Air India breaks sarod, Ustad Amjad Ali’s heart

For the last 25 years, this instrument has been Ustad Amjad Ali Khan’s constant companion. It has travelled with him far and wide, earning applause for the maestro and laurels for the country. On Thursday, however, the jugalbandi between the Ustad and his beloved sarod ended somewhat abruptly. The instrument came out of the belly of an Air India flight — cracked and broken and perhaps unplayable for ever — after about an hour of spending time there.
The Ustad had been to Ahmedabad and was flying to Mumbai, for a concert at the Fine Arts Society, on Thursday morning. He made the painful discovery after landing in Mumbai. Almost in tears, Khan told TOI: “It was 25 years old. I will now not be able to perform at the Fine Arts Society and I will have to go there to apologise to the people who will turn up to listen to me and my sarod. “It must be the work of some porter who tried to open the case. I almost cried when I saw the state of the instrument,’’ he added.
What has saddened him even more is the fact that the unspeakable happened on the national airline. “They should at least take care of instruments of musicians like us,’’ he said.
The polite-to-a-fault musician does not intend to sue or ask for compensation from the airline. “Had it been any other international airline, I would have sued it. But the damage has been done by our national carrier and I want to appeal to the officials to at least learn to take care of musicians like us,’’ he said.
An Air India spokesperson said the airline was not aware of anything. “There is no complaint filed with the baggage section or the duty manager so far,’’ he said.
15/01/10 Bharati Dubey & Manju V/Times of India

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Categories: Air India Domestic Jan 2010, Airports Jan 2010, NACIL Jan 2010