It was the summer of 1991,1 was in London with my daughters, both under five years of age. Some of my friends and I went to Parveen Sultana's concert in the Purcell Room of the Royal Festival Hall in London. There I met up with other classical music lovers and heard they were going to Stuttgart, Germany to attend an all-night concert featuring several maestros of India. I longed to go with them, but who would babysit my daughters? Time was short; if I wanted to go I had to make up my mind right away. I hesitated as I spoke, 'Can I take my daughters with me?' Expecting no for an answer, I was pleasantly surprised when one friend said, 'Sure, we will take turns to look after them, don't worry.'

The music festival in Stuttgart commenced with Pandit Ravi Shankar and was followed by Pandit Bhimshen Joshi, of whom I was an avid fan. I heard that he had left home at the age of 11 to learn music! After three years of searching for a guru, which became an epic story in Hindustani classical music, his father brought him back to Gadag (in Dharwad, Karnataka), their home town.

From a very early age Bhimsen used to leave home with bhajan mandal, much to the chagrin of his father. He got his first musical lessons from the man who used to wash clothes at their home, but that stock was soon exhausted. Bhimsen's mother sang the bhajan of Purandara Dasa and that too had a lasting impact on the young music enthusiast's repertoire.

When he was barely 11, he heard Abdul Karim Khan on a 78-rpm disc, and that proved to be a decisive moment when he left home in pursuit of a trainer. On his way to Gwalior, Lucknow and Rampur, the penniless child would sing on trains for meals and money. His journey took him as far as Kharagpur, Calcutta and Punjab thereafter, before he returned home. The Guru recommended to him by Vinayak Rao was Sawai Gandharva who lived in Kungdol, not too far from his home in Gadag.

Critics maintain that Bhimsen was a master of a few rather than a wide range of ragas and Lalit was one of them. When his name was announced in Stuttgart, the morning sun had just started peeping from behind its sleepy covers. As the Raga Lalit unfolded, styled in the Kirana gharana, it felt as if he was coaxing and cajoling the sun to come out in its full glory. Through the window, we could see the darkness of the night fade away into a slight dim of the early morning and when the drut laya set in, it was synonymous with the glory of the

full sun.

Bhimsen loved to drive fast, although in his early life he would arrive at shows riding his bicycle. When he could afford a car, he would drive it himself. After performances, he was known to take great pleasure in staying up all night and watching football or cricket. He was a great fan of both Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev. He would humbly introduce himself to Sunil Gavaskar saying, T am Bhimsen Joshi, your fan!' His stepmother Gururaj Joshi recalls that he maintained this humility with all their relatives.

Bhimsen Joshi was known to be a prolific performer; he excelled in slow reposeful and contemplative passages that sometimes built up to a lightning speed crescendo that electrified the audience. That was the effect he had on me. In Stuttgart he ended the performance with his famous bhajan, "Yeh Tanu Mundnawe Mundna, Akher Mitti Mei Mil Jana". From dust to dusL

On January 24,2011, when Bhimen Joshi passed away at the age of 89, the world lost one of its greatest music exponents. The 'Bharat Ratna' died with the satisfaction that the Hindustani classical music had broken out of its former elitist domain and that he could perform for large audiences.

The Writer is a Noted Singerand Academic.