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to organise. From here on, the situation degenerated to something like rancid butter. The seething
could have mustered. In his mind, the mythology
when her husband is lying. At a duet concert
in front of all his students and said, ‘If you practice
guest. He dated many women. Every once in a while, he played at a concert. When Shujaat got married to Parveen, a lovely young woman of his own chosing, the entire family accompanied the young couple on their honeymoon to Chail in Himachal, and made a grand holiday of it. Vilayat Khan adored her. But then a shift started taking place. Gradually, he began indicating that he did not approve
‘Remember one thing, son. Even if you are a five-year-old child and are sitting in front of great masters, as soon as you have your instrument in hand, you are the ustad. You have to have that level of confidence. And if some day you actually become an ustad and you are listening to a five-year-old child, listen like a student because there will always be something you can learn.’
One day, Natasha Nandini, a young friend who was visiting from London, said, ‘Abba, may I come inside and listen?’ ‘No, darling. For then it would no longer be practice, it would become performance.’
Sometimes great ideas collide and merge inadvertently, because that is the nature of truth and beauty. Princeton had always been famous for its great physicists, and right at that moment, Vilayat Khan had invoked one of the most fascinating theories of quantum physics—that the act of observation affects the object being observed.
A drop of practice is better than an ocean of theories, advice and talk.
