MONITA SONI
I remember the first time when I heard her voice. I was in my teens, the ghazal: Ai mohabbat tere anjaam pe rona aaya used to play at our home often. I used to wait for my dad to look away and change the player to Elvis Presley’s Heartbreak hotel, ABBA or Connie Frances. Dad would return and switch the player to: Woh jo hum me tum me quarar tha I would soon walk out in a huff because although her voice was soulful, I did not understand the nuances associated with Urdu poetry or how the delicate tingling of notes between classical raga Darbari and raga Jonpuri conjured up a different feeling. Looking back, even though the King of Rock’s dreamy blue eyes and high cheek bones were cool and it was an eternal mystery as to how the lipstick got onto that white collar, I am happy that the music entered my being subconsciously at a young age. Now I often raise a toast to my dear father and admire the beautifully crafted verses of poets like Ghalib, Momin and Faiz rendered in the haunting voice of Akhtari Bai. (Read my article on Ghalib here.)
Begum Akhtar or Akhtari Bai Faizabadi, (7 October 1914 – 30 October 1974) was a well-known singer of ghazal, dadra, and thumri genres of Hindustani classical music. A living legend, she rose to fame at a young age and entertained millions of listeners of many generations. Exponents like Mehdi Hasan, Pt. Jasraj, Bismillah Khan and Pt. Ravi Shankar were her avid admirers as was my father. She received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for vocal music, a Padma Shri and later went on to win the Padma Bhushan awarded by the Indian government. She is phenomenal for her contribution to pieces sung in a light classical music style, which were deeply anchored in pure classical Hindustani music.
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Begum Akhtar’s ancestral home is in the historic city of Faizabad on the banks of river Sarayu in Uttar Pradesh. Her father, Asghar Hussain was a civil judge in Lucknow, who fell in love with her mother Mushtari, a courtesan and made her his second wife. Mushtari Bai’s singing was not accepted by her husband’s family, and soon after the birth of twin daughters, the marriage fell apart. Akhtari’s twin sister Zohra died of eating tainted sweets. With the severance of her relationship with her father and the death of her twin sister, she developed deep separation anxiety and was glued to her mother.
Her life mirrors the personal tragedies in Ghalib’s life (an 18th century poet) which he depicted in his ghazals. (which Begum Akhtar sang a lot) like:
Hazaro khaaishein aisi
Yeh Na Thi Hamari Kismet.
Koi umeed bhar nahi aati.
Phir Mujhe Deeda-E-Tar Yaad Aaya
Rahiye Ab Aisi Jagah Chalkar Jahan Koi Na Ho
Mushtari did not want her daughter to go through the same hardships in life, and wanted her to enjoy a proper education and a respectable married life. But Bibbi Akhtari was adamant – singing constantly and she disliked the confines of school. Her maternal uncle convinced Mushtari Bai to train her as a classical singer, seeing her talent in memorizing songs so quickly. Her training started under various gurus who tried to mold her naturally gifted voice. After early training under Ustad Imdad Khan of Patna, a famous sarangi player who chose to initiate her with raga Kamod, Bibbi found the raga difficult to cope with, as she was attracted to folk tunes. So she discontinued her lessons and they went to Ustad Ghulam Mohammad Khan of Gaya.
India Currents for more
(Thanks to reader.)