Guru Purnima '2011

Being in the same space with 2 legends can sometimes be very overpowering. 15 July, 2011 was one such for me. It was Guru Purnima.

I reached the Gurukul at 5.30 pm to pick and drive Pt Hari Prasad Chaurasia to meet his Guru, Guruma Annapurna Devi. This was to be my bit of ‘seva’ for the Guru in him.
Once we were seated and belted, we began on our journey to the other end of town. Under normal circumstances, this long drive would have seemed tedious, right from the moment of switching on the car’s ignition. But with Hariji beside me, this very same long drive translated into an ‘our time’. With him keeping rigorous travel schedules and with me keeping insane hours at work, this ‘our time’ had of late become quite a luxury!

An hour of never-ending line up of cars in Andheri, the snarling traffic jams on the highway finally gave way to an open albeit brief drive on the Bandra-Worli sea-link. Hariji insisted on paying the toll fee and did not pay any heed to my many protests. We got on to Worli sea-face and onto Peddar road. All this while, the various radio stations kept playing music, some pleasant and some others, not so! We discussed the advent of Pakistani singers in the Hindi film industry and how our own Sonu Nigam still held a special place in Hariji’s opinion.

Hariji spoke incessantly from memory. Of the years gone by, of the innumerable recordings he had been a part of, with greats such as Mohd. Rafi, Kishore Kumar, Latadidi, and others. And where he’d get paid a handsome sum of Rs 80/- per recording. He spoke about the hotel room (in Evergreen, Khar) which was home, when he moved to Mumbai in 1962. And how most other music directors also stayed there, having migrated into this ‘city of dreams’. How the Sr. Mr Raheja (of Raheja Builders fame) offered him a flat in Khar for what now seems a meagre, Rs 12,000/-. And which Hariji could not afford! Hariji then shared with me his joy of having subsequently invested about Rs 1 lakh in a home on Carter Road, Bandra, which he could finally call his very own. With so much of travel down memory lane, we did not realise the stress of our travel to Nepean Sea road, which we finally got to, after 2 hours!

The watchman recognized Hariji and we were immediately offered a parking slot within the compound. Taking along the gift hampers that Hariji had brought for his Guruma, we trooped into the elevator and got on to the 6th floor. As soon as we stepped out, the past came alive and I imagined all those times Hariji had visited this space in order to imbibe that celestial music, all of us are privy to, today!

Once we were inside her home, I had to request my heartbeats to slow down a bit. I was afraid the ‘lub-dub’ could be heard by Hariji. As we expectantly looked towards the door, we first heard her feeble voice. And then gradually as she walked into the room, I felt as though a luminous body was gracefully moving towards us. She looked at Hariji, like a mother would, towards her child. Hariji, bent down with great reverence and touched her feet. All of us settled down. For me, it was a moment in history witnessing the love, camaraderie and respect between these 2 great souls. When Hariji tried to introduce me, she cut in saying she remembers me from my past visits to her. Amazingly, she even remembered that I have a daughter! Who would say she’s past 80? After about an hour, she chided Hariji and told him it was time for his dinner and that he ought to leave. I don’t think any other person on the face of this earth is authorised to tell him so! Very obediently, Hariji got up, touched her feet once again, even as she scolded him for having come all the way to meet her.
On the return journey, we once again went back down memory lane and Hariji told me some amazing facts about Ustad Allauddin Khansaheb, the doyen of the Maihar Gharana and father to Guruma.

Once again, I felt blessed to have been in the presence of these 2 legends on Guru Purnima. I was overwhelmed and still am!