personally have great expectations from all the young leaders of all the parties especially Priyanka and Rahul Gandhi and their colleagues and associates. I hope and pray that may India see the light of the day with these able young leaders in the years to come and may the young hard working people of India achieve every thing they deserve and desire in their lives.

With this kind of a victory, I believe the Congress party has emerged as a strong and matured party still connected with the ideology of the past leaders like Mahatama Gandhi, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, Dr. Radhakrishnan, Dr. Zakir Hussain, Smt.Indira Gandhi, Mr. Rajiv Gandhi and many others. I had the honour of meeting most of these great leaders. They were our Jewels of India, I personally miss them all. I still remember the day Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru died in Delhi my parents and the whole nation was weeping. The world was shocked and sad the way Smt. Indira Gandhi and Shri. Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated. Being humble Classical musician, music has been way of life and the very fact of my existence. My musical homage to Smt. Indira Gandhi was Raga Priyadarshini and Raga Kamal Shree for Shri. Rajiv Gandhi. I also presented Raga Jawahar Manjari as a tribute to Pandit Nehru in London on his Birth Centenary celebrations in 1990 in presence of HRH Prince Charles as they shared the same birthday (November 14th). This was my humble token of love and reverence to our beloved leaders with whom I have had so many beautiful moments connected of my life. These tributes have been personal for me. Good luck to all of us with our new Government and the new ministers of Congress, DMK and Trinamool Congress. Here’s hoping for the most memorable term!

Flight to the Past

My heartfelt condolences and sympathies to the family members who lost their loved ones in the Air France 447 plane crash. May god grant them all strength and peace to bear such an unexpected emotional trauma. With my wife Subhalakshmi and I were watching CNN in New York on June 1st. when suddenly we saw the breaking news that AF-447 Aircraft with 228 passengers onboard went missing from the radar. I started praying for the safe return and landing of the flight but it is really sad that the plane finally crashed. Every time I hear about any plane crash of any country I pray for the souls of the deceased and for the peace for the family members. I always felt that after every landing, either domestic or international, we witness a new life. On the 1st of June, I was very tensed and worried, especially because my sons Amaan and Ayaan were also in a plane flying to New York.

My Guru and father Ustad Haafiz Ali Khan Saheb, was always so afraid of flying. He declined so many overseas offers by the Government of India because of his fear of flying. In the year 1963, Asia Society of USA invited eminent musicians and dancers from India. The leader of the delegation invited me to join for the two month concert tour to the US. I was thrilled with the invitation but I very humbly conveyed that my father’s permission is most important for me. Knowing Abba Saheb’s views of flying, they all came to my home and tried persuading Abba Saheb. Being the youngest child in the family, it was a painful decision for my father to grant permission for me to be away from home for two months. I knew most of all; his fear of flying was the biggest issue. With great persuasion by several eminent artists of the tour, Abba Saheb finally accepted the request. And that was my first ever foreign tour to the U.S.

On the 4th of June, the Counselor General of India, in New York, Mr. Prabhu Dayal invited me for a lecture demonstration for an hour. It was a very inspiring and distinguished audience. I really enjoyed meeting all the guests who love our country and my music. I have such nostalgic memories of Indian Consulate of New York. At the time of Mr. P A Nazreth, I stayed with his family in the Consulate. Now-a-days Mr Nazreth runs the Sarvodya Trust in Bangalore that promotes the teachings and the message of Mahatma Gandhi. I am also one of the trustees at Sarvodya. As a DG, in ICCR Mr Nazreth gave his best. His is a very dynamic and committed Gandhian.

In 1984, I was hosted by Mr. Arun Patwardhan, who was the then Consulate General of India in New York. I was on a two month tour of the US at that time and I gave a concert at the request of Mr.Patwardhan. I really enjoyed their kind and warm hospitality. He and his wife were both great individuals. While I was in India I heard the news that Mr. and Mrs. Arun Patwardhan died in a plane crash, while traveling to Vietnam. I can never forget their love and gracious hospitality.

The late Dr. L.M. Singhvi was High Commissioner of India in UK for nearly seven years when I was a visiting professor in York University (UK) for a month. I met Dr. Singhvi on few occasions in London. He invited me to perform in the London High Commission and Dr. Singhvi hosted a very distinguished audience including Lord Mayor and other Royalties at the concert. During the performance I wanted a glass of water and I signaled to my disciple but he could not understand; the next moment I saw Kamlaji (wife of the High Commissioner) carrying a tray with the glass of water for me. I was so touched by her magnanimous and gracious gesture and realized why Dr. Singhvi and Kamlaji were so popular among the artist community. Later I was invited along with Amaan and Ayaan by His Royal Highness Prince Charles to perform at the prestigious St. James Palace for a fund raiser for Temenos Academy, founded by the great poetess Kathleen Raine. Ms. Raine was also a great admirer of Indian Classical music, especially our family. Soon after we concluded our concert, His Royal Highness Prince Charles gave a very moving and encouraging speech about our concert and our family. I still remember the expressions of pride and happiness on the face of Dr. Singhvi who was sitting with Kamlaji in the front row. My family always will miss Dr. Singhvi for his love and kindness. I pray that his soul rests in peace.I congratulate President Barack Obama for addressing Muslim world in Cairo and trying to unite the people of the world. As an artist, I appeal to President Obama, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and all other world leaders to further increase their efforts to destroy nuclear weapons. The Hiroshima bombing incident on 6th August 1945 is the greatest example of destruction caused by man. People remember the bombing incident every year across the world, yet we see very little commitment to destroy harmful nuclear weapons which continuously puts the very existence of world’s population in danger.v

Couldn’t elections have waited?

Recession is a word that has come into sudden vogue. I hear that things might get worse in the months ahead. Barack Obama won the US presidential elections. Hillary Clinton is giving him full support. I hope Obama uses his magic wand and sorts out the problems of people feeling the pain of recession.

As world economies are interlinked, India, too, is feeling the impact of recession, though to a lesser extent than the US. But recession in India is also due to conditions created by the fact that no political party has been able to provide water, electricity, food and shelter to all Indians even 62 years after Independence.

Considering our chronic problems, which are age-old, and the recession, could we not have postponed the elections for a year or two? I am aware that the Constitution requires elections to be held every five years. But even after the elections, we will still have problems like poverty.

In India, we have many religions, castes and sub-castes. Yet, we depend on each other. This dependence is our strength. But during elections, political parties destroy the unity and trust among people to suit their selfish political interests. In doing so, they destroy a 5,000-year-old relationship.

In today's strife-torn world, music, with its philosophy of ‘Sound is God’, comes as the only solace. In the purist form of music, there is not much to understand, but only to experience. It is a joy to realise the beauty of sound. I thank God that I belong to the world of sound which uplifts the soul and connects one to the Almighty.

We have more peace-loving people in the world than destructive, hate-preaching people. The best representatives of any religion are those who are compassionate, forgiving and benevolent. It is imperative that everyone, especially the educated people, interpret religious books using their intelligence and not follow every letter blindly. In many cases, education has not been able to make better human beings of us or create compassion and brotherhood among men.

We need like-minded religious and social leaders who can convey the message of a common God, universal brotherhood and the intrinsic truth of ‘Atma hi Parmatma hai’. Leaders, including Obama, must collectively convey the message of a common God to rid the world of the scourge of fundamentalism, hatred, terrorism and violence. Political leaders should come out of the narrow mentality of using religion as a base. Political campaigns should be based only on the quality and ability of leaders. If leaders do not take this initiative, fundamentalist elements in every religion will continue to divide people, and spread hate and violence.

We are like one family. Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam has been the greatest motif of our culture. We all belong to the same race, as the way we come into this world and leave is common to all. After all the battles, the ultimate truth that remains is water, dust, ashes, air and stones. My guru and father, Haafiz Ali Khan Saheb, often said the reality of life is air, water, fire, fragrance, colours and music. They are eternal and do not belong to any one religion. They are God’s gifts to all His children.

Traditionally, the Indian ethos has revolved around spiritualism. Religion is a personal matter for a majority of our people. But destructive elements give it a public colour and further their vested interests. For people of all religions who travel long distances to a place of worship, a prayer is a personal communion with God. In any place of worship, people from various faiths meet and exchange ideas that form the core of human essence and which bring out the richness and the humanist values that lie at the base of every religious order. It is the prevailing sentiment for the majority of people.

But it is exasperating when a small number of arsonists manage to create an atmosphere of distrust. The solution to this problem is within us. Just as music liberates us from narrow-mindedness and opens our souls to the warmth of universal brotherhood, an inspired leadership can guide us out of the morass of threat to global peace and harmony.

I hope we have a peaceful election. Whichever political party gets elected should dedicate itself to fostering prosperity, development and unity in India.

On March 24, 2009, all the important newspapers of India carried the news of Ghazal maestro Mehdi Hassan’s ill health and his condition of penury and misery. It was very sad to read yet another story of a great musician in such a condition where the family is unable to pay his medical bills. In recent times, a similar situation happened in the lives of Ustad Bismillah Khan and Pandit Shamta Prasad towards the end of their glorious carrers. Ustad Mehdi Hasan who is from Pakistan became a rage after the legendary Thumri and Ghazal singer Begum Akhtar rose to fame. What popularity and craze he had! His cassettes use to be smuggled into India at one point of time like pirated DVD’s are today. He had a very appealing and beautiful voice. He performed all over the world especially, in India. All the important musicians and film stars of India were great admirers of his, in fact Mehdi Saheb use to spend a lot of time in Mumbai. Many young ghazal singers of India became his disciples and followers.

Before Mehdi Saheb, there was another great thumri and ghazal singer, Ustad Barkat Ali Khan Saheb, the younger brother of Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan Saheb, who unfortunately could not become very famous, but luckily, his recordings are with HMV (now Sa re ga ma). I personally use to listen to the recordings of Barkat Ali Khan Saheb and Bade Khan Saheb with equal interest. Mehdi Hassan Saheb was a great devotee and follower of Barkat Ali Khan Saheb and Begum Akhtar in his younger and struggling days.

Historically most of the Ghazal and Qawwali singers were all classical musicians, but because of a very strict discipline, dedication, commitment and struggle in the field of classical music, they took to Ghazal or Qawwali as that industry was booming in the eighties and also it did have quick commercial benefits and gains.

Begum Akhtar gave a very high stature and dignity to Ghazal singing. I remember listening to her 3-minute tracks on 78 rpm disc recordings, where musicians use to pronounce their own names at the end of the piece. Begum Akhtar used to address herself as ‘Mera Naam Faizabad wali Akhtari’ . What a beautiful voice she had! Full of classically rich ornamentations and appeal; amongst the other great Ghazal singers of Pakistan, the legendary Begum Farida Khanum Saheba is a symbol of beauty and grace with amazing vision and approach of music. Iqbal Bano, Malika Pukhraj, Ustad Ghulam Ali and Abida Parveen too have given a different dimension to Ghazal Singing.

I admired several songs of Mehdi Saheb. Once in Delhi he was singing at the residence of a common friend. My wife Subhalakshmi could not go so I went alone. It was a private concert. Many guests were already there; when I reached I was taken into the room of Mehdi Saheb. He met me very warmly and we got into the deep conversation of music and great musicians. In between, the host came inside to remind Khan Saheb that he had an audience waiting outside who wanted the concert to commence to which he kept on saying please tell them that I am getting ready. I suddenly realized that it was more then two hours that we were talking. Finally, he agreed to appear and I apologized for not being able to stay or attend to his concert as it got too late. I said my wife is not too well and I have to go back (though I use this line very often much to my wife’s annoyance, this time it was true!). It was truly a memorable meeting. However, I only knew him through his music but that evening, I realized that he had great human qualities and the deepest respect and love for other musicians.v

After the twenty five years of a cultural silence, I was the first Indian musician to visit Pakistan at the time of Janab Zia-ul-haq Saheb. Our Indian ambassador at that time was Mr. Natwar Singh and Mr. Mani Shanker Aiyar was the Council General at Karachi. I had a great experience and I received a lot of love and respect. All the Pakistani musicians felt much happier and honoured to perform in India, because they all received so much adulation in India. In fact in Pakistan, they were more interested in our Indian films and great playback singers like Lata Mangeshkarji, Mohd.Rafi, Mukesh, Talat Mehmood, Manna Dey, Hemant Kumar and Kishore Kumar.

I am sure that the people of Pakistan and the Pakistan government will help and take care of all the medical bills of Mehdi Hassan Saheb which his family has to pay to the hospital authorities. It’s ironic that after partition the powerful people could only divide the land but they could not divide the Swar, music or the deep rooted age old ancient culture. For the refugees of both the countries money and power became their Gods and their greatest assets. After the attacks that happened in Mumbai on 26/11, I see things only get worse even for cultural exchanges, which truly is sad for the performing arts. The nations are blaming each other for what happened on that day and this is widening the divide between them. This will most certainly lead to depreciation in the art, cultural and sports exchanges that could have benefited people in both countries.

I sincerely feel that it should be the duty of all art and artist enthusiasts that they should come forward and either patronize or support any musician or a creative person of any country who is in need. I hope that the sufferings of a state of penury, of not only the artist, but also the family members of the artist would be less painful. I hope every creative artist of the world completes their journey of life with honour and dignity and always makes a back up plan for his or her rainy day.

-Amjad Ali Khan

Considering a five thousand years old civilization which includes several Dynasties and rulers of various religions, it is amazing how our ancient Indian classical and folk music survived all historical changes, especially during the British Raj which was around for almost two hundred years in our country. Definitely, they have left long legacy and lineage of western music in our country. Certain states of India like Tamil Nadu, Goa, Karnataka, Bengal, Maharashtra, Kerala, Andhra and Delhi, one can feel the parallel world of music exists.

There are many talented Guitarists, Pianists, Violinists, Mandolin and Keyboard players. I discovered two brilliant violin players; Dev Shankar and Jyoti Shankar also known as the Violin Brothers .They know western classical music and have got a diploma from Trinity college of Music, England. I am sure that there are many more western classical musicians in our country who have done a course with Trinity College. The Violin brothers are currently learning Indian classical music from me.

I have heard another brilliant violin player in band called Mrigaya, Sharad Srivastava. There are many outstanding and brilliant groups of orchestras and bands like Parikarma, Indian Ocean, Silk Route, Mrigya, Euphoria etc. I wish them all the luck and success. In the year 1972 there was an Indian Wood Stock festival called Mallavali Music festival at Lonavala-Pune, where all the western musicians of India were performing and Father Alvaris, the organizer also invited me to perform; I really enjoyed the music of that festival. After some time in Delhi, the Statesman group and their young magazine called J S organized a huge western music festival in Lodhi Garden. Here again, there were many outstanding groups and I was scheduled between Silencers and Human Bondage (popular Bands in India at that time). This festival was designed and organised by Mr. Saeed Naqvi and the Late Amita Malik.

More recently, I was very happy and honoured with the response of Samaagam, my Sarod Concerto. We had a six city tour covering Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Chandigarh, Delhi. All the musicians and the technicians received so much love and warmth from our countrymen! Every city gave us a standing ovation. It was a great experience and honour for the entire Scottish chamber Orchestra. By the grace of god, they all went back with beautiful memories and an over whelming response. In May this year, I present Samagam with the Taipei Chinese Orchestra and also premier a new piece called “Shanti” by the TCO. I hope that Samagam comes back to India soon we have a similar experience the next time.

I am also very happy and proud about the Oscar awardees for the movie ‘Slum dog millionaire’, especially Danny Boyle, Christian Colson, Simon Beaufoy, Anthony Dod Mantle, Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke, Resul Pookutty, Chris Dickens, A.R. Rahman and Gulzar Saheb. I would also like to congratulate Mr. Mani Ratnam, the creative film maker who gave the first break to Rahman in his film ‘ROJA’ as a music director in the year 1991. If the Oscar was in my hands, I would have given it to Rahman for ROJA itself, but I believe that destiny, awards and honours are entirely in the hands of God almighty. I am very happy to know that the Oscar award winning team is donating their money to the slum areas of India, especially Mumbai. I would like to appeal to the Govt. of India to seriously and effectively take some action to help and improve the living condition of the people who are in slum areas in our country.

Mumbai or Bombay (as the world remembers) was always the financial capital and the ‘Jaadu Nagri’ (Magical Town) full of glamour and excitement. Today bollywood with the help of 100 TV channels has become very big. The world has really become a global village. People from all sections of life especially from the creative world came to Mumbai to achieve their goals or to fulfill their dreams and some really became super stars overnight. Classical musicians and dancers have always been coming to Mumbai from different parts of India. Some played in the orchestras and some became film music and dance directors or playback singers.

I personally admire and enjoy good film songs and I always look forward to seeing a creative film. I feel sorry when I hear that some big budgeted movies costing 50-60 crores fails on the opening day itself. I think the Indian film Industry should always trust and respect the talent of creative people; the success part is only in the hands of God almighty. There are so many talented creative young and old people in the world. Please trust your own judgment, listen to your own gut feeling. Talent, hard work and dedication are important but there is no simple logic or formula to achieve success.

It has indeed been a matter of great honour and pride for all Indians as our very own music director A R Rahman won a Golden Globe for the Best Original Score for his music in the British director Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire. I am very happy to see that Bollywood has finally got mainstream reorganization after years of waiting for it. I recall meeting Rahman once at my concert in London at Royal Festival Hall which was a fund raiser for the Gujrat Earthquake victims. I think this was the time when he was working with Andrew Lloyd Webber for Bollywood Dreams. Soft spoken and God fearing, we spent some very fond moments back stage along with Amaan and Ayaan. Over the years, I have observed his growth as a musician by leaps and bounds. Today, he has truly redefined Indian Film music to what is known as the Rahman style of music. I wish him all the very best for the Oscars!

Back home, I am so happy that Pt. Bhimsen Joshi received the country's highest civilian honour Bharat Ratna at the age of 86. On one hand, I was feeling happy to see Barack Obama becoming President of United States and the news of Bhimsenji appeared soon after. Immediately, we called Panditji's residence in Pune and conveyed our greetings and happiness to him. I could feel the ecstasy of joy and happiness in his voice. I really felt very happy to talk to him after such a long time. May God give him a very long, healthy and peaceful life.

Gharana is a very important word for Indian Classical Music which literally means a musical identity. There are several Gharanas of the vocal music. Pandit Bhimsen Joshi belongs to this unique 'Kirana' gharana.. In fact, as a young struggling musician, he heard a recording of Abdul Karim Khan Saheb of Kirana Gharana singing' Piya milan ki aas' and 'Piya bin nahin awat chain', both Thumris. Panditji has often mentioned that the appeal and impact of this recording was so powerful that he seriously decided to become a classical vocalist and in admiration of Khan Saheb he said 'If one has to sing then he should sing like Abdul Kareem Khan Saheb only'. I am also personally a great admirer of the music of Abdul Kareem Khan Saheb and equally of his two daughters who also became very famous in India, Hirabai Barodkar and Roshnara Begum, who finally went to Pakistan. He was the first North Indian musician who was greatly admired and loved by the people of South India. So much so that Maharaja of Mysore appointed him as his court musician in his durbar. My father always said that it's more interesting and satisfying to see a student mention that so and so is my guru as opposed to the guru claiming students! I witnessed a testimony to this statement when I had invited Bhimsenji to sing at my father's memorial festival in Mumbai in 1975. I received a personal note from him which spoke volumes for itself. Panditji mentioned that during his struggling days he learnt from many great gurus but he also came to Gwalior for three years and learnt from my father, Ustad Haafiz Ali Khan Saheb. In fact, he lived our house (now Sarod Ghar, the museum) at Jiwaji Ganj in Gwalior. Panditji specially mentioned about learning the intricacies of Raga Maarwa and Raga Puriya. As both the ragas have the same musical notes, to maintain the character of each is a challenge for all artists. Panditji often mentioned that if any classical musician can sing and differentiate the character of both the ragas then he will be considered of some stature. In his many of his interviews Panditji has always mentioned my father's name among his gurus.

By God's grace, today Pandit Bhimsen Joshi has became the symbol of vocal music in India. Every time I visited Pune to perform at the Sawai Gandharva Music festival, Panditji used to take me to the stage and used to address the audience in Marathi saying that I am his Gurubhai (Son of ones guru). It was a permanent feature that after performing at the Sawai Gandharva Festival, the lunch next day used to be at Panditji's residence. It was only and his family members and course, his wife Vatsalaji who was full of warmth and love.

Once on my wife Subhalakshmi's request, Panditji sang in our humble residence on the eve of my Birthday. It was perhaps the best gift I ever received. He sang for over three hours and after his recital, we had dinner together, which was then breakfast as it was wee hours of the morning. I am indeed very happy that Indian Government has respect and love for all the contributions of great classical musicians while they are still performing. Once again my heartiest congratulations to Pandit Bhimsen Joshiji for this coveted award.

The celebration time during the last week of December for Christmas and to another year ahead makes me feel very happy and excited. Weather is beautiful – flowers blooming all over; I just love the winter season. India is a very blessed country to have a variety of seasons. Historically, people in India worshiped the weather and the nature especially during monsoons when every state or region prayed to have a good harvest season.

I have spent so many New Year eves traveling in the trains or in between ongoing concert tours. I remember celebrating the New Year twice with Prisoners! In the year 1967, to celebrate the New Year eve, an Honourable Jail Superintendent along with other important police officers came to invite me for my Sarod recital at the Alipore Jail in Kolkata. It was a night long musical programme with three other classical musicians. I was the concluding artist. This was an unusual event and for the first time in my life I got an opportunity to serve the prisoners in Kolkata. I was curious to meet the prisoners and see how they lived, where they slept and what they ate. I reached the venue much ahead of time. The prisoners prepared special food for us. It was indeed a truly memorable experience. In 1998, a similar invitation came from Tihar jail in Delhi, though not for New Years. My earlier experience with the prisoners made me accept the same immediately. The memories of this concert did not fade out of my mind for many months. I shall always cherish the moments spent with the prisoners in kolkata and Tihar. for years to come. I met people who were victims of various circumstances, troubled childhoods, social vagaries and many other unfortunate situations.

In our Gwalior house, we had an Imaam Baaraa and on New Years, my father used to invite some young maulvis and spiritual people to pray all night for the peace and harmony all over the world, especially India. Many disciples of my father who belonged to so many different religions also joined this prayer and in the morning of 1st January all the disciples performed together. They were all blessed by my father and offered very delicious food cooked by my mother to complete the New Year celebrations.

Just few years back, I had received an invitation from Music Academy in Chennai to perform on 31st December with Amaan and Ayaan. This was the most coveted slot for the festival for years; following this, another concert by all three of us in Bangalore on the 1st of January. When conveyed this to my sons, they were a bit annoyed since they had to alter their existing New Year plans.They told me that “nobody will come. It’s New Year’s eve”. My wife Subhalakshmiji and I convinced them on this and by god’s grace, we saw the Music Academy hall completely packed and sold out.

As we step into another year, one area that touches me dearly is of course culture and perhaps closer is music. Having been reared on a diet of tradition and continuity, it’s difficult to live in a modern world with classic values. Yet, I chose to belong to a system, where oral knowledge is passed on from guru to student along with actual music lessons. I am standing at a crossroad. Where do we go from here? How will classical music evolve? There is a deluge of pop and so-called fusion, remix ragas and experimental music out there. Great work is being done. The instant success of any of these, as opposed to the long hours of dedication required in the traditional set up sometimes stands in the way of progress. I think it’s great to imbibe cultures from all around the world, but let’s not forget who we are or what we have to offer. We need to be first and foremost, proud of ourselves.

The world is large enough to accommodate our innumerable cultures and give adequate space to all. But exposure to the arts should be mandatory to ensure true appreciation of any medium. It will indeed be a sad day for all of us if our musical traditions that date back more than 5000 years, are sacrificed at the altar of modernity. It is crucial that historic and contemporary cultures enmesh with one another to preserve an India way of life as it stands today.

While the standard of living may have improved for some, it has worsened for many. Amenities and fast track development in cities excite us and spur us to do faster and aim higher. But, a closer look reveals the true picture, as you don’t have to travel far to see that there are many that have no clue about where the world has gone. They seem to exist in another timeframe altogether, a world apart, with no water, health, sanitation, education or opportunities. Age-old customs are still practiced and given a sanctity that defies logic. The despair is not restricted to any area, caste or creed but it even has educated individuals as practitioners. I hope that the coming year, puts an end to my worries and makes our country way ahead of the world. At the same time, while modernizing we must not loose our traditional infrastructures. We must ensure that modernization in our country occurs, as far as possible, in keeping with those historic trends that can be preserved. We should be proud of these trends as they have brought us to where we stand today. We must never forget our roots.

I personally would like to welcome the New Year by praying for our peaceful future, good education, well being and prosperity of people all over the world. I would like to wish all a very peaceful, musical and successful New Year. I hope all of us achieve every thing we deserve and desire in our life. May god be with all of us!

Mumbai Massacre

I was looking forward to writing a piece on my New Year experiences in my long musical journey but I felt ashamed to be a human being after seeing the November 26 massacre in Mumbai at the Taj Hotel, Chattrapati Shivaji Terminus, The Oberoi Trident and the Nariman House. Once again we have proved that today’s so called educated human beings are the most dangerous and ferocious animals in the world. I am shocked, the world is shocked. These attacks are truly the worst our country has ever seen. The three days were a nightmare. The stories I heard, the images I saw were so surreal. As a performing artist, one has spent half their lives in hotels and these two hotels in Mumbai have had so many memories attached from my early years in the city. Honestly, much as I would like to analyze and comment on what should be done, or what could have been done or whose fault it was, the reality is that we have lost so many innocent lives, and soldiers that my heart just pours out to them. I salute to the hero’s of our country who were handling all the operations and I pray that the soul of the ones that lost their lives rests in peace.

The literal meaning of ISLAM is peace. However these terrorists, militants, extremists, radical, unkind, conceited, arrogant people who are filled with hatred do not belong to any religion. Such people cannot ever achieve their mission and goals. I remember the trying times of the partition vividly. My father had sent us away to Bhopal even as he decided to stay back. So true was he to his faith that he would not apprehend the thought of any harm coming upon him. In fact, he felt a lot safer and secure in his ancestral home with his people whom he trusted completely. He knew that they would be always there to protect him and would rise to the occasion if indeed help was needed. It is this trust and confidence that we find alarmingly missing in these times of meticulously professionalized system of education. My father believed that in the India where all faiths and cultures grew together like a bouquet of flowers with myriad colours and fragrance.

According to him, there was one common source of energy, God, Almighty that wove us all together with the thread of creative joy and compassion. We follow the same organic cycle of life and death. We share common joys and sorrows. We share common problems and have been blessed with intelligence to seek new ways of solving them. However,

I seriously believe that even education such as it is today has failed miserably in delivering. It could not create the spirit of love and compassion to flourish among human beings. All the major man-made disasters, including the recent events in Mumbai, have been planned and executed by the so-called educated people. My whole family strongly condemns this ruthless, unholy, inhuman act.

My family personally lost a very dear well wisher, friend and music lover, Sabina Saikia. I knew Sabina since her student days, especially when she was attached to the organization, Spic Macay. Over the years, she grew very close to our entire family and was loved by all who knew her. My wife, Subhalakshmi had very close association and rapport with her. She was a real connoisseur of music and knew the intricacies of the music world, both good and bad. I was so proud and happy to see her become one of India’s foremost food critics. We were completely devastated to know that she was inside the Taj Hotel on that fateful night and we were hoping against all odds that she would make it out. However, destiny had other plans. I pray that her soul rests in peace. My family will miss her immensely. Like Sabina, I can well understand the emotional plight hundreds of other people must be going through. I am just praying that our coming generations see a better world. But how will this world come about if we don’t teach our children to love and cherish each other regardless of faith, religion, ethnicity and diversity. We have a duty to our children to teach them to love one another despite heinous acts such as the ones that happened in Mumbai.

As I look around, I feel disheartened to find the regime of intolerance spreading all walks of life. Despite originating from a common source of energy, we are becoming increasing disconnected from each other. Why is it that we find it so difficult to trust? Why is it that we find it so hard to believe in anything? How quickly our faith in the innate goodness of human kind has eroded! How easily we have allowed ourselves into a human crisis where faith and mutual trust have been devalued! Thus is becomes particularly important for us to unite as the people of one country and nurture love in our hearts despite those that want to tear our country apart. If we do so, it is possible that in the coming years our children will be able to enjoy the same freedoms and sense of safety that we did when we were growing up in India.

In the month of September 2008, I was in the US. I saw the Ganesha Chaturthi celebrations for the fist time in North Carolina which went on for ten days in Raleigh. A Successful young group of people from Maharashtra were very keen my concert along with Amaan and Ayaan, so while we were there, we performed one weekend. My wife Subhalakshmi was also with us. We were really moved and touched to see the sanctity, reverence and grace with the way they handled and presented the festival. I performed at Washington DC the following weekend. The Washington concert was presented by Asia Society; I have an emotional attachment with this organization as In 1963, I was invited by Asia Society which also marked my US and overseas debut starting in New York. It was a group of young artists whoch also included the star kathak dancer Birju Maharaj. In fact, Birju Maharaj use to play Tabla with me and I use to play Sarod with his dance! Amaan and Ayaan had to rush back to Mumbai for some recording so the organizers were a bit disappointed.

In the same month, A twenty four hours long festival of music and dance was held in Paris, France. In our country we have seen many festivals But the Paris festival was great success and an absolute sell out and also the first of its kind. Outstanding young and talented musicians and dancers from South and North India were there. My concert was between 12 to 3 am and the audience was ninety nine percent French. My Kudos to the French Government and all the people involved to create a festival of this size. The festival held at Cite de la Musique (meaning city of music) is a cultural complex and is one of the main hubs of Paris’s music life, hosting France’s largest music library, a museum of musical instruments, France’s premier school of music (the Paris Conservatoire) as well as three concerts halls dedicated to classical music and a large venue for pop or rock concerts. This twenty four hour extravaganza went on from 6pm on Saturday to 6pm on Sunday; a unique opportunity indeed to explore the full range of the richness of Indian music.

I was in France earlier thios year as well in Nante (pronounced like NONTH). It’s a two hour drive to a small town quite isolated from main city. My stay was arranged in an old palace. The Festival was very beautifully and artistically designed and called Festival LES ORIENTALES in Saint-Florent-Le-Vieil. We stayed at PALAIS BRIAUD, A 19TH Century Italian-style chateau built by one of the early owners of the French railways. LES ORIENTALES is a festival of world music, the best of its kind in France, which takes place on the grounds of the Abbey of St. Florent-Le-Vieil, an ancient holy place which was founded 1200 years ago by early European Christians.

I was not aware that the next morning, a part of the festival concert was scheduled at the foyer of the palatial hotel I was staying in. I got ready to leave for the airport waiting for people to pick me up. I started walking on the balcony and enjoying the music. It was a sound of the oud, violin and guitar. I could not see the musicians and the audience. I did not know what happened to me at that moment, I was so moved and got carried away that I started humming and the musicians from the lobby started following my voice slowly and slowly and then I was singing and they beautifully supported and followed. After half an hour, suddenly I realized that it was time to leave and in appreciation I loudly shouted, Bravo! The Entire audience in the lobby gave very warm and loud applause. It was a bit bizarre that I was a part of a concert without my knowing! Later I came down and met the musicians; three young handsome brothers from Jordan

 

I have been very fortunate to have received love in abundance from the people of Punjab and Bihar. Even though today their profile has become quite ‘Non Classical’, there was a time when both these states had a very musical profile. Back in the sixties, all the performing musicians and dancers of India use to be in Patna during the Durga Puja celebrations. I also have traveled to perform concerts all over Bihar including cities like Muzaffarpur, Bhagalpur, Samastipur, Motihari, Chhapra, Aara, Katihar, Hajipur, Buxer, Darbhanga, Leheria Sarai, Munger, Ranchi (now Jharkhand) etc. I remember that once I was in Patna for a concert and a messenger came from Dr. Rajendra Prasad, the former first President of India. After his retirement Dr. Rajendra Prasad used to live in Patna at Hardinge Road. He invited me to perform in his house. Meeting him made me walk back memory lane when I first met the President in 1960 my father received the Padma Bhushan from Dr. Rajendra Prasad. I requested Pt. Kishan Maharaj to play tabla with me. When we reached at the residence of Rajendra Babu, he welcomed us most warmly and when we sat to perform, he said, ‘Beta Ab ham Rastrapati naheen rahe’ (Son, I am no more the President of India), I replied, ‘Asli Rashtrapati aap hi hain aur hamesh aap hi rahenge’ (You are the first and the real President of India). He along with his guests was very happy. He blessed and thanked us.

In those days we use to stay in a humble hotel of Patna called ‘Amar Hotel’. Many a times we heard speeches of Jai Prakash Narainji in the Patna maidan. I even found rickshaw cyclists so polite and often heard them say ‘Huzoor, Kahan Jaya Jayee?’(where would you like to go sir?) In Patna itself, every area had a puja pandal (what is this, explain as the common reader wont understand it). I still remember a few names. The most popular one was in the Patna junction organized by Bipin Bihari Sinha. These were in Govind Mitra Road, Gardari Baagh, Langar Toli, Danapur, Machua Toli, Patna Maidan and the last day in Bankipur club.

Once in the seventies, I was requested to coordinate a dance recital in Muzaffarpur by Smt. Hema Malini (who is a family friend today). It was the peak of her career. I am indebted to her mother and Hemaji that they had agreed and come. I still remember that evening, all of Bihar came to Muzaffarpur to see Hema Malini. Vilayat Khan Saheb, who also was performing there, and I got worried with the kind of crowd that gathered and we decided to stay back enjoy the hospitality our hosts.

Punjab too had its own glory. The Baba Harballabh Sangeet Samaroh was the oldest music festival held at Devi Talao every year in the last week of December in Jallundar. From my younger days, I had heard the popularity of this festival and would look forward for the invitation to perform there. The main person behind the music festival at that time was Mr. Ashwini Kumar, who was the SP Police at that time and later on achieved all the highest decorations. From being the DIG-IG, he went to finally becoming the President of Hockey Federation for the Olympics etc. I was finally invited by a great classical singer of Punjab Dilip Chandra Vedi, my father’s friend and colleague, to perform in Jalandhar. It was 1964; when I reached Jalandhar all the artists would stay at Hotel Raj Mahal. That was my first appearance in Punjab. I had two concerts at the festival, one at night and the other in the day time. I never saw the kind of musicians scheduled to perform that year ever again. I was the youngest artist. Others were Pt. Omkarnath Thakur, Narayan Rao Vyas, V.R.Patwardhan, Bhimsen Joshi, Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan Saheb, Amir Khan Saheb, Salamat Ali, Nazakat Ali and Amanat Ali, Fateh Ali of Pakistan, Ravi Shankar, Vilayat Khan, Ali Akbar Khan, Bismillah Khan, Kishan Maharaj, Shamta Prasad and Allah Rakha Khan. Prominent artists had to perform twice. I became the permanent musician to visit every year till the time terrorism started in Punjab.

After the Indo-Pak war in 1965, I was performing at night in Jalandhar and my concert was being broadcast live on All India Radio. An army General, who became very famous during the war walked in my concert and seeing him people started shouting ‘General Dhillon Zindabad’. It began softly and gradually became very loud. The General walked up to my stage and took the mike and addressed the audience in Punjabi, ‘Bhaion Beheno! ye ranchetra da maidan naheen hai, main itthe khan saheb da Sarod sunan aya see so please keep quite’ (This is not a war front, I am here to listen to Khan Saheb). I had stopped at this point but the General sat with me on the stage through the concert as I commenced. Amritsar also at the time had a Holi festival at Durgyana Mandir every year though not well. Today Chandigarh has of course become a very mainstream city. I have such beautiful memories of Chandigarh of my concerts held at Rock garden, PGI Hospital Hall and Tagore hall.From the list of all the musicians mentioned above, very few are alive today. I miss their presence at music festivals. I grew up listening to all of them. I spent such beautiful moments with all of them. I hope and pray for the long, healthy and peaceful life of the remaining few in this world.

In the year 1971, my first documentary film was made by a famous Canadian film maker Mr. James Beveridge. At that time we used to live in Defence Colony in New Delhi in the ground floor in a house that had four rooms and was on rent for only Four Hundred Rupees. My elder sister Sarwar Jahan (I had two older sisters, Anwar and Sarwar) got married in the year 1969 from this house.. My father was alive at that time, though the last ten years of his life was were very uncomfortable. He was highly diabetic and suffered from all the connected ailments. Towards his last years, he was also unable to hear very well. His deterioration was slow. He passed away in this house on December 28, 1972. That is when I became the earner of the family. Whatever I got through my concerts, I used to give to my mother revered Rahat Jehan Khan. After my sister’s marriage, I went to the bank to see my balance. I discovered that I had only Rupees Sixty nine in my account! Unfortunately her marriage was not a happy one; she was tortured by her husband. Few years after the wedding, Sarwar got tetanus and died. I did not tell my father about this news right away and informed in due course. Coming back to this documentary, fortunately in this feature one can see my father (perhaps his only colored footage), mother and also Sarwar Jahan who was a very beautiful person; full of life.

Mr. Beveridge was very keen to go to Gwalior and shoot at the Sarod Ghar (which was not converted into a museum yet) and the Gwalior Palace. At that time, Mr. Madhav Rao Scindia, who was a handsome man full of energy and fun had not yet joined politics. He agreed to be in the film and also created a ‘Darbar like’ atmosphere for a sequence of me performing in the palace. The film has a good footage on him too. The master copy of this documentary lies with the ‘Jamia Millia University’ with department of mass communication in New Delhi. It was a great pleasure working with Mr. Beveridge. I still remember during the film he asked me about my ambition in life and I promptly replied ‘to serve and look after my parents!’ Very recently, his daughter Nina made a film on her father and I fondly recalled the moments I had spent with him.

Another memorable interaction was with the great film maker, writer and poet Gulzar. Gulzar Saheb as I fondly call him, made a documentary film on me titled ‘Amjad Ali Khan’ for the films division in 1990. He got the Filmfare Award for this documentary the following year. Gulzar Saheb’s vision and canvas was so unique. He captured my journey, my mind and my feeling which depicts that music is not a profession for me but it is a passion. The film was shot in New Deli, Mumbai, Pune, Gwalior and Kolkata. It has some very interesting footage of my career. There is also an interaction with my Sarod maker, Hemen Chandra Sen, who is now in his late eighties. I remember while Gulzar Saheb was shooting in Gwalior at Sarod Ghar (my ancestral house), I was sitting on the terrace and speaking about the Mosque which was adjacent to our house. My father would sometimes go and give the Azaan (Call of the prayer) there. As I was speaking, the Azaan actually started in the background. Gulzar Saheb did not say cut and commenced the shoot till the time I walked out of the frame. I also had the pleasure to work with Gulzar Saheb for an Album called Vaada in 2000. I had composed eight songs which he so beautifully penned. We recorded the songs in Mumbai and they were sung by Roop Kumar Rathod and Sadhana Sargam. HMV, now called Sa Re Ga Ma had released this.

More recently in 1996, a very young and dynamic film maker Gautam Haldar made a documentary on me and called it ‘Strings for Freedom’. I had seen Gautam’s first documentary at its premier at the Nandam Theater in Kolkata in 1995. The film was on a much respected and eteran Tabla player, Hirendranath Ganguly (affectionately called Hiru Babu). This film was given the National Award at that time. Following this, he started the documentary on me. I found Gautam focused on what he had conceptualized and his approach was very original This documentary again has some very momentous occasions captured on film including my fiftieth birthday celebrations in Kolkata and New Delhi. Interactions with Bismillah Khan Saheb, Girija Devi, V. G. Joge and the legendary theatre personality Shambhu Mitra are seen in this film. This documentary was selected in the Indian Film Panorama and also won the Bengal Film Journalist Association Award. Apart from film festivals in India, it was screened at the Ankara Film Festival.

In my early teens, after a concert in Kolkata in the early 60s, the great legendary music director Rai Chand Boral, who was a great admirer of my father, Haafiz Ali Khan Saheb, came back stage and told me “with your music, I visualize a symphony and one day, I see you do that with your music.” I took his blessings and with passing time, forgot all about his comment.

Right from my childhood, I understood the vastness and the oceanic depths of music. I feel that the twelve musical notes are so very powerful and vibrant like the sun and all the harmony around it are like its rays. Just like light and shade! I always had a great desire to create a Sarod Concerto for the longest time. As I have mentioned earlier, I have always admired the richness of European Classical music. Be it Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Tchaikovsky; the works! Many of my fellow Indian musicians have worked or collaborated with many interesting artists in the past. In fact, even my sons, Amaan and Ayaan surprised me with their venture into new age music with their albums like Reincarnation, Truth, Mystic Dunes, Passion etc which I feel has been a milestone for their careers.

I was very happy and honoured when the Scottish Chamber Orchestra approached me to write a Sarod Concerto for them. David Murphy, a noted conductor from UK was to conduct the entire concerto and also put my thoughts together. David has great regards for Indian Classical music so he could understand and read my vision. After nearly a years work, I decided to name this project Samagam-A concerto for Sarod.

Samagam premiered very recently in the month of June in the Orkney Islands in Scotland at the St. Magnus Festival to a full house. I also featured in a solo concert the following day at the festival. It was indeed an emotional moment for me that Amaan and Ayaan detoured from Belgium between their concerts and were present for the opening night of Samagam. The premier of Samagam also coincided with the ongoing City of London Festival. London is again a city with which I have had a relationship over thirty years. The venue for the Concerto was Mansion House, where historically, the Mayor of London resided. By the benevolence of the heavens, Samagam has been a very successful project of my life. I hope that we are able to bring it to India very soon. I also collaborated with a very fine young Cellist, Claudio Bohorquez in two performances in London at Inholders Hall and at the Shambhala Centre.

The western world also truly makes you realize the deep respect and honour that they have towards a classical musician. On many occasions, I have experienced the graceful gestures of people all over the world graciously coming forward to offer to carry my Sarod while traveling or going from the hotel to the concert venue. Even during the rehearsals of Samagam, the head of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra came up personally to pick me up and offered to carry my Sarod in hand. What I am getting at which all this is that the respect for music comes from within, before egos and the power games of positions.

Following concerts with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and a few solo concerts in Europe, I am scheduled to teach at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque all of July. I have taught in several Universities in the US and Europe in the past. It’s just something I enjoy doing. I am not teaching Sarod but just music and its appreciation. The students could be from all backgrounds of music, be it Western classical, jazz etc. My purpose of teaching is how to realize music and how it affects us in our day to day lives.

Life does take a full circle. When I look back, I remember with great reverence the visualization and suggestion for my music by Rai Chand Boralji. Once again I would like to mention that whatever musical endeavors I do are all with the blessings of the almighty and my music lovers. I feel once people love an artist, they love whatever he or she does.

Amongst my recent European tours, my concert at Wigmore Hall in London in March 2008 was most memorable. In the past, the more known halls in UK where I have performed on numerous occasions are the Royal Albert Hall, South Bank Center (both Royal Festival Hall and Queen Elisabeth Hall) and Barbican Center, but Wigmore Hall was a pleasant surprise; a beautiful ambience and a perfect size for an Indian classical concert which was intimate.

Wigmore Hall being one of the most prestigious halls in London is historically about a hundred years old has always hosted European musicians. Although forty years back Pandit Ravi Shankar performed here and I became the second Indian to perform here after forty years! There is another history of Wigmore Hall that they never provided microphones to performing artists and always had an acoustic sound. Though I enjoyed playing for a sell out European audience and received a standing ovation, I missed my mikes! Sarod being a very sensitive and delicate Instrument needs amplification support very necessary. Since it also has sympathetic strings, each and every note resounds and hence a need for amplification is a must. However, it was a great experience. In our country microphones stared being used in the forties. Proper ambience, proper venues and the appreciative audience are the only combination for a great concert for any artist. My guru and father mentioned that at his time long before the forties, some connoisseurs use to hang earthen pots up side down for the sound to travel.

This Wigmore Hall concert brought back memories of my first concert on the inaugural year of the Tata Theater in Mumbai. Tata theatre was made as one of the finest acoustic halls and would initially refuse to give a PA system to any musician. I remember my first performance at Tata theatre, National Center of Performing Arts (NCPA) in 1980 which took place in the presence of its first director Dr. Narayan Menon who was a great musicologist and a fine veena player. I remember that when I began my announcement, people screamed because they could not hear me, and for that I said it is acoustically built. Dr. Menon really took the pain to create something unusual but after sometime they had to provide a PA system to every performer.

The plight of Concert halls in India really saddens me. All across India, including the metropolitan cities, we need a world class concert hall. I have quite recently seen rodents and cats in very well known venues where some of the biggest names in the business have performed. I hope that I will see a world class concert hall India very soon which hopefully should look like a monument preferably named after a great artist. Unfortunately, all the government owned auditoriums are not properly maintained. only few private concerts hall are in good shape. Like rest of the world, India should have a cultural complex in every capital town of all states. Like the present day multiplexes, which have pioneered the entertainment industry, the South bank Center in London or Carnegie Hall of New York. In every cultural complex there should be three auditoriums of different sizes.

I must mention here that last December (2007) the Honourable speaker of Lok Sabha Shri. Som Nath Chatterjee created a beautiful concert hall in Shantiniketan, as a tribute to great poet Rabindranath Tagore called ‘Geetanjali’. I had the honour to perform at the inaugural concert in the beautifully made concert hall.

I remember my first visit to Shantiniketan in 1966. the University created by the great poet and musician Rabindranath Tagore by the name of ‘Vishwa Bharti’. When I arrived on stage, there was no applause though the audience was huge. I thought may be there will be applause for my tabla player Pt. Kanai Dutt who was very well known at that time but yet again no one applauded on his arrival too. Finally when the Vice Chancellor of the University introduced me to the audience then there were loud shouts and screams of the Sanskrit word ‘Sadhu’. Later on I realized that Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore had banned or prohibited applauding in the university. I could see the reason of banning or disapproving the applauds because in those days or historically there used to be ‘Mehfils’ or chamber music concerts in a big rooms or palaces, where in appreciation from the real connoisseurs use to be verbally shouted or said with words like ‘kya baat hai’, ‘wah-wah’, ‘bahut achche’,’subhan allah’,or ‘shabaash’. This was the system for the whole of India. Yes applauding initially was considered a western way of appreciating music or any art form. However, Now I am very happy that people in Shantiniketan have also become more expressive and one can hear applause too!

I always admired the system of Western Classical music (In the history of Western music, the term ’Classical’ means the time between ca. 1760 and 1820) Their ability to read and write music has always fascinated me immensely. The greatest achievement here, apart from the Solo performances, is to jointly perform with a large number of musicians as an orchestra. Hats off to their discipline and capacity to produce something so beautiful collectively! I salute their gesture of honouring the artists with a standing ovation even if they are not too old. I am happy to see this culture being adapted in India too which is very heart warming. Every time I visit countries like Austria or Germany, I feel spiritually uplifted. I am overwhelmed when I think of how many great composers, conductors and musicians these countries have produced.

My first tryst with getting involved in an Orchestra was in 1984. This was soon after Indira Gandhi’s assassination. The government of India requested me to compose an orchestral piece. I had to visit All India Radio because they use to have an orchestral group called Vaadya Vrind. I composed the Orchestra and named it Priyadarshani, which was also her name performed most beautifully by all the Artists at All India Radio.

Once again in 1990, I was requested to compose for the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. I composed a piece called Tribute to Hong Kong and it was conducted by Mr. Fu Ku Mora. I was a performer in the Orchestra too and it was indeed an experience to have rehearsed portions which to an Indian classical musician is quite unusual. More recently I have just finished work for a Sarod Concerto which will, god willing, premier soon. I am enjoying working with brilliant European musicians and we have several concerts lined up in the near future. People who have been following my work must have noticed that I kept away from collaborations and experiments for the longest time in my career. This was however very unintentional as I have always been a very open minded person both musically and personally.

I have taught at many Universities in the US and in Europe. My first professorship was in York University in England in 1995. I spent a month there teaching students who were learning Western Classical music. Here too, I prepared an Orchestra where all the students performed the pieces they had learnt in the University Hall at the end of the course. I recall an interesting incident after the concert at York University. I asked Prof. Niel Sorrell, the head of the music department as to why the Vice Chancellor of the University did not meet me after the concert as he was in the audience. I understand that as he was coming up to meet me he said’ I don’t think that I am properly dressed to meet the Maestro!” I thought that this was an ultimate way to show respect not just an artist but to any person we are meeting for the first time. I have often been critisized for giving a lot of importance to the kurtas I wear on stage. Though my wife Subhalaskhmi is to be credited for this, I feel that visual appeal is never a disadvantage and only adds to you as a performer. Whenever or wherever I taught, it was not Sarod but music in general. There is a world beyond reading and writing music. I constantly try that music should be experienced, realized and felt. Almost like god almighty who is with us, around us and watching us at all times. We only have to feel and realize it.

I felt very happy and proud when BBC Magazine UK declared my CD of Raga Bhairav as one of the best 50 CDs on Classical Music of the World in 1996. Historically, only European music was considered in this category. Asian and Indian music was always under the caption of World music. I am a bit saddened by India’s inclusion in the World Music category. Every time I visit a record store any where in the world, Indian classical music is always found in the World music section. Now this has also become a category for many awards including the Grammys. I hope and pray that people who are running the music industry realize the importance of our music and it’s a ancient history. I hope that one day we have our own category of Indian Music.

-Amjad Ali Khan

My first foreign tour was way back in 1963, straight to the US. It was a group with Indian dancers and musicians traveling to the US for over two months. That was also the beginning of Indian Classical music being realized and experienced in America. I remember being so fascinated by the country back then like any youngster. From the mid seventies, I was performing in the US quite regularly. Many of my contemporaries had also set up schools and also lived there round the year and visited India on in the winters for the concert season. This somehow became a trend that worked for them for over forty years.

Of the many tours during that time, I can’t forget my 1984 US tour that went on for more than two months, especially the concert in Boston on 20th April. That concert became very memorable because the Governor of Massachusetts declared 20th April as Amjad Ali Khan day in the State of Massachusetts. I also remember one Indian friend during that tour who requested me to stay on an extra week at the end of the tour as Michael Jackson was coming to his house and he wanted a private concert for Michael which I humbly declined. The reason was that it was over two months and I was dying to come back to India to my family as Amaan and Ayaan were really young. Till date my sons tell me that it was a wrong move!

There was however, one year (1987) when I did not turn up for my tour which was due to various irreparable personal reasons I had with my presenter. This in turn apparently led him to loose a lot of money and also caused me a so called bad name in the concert circles in the US. Though I did a financial compensation to the concerned person in the following year, my new reputation of being ‘unprofessional’ became a victim of mass propaganda!

However, a new chapter started in the US from the nineties for me. This period also saw my sons Amaan and Ayaan debut in the US and perform numerous concert tours alongside me on stage from venues ranging from Carnegie Hall to Kennedy Center. By gods grace I also got many I have got honorary citizenships and key to cities of various states.

Concerts interestingly today in the US happen in three ways for musicians from India. The first kind is of course the established lot performing at the big venues often backed by organizers who feel that they are the czars of Indian music in the US. The second kind is the Indian organizers who keep very busy doing many events round the year. Here, the audience is mainly the Indian community in the States. Lastly, the third kind are the house concerts that most young and up coming artists have to do sometimes even while they have a simultaneous tour happening. All said and done, the artists are busy!

Having said so, United States of America truly has embraced Indian Classical Music and listeners have heard the best from India. The post 9/11 phase has indeed been a nightmare for artists to travel anywhere in the world. It becomes so inconvenient to catch an early morning domestic flight after a late night concert wee hours of the morning due to rules of early check ins. I hope and pray that we get peace and harmony all around the world.

-Amjad Ali Khan

India is the only country which has two kinds of Classical Music. One from the south of India and other is from the north of India but historically they were called Hindustani and Carnatic.

In this celebration of India’s 60 years of Independence we should collectively represent our nation and especially for the understanding of the whole world, it would be appropriate to call both these terms as Indian classical music of the south and Indian classical music of the north. I had discussed this with all the greats of north and south including Smt. M.S.Subbulaxmi, Shri Semmengudi Srinivas Iyer, Bade Ghulam Ali Khan Saheb, Amir Khan Saheb and Pt. Bhimsen Joshi. All of them wholeheartedly agreed on this point.

Smt. M.S.Subbulaxmi became household name and legend in her life time. Right from the time of Mahatama Gandhi, Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru, Dr. Radhakrishnan, she was the ultimate performer and always performed at the most prestigious occasions and festivals.

I only knew her through my father Ustad Haafiz Ali Khan Saheb until the time I met or heard her concert. I remember once I was driving and the radio was on. I was alone in the car. In those days All India Radio was a very prestigious organization. Lot of artists use to put up name plates at their door saying AIR artist! Anyway, I realized a lady singing south Indian music, the music was so appealing that I got engrossed and at the same time I thought could this lady be Smt. M.S. Subbulaxmi? I could not drive further as I did not want to miss any musical phrase, so I stopped the car at the side and waited till the end for the announcement and I felt very happy when the radio station said that it was Smt. M.S. Subbulaxmi. She had that spiritual appeal and power in her music.

It was my good fortune that whenever I performed in Chennai she always came and sat in front seat with her daughter Radha and of course her husband Mr. Sadasivam. I visited her house many times in Chennai.

After my marriage to Smt Subhalakshmi Borooah, I realized my wife was named after M.S (as she was affectionately called by music lovers). She was a noble soul and a beautiful lady who also acted in several films. Her film ‘Meera’ and her rendition of the spiritual bhajans were so captivating that my in-laws in Assam named their newly born daughter after M.S. who is now my wife Subhalakshmi. My wife spent 15 years in Kalakshetra under the giudence of the great Smt. Rukmini Devi Arundale and became a celebrated dancer. During this period she had developed a personal rapport with M.S. who treated her like her own daughter. My wife could communicate in Tamil with her fluently.

We visited her house in Chennai after our marriage along with our sons Amaan and Ayaan. She was very keen that we should visit Kanjipuram to take blessings from His Holiness Sri Chandra sekharendra Saraswathi Swamigal also called Periyava. She personally organized our trip to Kanjipuram. My whole family had the honour of meeting and having darshan of all three Shankaracharyas. It was my honour and privilege to pay my musical homage along with Amaan and Ayaan. Smt. Subbulaxmi always told us that if Shankaracharya even looked upon us, it’s a great blessing.

In another occasion, Smt. M.S.Subbulaxmiji and I were receiving an award together called Sangeet Sagaram given by the Chief Minister of Hydrabad. At that time, it was Mr. Vijay Bhasker Reddy. I always admired the way South Indian people honour artists. It’s almost like worshipping the artist. Amma, as we affectionately called her, was sitting on a low chair and the CM was standing and doing Aarti and all kind of decorations to the artist. When my name was announced, I kept standing but the CM requested me to sit but I replied that I can stand as was feeling awkward to sit while the CM is standing but it was a ritual that the awardee sits. Any way after receiving the award, on behalf of amma, Mr. Sadasivam spoke and thanked the organizers. When they requested me to speak, I was in such a position from where I could see the beautiful face of Amma. My opening words were, “I am so fortunate that I have two Subbulaxmis in my life (I could see Amma smiling) one in the form of a mother and the other in the form of my wife. All of us felt very happy when she received the Bharat Ratna. We attended the lunch after the award ceremony given by Mr. and Mrs. Gopal Gandhi, my old friend and also the grandson of Mahatama Gandhi and present Governor of West Bengal.

The Last time we visited her place and met her was soon after she lost her husband. At that time she was losing her memory. Her adopted son Mr. Atma was looking after her. Amaan and Ayaan presented their book, which they wrote on me which she saw with great interest. She then requested me to sing some compositions and we all sang and made her feel happy. She became very childlike by then.

We had also honoured her with our annual Haafiz Ali Khan Award 1988 which we organized at Rani Sethai hall in Chennai on 28th Dec.1989. The other award winner was Ustad Bismillah Khan Saheb and the ceremony was followed by a performance by Pt. Bhimsen Joshi. I pray that her soul rests in peace.

The City of Gwalior is famous as an ancient seat of culture with a colourful history going back to the sixth century. Due to its location in the heart of India, it has been a melting pot of cultures and civilizations. This synthesis has manifested itself in a highly developed musical tradition. I feel highly spiritually uplifted to realize that I was born in the same town where the saint musician like Tansen was born and even his Samadhi is also in Gwalior. His spiritual guru, Mohammed Ghaus’s tomb is also in the same premise which is a yet another beautiful testimony of the workmanship of the mogul era, although it needs a lot of maintenance even today. In fact, all my fore fathers who had came to India from central Asia in the mid-1700s eventually settled down in Gwalior. The ancestral house in Gwalior where I was born is now known as Sarod Ghar- Museum of Musical Heritage. In this Museum, wherever you look, there is Rhythm and Sound…" The museum houses a collection of old and contemporary instruments, belonging to great and illustrious musicians of the past, on which they pursued their practice. It also has my first sarod on which I began my musical lessons from my father Ustad Haafiz Ali Khan saheb. Their immortality is thus enshrined in this institution. Sarod Ghar also houses an impressive collection of photographs and documents. Work on compiling a database on classical music in the form of books, articles, audio and audio-visual recording is in progress. The road on which the museum stands has been named Haafiz Ali Khan Marg by the Govt. of Madhya Pradesh.

As a humble representative of the legacy of Tansen and his guru Swami Haridas of Vrindavan, I feel sad that the govt. of India has not given a proper tribute or respect to this great musician whose singing and music had a magical effect that would lit up lamps and sometimes make rainfall happen. Today we are celebrating sixty years of India’s independence, so many political parties in Madhya Pradesh ruled the state but no one thought of building an academy or institution in the name of great Tansen.

For the present generation, I must introduce Tansen, who was among the nine jewels of emperor Akbar in the 15th century, born in Gwalior in 1606, reaching the pinnacle of fame in the court of Akbar. Gwalior produced maximum number of musicians in India, one could always compare Austria, Germany or Russia with Gwalior because maximum number of composers and conductors like Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, Tchaikovsky belonged to these countries.The city of Gwalior has been historically fortunate to have great rulers who have always been encouraging creavtive artists. But due to some political reasons the destiny of this cultural humble town changed and Bhopal was declared as the capital of Madhya Pradesh. Other great masters who belonged to Madhya Pradesh are Pyaar Khan Saheb, Jafar Khan Saheb, Haddu Hassu Khan saheb, Nathu Khan Saheb, my older brothers Rehmat Ali Khan Saheb and Mubarak Ali Khan Saheb, Shanker Rao Pandit, Rajab Ali Khan Saheb, Krishanrao Shanker Pandit, Parvat Singh, Madhav Singh, Raja Bhaiyya Poonchwale, Amir Khan Saheb, Abdul Haleem Jafar Khan, Kumar Gandharva, Kishore Kumar and our very own nightingale Lata Mangeshkar.

I was very happy when Bharat Bhawan, a cultural institution (I wish this could be called Tansen Bhawan) was inaugurated by shrimati Indira Gandhi ji. The credit goes to Shri Arjun Singh who was the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh at that time. It is my sincere feeling that for the growth of art and culture of Madhya Pradesh, the trustees of Bharat Bhawan should only be people from the creative field of India.

Amongst the great classical singers of our country Ustad Amir Khan Saheb was often known as the musician’s musician. His approach to music had a different and unique dimension. Having had the honour of performing in the same music festivals and spending so many evenings with him, I felt like sharing two significant incidents.

The first was when the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, Mr. A.N. Jha, invited all the State Governors for a dinner at Raj Bhavan in New Delhi. I was invited to perform and was told that Ustad Amir Khan Saheb would also sing afterwards. On the appointed evening, a car from Raj Bhavan came to pick me up and to my utmost surprise Khan Saheb was already in the car. I offered my respects by touching his feet and got in. On the way Khan Saheb said, “Bhai, I heard lots of Governors are coming” and added, “Most of them don’t understand our type of music, so we should keep our performances very brief!”

When we reached Raj Bhavan we were warmly welcomed and looked after by the Jha family members. Among the audience that evening, there were a few eminent musician invitees who were seated close to the stage during the performance. The great tabla player of Varanasi, Pandit Samta Prasad, was to accompany me. In light of the conversation in the car, I wound up my performance within half an hour, leaving the stage free for Khan Saheb.

The concert began, and for us musicians sitting around the stage, it was an electrifying performance. As is the tradition in a classical concert, we were all loudly appreciating the music with cries of “Wah Wah”, “Bahut Achachey”, “Kya baat hai”, “Subhan Allah”. Now, Ustad Amir Khan Saheb was known for his quick changes of ragas without any gap or taking a pause. Apart from the spotlights on us the concert hall was absolutely dark. Khan Saheb had lost all track of time, completely engrossed in the ecstasy of his music. I noticed through the glare that Mr. Jha was getting restive and with gestures and wanted to know when Khan Saheb would end so that he could serve dinner. Through gestures I indicated to him to take all his guests to dinner. Those of us sitting near the stage were thoroughly enjoying the experience and were not ready to let it end. Jha Saheb was very gracious and for quite some time waited with us, but soon he too left to look after his guests. Khan Saheb had changed into the fifth raga and suddenly realised there was nobody but us left in the hall. Poor thing! He felt very embarrassed and finally stopped. He whispered to me, “Aaj, Bhai, kuch zyada hi ho gaya!” (Today perhaps I sang much more than required). Anyway, any misgivings were soon forgotten with the delicious dinner laid out by our gracious host!

The second incident happened in Kolkata in 1971. There used to be a very prestigious Tansen music conference. Music Festivals were called conferences too in Kolkata. The organizer was a senior musician singer, Shailen Babu. It was a whole night music festival and the concluding artist was Ustad Amir Khan Saheb. Somehow my flight got delayed and by the time I reached the auditorium, Khan sahib had already begun his vocal recital. The organizer Shailen Babu was very upset when I told him that I would not be able to perform as Khan Saheb was already singing. In our tradition, the senior-most or most famous always concludes any conference. Shailen Babu was greatly disturbed and said that the hall was packed and people had bought tickets would be very disappointed. The tabla player Pandit Kanai Dutt had been booked for me and was waiting to play with me. Shailen Babu was trying his best to persuade me to perform which I had to firmly decline.

In the mean time Khan Saheb’s performance ended and he came out. Shailen Babu complained to Khan Saheb that I had refused to perform after him. Khan Saheb turned to me and ordered, “Mere baad tum naheen bajaoge toh kaun bajaega’ ( meaning- you alone can play after me). It was around 5 am when I went on stage. As the curtain lifted to my greatest surprise, Khan Saheb was seated in the first row. On the mike I said, “Khan Saheb, after the kind of music you sang I don’t know what raag to play and how to play. Kindly go home, for my and your own sake!” He responded that he would not go and indicated that I should begin. I still remember I began the concert with Komal Rishabh Asawari- an early morning raag. With the blessings of god it became one of the most memorable concerts of my life.

I can never forget the humble magnanimity of the great Ustad that morning. I felt as if I received the greatest award in the world.

An artiste appreciates and values nothing more than recognition by ones fellow citizens. I feel a sense of great pride when my music is appreciated and have occasionally been surprised by an unexpected honour.

One such occasion happened during the visit of His Royal Highness Prince Charles and Princess Diana. It must be said that Prince Charles is a keen listener of music and I have had the opportunity to play by my self and also with my sons, Amaan and Ayaan on numerous occasions both St. James Palace as well as at High Grove, his country home, where he has constructed a special concert hall for small, intimate gatherings. I must mention here that I feel amused when we have to mention in India itself to organisers that round tables at a concert is not very respectful, whereas, overseas it is always a theatre style seating even at private events as a respect to art and the artist.

During their visit to India in 1992, there were numerous functions all over the country in their honour but the dinner at the then Prime Minister Shri Narasimha Rao’s residence was very special because the number of invitees was only twenty. My wife, Subhalakshmi and I felt very honoured to be invited to this exclusive dinner with the royal couple.

The dinner was in the lawns, very beautifully arranged. I found that I had been seated at the main oval table with the guests of honour, in fact, directly opposite Princess Diana.

It was the month of February for there was a chill in the air. At a certain point, I realised that people were looking worried. I asked what the matter was and I was told that the princess was feeling cold and that they were looking for a shawl! Now, as we were leaving home, my wife had suggested that I carry a very antique Jamevar. For a moment I felt hesitant to offer the shawl, which was lying on my lap, to the Princess, But seeing her shivering, I got up and put it around her much to her relief.

During the dinner, the Prince Charles brought up the point of communal tension since at that time there were a few incidents reported from various parts of the country. “Why are Hindus and Muslims always fighting?” he asked, directing his question at the PM. Hearing the question I happened to turn towards Rao Saheb. Catching my eye, he deftly transferred the question to me saying, “Khan Saheb will answer your question.” I suddenly felt the attention of the table directed towards me. I turned to Prince Charles and said, “Your Highness, this is not a problem of Hindus and Muslims but a problem of militants and destructive terrorists which exist in every religion and in every country.”

Then I turned my face from the political discussion and carried on the conversation with Princess Diana. She was looking so beautiful and graceful in the shawl, which though was a men’s piece, seemed to complement her tall, elegant figure.

When the royal couple was getting ready to leave, the Princess was looking for me to return the shawl. I told her, “Please keep it as a gift from us.” While she was hesitating, I added “Please do accept it”. Meanwhile, another gentleman stepped forward offering his jacket instead. At that the Princess said that she preferred the shawl and wrapped it around herself again.

The next day, Lady Fenn (the British High Commissioner’s wife) called up to find out whether we wanted the shawl back. Subhalakshmi declined saying, “We Indians mean every word especially when we present a gift. It is a humble token of our love and admiration to the Princess”

My wife and I will always the memory of having met Princess Diana in her prime and who was in every way a fairy tale princess, and despite the controversies that followed, received the affection and attention of the whole world.