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residents of the birung raut ki gali

Answer» Residents of the Bhirung Raut Ki Gali, where Ustad Bishmillah Khan was bom on March 21,1916, were in a state of shock. His cousin, 94-year -old Mohd Idrish Khan had tears welled up in his eyes. Shubhan Khan, the caretaker of Bismillah’s land, recalled “Whenever in Dumaraon, he would give rupees two to the boys and rupees five to the girls of the locality”. He was very keen to play Shehnai\xa0again in the local Bihariji’s Temple where he had started playing Shehnai with his father, Bachai Khan, at the age of six.His original name was Quamaruddin and became Bishmillah only after he became famous as a Shehnai player in Varanasi. His father Bachai Khan was the official Shehnai player of Keshav Prasad Singh, the Maharaja of the erstwhile Dumaraon estate, Bismillah used to accompany him. For Bismillah Khan, the connection to music began at a very early age. By his teens, he had already become a master of the Shehnai. On the day India got freedom, Bismillah Khan, then a sprightly young man of 31 years old, had the rare honour of playing from Red Fort.But Bishmillah Khan won’t just be remembered for elevating the Shehnai from an installment heard only in weddings and Naubatkhanas to one that was appreciated in concert halls globally across the world. His life was a witness to the plurality that is India. A practicing Muslim,he would take a daily dip in River Ganges in his younger days after a bout of kusti in Benia Baga Akhada. Every morning, Bismillah Khan would do riyaaz at the Balaji temple on the banks of the river. Even during his final hours in a Varanasi hospital, music didn’t desert Bismillah Khan.A few hours before he left this worldly home early on Monday, the Shehnai wizard hummed a thumri to show that he was feeling better. This was typical of a man for whom life revolved around music. Throughout his life, he abided by the principle that all religions are one and the same. What marked Bismillah Khan was his simplicity and disregard for the riches that come with musical fame. Till the very end, he used a cycle rickshaw to travel around Varanasi. But the pressure of providing for some 60 family members took its toll during his later years.


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