“Music and memory, each captures moments in the flux of human experience. Yaman for me represents the very flux of life,” begins Ustad Shujaat Khan, sitar exponent. “Yaman is the first raga that I learnt and as I scaled up and down and into studying deeply the different facets of the raga, unravelled to me by my father; my sojourn at Simla and the changing of seasons created in my mind different thoughts, were a witness to the whole beauty of growing up.”
Versatile raga
“Yaman is one of the most versatile ragas in terms of presenting different kinds of feelings and emotions."
“I also would count the morning ragas among my favourites because they spell new beginnings and bring along a promise of happiness and fulfilment touching a pretty and soothing world."
“A well researched raga Bhairavi takes me back to my father’s concerts which invariably ended with it – a raga with so many hues and colours."
“I was six years old and had already begun performing, when in the middle of my father’s concert at Bardwan, I fell asleep and woke up when my father Ustad Vilayat Khan Sahib was playing his inimitable Bhairavi. This interpretative art of raga music surely determines life itself and is life’s truest image,” concludes Shujjat Khan Sahib.
