Timeless master of the singing Sitar - By Sunita Buddhiraja

Even after days of his passing away, the notes of Ustad Vilayat Khan's Sitar can be heard in the air, says SUNITA BUDDHIRAJA.

I was just about five or six years old. My mother would drag me to the annual Shankarlal Music Festival in Delhi, organised in the open air grounds of Modern School. Most of tjem were all-night programmes.

Although I have memories of listening to various artistes, I learnt their significance of these artists and their instruments much later.

On one such night, I saw a tall gentleman in white kurta and churidaar pajama, holding something like a round box that had a long wooden trunk with a number of metallic strings tied to it. This was my impression of the instrument. My mother told me that the gentleman was Ustad Vilayat Khan and the instrument was Sitar.

He took position on the stage and touched the strings of Sitar, creating a whole universe of love, nature and bond.

Forty years later I recall that it was the first recital during which I did not go off to sleep. I kept absorbing the sound being generated from Sitar. I could sense goose pimples appearing on my arms. Both Sitar and Ustad were singing! Ustad Vilayat Khan played Raag Darbari Kanhada. This was my first real introduction to music.

I began compering concerts and interviewing artists for my articles. I would see Ustad Vilayat Khan playing Sitar and day dreamt, will I ever be able to compere his recital too.

Swami Haridas Sammelan was held in Brindavan every year around Radha Ashtami - the birth date of Radha, and as if on the inspiration of Lord Krishna, I was invited to compere the four day festival. Artists for that year included Ustad Vilayat Khan. In the wee hours I saw him enter the green rooms. Wearing a dark silk kurta, holding Sitar with love and

passion, he was smoking a bidi. I touched his feet and he blessed me, 'khush rahiye beta.'

Accompanied by Pandit Samta Prasad on Tabla, Ustad Vilayat Khan played Alap, jod, jhala, and gat in Raag Basant Mukhari and a dhun in Bhairavi.

Another opportunity came my way in Hyderabad in mid nineties, to present Ustad Vilayat Khan for a recital. Though I had developed into a good listener with a keen sense of music, I knew it well that I was too small a person to introduce him.

Gathering my courage, all I could say was something that his music did to me. "Ustad Vilayat Khan's music is the music that makes our thoughts disappear, there remains only one feeling, one emotion and that is the introduction to God."

Ustad Vilayat Khan was listening when I poured my heart out, about the impact of his music. He welcomed the audience and said, 'All the shortcomings in my recital are mine, and whatever is good, is the blessing of my Gurus.' He played Raag Sanjh Saravali, a composition of a multiple evening ragas and concluded with a dhun in Bhairavi, sang

some compositions. In bhairavi, he demonstrated the gandhar and dhaivat of Darbari.

The effect of that evening was not benign on the audience. It spread from one person to another, from one soul to another. After his recital when the audience gave him a standing ovation, I recited a chaupai from Raamcharitmana's, Gira anayan nayan binu bani.

Poet Tulsidas says, 'when Ramchandra ji saw Sita ji in Janak Vatika, he was awed to even utter a word, because the eyes that are capable of seeing, do not have vocal ability and the tongue that has vocal ability, cannot see. We are sailing in the same boat today. Our ears

that can listen, can not speak, our tongue that can speak, can neither hear nor feel, and our heart that can feel can neither speak nor listen. Ustad ji, we have forgotten to even appreciate your music.'

Ustad Vilayat Khan stopped. He kept standing with humility for nearly ten minutes listening to every single word. Perhaps that simplicity and sublimity are the cause why these artists attained such heights in the world of music that was larger than life.

Ustad Vilayat Khan was a big man, a large hearted person and a great artist. Next day he was telling the journalists gathered for an interview, who would have given their right hand to get a quote or two from him, 'This bachchi (girl, referring to me) was not saying

anything about me. Actually it was the music she was talking about. Do you know, real music can be bliss. Its universe is like Vaikuntha. It is Brahmanand. You forget your ego, it is complete surrender. Music is my sadhana.

Real music is played in the praise of God. Will you pray for me that I continue playing in His honor and praise?'

Once on a TV Channel, in a music show, Ustad Vilayat Khan, Girija Devi ji, Ustad Zakir Husain, Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia and many other senior artists were together to adjudge young competitors. As is the tradition, the TV presenter asked Ustad Vilayat Khan, 'How should we conclude the show?'

Usually, the show concludes with a recital by the senior artists, but to our surprise and pride, Ustad Vilayat Khan said, Let us sing Jan Gan Man ...'

I saluted this great person, and with a lump in my throat, sang Jan Gan Man standing in front of my television set, while all those artists were singing the National Anthem at the television studios.

Yes, music transcends beyond any religion and cast. it is not important to belong to a particular community to love the country. One can belong to any caste or community. to have the pride of being an Indian. Indian that he was, Ustad Vilayat Khan.

This is the feelings of a person about Khan Sahab Ustad Vilayat Khan commanded the strings of Sitar, these could be seen during the side ways deflection as if in the space, creating swaras. He played Sitar in Gayaki Ang. Versatility of his strokes could generate

the tonal quality of a human voice.

Many a people criticized him for his creativity and departure from the purist form of music, but his Sitar could touch the souls. No wonder when the eleven year old Vilayat Khan was asked once in the AIR, if he could play the instrument he was carrying, he played the notes of Bharavi, leaving the artists who had gathered around the little boy stunned, 'Arre, Inayat Khan (Vilayat Khan's father and a great artist of his times) is alive, in his son, he is not dead.'

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This article was written by SUNITA BUDDHIRAJA on Business Standard in 2004.