Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan - Raga Hamir and Thumri # 2

A few words about Late Supravat Mukerjee

Supravat Da was a professor of Applied Chemistry at The Science College, University of Kolkata and a family friend. In spite of significant age differences, Supravat Da and I became close friends, most likely because of our mutual deep interest and similar taste in music, movies and literature. He had a phenomenal music collection, including a large collection of western classical music. He had altogether at least five thousand LPs and CDs of western classical music.

The largest number of music of Amir Khan, Ali Akbar Khan, Vilayat Khan and Nikhil Banerjee that I posted came from his collection. He also had an extensive and fabulous collection of Rabindra Sangeet and music of Saigal, Pankaj Mallick, K.C.Day, S.D.Barman, etc.

Apart from making his entire collection available to me, he also tried to acquire music of my liking from other sources. Once in a concert, I experienced a hypnotic Chaya-Hindol by Pt. Tarapada Chakraborty. A friend of Supravat Da had a version of the same piece, which I would have liked to have. Unfortunately his friend was not a sharing type.

One late night Supravat Da brought the desired tape of Tarapada Chakraborty and told me to make a copy, as he must return the tapes following morning. He invited his friend three times to the Sky Room, a very well known restaurant in Kolkata in order to borrow the tape for a few hours to pass on to me.

Once a few days before an upcoming concert of Srimati Gangubai Hangal, I casually told Supravat Da that I hoped she would sing Darbari and Basant. The day before the concert Suprvat Da told me that he saw Srimati Gangubai and let her know our wish. We enjoyed one of the finest Darbari and Basant in that concert.