By IANS,
Mumbai : Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel Friday expressed regrets for the damage caused to a sarod belonging to maestro Ustad Amjad Ali Khan on an Air India flight.
According to an official, Patel personally called up Amjad Ali Khan – who is in Mumbai – to express his regrets over the incident, which has embarassed the national carrier.
Patel also assured that the concerned Air India personnel would be advised to exercise due care over such sensitive and delicate baggage in future, the official added.
A distraught Amjad Ali Khan could not keep a scheduled concert at the Chembur Fine Arts Society (CFAS) Thursday night as his 25-year-old favourite sarod was damaged on a flight from Ahmedabad to Mumbai.
“The sarod, weighing around 15 kg, is a very delicate instrument. It was packed in a tough box. I had booked it as a check-in baggage on the Air India flight, IC-614 which left Ahmedabad on Thursday morning at 7.20 a.m,” Khan told IANS on Thursday.
He claimed that he discovered the damage to the instrument when he opened the box at his place of residence in south Mumbai Thursday evening just before leaving for the concert.
“My heart is bleeding. I don’t want to make any claims since Air India is our national carrier, but I do wish they had taken more care of the delicate baggage,” he said.
Though made of teakwood, it is a very fragile instrument and it was made 25 years ago by noted sarod maker Hemendra Chandra Sen, who passed away last week, Amjad Ali Khan said.
He sent an SOS to his wife Subbulakshmi to bring a spare sarod Friday morning from New Delhi.
Amjad Ali Khan is in Mumbai for three public concerts, his first after two years.
Though he did not lodge any formal compliant with the AI authorities at Mumbai Airport, Amjad Ali Khan had urged them to ensure that such delicate baggage are attended to more gently.
“They can also consider setting up a special counter for oversized baggage, as is common in all foreign countries,” Amjad Ali Khan suggested to AI.