{ZAKIR HUSSAIN } 1951-2024: Music loses its beat: India's iconic tabla ustad dies at 73

MUMBAI: Tabla maestro and internationally acclaimed musician Ustad Zakir Hussain, who died in a San Francisco hospital on Sunday following multiple health issues including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, blurred global boundaries with his deep knowledge of music and immaculate sense of performance. He was 73.

- Ambarish Mishra

Zakir transcended boundaries and popularised the tabla, following the footsteps of Ustad Alla Rakha, his father and guru. He mentored and trained countless youngsters and attained at a young age the status of India's cultural icon joining the esteemed coterie of Pandit Ravi Shankar, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, MS Subbulakshmi and Lata Mangeshkar.

Zakir was seven when he performed at a public concert in Bombay (as the city was then known), and by age 12, the child prodigy had begun his concert tours. He studied in a Mahim Convent School and graduated from St Xavier's College in south Mumbai.

It is said that his father would whisper various tabla beats into his son's ears while he was asleep. As Zakir grew up, he would skip the riyaaz (practice) schedule and play gully cricket with his friends. Ustad Alla Rakha then reprimanded his son to either choose the tabla or the bat, fearing that bowling would hurt his son's fingers, thereby impeding his tabla practice.

"It was the nation's good for

ZAKIR HUSSAIN tune that Zakirbhai chose the tabla," said Mandar Karnik, a tabla player and an ardent admirer of Ustad Zakir Hussain.

In a glittering career spanning six decades, Ustad Zakir Hussain performed with stalwarts such as Pandit Ravi Shankar, Ustad Ali Akbar.