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A great loss to the nation
SEVERAL EDUCATIONAL, social, literary and political organisations and personalities condoled the death of shehnai wizard Bharat Ratna Ustad Bismillah Khan here on Monday. Allahabad University (AU) teachers, administrative officers, non-teaching employees and students held a condolence meet on the death of the great shehnai player. AU registrar Firdous A Wani said the death of Ustad Bismillah Khan was a big loss to the nation that could not be compensated by any means.
SEVERAL EDUCATIONAL, social, literary and political organisations and personalities condoled the death of shehnai wizard Bharat Ratna Ustad Bismillah Khan here on Monday.
Allahabad University (AU) teachers, administrative officers, non-teaching employees and students held a condolence meet on the death of the great shehnai player.
AU registrar Firdous A Wani said the death of Ustad Bismillah Khan was a big loss to the nation that could not be compensated by any means. He said Khan had a close bondage with the AU and played shehnai at AU’s Senate Hall during a music concert in 1938 and mesmerised the audience with his performance again in 1980 at the Senate Hall. Khan had raised the status of shehnai from the instrument of occasions to instrument of classical music. Wani said Khan’s death was the end of a chapter in the music world.
Member of Parliament Rewati Raman Singh said that Khan was a great musician and a very simple human being. His death was a great loss to Ganga-Jamuni culture.
District and City Congress Committee members held a meeting to condole the death of shehnai maestro Ustad Bismilla hKhan. The members said that Khan was a symbol of Hindu-Muslim unity and a great patriot. The members held two-minute silence to pay homage to the shehnai maestro.
Akshayvat Sahitya and Sanskriti Academy also held a meeting to condole the death of Ustaad Bismilla Khan. The entire staff of the academy paid homage to Khan.
Members of Ekta organisation also mourned the death of Bismillah Khan and announced to felicitate a senior musician of the city with ‘Bismillah Khan Award’ in the upcoming Ekta Mahotsav. The meeting took place at South Malaka office.
Ratan Kumar Dixit, president of the organisation, said the death of Ustad was an irreparable loss. Secretary Manoj Kumar Gupta said he got the golden opportunity to meet the musician once during his visit to the city and he was a great person.
Those present were Uma Dixit, Sangeet Samiti, Basharat Hussain, Maneesh Agrawal, Sonali Chakravarty, Sayed Mohd Salim, Kalpana Srivastava, and several musicians. Syed Rahman Ali, member of UPCC, in a statement said that the country had lost a great shehnai maestro. Bismillah Khan’s death had created a great vacuum.
A condolence meeting of the staff and students of Mahboob Ali Inter College was held under the presidentship of officiating principal Khursheed Anwar. Two-minute silence was observed to pay homage to the departed soul.
