Thirteen winters ago, on 24th January 2011, I attended the The Dover Lane Music Conference for the last time, along with my parents. That was a significant phase of my life as I was on the cusp of starting my professional career and was about to bid adieu to Calcutta and move out into the big bad world. It was also the time when I had newly joined this social network called Facebook. As I look back into my Facebook timeline today and parse through the uploaded photos, I stumble across the fact that my Facebook post from that period actually carried the memories of the magical night including a snippet alluding to Ustaad Rashid Khan who was one of the four performing artists.
The night started with danseuse Yamini Reddy performing to Raaga Nata Bhairavi. Born to the legendary Kuchipudi exponents, Padma Bhushans Raja and Radha Reddy, Yamini has got dance in inheritance from her parents and she lived up to her genes with her beguiling mudras. Then came Kaushiki Chakraborty, daughter of Pandit Ajoy Chakraborty , who enthralled the audience with her rendition of bandish in Raaga Pahari and Raaga Kaunsi Kanhra. Next up was Amaan Ali Bangash who mesmerised us with Sarod recital of a bandish composed by his father Ustaad Amjad Ali Khan. He had his mother Subhalakshmi Khan in the front row as audience.
There is a saying in Bengali .. “ওস্তাদের মার শেষ রাতে” and the unforgettable Musical Soiree was rounded off with Ustaad Ustad Rashid Khan coming up with powerhouse performances of Raaga Lalit and Raaga Ahir Bhairav as the night slowly gave way to dawn.
Rashid Khan was always a maverick and a musical genius in equal measures. But then he was destined for greatness. After all, he carried the flattering endorsement of Pandit Bhimsen Joshi and Ustaad Amjad Ali Khan called him a “Prodigy” !! For listeners, it was Rashid’s ability to stir profound exclamations – of love, devotion and reverence – that set him apart. Hearing him sing was a beautiful surprise, as he would switch between the lyrical and soft, before suddenly bursting into an intricate taan – the technique of improvising with rapid melodic passages. His voice had a honey-like warmth that grabbed listeners the instant he sang the first note. He could sing the slow tempo alaap with the meditative quality of an Ustaad Amir Khan and move seamlessly into a fast-tempoed tarana or a romantic thumri like ‘Yaad Piya Ki Aaye’. Inside the sanctum sanctorum of Indian Classical Music, Rashid Khan was the “prince of modernism” who showed complete respect to classical forms but didn’t hesitate to “blur the distinctions between mainstream genres”.
On that fateful day , as the sun broke out , his exquisite exposition of Raag Ahir Bhairav – usually sung as the first Prahr of the morning – didn’t leave me for days. In fact it stayed with me and continues to reverberate in my subconscious and has strangely become an abiding memory of Calcutta winters that I will carry till my last breath.
‘Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter’.
~ John Keats
We mourn the passing of Ustaad Rashid Khan, one of the greatest vocalists of Hindustani classical music, may be we mourn the passing of his legacy of perfection as well 
Calcutta Chromosome 