Bismillah’s undying wish buried forever!

DARPAN Singh
Patna, August 21
WITH THE passing away of shehnai maestro Ustad Bismillah Khan, many of his wishes have, sadly, been put to rest forever at his birthplace Dumraon. Often accused of not introducing himself as a native of Bihar, the shehnai maestro had once told this correspondent: “Koi apni paidaish ki jagah ko kaise bhool sakta hai. Meri khwahish hai ki us jagah ko ek nazar dekh loon. (How can anyone forget his place of birth? I wish I could have one last look at it before I am dead).” In the recent past, several efforts were made to bring him over to his birthplace. However, despite his keenness, this undying wish of his could never be fulfilled for one reason or another.Born on March 21, 1916, in a poor family of professional shehnai players in the employ of the erstwhile Dumraon Estate, Bismillah Khan spent his childhood playing ‘gilli danda’ near the famous Chhatiya pond. Till very recently, he would attribute his good health to the regular intake of lentils produced in Dumraon.His father, Paigambar Bux, more popularly known as Bachai Miyan, grandfather, Rasul Bux, and great-grandfather, Hussain Bux, were all employees of Dumraon Raj. He learnt the three Rs at the Urdu School located near Naya Talab. During his childhood, Bismillah Khan used to play shehnai at the Bihariji temple and get ration and Rs 1.50 for it from the Estate.His friend, Jehangir Khan, who spent his childhood with the maestro and still lives in Dumraon, recalls: “Every time he sang the Bhojpuri ‘chaita’ song — Ehi matiya mein bhulail hamar motiya he rama, (It is in this place that I lost my pearl) — at the behest of then Maharaja Keshav Prasad Singh, the temple priest would give Bismillah a ‘laddu’ weighing 1.25 kg.”Bismillah was only six when he lost his mother. Soon after, his maternal uncle took him to Varanasi which later came to be known as his workplace. In 2001, when he was awarded the Bharat Ratna, Bismillah Khan had said: “The Government, it seems, has finally begun to acknowledge the contributions made by artists of yesteryears.” However, two chief ministers of Bihar left no stone unturned to prove him wrong. During a felicitation ceremony in Patna a couple of years back, the shehnai wizard requested the then CM, Rabri Devi, to get a community hall built on his ancestral land still left in Dumraon so that it could be used for public purposes. Needless to say, despite the promise made by Rabri, the community hall never came up. And Bismillah did not hide his hurt sentiments either. Talking to this correspondent sometime back, he said, “If the Bihar Government fails to keep its promise, I am capable of getting the work done on my own. If need be, I can talk to the Prime Minister instead.” Not only this, the then CM, Lalu Prasad Yadav, way back in 1994, had laid the foundation stone of a town hall to be built at Dumraon in the shehnai maestro’s honour. However, the construction of the town hall never started. Mobarak Hussain, another octogenarian who spent his childhood with Bismillah, told the HT, “The police department, which owned the land, refused to give it for the town hall. Even the ceremonial plaque was removed the day after the foundation laying function.”Recently, one of Bismillah’s sons also expressed his displeasure over the apathetic attitude of both the State Government and the local administration towards the construction of the town hall and the community hall. Another local resident, Aslam Khan, who runs a private school at Dumraon, lamented, “Though he brought honour to the shehnai and raised its stature in the world of music through the national and international rewards that were showered on him, the people of Bihar never realised the significance of his contributions.”