A leaf from my life……
I was born in the holy city of Lord Shiva, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, in the year 1958.
Born in a well-known Bengali family, I was encouraged to learn music from a very tender
age by my mother. During my early childhood days, I started learning Tabla as one of the
musical instruments under the formal guidance of Late Thakur Uma Shankar Singh for first
two years. In the later years, this inquisitiveness to explore my passion from a deeper
perspective led me to become one of the disciples of Late Pt. Chhote Lal Mishra, Varanasi.
This exploration further continued and I was privileged that great Tabla wizard Padma
Vibhushan Late Shri Pt. Kishan Maharaj accepted me as one of his disciples for which I am
always grateful to him. I also took formal classical vocal training under the guidance of
Padmashri Pt. Rajeshwar Acharya (former Dean Faculty of Performing Arts, Gorakhpur
University).
I received my Master’s degree in Tabla in the year 1979 from Prayag Sangeet Samiti,
Allahabad. I have also been honoured to receive an invitation from the Ministry of Education,
Afghanistan, to pen a book on “An Introduction to Tabla”.
Over the last few years, I have also performed with several popular musicians at
various places in India and abroad like United Kingdom, Netherland, Belgium,
Luxembourg, Yugoslavia, Germany and Afghanistan, to name a few. I have also been
actively associated with many great institutions of performing arts from time to time such as
Banaras Hindu University (BHU), and Gandharva Ved Vishwa Vidhiya Peeth (MGVVVP).
I was also privileged enough to get the opportunity to present Indian Classical Music
Fraternity at Kabul University, Afghanistan and music center under the Ministry of Culture,
Afghanistan on deputation as an ITEC expert through Indian Council for Cultural Relation
(ICCR), New Delhi, Government of India, for two years. In the year September 1986-1988,I
was appointed as Visiting Professor at the Vedic University, Netherland. This was followed
by receiving an invitation for performance at the prestigious University of Cambridge,
England in the year 1992. Recently retired from Delhi Public School on 31 August 2018 as a
Senior Instrumental Music Teacher (2001 to 2018). At present preparing the students in
traditional way of Tabla training of Banaras Gharana.