Bismillah Khan - a legend who lived and breathed music

New Delhi: Ustad Bismillah Khan, the legend responsible for making the shehnai popular, will remain synonymous with the instrument he played.
The nation will always remember the mellifluous shehnai recital that he gave from the ramparts of Delhi's Red Fort on Aug 15, 1947, when India gained her independence from colonial rule.
After television came into Indian households, it was his shehnai recital on the state-owned Doordarshan channel that heralded India's Independence Day celebrations every year.
Bismillah Khan, who received the nation's highest civilian award of Bharat Ratna in 2001, died early Monday of cardiac arrest at a Varanasi hospital at age 91.
Born on March 21, 1916, Bismillah Khan was from a family of musicians, who played in the royal court in the then princely state of Dumraon in Bihar. He was trained under his uncle, the late Ali Bux `Vilayatu', who used to play the shehnai at the Kashi Vishwanath temple.
Bismillah Khan, who started his music career in 1930, earned recognition nationally as well as internationally purely on the strength of his talent. He has played shehnai in five continents.
He was among the few Indians who had the distinction of receiving all the national awards - Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan, Padma Vibhushan and the Bharat Ratna.He was also awarded honorary doctorates from the Benares Hindu University and Shantiniketan.
The renowned musician also experimented with Hindi film music and composed the number "Dil ka khilauna hai toot gaya" for the film "Goonj Uthi Shehnai". However, Bismillah Khan's last wish - to play at the India Gate in the heart of New Delhi - remained unfulfilled. He was slated to play there on Aug 9 this year, but his illness saw the programme being cancelled.
He had also wanted to perform at Darbhanga in Bihar, where he had spent much of his struggling years. "I will be overwhelmed if I get an opportunity to perform at Darbhanga. I would like to take a dip in the same pond where I used to take a dip twice a day in my childhood," he had said during a visit there.Bismillah Khan always believed that musicians were supposed to be heard and not seen and this could be seen in the simple lifestyle he led until his death.Despite having given concerts in almost every capital across the world, the shehnai player had not been economically very sound as he supported a joint family of around 70 members.Hard pressed for money, he had often asked the government for financial assistance, including a gas agency in his grandson's name.
Khan's simple living was brought out by not only the old, almost crumbling haveli he lived in but also his chief mode of transport continued to be the cycle-rikshaw!
Bismillah Khan was a devout Shia Muslim, but he never saw any contradiction between his religion and his music. In fact, he was also an ardent devotee of Saraswati, the Hindu goddess of music.
He had once remarked: "Music, sur, namaaz. It is the same thing. We reach Allah in different ways."