PrashantNews
Ghagwal is a small town in Jammu region famous only for its railway station. Not many people knew that Ustad Alla Rakha was born in Ghagwal in Samba district on this day in 1919. He grew up in Jammu and later moved to Delhi in 1936 to join All India Radio (AIR). He further moved to Bombay (now Mumbai) to advance his career in the Hindustani classical music especially in tabla.
He was a long time accompanist to Sitar Maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar. Alla Rakha was awarded the Padma Shri in 1977 and the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1982. His son Ustad Zakir Hussain took forward his legacy to new heights.
Google India marked the 95th bday of the tabla legend with a doodle dedicated to him. The non-animated doodle showed a smiling Ustad Alla Rakha with his eyes closed playing the tabla which replaces the two ‘o’s of Google.
Ustad Alla Rakha was a proud Dogra and once when recalling the thunderous applause received by him along with santoor great Pt Shiv Kumar Sharma for their music concert he said that it was bound to get such appreciation because “two Dogra music artists were performing”.
In Bombay, Alla Rakha also gave music in lots of films under the name A R Qureshi.
He died in Mumbai on Feb 3, 2000 at the age of 80.