'Kudrat teri rang-birangee!Oh many-splendoured Creation!'
So went the bhajan Ustad Abdul Karim Khan sang before the saint Tajuddin Baba. The Holy man entranced by the song, clapped his hands and danced.
Kumar Prasad elegy to a vanishing age of musical giants comprises many such shared experiences between performer and audience between recital and applause. It is his salute to a world receding into the shadows of history peopled by ustads, pandits, the rich and the famous, the sacred and the profane. He traces the origins of their schools from fold traditions to the courts of ancient emperors to the sound of ankle-bells of dancing girls. He points to the time when notation crept into classical music horrifying old masters accustomed to an art form that celebrated spontaneity and improvisation but resulting in the preservation of rages that would otherwise have been lost to time.
While Mukherji's beloved Pandits and Buwas may have been inspired by the divine has recounting from legends and from personal memory shows us those greats as intensely human creatures. Appetites drive them not always noble and their intrigues and jealousies are universal. Humour too abounds in these pages as do character who will remain forever etched in the mind of the reader.
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