New Delhi: Gorgeous, amazing, beautiful, sensitive, kind, generous, caring, genius… Sukanya Shankar reels out a string of adjectives as she remembers her husband and sitarist nonpareil Pandit Ravi Shankar ahead of his 100th birth anniversary Tuesday.
It has been almost eight years since his death in December 2012, and Sukanya looks back with content at her years spent with the legendary musician, credited with taking the sound of the sitar to distant corners of the world.
“I always think of him as the most gorgeous, amazing, beautiful, sensitive, kind, generous and caring man and an absolutely genius and saintly musician,” she said in an interview a day ahead of his 100th birth anniversary.
To commemorate his centenary year, a series of ‘Ravi Shankar Centennial Concerts’ was planned featuring his daughters Norah Jones and Anoushka Shankar. However, the tour stands cancelled indefinitely due to the spread of the coronavirus.
Sukanya describes her late husband as a man “in love with love itself”.
The 63-year-old recalls her nine-year-old self watching him play for the first time, and their subsequent meeting eight years later to collaborate on stage.
“I saw him as a little girl of nine at Music Academy Chennai. Even though I didn’t understand much of the Hindustani music that he was playing, I was impressed,” she said in an email interaction from her home in London.
Eight years later in 1972, she performed with him at London’s Royal Albert Hall. She remembers being in awe of the “absolutely gorgeous creature” the moment she saw him.
She was 17 and he 52, and the rest just followed. His niece Viji was a friend and Sukanya was herself a tanpura player.
“When I was in London, she (Viji) asked me if I could play the tanpura for him at Royal Albert Hall and of course I was so excited and looked forward to it. It was strange to me that he wanted to have a rehearsal for playing the tanpura for him.
“I will never forget the image of him walking down the stairs, this absolutely gorgeous creature called Ravi Shankar! I was just 17 years old then,” she remembered.
Sukanya, who called him “kaku” (uncle) at the time, recalls the “perfectionist” musician who cut her nails because they would hinder the sound of the tanpura.
“He went on to bring some nail clippers and started to cut my nails himself. He first cut my right hand nails and then looked at me and said that both hands needed to be balanced and cut my left hand nails as well! That was him a perfectionist! He was the sweetest man and I started to call him “Kaku” (uncle) like Viji did,” the former musician said.
The affection and admiration took root on that day and grew up to be a life-long amorous partnership. In 1978, when “the affair started”, Sukanya was married.
“My first marriage was one of convenience. There was no sexual attraction or love but there was great affection. My family was indeed a bit shocked in the beginning and so was the world I think and that was natural,” she said.
At the time, she added, American concert producer Sue Jones was one of Ravi Shankar’s partners while he was also living with classical musician Kamala Chakravarty and still married to Annapurna Devi “even though they had separated a long time ago”.
“Along with Sue, he had several other partners too. Love happened from my side first. I really don’t know when he fell in love with me. I think he was in love with love itself!”
Ravi Shankar, who was known for his many love affairs apart from his musical prowess, wrote in his autobiography Raga Mala that he could “be in love with different women at different places”.
In 1979, Jones gave birth to Ravi Shankar’s daughter, Norah Jones. Three years later, in 1981, his second daughter Anoushka was born to Sukanya.
“It was difficult and more difficult to hide Anoushka’s identity as she was a spitting image of him. I wanted to have a part of him and I was honest with my close friends and didn’t think it was anybody else’s business,” Sukanya remembered.
The two eventually got married in 1989 when Anoushka was eight.
Life wasn’t easy for his two daughters as Anoushka remained away from him for the first seven years of her life and Norah didn’t have him around during her teenage years.
“…that was destiny. Norah came to us when she was 18 and we never looked back after that. Raviji loved her dearly as she was the first daughter that he always wanted. By God’s grace everything was sorted out and I am so glad that Anoushka and Norah are so close now which is so important.”
Both his daughter are accomplished musicians. While Norah is a vocalist and pianist, Anoushka is a sitarist like her father.
PTI