last runn Joideep Sen uorks around rude interruptions on cell phone to tigure out tuhU lhe singer is called the last hope ol Hindustani classical music. tr=l++ l[ I am unable [o evoke a sens: _ soul in the hearis o[ lrstene-: then uhg should theg ask me to si.:

l":,"

/!r/es Darshan Manakkal stad Rashid Khan's eyes are not entirely shut, but badappan hai," (lt is just the largesse of the elderly (musicians)), butterflying in a state of semi-trance as he soaks in the The modesty underlying his every word is also mystifying, raindrop sounds of the surmandal as cradled in his lap, The extensions of the modernity that Ustad young pandit Rashid Khan finds himserf Ustad has a lot to live up to - Bhjmsen.loshi has called surrounded ,glamour,, by, He acknowledges terms like but with an him the last hope of Hindustani classical music. alienated sense of reference in a dictionary littered as with words from Just he's settling into the nuances of the raag, Ustad Rashid chaste Hindustani. And whire 'gramour' is in ail rikelihood the devil in Khan's cell phone breaks the moment, He,s set his ring tone to R,D. the world of the gharana, the Ustad, apart from his Bollywoodized Burman's Chura Liya.,. ring tones, doesn't really take to the present But that's very easily, about the only hint of the digitally remastered world in What he has taken to with a passion bordering on mania is his Ustad Khan's life. Everything else about him _ his syllable_perfect music. The Ustad says it's elementary that a skilred crassical Urdu, unwavering devotion for music musician and blatant genlus is would necessarily have to pluck, even ache, reassuringly old-world. the audience,s soul strings: "Caane mein agar kisi ke dil mein woh rooh paida When we begin talking na kar saku, about the pressures of keeping ancient to kyon bulaenge mujhe?" (Through gharana any form of music, if I am unable traditlons alive while stilr maintaining connections wlth the 'now to evoke a sense of soul in the hearts of listeners, then why would and here', Ustad Khan cuts straight _ to the heart of things he they ever have me sing?) Having performed talks across the US, where he about an obscure district in Uttar pradesh where he was born. says there is a greater frequency of lndian classical concerts and far He begins to tell us about the simpliclty of Badaun. larger numbers of appreciative and discerning As a audiences, the Ustad boy, Ustad Khan says he sat at the banks of the stringy brook clarifies that even if risteners do not understand the nuances of that ran through his village and sang idly to the waters.,,Back then it classical music, it is his moral responsibility to get them to enjoy what was only about fun and games,', he says, underplaying the fact that he sings, You don't need to explain how beautiful things are, if that boy singing idle tunes to a brook belonged to a tradition that everybody were sitting beside a flowing brook. traces its roots back to Tansen through the gharanas of Sahaswan, Later, having recovered from the cell phone,s interruption, Rampur and Gwalior. he resigns himself to another peril _ just of modernity the lack of tlme: But that's Ustad Khan's modesty embedded in the singer like "Koi bhi guru ho, shayad jagird ho - unke paas time nahi hai.,. ab sirf a musical microchip. Even when we bring up pandit cerebrated Joshi's shaukh ki baat nahi hai" (Whoever it may be, a guru, or perhaps the remarks and the fact that he's considered Bade Ghulam Ali Khan,s student - nobody's got the time... it,s no longer just successor, a question of the Ustad dismisses it with a,,,yeh to buzurgon ka honing a passlon).Q

4s lanv=