New Delhi

For Anuradha Pal, the death of tabla legend Ustad Zakir Hussain is a great personal loss. Anuradha Pal, who entered the Limca Book of Records for being the world’s first professional female tabla player, WAS trained by Hussain.

“Zakir was my mentor, father, brother and friend. When I was five years old, I met him. I first met Zakir Hussain while playing the tabla at a function organized by my family. He saw me playing the tabla and asked me if I wanted to play it when I grew up. I said then, yes I want to play the tabla. So he let me sit on his lap and put my hand on the tabla and taught me the basics. That was the beginning of my journey as a tabla player.”

“My formal training continued with both Abba Ji (Ustad Allarakha Khan; father of tabla legend Zakir Hussain) and Zakir Bhai and I became their gonda-bandhan disciple.' Anuradha Pal said of Hussain, who recently passed away in New York after a protracted lung disease. 

“The way he taught me is an everlasting memory for me. All the conversations with him about music, tabla, and life will always stay with me. Indian classical music is based on improvisation and spontaneity, and he taught me to take on any challenge in music and tabla.

“When I touched his feet after the concert, he gave me a composition and expected it to be ready by the next morning. By this he wanted me to practice all night. I sent him all the concert recordings. He listened to them and gave me the right opinions and advice as needed.”

Anuradha Pal added that Zakir Hussain played a big role in making her shine in the male-dominated tabla field. “He knew that musicians are not the girls of families since it would be difficult for me to succeed as a girl in a male-dominated field. Therefore, through his music, he opened my mind to a thousand possibilities.

"He was very proud in 1991 when the Limca Book of Records announced me as the world’s first female professional tabla player. Not that he was proud of me because I was a woman. He was quite happy just to be able to fulfill his expectations," said Anuradha Pal. 

Born in Mumbai, Anuradha Pal's father Devinder Pal was a pharmaceutical professional and her mother Ila Pal was an artist and writer. He trained in tabla under Punjab Gharana tabla masters Ustad Allah Rakha and Ustad Zakir Hussain.

In 2018, he gathered 217 tabla players on the same stage to celebrate the centenary of the birth of coach Allah Rakha. In January 2018, she was awarded the Ministry of WCD First Ladies Award by the President of India as the first and youngest female Indian musician to perform at WOMAD and the Przystanek Woodstock Festival.

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In 1996, she founded Stree Shakti, one of India's first all-female classical music ensembles.