Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | Friday Review | Cinema Plus | Young World | Property Plus | Quest | Folio |

A vocalist initially, Kadar Bhai dedicated himself to classical music when he began adapting the sursad tarang to Hindustani music.

Photo: Sandeep Saxena

Sweet notesKadar Bhai at his residence near Delhi.

Ghaziabad in western Uttar Pradesh does not conjure up visions of a vibrant hub of Indian classical music. Make your way to Vijay Nagar there, and you might find a symphony of car horns and vehicle motors, a frenzied stage shared by human beings, animals and all manner of wheeled contraptions in a peaceable if noisy democracy. In the midst of all this you catch the eye of Kadar Bhai, standing tall in mind, body and spirit. How can the state of the spirit declare itself at first glance, one might counter? Well, it all depends on whose eye you catch.

Kadar Bhai has come down to the door of his residence to welcome us. He is a musician with an enviable lineage. Descended from court musicians of the Indore Beenkar gharana, he is the son of the late Rudra veena maestro Mohammad Khan and the brother of Ustad Shamsuddin Faridi Desai, a celebrated musician who adorned the courts of Jamnagar, Junagadh and Bhavnagar among others.

No wonder, when we enter his home and follow him up a flight of wooden stairs to a special loft, we find ourselves in a world of peace and clarity, removed from both the confusion of the street and the domesticity of the household below. The room is bare except for a carpet. On the wall is the photograph of his spiritual and musical guru, Qari Sibte Rasool, who belonged to the Quadri silsila of Sufism. It was he who gave Abdul Mubin Hussain Faridi Desai his ‘upnaam’ Kadar Bhai. This little low-ceilinged room is where Kadar Bhai soars. This is where he must get the inspiration that shines from his eyes.

Kadar Bhai first trained under his father and then his brother before he met his guru. A vocalist initially, he dedicated himself to classical music when he began adapting the sursad tarang to Hindustani music. The sursad tarang is still popular in light music, he explains. To the sursad tarang – whose predecessor is the bulbul tarang, evolved from the Japanese tashikoto – Kadar Bhai added a sur mandal and extended its technique to include the jod and jhala of Indian stringed instruments. He plays it both with the plectrum and with the striker used in playing the santoor.

“I have not named it yet,” he says. “I will name it when it is known and understood a bit.” But this is not yesterday’s invention. He has been playing the instrument for the past 40 years.

“I speak to Allah through this. My father used to say music is for ruhaniyat. It is not for the audience, it is for God.” Performing is not about showing off the self, he clarifies. But “when you go on stage as an artiste, you have no one to protect you. That is why the audience is thought of as God.”

Kadar Bhai has performed often as an accompanist on All India Radio, but never as a soloist, since to be an empanelled soloist he would be required to audition, something his temperament does not lend itself to. He is currently teaching the art to a few students. “They have been with me for two to five years. Their parents now understand that this is pure classical music.”

His desire, says Kadar Bhai, is for the instrument to be popularised and for its potential to be realised. Personally, it makes little difference to him as he is 60 now, in the “last chapter” of his life.

“Last year I was invited to play at IIT,” he recalls. “Next year they wanted to invite me again, but it was a festival by musicians who have received a national award. I told them the person who built the first plane never got a national award, but anyway…”

These days, remarks Kadar Bhai, the trend is such that if you recite the Ramayana and you go to the U.S., people feel you must be a great pandit.

There is no bitterness in Kadar Bhai’s words, but there is grace in his wishes for future artistes and for classical music. This grace and his music rise above the clashing harmonies of busy Vijaynagar in Ghaziabad, for those who care to listen.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail