There was something of a Robin Hood about him. No, he didn’t rob the rich to help the poor. But he certainly tried, and often succeeded, in putting in touch those who needed help with those who could provide it. During the last few years his practice was doing rather well. Clients with deep pockets made their way to his airy Worli office overlooking the Arabian Sea. His consultation fees had gone up, like everything else. However, for those who did not have money he charged a nominal fee – or in some cases nothing at all. I am sure many of them now feel orphaned.

It is hard to believe that somebody with such a lust for life has gone. The same passion went into his engagement with cinema and books as it did for cricket, art, architecture, Elvis Presley and travel. Even furniture. He was a foodie par excellence… link

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-Have been very busy commuting to Cambridge and back and generally feeling very happy attending lectures, but been fluey and too tired to do much else.

-A and I have finally going over to the dark side and have bought a car. We have resisted doing this for a few years. Both his parents and mine have been after us to get one, but what with living very near good transport links we’ve not really felt the need for one or the associated expense. But now as I will be commuting a lot for the PhD, the tube becoming pretty hellish pre-Olympics and us feeling the need to explore England more, we have decided that the time has come. I am having fond fantasises of getting A to drive me to historic sites and gardens and to nurseries. It will mainly be A doing the driving as I haven’t got my license yet. He is trying to change that situation!

-A has been baking nonstop. Chocolate tarts, lemon tarts, brownies…My mother was here for a few days and brought a halwai’s shop worth of mithai with her so there was some seriously unhealthy eating going on here. Not that I’m putting on any weight. Useless.

-Have lately been listening to this album, which a jugalbandi of the Gundecha Brothers (Dhrupad) and the Malladi Brothers (Carnatic). It’s not exactly easily available. They recently performed again in Chicago, here’s a vigorous fast-paced Shankara Girijapati by all four:

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Z.M. Dagar was the slowest moving individual I’ve ever met. He was never interested in playing very fast music, and his mind and body seemed to be set at alap speed. He gave the impression of being continuously half asleep, but everyone who got to know him soon realized that Dagarsahib was alive and alert to subtle realities that most people never even notice. He was a keen observer of people and events, a sort of amateur psychologist, and he could speak to the innermost part of a person when he wished to – with his music of course, but also with words. English was his fourth language I think, but he got his point across splendidly.

Dagarsahib had very strong hands and fingers. I watched him make sitar mizrabs from heavy wire without any tools and of course he pulled heavy vina strings with phenomenal accuracy. Anyone who has tried to replicate Ustad’s meend and sruti will know it takes not only a lot of patience and skill but steady endurance as well.

He was a splendid cook. He used black pepper as much as chilies and was fond of chicken. He made the best blackeye peas (loobia) and the best cauliflower I’ve ever eaten.

He felt that North Indian classical music, and Dhrupad alap especially, was a Universal Science of music and sound, of which India was the custodian. It could be learned, performed and deeply felt by non-Indians. He rejected the notions of “Hindu music,” “Muslim music,” “Black music” etcetera and I think he enjoyed gently annoying ethnomusicologists by his emphatic dismissal of their terminology and concepts. Of course he recognized different musical styles in different cultures and communities but he knew from experience how pure music could transcend rather than define the differences between people. He also knew that sound is vibrating air and that vibrating air in itself has no religious beliefs or cultural identity. Link

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• Gharana Festival Chennai-22nd to 24th January 2010

I really like the Dilruba in this one. The bass is also lovely.

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