Ghazal queen realized her sitar dreams in Mumbai

MUMBAI: Once while trying to play a Ghaseet (a glide from one note to another) on a sitar, Begum Akhtar exclaimed as the string hurt her finger - “Kambakhat! Ye to lagta hai”, and giggled away. She would have been fifty-eight then. The reigning queen of ghazals and celebrated exponent of thumri and dadra, both light-classical and popular forms of Hindustani music, had just begun to learn the sitar.
Akhtari Bai Faizabadi had the desire to learn the sitar since the age of twenty-five. The wish came to fruition in the year 1971 when she expressed this desire to Arvind Parikh who was a family friend (His wife, Smt. Kishori Parikh, an eminent vocalist from the Kirana gharana and Begum Akhtar got along very well). Pandit Arvind Parikh said that he would talk to his guru, sitar maestro Ustad Vilayat Khan, who would be glad to teach her. To this she said, “No, no Arvindbhai, you know these big Ustads, they have no time, and I know you have had taleem from Vilayat Khan Saheb for the last thirty years, I want to learn from you”. He was embarrassed at this request from the ghazal queen; and politely refused saying, “Begum Sahib, I belong to the category of disciples. You have the stature of an Ustad. I cannot teach you”. Begum remained insistent and Arvindbhai had to finally relent. He took permission from his Ustad who was very encouraging and said “Zaroor sikhao. Kya baat hai? Hamare gharane ki shagird banegi tum sikhaoge to.” (Do, by all means, teach her. She will become a disciple of our gharana if you teach her.) Begum Akhtar got this news and landed up at Arvindbhai’s Altamount Road residence the same evening with all the ceremonial paraphernalia required for a Ganda Bandhan (initiation) ceremony. This embarrassed him further, but Begum was determined to get the ceremonial thread tied on her wrist. Arvindbhai relented to her insistence, and thus began her learning of the sitar.
Pandit Arvind Parikh remembers her as an earnest disciple. “It requires tremendous amount of moral courage for a person of her status, to first of all learn Sitar, consider me to be her Ustad, tie the Ganda and accept all the obligations of an ordinary disciple”, he says. Whenever she was in Bombay, Arvindbhai would pick her up from Sea Green Hotel at Marine Drive, and bring her home. All her learning sessions happened at the Parikh residence at Altamount Road.
Begum learnt the sitar for almost two and a half years. Unfortunately, those were the last years of her life. Pandit Arvind Parikh remembers the doyen of ghazals for her humility and unassuming nature. One day, he asked her whether she practices his lessons after she returns to Lucknow. She gave an innocent smile and a diplomatic answer – “Arvindbhai, kacche shagird ko Ustad ke saamne hi riyaz karna chahiye” (Arvindbhai, a raw student should practice only in the presence of the Ustad).