Tribute to living legend on his 90th birthday

Sarod Maestro Pt. Rajeev Taranath’s 90th birthday will be celebrated by Pandit Rajeev Taranath Felicitation Trust in Mysuru on Oct. 17. A Padma Shri awardee and a long-time resident of Bengaluru, he now resides in Mysuru. Pt. Rajeev Taranath was trained in Sarod by none other than Ustad Ali Akbar Khan.

The felicitation function will be held at JSS Women’s College Auditorium in Saraswathipuram at 6.15 pm on Monday. Suttur Seer Sri Shivarathri Deshikendra Swamiji will grace the occasion. Writer Dr. Chandrashekar Kambara, Ustad Faiyaz Khan and Kannada Sahitya Parishat former President Dr. Manu Baligar will be the chief guests. Besides a musical tribute Naadaanjali, a felicitation book ‘Swarayana’, edited by Ganesh Amingad and Raghupati Thamankar, will be released on the occasion. A short film ‘Pandit Rajeev Taranath — A Life in Music’ by Amshan Kumar will be screened. Here is a tribute to the living legend by Bhamy V. Shenoy.

My wife and I had gone to Pandit Rajeev Taranath’s house to give him his favourite Konkani dish. We thought that our visit will last for no more than 30 minutes.

My wife casually asked what she thought was a simple question: How did Rajeev meet Ali Akbar Khan? This got him to share his life’s story with some amazing revelations.

He was studying English Major in Bangalore and he heard that Ravi Shankar was giving a concert. He had a girl friend who was interested in music and he was also interested to listen to Ravi Shankar who was by that time famous. He had a scholarship of Rs. 15 per month and he managed to buy tickets for his girl friend, her father and himself. Then he learnt there was another musician Ali Akbar Khan playing Sarod. Rajeev had no interest to listen to Sarod, but he was now committed to the concert.

When he heard Ali Akbar Khan that day, his life changed for good. He decided that he would become a disciple of Khan Sahib (he referred to him as Khan Sahib out of reverence throughout our discussion). He completed his studies. Since he had stood first in BA honours he was given the job immediately. BA honours was considered as equivalent to MA.

However, after a few months of working in the college, he decided to resign and study music under Ali Akbar Khan. What a bold step and dedication to music. He was young and did not have any money.

He went to meet Ali Akbar Khan in Mumbai and requested Khan Sahib to take him as a student. First he refused and asked him if he was really serious. When he said yes, he finally took him as a student. In Mumbai, he managed to stay with his relative and pursue the practice.

While in Mumbai, family problem took him away from his music lessons. One of his uncles had fallen sick of TB and responsibility of taking care of him fell on the shoulders of young Rajeev. He spent seven months to take care of his uncle and took him to famous Nanavathi Hospital. After he recovered, Rajeev was back to his music lessons. Such were the traditions at that time. Family ties were strong. How about now?

After a year, Ali Akbar Khan left for Calcutta and Rajeev followed him. However, in Calcutta he did not have any relatives.

Ali Akbar Khan had two wives and two houses — one was a Muslim wife and another a Hindu one. Hindu wife had left him and her house was vacant. Khan Sahib asked Rajeev to stay there along with two more of his students. In the house when there was no food, Rajeev managed to live on buying peanuts for six annas a day. After some time, when the first wife of Khan Sahib learnt about a loafer living in her house, she asked the neighbour to throw all the students from the house.

Rajeev was now on the road. He stayed in the bus stand where he could sleep and take bath. During day time he would go to a park and have his daily meal of peanuts.

One day a rich Parsi industrialist student of Khan Sahib saw Rajeev in the bus station and asked him what he was doing there. He tried to give some excuses and not reveal his miserable situation. But the Parsi student managed to find out the truth about Rajeev. He contacted his Bengali friend who had an empty room in his house. Owner of the house invited Rajeev to stay in the room.

Rajeev finally had a house to stay, but no food to eat. Each day he would go out and eat six anna peanuts and return home. One day his landlord found out what was happening and told him that he should eat with them. Rajeev first refused. Then the couple told Rajeev that if he does not eat then by turn they would also not eat food. Finally he agreed.

While he was with Khan Sahib, Dr. C.D. Narasimhaiah (CDN) sent a word to Khan Sahib that he wants his best student to come back to complete his MA. Rajeev returned to native Karnataka and completed his MA. He got a job as a teacher.  While in Mysuru he fell in love with a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Venkatesh.

Once Ravi Shankar chided him why he was wasting his God-given talent and also told him that Khan Sahib has wasted his energy by giving the greatest gift of the music inherited from Tansen to him. It seems Khan Sahib descended from Tansen’s family. Rajeev meekly asked him what he should do. He urged him to resign his job immediately and continue to play Sarod. Rajeev readily agreed. It shows Rajeev’s dedication to music.

He narrated an incident with Siddharamaiah to express how generous the former CM was. Rajeev told the former CM that he was doing so much for Kannada and Siddharamaiah asked him what he can do for him. Rajeev requested to support him to organise music concerts. On the spot he sanctioned Rs. 35 lakh.

I asked Rajeev if he has written any autobiography and the response was in the negative. He felt that there was nothing of consequence to share and was quite humble. I think otherwise.

‘My Guru never charged me’

During the narration, Pt. Rajeev Taranath casually mentioned that his Guru never charged him and he has adopted the same principle. Currently, he is teaching five US students in California who are between 30 years and 60 years. He expressed anguish that Indians do not show such intense desire to learn music. Amazing that even at age 90, he is able to work for the cause of music.

By Bhamy V. Shenoy