Contact Address: Haig Road, Block 1 #08-561, Singapore 430001
Phone/Fax: +65 67470640 Handphone:+65 9899 5519, 9663 5924
innereyes.fo@gmail.com
mohsin.malhar@gmail.com
http://innereyesfamilyorchestra.blogspot.com/
IEFO: AT A GLANCE
The “Inner Eyes Family Orchestra” (IEFO) is one of the most renowned, talented but visually-impaired family-band of the South Asian classical music and the winner of 28 National Awards in Bangladesh. The IEFO team comprises famous Sarod Maestro and master creator of ragas like “Rubawaty”, “Meghawaty” and “Lolita” Ustad Afzalur Rahman, (disciple of Ustad Alauddin Khan and Ustad Ayet Ali Khan) along with his two daughters Mohua Rahman Ruba and Antara Rahman Tungtang who has acquired international reputation by their stunning vocal and instrumental performances in many countries of Asia and Europe.
By establishing an institution under the title “Inner Eyes School of Classical Music” in 1995 at Brahmanbaria, the team started their mission of teaching music mostly to the young generation of Bangladesh. Eventually, this initiative got immense popularity among the music lovers of the country. Following that success, the long-cherished dream of establishing a music band was come to an accomplishment. Finally, the Inner Eyes Family Orchestra came in the scene at the end of 1999. From then on, the team added one more responsibility for themselves: performing music as well as with teaching music. The two sisters (Ruba & Tungtang) of the IEFO are well capable in performing pop and classical music in English, Japanese, Hindi, Urdu and Bengali. They themselves are used to write lyrics in different languages, compose music and play instruments like Sarod, Sitar, Violin, Tabla and Key-board.
Having received an invitation from the Banglar Kantha and Union Network International (UNI-APRO), the IEFO came to Singapore in May 2007 and performed in several musical shows arranged by different organizations. Quite assumably, the team has got a very much warm appreciation in Singapore while performing in front of different audiences, especially among the Bengali-speaking community in Singapore. Many noted personalities and professionals witnessed those programs and the whole thing has got an extensive coverage in the Singaporean print and visual media as well.
Following that success, the IEFO planned to extend her services more widely in Singapore, mainly among the residents of Bengali origin. As mentioned before, the IEFO members, Mohua Rahman Ruba and Antara Rahman Tungtang in particular, have excellent skills in teaching all kinds of Bengali music (Rabindra Sangeet, Nazrul Sangeet, classical songs, modern songs, Lalon geeti and other folk music etc.) and instruments like Sitar, Sarod, Violin, Guitar, Keyboard, Tabla and so on. It might be worth to note that, there has been a scarcity in cultural practices among the Bengali-speaking community in Singapore. It is by dint of the pressing demand from the Bengali-speaking community that the Inner Eyes Family Orchestra finally registered in Singapore as an institution to teach vocal and instrumental music to the children.
WHAT WE DO
As a country of multi-cultural and multi-ethnic communities, Singapore always promotes the upholding of the ethnic culture and a healthy interaction between different cultural identities. Unfortunately, having a very culturally-rich heritage, the Bengali community in Singapore has long been lacking the infrastructure for their cultural practices. With this background, the sole objective of the IEFO is to work for an enabling cultural environment mainly for the Bengali-speaking community. Hence, the IEFO thinks for herself a two-fold operational duty in Singapore: performing and teaching of music. Firstly, it will teach the sub-continental (South Asian) classical and pop music and as well as various instruments like Sarod, Sitar, Violin, Tabla, Guitar and Keyboard. Secondly, the IEFO is committed to perform music in different occasions and programs arranged by different language communities in Singapore.
PERFORMANCES BY IEFO IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES
(The list excludes performances in Bangladesh)
1987: Bangkok, Thailand
1991: Tokyo, Japan
1997: Tripura, India
2004: Stockholm, Sweden
2007: Singapore (Orchid CC, KK Hospital Auditorium, Siglap South CC, Fort Kanning Park, National University of Singapore)
2007: 2nd Regional Conference, UNI-APRO, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
THE IEFO CORE TEAM
1. Ustad Afzalur Rahman (Sarod, Violin)- Deceased 2009
2. Anwara Rahman (Sarod)
3. Angura Rahman (Sitar, Tanpura)
4. Mohua Rahman Ruba (Lyricist and lead Vocal, Sitar, Tabla)
5. Antara Rahman Tungtang (Chief Composer, Violin, Keyboard)
6. Kallyan Rahman (Tabla, Vocal)
7. Dimitra Meghawaty Rosen (Harmonizer, Violin)
8. Ananta Dayawaty Tazin (Harmonizer, Tanpura)
9. A K M Mohsin (Sarod, Team Manager)
THE IEFO TEACHING TEAM
1. Mohua Rahman Ruba (Vocal music, Sitar, Tabla)
2. Antara Rahman Tungtang (Music composition, Violin, Keyboard)
THE IEFO SINGAPORE: A PROPOSED ORGANOGRAM
An advisory committee for the IEFO Singapore, comprised by the noted personalities and music lovers of Singapore has been under formation. However, it may follow the following order:
Chief Advisor
Advisors (3 Persons)
President
Vice-President (2 Persons)
Secretary General
Treasurer
Honorary members (5/6 persons)
BRIEF BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE - KEY ARTISTS of Inner Eyes Family Orchestra
Ustad Afzalur Rahman (1935- 2009)
• The first and perhaps only Sarod-artist who is blind
• Became blind at his age of 9
• Started playing dotara (a traditional four-string musical instrument) soon after he became blind
• Started learning violin from Ustad Israel Khan and Hemanta Kumar and later on went to Comilla to learn more from Ustad Ayet Ali Khan.
• Met Ustad Alauddin in 1953 at the festival organized by the Maharaja of Agartala where he was invited and played violin but got amazed after listening sarod from Ustad Alauddin Khan in the same program. Decided to learn sarod from him.
• Became a radio artist in 1962 and played sarod and violin
• Became a television artist in 1967
• In 1974, he was appointed as the head of the instrumental section of Alauddin Music Institute, a renowned music-learning institute founded by Ustad Alauddin Khan in the1950s. Continued teaching up to 1988.
• As a creative music talent, Ustad Afzalur Rahman contributed fundamentally in the area of classical music. He has created a number of ragas including Lolita, Rubawaty and Meghawaty etc., which were highly appreciated in the community of classical music listeners of South Asia and its diaspora.
• Awarded many times by numerous organizations of Bangladesh for his devotion and contribution in music. Of those, the President’s Honor, Comilla Foundation Gold Medal, Ustad Ayet Ali Khan Gold Medal, Shilpakala Academy Award, Ustad Barin Majumdar Awards are quite memorable.
• Founder of Ustad Ayet Ali Khan Memorial Platform, family-based organization The Inner-Eyes Family Orchestra, and the proponent of a national level Philharmonic Orchestra.
• Visited various countries such as India, Singapore, Malaysia and Sweden as a Sarod performer.
Anwara Rahman (1959)
• Spouse of Ustad Afzalur Rahman, the only non-blind member of the 4-members family. The only female sarod artist in Bangladesh till date.
• Married to Ustad Afzalur Rahman in 1974. Appointed as a guitar-artist in Alauddin Khan Musical Institute in 1978 and continued teaching up to 1990.
• Has been an enlisted grade-1 instrumental artist in both radio and television owned by the state since late eighties.
• Visited India, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Sweden as a Sarod performer.
Mohua Rahman Ruba (1976)
• A gifted voice full of devotion and passion, Ruba is a familiar face in the cultural arena of Bangladesh since her childhood.
• Won all high-profile awards in various kinds of music for at least 12 times, and as well as captured some international recognitions.
• Performed music in different countries, such as Japan, India, Singapore, Sweden, Malaysia and got high appreciations.
• A vocalist in both classical and modern music trends, Ruba can also play Sitar and Tabla. Ruba writes lyrics of music in different languages such as English, Japanese, Hindi, Urdu and Bengali, and as well as she performs in all these languages.
• Apart from her musical career, Ruba is a noted storywriter who writes in both English and Bengali in national newspapers.
• Visited Japan, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Sweden as a music performer.
Antara Rahman Tungtang (1982)
• Tungtang is primarily a music composer and instrumentalist of the team, though she performs sometimes as a vocal too.
• Won many outstanding cultural prizes of Bangladesh for at least 6 times for her mastery in different instruments.
• Tungtang plays violin and keyboard, and she is an enlisted violin artist of Bangladesh Radio.
• Tungtang is a co-writer of Ruba in writing fictions.
• Visited India, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Sweden as a music performer.
Inner Eyes Family Orchestra is a unique musical group of Bangladesh. Not many groups of the world can claim such uniqueness. Its chief, Maestro Afzalur Rahman is a leading Sarod player of this country. He lost his vision very early in life and took to music in search of soul-fellow who would protect him from the bleak and total emptiness of the dark world of the eyeless. Ustad Afzalur Rahman’s tragedy was compounded as if by the cause of some angry Greek god as his younger daughter went completely blind when a kiddy and the elder one’s peripheral eyesight got very close to blindness. Like their father they too took up music-Mohua, the elder majored in vocal and Antrara, the younger picked up the violin. Supported by the only normal-vision member of the family, wife Anwara Rahman, the Ustad has woven around this family the Inner Eyes Family Orchestra and is experimenting with how best the many state and unofficial events can be enriched by the heavenly music of the Ragas.
Brahmonbaria gave birth to a most illustrious family of musicians in the Indian sub-continent. The brothers-Fakir Aftab Uddin, Ustad Alauddin Khan, Nayeb Ali khan, Ayet Ali khan, while themselves reaching the zenith of the musical sky of India, raised a great family of talented musicians led by Ali Akbar Khan, Bahadur Hossain Khan and Rowshan Ara Annapurna. The same Brahmonbaria is home to Afzalur Rahman, perhaps the only blind sarodist in the world and he in his turn into musicianship was also patronised by the same great Khan family. Losing his eyesight after an attack of Typhoid at age nine, he was helped into taking up the violin by an Engineer, late Mr. Rakibuddin Ahmed. Alongside the violin Afzalur Rahman was also drawn to the folk instrument very close to the heart of Bengal-the dotara. Babu Hemanta Kumar gave him lessons in violin and Ustad Israel Khan initiated him into mysteries of the wonderful world of the Ragas. The new experience of the world of melodies and rhythms healed him largely of the pangs of his physical misfortune.
Emboldened he went to Comilla to sit at the feet of Ustad Ayet Ali Khan. The illustrious brother of the legendary Alauddin Khan took him under his wings, literally into his family and taught him the intricacies of fine violin playing. But in the very next year, 1953 his life changed never to be the same again. Ustad Alauddin Khan had come to grace a musical conference at the court of the Maharaja of Tripura at Agartala. Afzal’s recital on violin pleased the Maestro and he blessed the blind musical greenhorn with very touching words. ‘One can have divine audience with art only with the eyes of melody,’ he said, indicating that Afzal was not at all disadvantaged that way. And the great Khan himself gave a performance on the Sarod Which moved the neophyte so much that he decided on the spot to abandon violin and pick up the Sarod. Ustad Ayet Ali Khan would have nothing of this at first. But through persevering devotion to the Ustad, Afzal got his forgiveness at last.
With Sarod, recognition came his way in an accelerating pace. He got first prize at the National competition at Brahmonbaria in 1954. As a result National Radio started broadcasting his recitals from the same year. Since 1962 he has been playing both Violin and Sarod on the radio. And in 1967 Television hired him for a recital and it has not stopped in doing that in the last two decades. In 1974, the Alauddin Sangeetangon, which was established in Brahmonbaria, had chosen Afzal to head its instrumental section. Here he spread his command of instruments to Sitar and Flute, Tabla, Guitar and Esraj. His services and his ever-shining quality earned him an unceasing array of accolades. In 1977 the Comilla Foundation gold medal, the next year the Education Minister’s gold medal, the same year he was awarded a special reception as the most excellent product of his District. Just recently, he has been awarded the Rabindra Padak 1998, a rare distinction that was given to him for his life-long achievements in classical music. Ustad Ayet Ali Khan Gold Medal, Shilpakala Academy Award, Ustad Barin Majumdar Awards are quite memorable . In the mean time he had strayed for some time to film music doing the background and the songs for such well received pictures as Palatak, Je Nodi Moru Pothey, E desh Tomar Amar, Sujan Shakhi etc.
Fifty years of constant buffeting has failed to nudge him an inch from his quest for excellence and zest for a life of music. Almost infirm of the body he has set up in his home town, the Ustad Ayet Ali Khan Smriti Mancha, a musical institution of prestigious Khan gharana. He is also a central figure in attempt to build National Philharmonic Orchestra, a conception of state arrangements on philharmonic basis. And he has founded the Inner Eyes Family Orchestra comprising the members of his family circle. Who are they? His two daughters and his wife, his sister-in-law and her husband and their children.
As providence would have it both his daughters are near blind. The younger one beyond recovery and elder still retaining peripheral sight in one eye. That the family is yet pulling and has not given into frustration is mostly due to the only normal-vision member of the family. Anwara Rahaman-wife to Afzal and mother to Mohua and Antara. And herself is a Guitar player and perhaps the only woman Sarod player in the country. There are not many of her kind even in India. And perhaps even in the whole of the world there is not one quite like her-drawing an impossible family cart of all blind people, day and night, year after year. However, Afzal has raised his family in a rare atmosphere of spiritual pleasure mainly aided by Anwara and still in recognition of the love and devotion of all in the family has created ragas to celebrate them-Raga Lolita, Raga Rubawaty, Raga Meghawaty etc.
ALMA-Bangladesh is an organisation dedicated to take the prayer that rises each day in soulful melody like from Afzal and his family and reach it so global parameters.
Phone/Fax: +65 67470640 Handphone:+65 9899 5519, 9663 5924
innereyes.fo@gmail.com
mohsin.malhar@gmail.com
http://innereyesfamilyorchestra.blogspot.com/
The “Inner Eyes Family Orchestra” (IEFO) is one of the most renowned, talented but visually-impaired family-band of the South Asian classical music and the winner of 28 National Awards in Bangladesh. The IEFO team comprises famous Sarod Maestro and master creator of ragas like “Rubawaty”, “Meghawaty” and “Lolita” Ustad Afzalur Rahman, (disciple of Ustad Alauddin Khan and Ustad Ayet Ali Khan) along with his two daughters Mohua Rahman Ruba and Antara Rahman Tungtang who has acquired international reputation by their stunning vocal and instrumental performances in many countries of Asia and Europe.
By establishing an institution under the title “Inner Eyes School of Classical Music” in 1995 at Brahmanbaria, the team started their mission of teaching music mostly to the young generation of Bangladesh. Eventually, this initiative got immense popularity among the music lovers of the country. Following that success, the long-cherished dream of establishing a music band was come to an accomplishment. Finally, the Inner Eyes Family Orchestra came in the scene at the end of 1999. From then on, the team added one more responsibility for themselves: performing music as well as with teaching music. The two sisters (Ruba & Tungtang) of the IEFO are well capable in performing pop and classical music in English, Japanese, Hindi, Urdu and Bengali. They themselves are used to write lyrics in different languages, compose music and play instruments like Sarod, Sitar, Violin, Tabla and Key-board.
Having received an invitation from the Banglar Kantha and Union Network International (UNI-APRO), the IEFO came to Singapore in May 2007 and performed in several musical shows arranged by different organizations. Quite assumably, the team has got a very much warm appreciation in Singapore while performing in front of different audiences, especially among the Bengali-speaking community in Singapore. Many noted personalities and professionals witnessed those programs and the whole thing has got an extensive coverage in the Singaporean print and visual media as well.
Following that success, the IEFO planned to extend her services more widely in Singapore, mainly among the residents of Bengali origin. As mentioned before, the IEFO members, Mohua Rahman Ruba and Antara Rahman Tungtang in particular, have excellent skills in teaching all kinds of Bengali music (Rabindra Sangeet, Nazrul Sangeet, classical songs, modern songs, Lalon geeti and other folk music etc.) and instruments like Sitar, Sarod, Violin, Guitar, Keyboard, Tabla and so on. It might be worth to note that, there has been a scarcity in cultural practices among the Bengali-speaking community in Singapore. It is by dint of the pressing demand from the Bengali-speaking community that the Inner Eyes Family Orchestra finally registered in Singapore as an institution to teach vocal and instrumental music to the children.
WHAT WE DO
As a country of multi-cultural and multi-ethnic communities, Singapore always promotes the upholding of the ethnic culture and a healthy interaction between different cultural identities. Unfortunately, having a very culturally-rich heritage, the Bengali community in Singapore has long been lacking the infrastructure for their cultural practices. With this background, the sole objective of the IEFO is to work for an enabling cultural environment mainly for the Bengali-speaking community. Hence, the IEFO thinks for herself a two-fold operational duty in Singapore: performing and teaching of music. Firstly, it will teach the sub-continental (South Asian) classical and pop music and as well as various instruments like Sarod, Sitar, Violin, Tabla, Guitar and Keyboard. Secondly, the IEFO is committed to perform music in different occasions and programs arranged by different language communities in Singapore.
PERFORMANCES BY IEFO IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES
(The list excludes performances in Bangladesh)
1987: Bangkok, Thailand
1991: Tokyo, Japan
1997: Tripura, India
2004: Stockholm, Sweden
2007: Singapore (Orchid CC, KK Hospital Auditorium, Siglap South CC, Fort Kanning Park, National University of Singapore)
2007: 2nd Regional Conference, UNI-APRO, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
THE IEFO CORE TEAM
1. Ustad Afzalur Rahman (Sarod, Violin)- Deceased 2009
2. Anwara Rahman (Sarod)
3. Angura Rahman (Sitar, Tanpura)
4. Mohua Rahman Ruba (Lyricist and lead Vocal, Sitar, Tabla)
5. Antara Rahman Tungtang (Chief Composer, Violin, Keyboard)
7. Dimitra Meghawaty Rosen (Harmonizer, Violin)
8. Ananta Dayawaty Tazin (Harmonizer, Tanpura)
9. A K M Mohsin (Sarod, Team Manager)
THE IEFO TEACHING TEAM
1. Mohua Rahman Ruba (Vocal music, Sitar, Tabla)
2. Antara Rahman Tungtang (Music composition, Violin, Keyboard)
THE IEFO SINGAPORE: A PROPOSED ORGANOGRAM
An advisory committee for the IEFO Singapore, comprised by the noted personalities and music lovers of Singapore has been under formation. However, it may follow the following order:
Chief Advisor
Advisors (3 Persons)
President
Vice-President (2 Persons)
Secretary General
Treasurer
Honorary members (5/6 persons)
BRIEF BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE - KEY ARTISTS of Inner Eyes Family Orchestra
Ustad Afzalur Rahman (1935- 2009)
• The first and perhaps only Sarod-artist who is blind
• Became blind at his age of 9
• Started playing dotara (a traditional four-string musical instrument) soon after he became blind
• Started learning violin from Ustad Israel Khan and Hemanta Kumar and later on went to Comilla to learn more from Ustad Ayet Ali Khan.
• Met Ustad Alauddin in 1953 at the festival organized by the Maharaja of Agartala where he was invited and played violin but got amazed after listening sarod from Ustad Alauddin Khan in the same program. Decided to learn sarod from him.
• Became a radio artist in 1962 and played sarod and violin
• Became a television artist in 1967
• In 1974, he was appointed as the head of the instrumental section of Alauddin Music Institute, a renowned music-learning institute founded by Ustad Alauddin Khan in the1950s. Continued teaching up to 1988.
• As a creative music talent, Ustad Afzalur Rahman contributed fundamentally in the area of classical music. He has created a number of ragas including Lolita, Rubawaty and Meghawaty etc., which were highly appreciated in the community of classical music listeners of South Asia and its diaspora.
• Awarded many times by numerous organizations of Bangladesh for his devotion and contribution in music. Of those, the President’s Honor, Comilla Foundation Gold Medal, Ustad Ayet Ali Khan Gold Medal, Shilpakala Academy Award, Ustad Barin Majumdar Awards are quite memorable.
• Founder of Ustad Ayet Ali Khan Memorial Platform, family-based organization The Inner-Eyes Family Orchestra, and the proponent of a national level Philharmonic Orchestra.
• Visited various countries such as India, Singapore, Malaysia and Sweden as a Sarod performer.
Anwara Rahman (1959)
• Spouse of Ustad Afzalur Rahman, the only non-blind member of the 4-members family. The only female sarod artist in Bangladesh till date.
• Married to Ustad Afzalur Rahman in 1974. Appointed as a guitar-artist in Alauddin Khan Musical Institute in 1978 and continued teaching up to 1990.
• Has been an enlisted grade-1 instrumental artist in both radio and television owned by the state since late eighties.
• Visited India, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Sweden as a Sarod performer.
Mohua Rahman Ruba (1976)
• A gifted voice full of devotion and passion, Ruba is a familiar face in the cultural arena of Bangladesh since her childhood.
• Won all high-profile awards in various kinds of music for at least 12 times, and as well as captured some international recognitions.
• Performed music in different countries, such as Japan, India, Singapore, Sweden, Malaysia and got high appreciations.
• A vocalist in both classical and modern music trends, Ruba can also play Sitar and Tabla. Ruba writes lyrics of music in different languages such as English, Japanese, Hindi, Urdu and Bengali, and as well as she performs in all these languages.
• Apart from her musical career, Ruba is a noted storywriter who writes in both English and Bengali in national newspapers.
• Visited Japan, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Sweden as a music performer.
Antara Rahman Tungtang (1982)
• Tungtang is primarily a music composer and instrumentalist of the team, though she performs sometimes as a vocal too.
• Won many outstanding cultural prizes of Bangladesh for at least 6 times for her mastery in different instruments.
• Tungtang plays violin and keyboard, and she is an enlisted violin artist of Bangladesh Radio.
• Tungtang is a co-writer of Ruba in writing fictions.
• Visited India, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Sweden as a music performer.
LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS
Story of a heroic musical journey
by Wahidul Haque
Inner Eyes Family Orchestra is a unique musical group of Bangladesh. Not many groups of the world can claim such uniqueness. Its chief, Maestro Afzalur Rahman is a leading Sarod player of this country. He lost his vision very early in life and took to music in search of soul-fellow who would protect him from the bleak and total emptiness of the dark world of the eyeless. Ustad Afzalur Rahman’s tragedy was compounded as if by the cause of some angry Greek god as his younger daughter went completely blind when a kiddy and the elder one’s peripheral eyesight got very close to blindness. Like their father they too took up music-Mohua, the elder majored in vocal and Antrara, the younger picked up the violin. Supported by the only normal-vision member of the family, wife Anwara Rahman, the Ustad has woven around this family the Inner Eyes Family Orchestra and is experimenting with how best the many state and unofficial events can be enriched by the heavenly music of the Ragas.
Emboldened he went to Comilla to sit at the feet of Ustad Ayet Ali Khan. The illustrious brother of the legendary Alauddin Khan took him under his wings, literally into his family and taught him the intricacies of fine violin playing. But in the very next year, 1953 his life changed never to be the same again. Ustad Alauddin Khan had come to grace a musical conference at the court of the Maharaja of Tripura at Agartala. Afzal’s recital on violin pleased the Maestro and he blessed the blind musical greenhorn with very touching words. ‘One can have divine audience with art only with the eyes of melody,’ he said, indicating that Afzal was not at all disadvantaged that way. And the great Khan himself gave a performance on the Sarod Which moved the neophyte so much that he decided on the spot to abandon violin and pick up the Sarod. Ustad Ayet Ali Khan would have nothing of this at first. But through persevering devotion to the Ustad, Afzal got his forgiveness at last.
With Sarod, recognition came his way in an accelerating pace. He got first prize at the National competition at Brahmonbaria in 1954. As a result National Radio started broadcasting his recitals from the same year. Since 1962 he has been playing both Violin and Sarod on the radio. And in 1967 Television hired him for a recital and it has not stopped in doing that in the last two decades. In 1974, the Alauddin Sangeetangon, which was established in Brahmonbaria, had chosen Afzal to head its instrumental section. Here he spread his command of instruments to Sitar and Flute, Tabla, Guitar and Esraj. His services and his ever-shining quality earned him an unceasing array of accolades. In 1977 the Comilla Foundation gold medal, the next year the Education Minister’s gold medal, the same year he was awarded a special reception as the most excellent product of his District. Just recently, he has been awarded the Rabindra Padak 1998, a rare distinction that was given to him for his life-long achievements in classical music. Ustad Ayet Ali Khan Gold Medal, Shilpakala Academy Award, Ustad Barin Majumdar Awards are quite memorable . In the mean time he had strayed for some time to film music doing the background and the songs for such well received pictures as Palatak, Je Nodi Moru Pothey, E desh Tomar Amar, Sujan Shakhi etc.
Fifty years of constant buffeting has failed to nudge him an inch from his quest for excellence and zest for a life of music. Almost infirm of the body he has set up in his home town, the Ustad Ayet Ali Khan Smriti Mancha, a musical institution of prestigious Khan gharana. He is also a central figure in attempt to build National Philharmonic Orchestra, a conception of state arrangements on philharmonic basis. And he has founded the Inner Eyes Family Orchestra comprising the members of his family circle. Who are they? His two daughters and his wife, his sister-in-law and her husband and their children.
As providence would have it both his daughters are near blind. The younger one beyond recovery and elder still retaining peripheral sight in one eye. That the family is yet pulling and has not given into frustration is mostly due to the only normal-vision member of the family. Anwara Rahaman-wife to Afzal and mother to Mohua and Antara. And herself is a Guitar player and perhaps the only woman Sarod player in the country. There are not many of her kind even in India. And perhaps even in the whole of the world there is not one quite like her-drawing an impossible family cart of all blind people, day and night, year after year. However, Afzal has raised his family in a rare atmosphere of spiritual pleasure mainly aided by Anwara and still in recognition of the love and devotion of all in the family has created ragas to celebrate them-Raga Lolita, Raga Rubawaty, Raga Meghawaty etc.
ALMA-Bangladesh is an organisation dedicated to take the prayer that rises each day in soulful melody like from Afzal and his family and reach it so global parameters.
[The writer Late Wahidul Haque was an eminent intellectual, music connoisseur and columnist]
A Few Programme Organised By Ustad Ayet Ali Khan Smriti Manch Brahmanbaria
A Few Programme Organised By Ustad Ayet Ali Khan Smriti Manch Brahmanbaria
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