There were many such moments when unlikely voices broke the routine of raga music. Anyone cycling past Surbahar late at night would have been startled to hear the sweet sultry voice of Ella or Janis Joplin, or an aria by Mozart or Bach. Vilayat Khan’s all-time favourite was Béla Bartók, the Hungarian composer. These were not musicians he had grown up hearing, and yet he was drawn to them and brought them into his world with great openness and humility. But the music he listened to for hours on end was that of the old Indian greats—Zohrabai, Kesarbai, Faiyaz Khan, Abdul Karim Khan and Omkarnath
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