Renowned sitarist Pt. Shubhendra Rao had the shocking experience of finding his musical instrument destroyed, just before he was to perform in a concert in France.
Pt. Shubhendra was preparing for the event in Nice on October 28, after travelling on an Air Berlin flight, when he found his sitar, which was transported as cargo, “brutally sliced open.”
Speaking over phone from New Delhi, the musician from Bengaluru, who trained under Pt. Ravi Shankar, narrated the incident which had left him shocked.
“I opened my sitar box an hour before the evening concert to tune up, and discovered it had been sliced open. I was shaking and still am. Someone took the sitar out of its box and for some inexplicable reason, sliced it open, almost surgically.”
“This was just not bad handling or something heavy falling on top of the sitar. It was a pure case of vandalism,” the musician said. Pt. Shubhendra, who uploaded a video on social media on the instrument, wanted air operators to be more accountable for the damage they cause. It was not mere financial loss that the musician suffered. “What about the mental agony and distress? For artists, their instruments are an extension of their bodies.”
Airline respondsAlthough he wanted to contact the airline immediately, that was not possible since all phone numbers listed on their website were from Germany. When he wrote to the listed email id on reaching India after seven days, he received a letter which said the ‘company’ he had contacted was only a ‘luggage repair shop.’
But the incident had triggered outrage among music lovers all over the world, and people were responding and sharing Pt. Shubhendra’s post on social media. Finally, it drew Air Berlin’s attention and the airline contacted him with an apology. “But more importantly, we need to see that such an act does not happen in future,” he said.
The musician later received an email from Kate Johnson, guest relations officer of Air Berlin, which said: “On behalf of Air Berlin, please accept my most sincere apologies...” The airline also asked him to assess the damage and provide an estimate of repair or replacement costs.
As a musician who frequently travels internationally, Pt. Shubhendra senses a paranoia among many agencies about anything that looks ‘different’ - in this case, the sitar.
After his post went viral, he received several calls from musicians who had similar horror stories to tell. “I am not sure how much refund I will get, which is another matter. Whether it was negligence or a surgical slicing by a person who knew what he or she was doing, or whether it was someone’s hatred towards something ‘different’, I will never know. But what I know is that my beautiful instrument will never be able to sing with the same voice,” he says.
