Tabla makers fondly recall Ustad Zakir Hussain's Kolkata connection, polite demeanour
Tabla makers fondly recall Ustad Zakir Hussain's Kolkata connection, polite demeanour
Kolkata, ‘Bahut Achcha’, an oft-used compound by Ustad Zakir Hussain to express appreciation for others, happens to be the same set of words Shyamal Kumar Das, a tabla maker in south Kolkata, would like to remember and describe the legend with.
A chance meeting with the maestro at a concert in Netaji Indoor Stadium over a quarter of a century ago enabled Das to forge a long-standing friendship with the master of rhythm, who he recalled as “mild-mannered and polite” and “never spoke down or patronised the craft of others”.
Das, who runs a popular musical instrument shop, Narayan Badya Bhandar, in Chetla area, had landed up at the venue with a pair of tabla as gift for Hussain and managed an audience with him in the green room before he was slated to perform at the concert organised by a Bengali film industry body.
"He thanked me profusely after I handed him the tabla, promising to play it whenever possible. Subsequently, I met him at several other concert venues," Das, stating his musical instruments are used by masters like Pt Anindya Kumar Bose, Pt Samir Chatterjee, Pt Bickram Ghosh and Pt Tanmoy Bose, said on Tuesday.
He recalled an SOS he received from Hussain a couple of decades ago, after some problem cropped up in his tabla ahead of a scheduled jugalbandi with Ustad Vilayat Khan.
"Yeh tabla zara thik kar dijiye” , Hussain told Das at the city hotel where the ustad had put up. Das took to working on the instrument and managed to render a job that satisfied the maestro who thanked him copiously, the table maker recalled.
On yet another occasion, at the Rabindra Sadan backstage, when Das was carrying another newly-made set of tablas, the artist offered to hold on to the pair and take a closer look at the result of the craft.
"Some scales of your tabla needed a retweak. I refixed scales like the C-sharp. ‘Chalo, koi baat nahi’ . I have made some improvisations and adaptations and it worked," Hussain had told Das later.
"He would be gifted tablas by many classical instrument makers and he never expressed disappointment or used rude phrases against any such instrument even if they failed to match his expectations. Such was his gentle demeanour and large-heartedness," Das said, adding, "He would always say ‘Bahut Achchha’.”
A grief-stricken Mukta Das from Tollygunje area, who also had a few opportunities to make tabla for the maestro, said: "I remember Dada had told me once during his visit to Kolkata, ‘mere liye kuch banao’ ."
Classical musicians from the city said that unlike many other doyens, Hussain did not regularly use tablas made by Kolkata instrument makers. But, he had great respect for each of them and would use their instruments whenever he could.
"Tablas from Kolkata offer a sweeter tone as a result of skilled craftsmanship and superior materials used in the instrument. We mostly use finer skin for the instrument, the tender skin of goats. The tablas are entirely handcrafted," Shyamal Das said.
Talking about his ties with the city’s classical fraternity, internationally acclaimed percussionist Bickram Ghosh recalled Hussain looking after him when Ghosh’s parents lived in California, and stayed in the same building as the ustad but on a different floor.
"I was a four-year-old and he used to babysit me when my parents were away for some work. He literally saw me grow. He was no less than an elder brother to me," Ghosh said.
“Although my real guru was my father Pt Shankar Ghosh, Zakir bhai was like a guardian to me who kept advising on many issues, including my career. Whenever we met, he would hug me and fondle my hair. I would feel the warmth of his presence.
“He inspired me in so many ways. Bhai should have lived another 10 years at least, he had so much more to give," Ghosh regretted.
He recalled meeting Hussain every time he would come to Kolkata apart from catching up with him abroad.
Besides Ghosh, classicists Pt Kumar Bose, Pt Anindo Chatterjee, Pt Ajoy Chakraborty, Pt Tejendranayan Majumdar, Pt Tanmoy Bose, Pt Pradyot Mukherjee and others had personal and family bonding with the tabla genius.
The 73-year-old US-based musician, who took tabla to the global stage, died in a hospital in San Francisco, his family said on Monday. Hussain died from complications arising out of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, they said in a statement.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
