Remembering Ut Alla Rakha Qureshi on his centenary | Lifestyle News, The Indian Express

Remembering Ut Alla Rakha Qureshi on his centenary | Lifestyle News, The Indian Express

Written by Anuradha Pal |Updated: April 30, 2019 6:14:34 am

Remembering Ut Alla Rakha Qureshi on his centenary

Ut Alla Rakha was different from a lot of other musicians. Whenever you saw him, he was busy creating compositions.

(Clockwise from above) Anuradha Pal; Ut Alla Rakha with a young Zakir Hussain; Ut Alla Rakha, whose birth centenary was celebrated on Monday (Express archive)

I was about 12 when I met Abbaji for the first time at one of his concerts. I’d go to all of them in the city and stand in a corner. One day he called me and said, “Tumko main kaafi dino se dekh raha hoon. Kaun ho tum?” I told him my name. He said, “I’ve heard your name. Come and meet me.” I went and never had to say that I wanted to learn. He just began teaching. That’s how I began learning from Ut Alla Rakha.