Zakir Hussain was born in Mumbai in 1951 in the Qureshi family and grew up praying at a Sufi shrine in Mahim, but he could coax his instrument to play the sound of Lord Shiva’s conch. His marvellously mutable music transcended boundary and genre. When he performed with legendary Indian classical artists he played with the mindful reverence of an accompanist, refraining from taking the limelight except when he got the nod to play an arpeggiated interlude. When jamming with international jazz musicians, he became the unabashed rock star, powered not just by genius but also by his impish good looks and flying curls.
Zakir Hussain was trained by his father Alla Rakha. Musicians of an earlier vintage recall how his father would carry the two-year-old on his shoulders and when he said, ‘Jhaptal sunao’, the child prodigy would clap the 10-beat cycle and recite the bol or sounds perfectly. He attended St Michael’s High School in Mahim and, all through, his fingers tapped into the rigour of practice. He often recounted how his father would wake him early in the morning to teach, and equally to chat about the great musicians of the past, conversations that percolated into the extraordinary duet of brilliance and humility that was Hussain’s abiding characteristic. Artists young and old describe him as perfection personified – both man and musician. Sitar maestro Vilayat Khan once said, “Allah ne Zakir ko bahut sukoon se banaya hai (God made Zakir in a state of complete peaceful equilibrium).”
Another late great, sarangi master Sultan Khan, had said, “You have to be 2 hours artiste, 22 hours a good human being, and that was Zakirbhai … There is no ‘if’ and ‘but’ before or after Zakir Hussain’s name.”
Once, while performing a duet with Birju Maharaj, the two artistes were showcasing the nine emotions or moods of ‘navarasa’. Displaying ‘shantarasa’ or peace, the Kathak master walked to the stage centre without tinkling even one bell in his six-inch ghunghroo. Rather than attempting to match that astonishing move, Hussain simply stood up in reverence.
No proven medication to treat IPF
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), the lung disease that claimed tabla maestro Zakir Hussain, is one of the most difficult conditions to treat because there is no proven medication.
Specialists in Mumbai and Delhi whom TOI spoke to, said that two anti-fibrotic medications aimed at reducing the scarred lung tissues are the mainstay of IPF treatment.
“Most of our patients don’t survive beyond three to four years after the diagnosis,” said Dr Priti Meshram, who heads the respiratory medicine department at Mumbai’s JJ Hospital. One of the main problems with IPF in India is delayed diagnosis.