Tabla legend Zakir Hussain slams ‘Pray for him,’ family says

Zakir Hussain, the outstanding tabla player and multiple Grammy Award winner, is in a US hospital with serious heart conditions, his family said on Sunday.

His manager, Nirmala Bachani, told the artist that he had been in a San Francisco hospital for two weeks.

“My brother is deeply ill right now. We ask all his fans in India and around the world to pray for him, pray for his health. But as India’s greatest export, please don’t finish him off right away,” Zakir Hussain’s sister Khurshid Aulia told news agency PTI amid several reports that her brother had died.

“I just want to ask all media outlets not to follow false information about Zakir’s death. He is breathing a lot right now. He is very, very critical, but he is still with us. He is not gone yet. So, I will ask (the media) not to spread this rumor by writing or saying that he died. I feel so bad seeing all this information on Facebook which is very false,” she added.

“He is not well and is currently admitted to intensive care. We are all worried about the situation,” Zakir Hussain’s friend and flautist Rakesh Chaurasia also told the news agency.

Union ministers, chief ministers and others posted on Zakir Hussain.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, which announced the artist’s death, later deleted his post on X.

“I am Zakir Hussain’s nephew and he has not passed away. We are asking for prayers for my uncle’s health. Can you please remove this misinformation. He is in serious condition and we are asking everyone his fans around the world to pray for his health,” Ameer Aulia said on X.

The Mumbai-born eldest son of legendary tabla player Allah Rakha, Zakir Hussain followed in his father’s footsteps, becoming a renowned name in India and the world.

“Zakir Hussain, the incomparable tabla player from North India, favors a mischievous virtuosity. He is a formidable technician but also a fanciful inventor, devoted to an exuberant game. He therefore rarely seems authoritarian, even when the vagueness of his fingers rivals the rhythm of hummingbird wings,” wrote the New York Times about the artist during his concert at Carnegie Hall in 2009.

After telling the story of his first booking, the percussionist said a letter arrived at their house offering his father a concert date. Zakir responded by saying that his father would not be able to accept the engagement but that his son was available. However, he did not mention in the letter that he was only 13 years old. It worked and his music career was off and running.

The musician has worked with several renowned Indian and international artists, but it was his 1973 musical project with English guitarist John McLaughlin, violinist L Shankar and percussionist TH ‘Vikku’ Vinayakram that brought together Indian classical and elements jazz in a previously unknown fusion. .

The percussionist, one of India’s most celebrated classical musicians, was awarded the Padma Shri in 1988, the Padma Bhushan in 2002 and the Padma Vibhushan in 2023.