My career has had interesting twists and turns. Since my father was a pure classical singer, the atmosphere at home was always full of music. Several well known and established singers and musicians would come home and have a mehefil. If any of us children cried, my mother would give us an instrument to keep us busy. I still remember the day I gave my first concert when I was just six as a tabla player at Tejpal Hall. It was a great day for me and I was extremely excited. I started playing with all the leading artists like Pankaj Udhas, Anup Jalota, Rajan and Neena Talit Aziz, Sham Azmani, Mehta, Penaaz Masani, Ashok Khosla, Ahmed Hussain bhai, Hariharan, almost all the artists. I had mastered the tabla and it was my forte. That was my first love. I have some charisma as player and was the favorite of all the ghazal artists. I played at the Royal Albert Hall and travelled all over the world. I never thought that I would be a singer. I was extremely busy and used to perform about 25 – 35 concerts a month as a tabla player. From 82 – 85 was the golden era for ghazals and I was heavily booked 6 months in advance. I was a national and international artist and performed all over the world. I used to miss my family and doing riyaz with my father.

Then one day as luck would have it, one of my tours to Singapore as a tabla player with Pankaje got cancelled. I was very happy as now I could spend time with my parents. One of those days was my father’s classical performance at the Tejpal hall. I decided to attend the programme as a member of the audience. However I noticed that before the programme my father was restless as one of his shagird (student and tanpura accompanists) had not reached the venue. So I agreed to play the tanpura. My father said to me, you are such a big star, will you played the tanpura? I said ‘Yes, why not? I am your son’. So I sat behind him and played the tanpura. He began his pure classical singing recital. After forty five minutes he signaled me and one of his students sitting with me to give the sur (note). The student started singing. The audience did not know the story behind this episode. They expected me to also sing since I was the son. But I could not sing. I was a table player. It was a nightmare for me. I put my head down and was extremely embarrassed. My daddy turned at the back and gave me a look. That look changed my life forever.

That day I decided to become a singer. I decided to complete all my prior commitments as a tabla player and move to singing. In 1985 I stopped playing the tabla and decided to learn singing from my Dad. I was 25 years. I asked my Dad to teach me to sing but he thought I was joking. I told him that I had stopped playing the tabla and I was not taking up any more programmes and recordings and he should start teaching me. He could not believe me and thought that someone had done black magic on me. He could not believe that I who performed 25-35 shows a month; who was an international tabla artist and leaded a 5-star life with a large fan following, financially strong, had changed my mind. He wondered what had suddenly come into my heart and made me want to sing? I could not tell him but I wanted to prove that I was doing this for him. The atmosphere at home was sad as if someone had died. I did not pick up the phone. My father used to get irritated and say pick up the phone and do some work. Then finally I was fed up. I tried to convince my father to teach me but he was not ready. It was a torture for me.

I was very sharp and remembered all the singers who would come home and sing. I remembered. My father teaching his students and his instructions. But I had never tried to sing. So on 26th January 1985 I went to London. Many children wanted to learn to play the tabla from me. So I decided to teach them and earn some money. In the free time I did some riyaz. I got hold of a harmonium and learnt to play it. The first song I played on the harmonium was Mere sapno ke rani kab ayegi tu. I also used that time to practice singing ghaazals. After about a month I performed mehefils in London in people’s houses. Gradually I developed confidence, and people began liking my singing too. After some time I returned to Bombay and showed my father paper cuttings of my various performances, interviews and recordings of my performances in London. I gave him the money I earned from my first programmes and told him ‘now you better teach me’. He was very happy and exclaimed, ‘You have started signing?’ Then he agreed and said, ‘Now your training will start. Take the tanpura and start singing ‘Sa’.

Thus began my singing career. I worked very hard as I had started this career very late at the age of 25 when most professionals are on the verge of becoming celebrities. I used to wake up at 4.30 in the morning and practice for 12 hours at a stretch.

I composed my own ghazals and Music India was the first to sign me for a 5 year contract. My debut was a unique recording which was a first in India. I released double LPs comprising of 16 ghazals. Another first was that I played the tabla and also sang the ghazals; doing the recording on different tracks. People loved my singing. It was top of the charts. People were keen to know how a tabla player had become a singer. I gave small concerts for functions like birthdays and earn some money.

As an established and famous tabla artist it did hurt my ego a bit to be performing for such small functions. But the joy I got to perform as my father’s son was tremendous. I did this all for my father’s sake. My first record was released in 1985 and I started getting work. Unfortunately in January 1987 I lost my Dad. He had heard my recordings and programmes and was happy. My father was my guru and to lose my father and guru at the same time was difficult because again I was in the dark. I did not know how to take my career ahead. Then Sonali told me that she used to learn from Ustad Niaz Ahmed Khan Saheb and Ustaad Faiyazz Ahmed Khan Saheb of Kirana Gharana. So my formal training started again. People thought I would go back to the tabla but I was determined to sing and worked very hard at it. Today the hard work has paid and I am a reputed singer and I have done my father proud and kept up his name. My wife Sunali and daughter Reewa are also singers. Music binds us together.

Singer Roopkumar Rathod spoke to Monarose Sheila Pereira.