By Rajat Subhra Chatterjee
0066
The time junction of afternoon and evening is so ideally poised for Raga Piloo that Ustad Rashid Khan had to choose that time zone to pass on to his heavenly abode on Tuesday, 9th January, 2024. Piloo had been one of his most favourite Ragas on which he has had many compositions. The beginning of the year has been so dismal as we lost two of world football’s greats and now Rashid Khan, who has practically torn apart many hearts like ours by his departure. The end came after a long illness.
Well he used to love Darbari Kanada about which he used say, -” let the midnight come. Then the feeling of Darabari Kanada will be cherished.” His love for Raga Misra Tilok Kamod and Malkauns were heard to be believed. I am not a musician. Never ever have been. But I loved music which brought me to organise music in my own way. Lot is already told and lot more will be expressed about Rashid Khan by the Pandits and Ustads around. I will tell you something which may not have been known to many. Yes missing Rashid or his live voice would be a huge loss personally to me as I used to love him because of his tonal quality and as a person who was lively, friendly, accessible and with a huge heart. Ust. Nissar Hussain Khan was his grand father from his mother’s side and his Guru from the beginning and was under a strict regime of Talim throughout.
It was 1989. We had started Salt Lake Music Festival in 1988 through a three night festival at the BB/BC park in Salt Lake. Bismillah Khan, Sunanda Pattyonayak, Hariprisad Chowrasia, Shib Kumar Sharma, Buddhadeb Dasgupta, Dr. Vinay Bharat Ram and many other musicians had been on our stage on those three nights. Next year we shifted the festival to Kalamandir to give it a Kolkata flavour. It was two evenings and one whole night festival.
We ( me and Sujit Bhattacharyya ) heard about Rashid Khan but did not know him. So one afternoon, we had gone to SRA at Tollygunge and met Pt. Buddhadeb Dasgupta who was very close to us. On enquiry, Buddha da smiled and said “ it is difficult to catch Rashid as he hardly stays inside this time of the day. Better you go out to Tollygunge Tram Depot area and enquire in the tea stalls there. You may get him.” We came out and went for those tea stalls. It was the time when Metro station was not built. In that place, existed lot of tea / snacks shops which were decorated with wooden benches. We sat on one of those and asked for tea. Suddenly, appeared one, dark complexioned young lad, clad in pyajama and kurta, none too clean and bright, and sat with his friends. He started humming a tune and we were awakened immediately, it was Rashid. We went for him and asked if he was Rashid Khan. He nodded. We disclosed our identity and our intention and said that Buddhadeb Dasgupta had sent us here to find you out. He smiled and accompanied us back to SRA premises.
That was the beginning of our relationship. We staged him in our 1989 festival in the whole night program as a 21 year old prodigy. The night program started with a Odissi dance by Upali Oparajita, a brilliant dancer from USA. Then duet by Ust Bahadur Khan (sarod) and Ust Kirit Khan (sitar); then we kept Rashid Khan to be followed by Partha Chatterjee on Sitar and lastly Girija Devi who began around 3.30 am and kept the audience mesmerized till 5.30 am.
Rashid took the stage around 12 midnight and started with Raga Malkauns. On table, it was another great Pt. Anindo Chatterjee. Couple of hours just passed away when Rashid finished with a Krishna Bhajan. It was love at first sight. It was the time when Rashid had some financial problems which was arranged immediately. He continued with his Talim under his Guru and started appearing on prestigious stages. When he became financially well, he repaid back all to the arranger and prayed to God for our well being. He soon got married at a tender age of 25 which ofcourse was not much appreciated by his Dadu and Guru. From around this time, Rashid started to help needy artistes and in general needy people silently. Often Rashid, in the beginning of our relationship, complained mockingly about the strictness of his Dadu, yet that actually made him what he became. Well this voice was God sent which was brought to an extraordinary level of melody by Rashid himself under his Guru.
We kept connected, yet gradually the link became thin as Rashid became very busy and mostly unavailable and me too grossly engaged in professional world. But some how we kept even that thin link alive and used to speak to each other whenever used to get opportunity. Rather different program stages became our meeting venues when we used to exchange pleasantries.
His musician peers will tell us about intricacies of his musical excellence. We may share our social endeavors with a classical musician who rode to stardom with his brilliant Gayaki and Taan bistar. We will remember how he adapted to different styles of music and brought them all mixed into his own gharana. Has Rashid Bhai really left us ? How could that be! His numerous creations through the tunes of kheyal, thumri, bhajans have been treasures to millions of followers and lovers of Indian Classical Music throughout the world.
Those of us who dream of united India without any divide of cast, creed and religion, those who love to share Indianism, will never forget Rashid Khan and his melodious voice which was a mixture of the weight of his voice with so much of ‘Maya’. We are fortunate that the voice of Rashid Khan was created though by the All Mighty, yet used to resonance in this city of Joy and we had been a part of that heavenly pleasure. Acclaimed throughout the world but anchored in our city!
‘Aaoge jab tum..’ a bandish and ‘Kaar Milono Chao Birohi’– a Rabindrasangeet sung by Rashid is constantly reverberating in my ear.
Concluded
