Strings that stir the soul

The first time I saw Shivji, it was in 1966 in Mumbai and I was around 13 years old. My father had taken me to a concert at Vallabh Sangeet ...

The first time I saw Shivji, it was in 1966 in Mumbai and I was around 13 years old. My father had taken me to a concert at Vallabh Sangeet Vidyalaya and there was this tall, lean young person on the stage. That was the first time I heard the santoor and I was hypnotised. I told my father that I just had to learn this instrument but sensibly he made me train in classical vocal music first. So, the next time I met Shivji was 10 years later when I went with my father to learn the santoor.

We went to his lovely spacious flat in Bandra and again I was struck by his calm and poised manner. I have known him for over 20 years now and I still haven8217;t heard him shout. Even with his family, during small every day altercations, he never raises his voice. Not at his wife Manorama nor at his two sons, Rahul and Rohit. There is a dignity about him that is implacable.

The traditional guru-shishya relationship is very unique 8212; probably the ideal way to imbibe art. But my lessons with Shivji have gone beyond music.

I have accompanied him to many concerts and I remember the one time when the man setting up the mikes dropped one on Panditji8217;s santoor. He just told the man, softly, to be careful. The same incident happened to me some years later and my santoor broke. I did lose my temper but if it hadn8217;t been for Panditji8217;s example, the extent of my outburst would have been much more.

But along with the learning, we8217;ve really had good times together too. Zakir, Shivji and I have been for so many concerts together and it has been so much fun. Nobody tells a joke like Shivji does 8212; he delivers the punchline perfectly. Food is another one of his passions, specially Chinese and Mexican cuisine. So whenever we are abroad, we dig into these foods.

As a musician, I can8217;t think of anybody else who has introduced a totally new instrument to classical music. Shivji was an outstanding tabla player and vocalist but he gave that up to learn the santoor at his father8217;s behest in the 8217;40s. His father, Umadutt Sharma, who was a vocalist of the Benaras gharana, was with the All India Radio and he was posted to Srinagar. Initially Shivji was reluctant but he obeyed his father. But he not only learnt the instrument, he also changed it to suit classical music. Originally the santoor had 100 strings but to get more octaves, he increased the width of the bridges with each of the 29 bridges having four strings. But he was still not satisfied so he reduced the number of strings to three in the lower octave making the total number of strings 84. And this finally made the santoor suitable for classical music.

When Shivji played the santoor for the first time in Mumbai in the 8217;50s, it wasn8217;t accepted by the classical music fraternity. It was then that he made more changes and the sound of the instrument was so good that people were slowly seduced by it. In the late 8217;50s he also started composing music for films with Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia under the name of ShivHari.

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It started with V Shantaram8217;s Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baje and then these two doyens went on to compose music for films like Silsila, Chandini and Lamhe striking the perfect balance between classical and popular music. One thing which I must say about Shivji is that for him music is a spiritual experience. People think that he is reserved and does not mix easily but that is not the case. It8217;s just that music is always on his mind. For him it is not entertainment, it is his life.