Unheard stories of a legend
There’s a segment in Sathya Saran’s recently released intimate biography of Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, A Breath Of Gold, in which the legendary flautist, during a performance in Mumbai in 2018, suddenly realises that he is out of breath. “His heart fluttered. The note was flat. I am tired he thought,” the author writes. And since this happens for the first time, he asks the portrait of his late guru, Annapurna Devi, “You have abandoned me. Why? Have I not been a good student?” The next day, he comes out of the hospital after a surgery with three stents in his heart. Perhaps, such a personal touch by the author is what takes the reader on a journey along with the legendary flautist. “When I write about somebody, I immerse myself into that person. I wanted to be in his mind and I wanted to think like him,” Saran says.
This is the third biography of Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia. “This book had to say something different. It had to tell stories that people don’t know. It’s very difficult for Sathya. I acknowledge the fact that she’s got guts,” says the 89-year-old flautist.
The book chronicles his musical journey, besides conveying the philosophies that he followed. “It steers clear of details of personal relationships. That’s good because then, that becomes the peg of the sales and everyone does it. But what about the struggles? What about the sweat and tears? That’s where she comes in,” adds the legend.
Chaurasia was being trained to become a wrestler by his strict father, when he realised that his interests lay somewhere else. The Padma Vibushan lost his mother when he was five. “My father did not remarry. He was a
pehelwan and thought there was no need for him to remarry. He said he was capable enough to raise his children,” he laughs.
The book covers his days as a young reluctant artiste waiting on the sidelines of an
akhada, the time he discovers the instrument that’ll change his life, to the rise of Indian classical music across the globe. Saran says it was his family who first decided to have a book. “That’s when they got in touch with me, and later told him. When I wrote to him, he wrote back saying that he’ll be very happy to do this book,” adds Saran.