Adieu Ustad Zakir Hussain

For the music world Ustad Zakir Hussain was a tabla maestro and five time Grammy Award winner, who set new benchmarks with his innovation. His charming and smiling face with an eye for perfection will be remembered till eternity. But Jammu and Kashmir has a bigger reason to mourn his sad demise. He was the son of the soil. His was the son of an illustrious table genius Ustad Alla Rakha Qureshi who was born in the Ghagwal village of the Samba district in Jammu region of the erstwhile princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. His mother tongue was Dogri and he was a Dogra from Jammu who captured the national imagination by introducing the tabla to the Western music lovers. He could be seen accompanying another sitar genius, Pandit Ravi Shankar at the international platforms. Both these maestros were matchless and to see them perform together was always a priceless sight. Ustad Zakir Hussain inherited the tabla from his legendary father and took it to new heights with his innovation and perfection. He performed, composed and acted as well. He was a professional who elevated the status of the musicians with his knowledge and earned the status of an academic who created a discipline to impart the education of the tabla by maintaining the standard. It was due to this approach that he was named as the Old Dominion fellow by the Humanities Council at Princeton University and discharged his duties as the professor in the Department of Music there. Not only had that he set an example by being the visiting professor at Stanford University. In order to recognise his lifetime contribution to the music and especially revolutionising the improvisation in playing the tabla, Ustad Zakir Hussain was conferred honorary Doctor of Law by Mumbai University in 2022. The pre 1990 generation that was in their early teens or single digits of early age remember Ustad Zakir Hussain as a highly engrossed maestro playing tabla on the big stages accompanying the other masters with ease and perfection ;sweat rolling down from his forehead and curly hair giving the semblance of the dance by the Nataraja Shiva in his full bloom. Indeed Ustad Zakir Hussain was blessed by the Nataraja who could instil energy into the performance of the singers and dancers of refute on the stage with beats of his matchless tabla playing. Indian music and the music lovers are mourning today the demise of the maestro who brought Indian classical music to the global centre stage. In Jammu and Kashmir we have lost one of our own, a family member whose ancestry lies in Ghagwal village in Jammu’s samba district. Both he and his father the illustrious Ustad Alla Rakha Qureshi have contributed beyond limit to bring us pride and contributed to the richness of Indian classical music. To recognise their legacy and honour their memory, the Government of Jammu and Kashmir must recognise and honour their contribution appropriately and create a chair in their name either in University of Jammu or University of Kashmir so that the generations to come not only remember these two illustrious sons of India but get inspirations from them to contribute to make India proud and continue their legacy for times to come. Ustad Zakir Hussain will be remembered for his charming face and the perfection of his fingers on the tabla. Taj Mahal Tea advertisement that was created featuring Ustad Zakir Hussain decades ago in which an admirer was shown praising the Ustad by saying “Wah Ustad……Wah” captures the hallmark of the maestro. Adieu Ustad, we the people of Jammu and Kashmir will never forget you and your contribution to the divinity of music. We have lost the son of the soil.