Continued from yesterday

He was, like me, curious and anxious to know the basis for these illustrations, hence his ready cooperation. That night he gave a masterly exposition of Ragas Darbari and Malkauns on his sarod. During the marathon session lasting over 4 hours he gave very elaborate treatment to the melodies and put over a superb performance. All the painters present were carried to dizzy heights of ecstasy and pleasure, When at the end of the performance they came out of their trance, each of them was overwhelmed by the respective moods of the 2 ragas.

Towards dawn the mehfil came to an end. Before leaving the painters promised to send their pictures depicting the moods of the two ragas in a week or so, but not one of them did so, even after 3 weeks. When I met them to ask the reason for the delay, some of them requested me to let them hear a vocal rendering of the ragas in addition to the instrumental recital they had heard. 'It will then be easier for us to crystallize and express our ideas in colour,' they said.

I agreed to this and persuaded no less a person than Ustad Bade Gulam Ali Khan to partake in experiment number two. Khan Saheb was intrigued by the novel idea of the experiment. He too sang the same ragas, Darbari Kanada and Malkauns, for two hours each, before the distinguished gathering of painters. Mr. K. K. Hebbar the renowned artist was the only one to confess frankly, that it was impossible for him to draw pictures of the ragas in this way. All the other artists once again promised to send their pictures in a few days, but none of them ever did.

The question as to whether these 2 branches of art - painting and music - are corelated is still undecided and this depresses me greatly. Whenever Ali Akbar Khan comes to India and meets me, his first question is whether I have made any fresh findings on this subject. I still have hopes of conducting another experiment and this time I am going to lay down the condition that the painters must draw on the spot, while listening to the expositions of the ragas.

Some years ago Ali Akbar wrote the music score for the Bengali film Kshudhito Pashan (Hungry Stones) which became very popular. It gives ample proof of Ali Akbar's fantastic imagination. He played the tape of background music for this film to me, and explained how he had made full use of various musical instruments. The skilful blending of the sarangi and sarod was a treat for my ears. Ever since I heard this combination of instruments, I have wanted to make a recording of a jugalbandi betveen these two instruments. Since 1954 Ali Akbar has been abroad. For the sarangi I could find no other artist to match him except the famous sarangi nawaz Pandit Ramnarayan. Both of them have agreed to make this recording, but as luck will have it, whenever Ali Akbar is on a visit to India Ramnarayan is abroad, and so this jugalbandi recording has yet to be made.

Ali Akbar, although at the pinnacle of success, is a very simple and modest person. He prefers to dress in the Indian tradition, in a long white malmal zabba and snow white pajamas. If an engagement is fixed for 10.30 Ali Akbar will invariably be there by 10.25. For the recordings he always comes fully decided on which ragas he will record and on many occasions has presented entirely new ragas of his own creation. Ragas Chandranandan, Prabhakali, Gauri-Manjiri, Hindol-Hem, Lajavanti are examples. Ragas Lajavanti and Prabhakali are his favourites and he has named his two daughters after them.

While recording is in progress he is so completely absorbed in his playing that he is oblivious of time. Even so, when I, with great reluctance, would touch him softly to bring him out of his trance, he always managed to achieve in a moment a perfect finish to his performance. This, more than anything else, proves the complete mastery and control he possesses over his instruments, the swar and the taal.

Excerpts from Down Memory Lane by G.N. Joshi.