I made him tabla, he made my life: Zakir Hussain’s tabla maker

Mumbai: For Haridas Vhatkar, tabla making won’t be the same again, as he mourns the passing away of his most celebrated customer, Ustad Zakir Hussain.

“I first began making tablas for his father Alla Rakha, and made tablas for Zakir Hussain saab since 1998,” an emotional Vhatkar, 59, told PTI.

Speaking from his workshop at Kanjurmarg in Mumbai, Vhatkar said he last met the 73-year-old tabla maestro in August this year in Mumbai.

“It was Guru Poornima and we met at a hall where lot of his admirers were also there. The next day, I went to his house in Simla House Cooperative Society on Nepean Sea Road neighbourhood and were engrossed in conversation for a couple of hours,” Vhatkar said.

“He was very particular about what sort of tabla he wanted and when. He paid a lot of attention to the ‘tuning’ aspect of the musical instrument,” said Vhatkar, a third generation tabla maker, hailing from Miraj in western Maharashtra.

“Innumerable,” was Vhatkar’s reply when asked how many tablas did he make for Zakir Hussain over the last two decades. He said he also has many tablas which were left behind for him by the tabla maestro.

“Besides making new instruments, I was also his sort of repair department for maintaining the collection of the older ones,” said Vhatkar. “I made tablas for him and he made my life,” the tabla maker added.

Asked if he and Zakir Hussain were in regular contact, Vhatkar said, “Not really. He called whenever needed, to ask about a new tabla or regarding repair of some old instruments.” “Our conversations were after a gap of months and not what you would categorize as regular calls,” said Vhatkar, who entered tabla making following in the footsteps of his grandfather Kerappa Ramchandra Vhatkar and father Ramchandra Kerappa Vhatkar. His sons Kishore and Manoj have also carried forward the family tradition of tabla making.

Haridas learnt the art of tabla making at an early age and developed a keen sense of innovation and perfection. He came to Mumbai in 1994 and started working as a tabla maker for the famous Haribhau Vishwanath company in Mumbai.

Zakir Hussain, who is regarded as the greatest tabla player of his generation, died at a hospital in San Francisco, his family said on Monday. The Mumbai-born tabla maestro is survived by his wife Antonia Minnecola and daughters Anisa Qureshi and Isabella Qureshi.