For Haridas Vhatkar, tabla making received’t be the identical once more, as he mourns the passing away of his most celebrated buyer, Ustad Zakir Hussain. “I first started making tablas for his father Alla Rakha, and made tablas for Zakir Hussain saab since 1998,” an emotional Vhatkar, 59, advised PTI.
Talking from his workshop at Kanjurmarg in Mumbai, Vhatkar mentioned he final met the 73-year-old tabla maestro in August this yr in Mumbai. “It was Guru Poornima and we met at a corridor the place lot of his admirers had been additionally there. The following day, I went to his home in Simla Home Cooperative Society on Nepean Sea Highway neighbourhood and had been engrossed in dialog for a few hours,” Vhatkar mentioned.
“He was very explicit about what kind of tabla he needed and when. He paid loads of consideration to the ‘tuning’ facet of the musical instrument,” mentioned Vhatkar, a 3rd era tabla maker, hailing from Miraj in western Maharashtra.
“Innumerable,” was Vhatkar’s reply when requested what number of tablas did he make for Zakir Hussain during the last 20 years. He mentioned he additionally has many tablas which had been left behind for him by the tabla maestro. “In addition to making new devices, I used to be additionally his kind of restore division for sustaining the gathering of the older ones,” mentioned Vhatkar. “I made tablas for him and he made my life,” the tabla maker added.
Requested if he and Zakir Hussain had been in common contact, Vhatkar mentioned, “Not likely. He referred to as at any time when wanted, to ask a few new tabla or relating to restore of some outdated devices.” “Our conversations had been after a niche of months and never what you’d categorize as common calls,” mentioned Vhatkar, who entered tabla making following within the footsteps of his grandfather Kerappa Ramchandra Vhatkar and father Ramchandra Kerappa Vhatkar.
His sons Kishore and Manoj have additionally carried ahead the household custom of tabla making. Haridas learnt the artwork of tabla making at an early age and developed a eager sense of innovation and perfection. He got here to Mumbai in 1994 and began working as a tabla maker for the well-known Haribhau Vishwanath firm in Mumbai.
Zakir Hussain, who’s considered the best tabla participant of his era, died at a hospital in San Francisco, his household mentioned on Monday. The Mumbai-born tabla maestro is survived by his spouse Antonia Minnecola and daughters Anisa Qureshi and Isabella Qureshi.
