Co-Founder & Chief at Yuvaa | Creator & Host of Be A Man, Yaar! | Board of Directors at Girl Rising | Gender equality, mental health & SDG advocate |
On Ustad Zakir Hussain: I was a rookie journalist at Hindustan Times, all of 23 years in 2009, when I got the great honour of sitting across Ustad Zakir Hussain for an interview. I got the privilege not because I earned it but because I was unimportant enough for a music beat that was rarely given importance at HT Cafe (Mumbai's HT City). And so, one day, I found myself in the Ustad's Napeansea Road home, with him perched upon a diwan, obliging me generously with answers to questions I wasn't worthy enough to ask. He was undoubtedly one of our greatest artists, but had no airs of being one. He had already won a Grammy, and been honoured with a Padma Shri, but he treated every moment of our conversation with just as much grace, respect and affection, as he did his audiences over decades of being a tabla virtuoso. My editor wanted me to go beyond the tabla and ask him a few frivolous things too. I, on the other hand, wanted to learn. I knew, even if the Ustad didn't deign it so, this was one of the greatest moments of my life and career. He characteristically answered the thoughtful & the tricky questions with similar affability & aplomb, and at no point made me feel lesser for asking them (as some had done). At the end of our conversation, he invited me to his concert, having gathered that I hadn't seen one. I have often recounted this story in blogs & podcasts, but as a non-smoker, non-drinker, non-drug enthusiast, it was the first time in my life I experienced, what many would call, a high. I wasn't just spellbound and in awe, but I also had a spiritual reckoning that day, and I'm moved just as deeply today thinking about it. Ustad Zakir Hussain wasn't just a proponent of the arts, he was a magician. And it's a tragedy that a new generation of Indians won't be able to see his magic live. For everyone who knows of my Be A Man, Yaar Season 3 dream guest list, he was on top of it. I was eager to, 15 years later, share another beautiful conversation and build another lifelong memory with him. But that dream will now remain one. Fortunately, I will still carry his advice with me forever: and try always to be a good student instead of a master, just like him ❤ ----------- Here's an excerpt of my interview: Nikhil: Is there any advice Ustad Alla Rakha gave you that you can never forget? Ustad Zakir: He told me, 'Don’t try to be a master. Just try to be a good student, and you’ll get by just fine'. That’s the creed he lived by. And so, I have spent my entire life trying to be a good student, just learning as much as I can about my art and about everyone else’s art. Because everyday you get out of your home, you learn something new. You see something you have not seen before. You may see a beautiful sunset you have not seen or a fabulous piece of music you might hear you haven’t heard before. Life is a learning experience.. so from the day you are born you are a student, till the day you die, you are a student. #Tribute #UstadZakirKhan #Music
