When asked about why he chose to stay on in India despite the numerous offers to play and live in America that came his way when he was younger, Ustad Bismillah Khan had several answers. Sometimes he would joke that the plane wasn’t large enough to take his huge family. Sometimes he would say his begum would not approve of the move. Sometimes he would say Benaras was the only place for him (the word broken up into bana-hua-ras — abundant in rasa).But we got what was perhaps the most appropriate answer to that question when we interviewed him once in a dingy hotel room in Paharganj some four years ago: “My music,” he said, “is only for those who understand how much effort goes into blowing each note. Young people in our country don’t seem to respect the shehnai and the nadswaram. They are going crazy over those easy-to-play stringed instruments.” He knew that the shehnai, in this quick-fix age, will not really attract young talent because of the effort and practice it took to blow into it. He had also noticed that the number of concerts of pure Hindustani classical was actually declining. “So I should just keep quiet and continue to play for the Ganga,” he said.When Bismillah Khan was a child he took lessons in the dhrupad. At that time the Dagars were synonymous with the form. Khan sahib would give them special Banarasi paan as gurudakshina and learn, in turn, to play in the been-kari style. He blew his way to successful duets with such greats as Ustad Abdul Haleem Jafar Khan, the late Ustad Vilayat Khan and Pandit Ravi Shankar. The sitarists respected and recognised Khan sahib’s expertise, but the shehnai itself continued to languish. In 2003 Amjad Ali Khan charged Khan sahib with not being “in tune” with stringed instruments and generally being insensitive to them. That was the last duet Khan sahib was to play with any maestro. The damage was done. The shehnai is to India what the oboe is to Europe. Yet the instrument never really made it to jazz and fusion ensembles, unlike the oboe. Khan sahib was too old to pick up the fusion trend and that is probably why the shehnai has hardly any takers among the young today. There is of course Pandit Anant Lal, second only to Bismillah Khan, in the shehnai. His talented grandsons are learning the instrument, but it will be a long haul for them. The last time we heard them was at a concert held at Jawaharlal Nehru University in 2002. Only six people turned up to listen!There can be little doubt that the shehnai’s prospects will remain tied to Benaras. Bismillah Khan’s son, Mumtaz Khan, is a promising shehnai artiste. He should now pick up his father’s shehnai and just play it until he turns into a nonagenarian like his father. If he doesn’t do this, the 80 years Bismillah Khan had devoted to the shehnai may soon be forgotten.
