Kerala - Kochi   

Sarod maestro bonds with humanity through his music

DIVINE FEEL: The sarod helps him pass on a spiritual experience to the listeners, says Amjad Ali Khan.

KOCHI: “While I am on stage performing, I get messages from somewhere, from the cosmic world; then I convey the messages (to the audience) through my music,” says sarod maestro Ustad Amjad Ali Khan about the spiritual experience of his music.

“Before a performance, my mind is blank; I have no idea what I am going to perform; I don’t rehearse before my concerts.” Then the music happens. And then the music connects him to the listeners. The sarod helps to pass on his spiritual experience to the listeners.

At a news conference here on Wednesday, a couple of hours before he went onstage at the opening of the Vasanthotsavam festival organised by the Tourism Department, the elegant, soft-spoken Amjad Ali Khan became vocal about the spiritual experience of music and music’s capacity to connect.

Music does not belong to any particular religion, every religion needs music. “Like flowers, music belongs to all.” But he has realised that politics is rooted in religion. “I hope politicians will find some other ways (than religion) to win elections.”

“I cannot exactly repeat my concerts,” he said. “To me a concert is almost like writing a letter.” As the emotions driving each word in a letter cannot be replicated, so is the case with the concert.

His latest album was one of carols and hymns. Carols, he noted, are usually associated with piano, guitar and violin. But in his album he tried to sing the carols and hymns through the sarod. He admits that the sarod is a difficult instrument. His father, who was his guru, used to teach him vocal first and then repeat it on the sarod. Now, while travelling, he tries to compose tunes. “This is my flirtation now.”

The maestro says there are basically two types of music: the sound (instrument) and the song (vocal). “The language (of songs) creates barriers; the language (sometimes tells) lies.” There is no language in his music.

As for commercialisation of music, he said: “Certain music is only for sale; and certain music is prayer.” Pure music is divine. “People like us are humble representatives of the long legacy (of pure music) and we practise it with dignity and humility.”

The maestro is not happy with modern (western) education. After the British left India, we got obsessed with education, he said. But education could not create compassion and kindness. “In spite of all the education, we are still killing each other; so, what is the (great) achievement of education.” Horrible havocs such as 9/11, Gujarat and Iraq all were created by highly educated people. “Something is wrong with education,” he remarked. “We always talk about the achievements made after Independence, like the 10 per cent (annual economic) growth; but we don’t talk about what we have lost in the past 60 years.” In his view, we have lost a lot of humanity, compassion, kindness and culture.

There should be drastic changes in the school syllabi.

Learning English or maths is not enough, the children should learn values. He suggested that there should be one or two periods of study in schools each week when the students should not carry any book at all.

In those periods, they should learn about values and the contributions made by “our parents.” He was ‘passionately involved’ in children’s future. They should be taught that “If you cannot help each other, at least you should not destroy each other.”

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