By Dipankar De Sarkar, IANS,
London : The late sarod maestro Ali Akbar Khan’s simplicity was legendary, and it found its best expression in his words on music, inherited from his illustrious – and equally simple – father Allauddin Khan.
“You don’t need to explain music,” Ali Akbar once said. “When you hear it, sometimes tears come out; other times you are filled with joy that increases your energy for two or three days.
“Music teaches you to become sensitive.”
According to the writer and musician Irish Brooks, for the Ustad music and family were tightly-knit and often-used metaphors.
In an explanation about ragas, he asks: “How can you know one raga in one hour?
“Can you know a husband or wife in one hour?
“You can divorce a husband or wife, but you cannot divorce a raga.”
Elsewhere he has said, “You can give food to your tummy and tongue, but what do you give to nourish your soul? Music.”
“Music is a universal language. The sound of music touches everyone’s hearts and minds.”
He said about Allauddin Khan, his father and guru who was known to all as Baba, “My father taught me music the way most people teach their children to speak. He was 110 years old when he died and until that time he played constantly, sometimes 23 hours a day.”
Ali Akbar said about Indian classical music, “This music is for everyone, like fresh air or clean water.
“In olden times, when the old masters sang or played instruments in the temple, all the animals, birds, tigers, lions� everything, anyone came to hear the music.”