Annapurnaji's observations ran on the following lines:

"Unfortunately, most of our musicians are mediocre - artistes anxious to make a dash to the stage before they had even learned to crawl, in the green room... While the earlier Ustads and Pandits were tightfisted in the dissemination of their vidya, today there are not many gurus left to hand it down. Admittedly, we still have some very good `concert artistes', but most of them are either too busy or are not erudite enough to create a proper parampara. The result is that many so-called artistes (including some of our most popular ones) are projecting before the audience distorted or even vulgar images of an art which is infinitely noble - an art which has the power to lead you into a trance onto the shores of tranquility.''

True enough, there is no record, tape or any public evidence of Annapurna Devi's music. Here again, I have been lucky to hear a live recorded piece. It is not a solo on the surbahar, but a jugalbandi, in which she partners with Ravi Shankar on the sitar. The piece is from a private collection and not for the benefit for the future generation. It is also on record that even Ali Akbar Khan, her elder brother, reportedly hesitates to play his Sarod in her presence. Besides, it speaks volumes for the maestro's open-mindedness and magnanimity that he sent his sons Ashish Khah and Dhyanesh Khan (who died prematurely at 49 in 1990) to benefit from guidance from his sister in their sarod-playing. The father initiated his daughter into the mysteries of Hindustani music while she was still a child, and thoroughly groomed her in vocal music, the sitar and the surbahar for over 15 years. To the master's touch, she added an amazing degree of practice with singular dedication and determination under the vigilant but affectionate guidance of her father.

Annapurna Devi's marriage to Ravi Shankar was in compliance with the suggestion of Uday Shankar, his celebrated elder brother. The marriage was solemnized much against the wishes of many relatives and friends from both sides. But Allauddin Khan was secular in the true sense of the term, and he practiced what he preached. A humanist to the core, he made no distinction between man and man in point of social and economic status. But he believed that a newcomer into the family should be one with a catholicity of outlook. That is how Allauddin Khan blessed his daughter's marriage.

Stories galore have been heard about Annapurnaji's retirement from public life to that of a recluse. Whatever the truth in such stories, there is reason to surmise that her self-imposed isolation may well be the culmination of a series of upheavals in her personal life, some of which are too well-known to need a recount here. Her father's death in 1972, followed by the death of her only son, Shubhendra, seven years ago, were possibly the most tragic happenings in her life.

Annapurnaji was undoubtedly the darling child of her father and she has imbibed not only his music but also his philosophy of life. In reply to a question put to her by an interviewer many years ago, she had reportedly cited the reasons for choosing a life of self-denial, thus: ``It was during my years of studentship that my father would repeatedly tell me that my music should not be treated as a product for public display. It was a means of achieving one's own fulfillment, which should lead to one's own development as a human being." Not for nothing is, Annapurnaji described as the very embodiment of Allauddin Khan's pure arid deep devotion to his music. She is rightly hailed as the ultimate reference point to the musical ideology of Allauddin Khan. It is only in her that the quintessence of the Maihar parampar is preserved. This reminds me of what Amir Khan, one of the greatest vocalist of our time) reportedly told one of his close friends. He had said: ``Annapurna is 80 per cent of Ustad Allauddin Khan, Ali Akbar Khan is 70 per cent and Ravi Shankar is about 40 per cent".

Annapurna Devi has reared an impressive array of shishya parampara. The line-up includes, besides those mentioned earlier, Shashwati Ghosh, Amit Hiren Roy, Sudhir Phadke, Daniel Bradley, Peter Van Gelder, Sandhya Apte, Headset Desai, Rooshikumar Pandya and Prabha Agarwal, all sitarists; Bahadur Khan, Jyotin Bhattacharya, Uma Guha, Basant Kabra, Pradeep Barot, Stuti Dey, and Suresh Vyas, among sarodists; and Nityanand Haldipur and Milind Sheorey, among flutists.

Even though she has remained aloof from the world of concert music, Annapurna Devi's greatness. as an erudite guru has been mercifully recognised and appreciated at the official level. She has been a recipient of the Sangeet Natak Akademi award ( 1991), Padma Bhushan (1977), and Sharngadev Fellowship of Sur singar Samsad (1988). She has served as professor of music at the NCPA since its inception, till 1983 and presently Is the guiding spirit behind the activities of Acharya Allauddin Music Circle in Mumbai.

Indeed, such distinctions do not have any significance and meaning to Annapurnaji. So immense has been her contribution to our musical heritage that one is tempted to say that by bestowing these honours on her, the bestowers have honored themselves.