Accompanist Main

Desais The Accompanist elaborates the beautiful relationship between Guru and Shishy and proves it more
important than other relationships-mother and son, father and son, brother and sister, husband and wife etc. The
accompanist has strong likeness for the sweets made by his mother instead of her. How I loved my mothers
sweetmeats, too rather more. What her picture he has in his life is clear in further statement, I did the non-descript
,mumbling ,bald woman who made them.. She never came to life for me. She lived some obscure, indoor life,
unhealthy and curtained, undemanding and uninviting. He considers her as a wonderful cook. His father had been a
hard taskmaster who would religiously wake up him in the early hours of morning and train him in music. He
wanted his son to become a musician not an instrument maker. With this view he gave him lessons in playing the
Tanpura, Harmonium, Sitar and the Tabla and taught him all ragas and raginis by testing his knowledge with
persistent questioning. It was the time when he was crazy for cinemas and playing marbles and had not so much
likening for music. But when he was caught in a situation , he stood up to it. When his brain was washed by his
friends, he began to doubt his father and recalled him by saying, My father had taught me to play all these
instruments and disciplined me severely ,but he had never praised me or suggested I could become a front-rank
musician. I had learnt to play instruments as the son of a carpenterBut I had practiced on these instruments
and played the ragas he taught me to play without thinking of it as an art or of myself as an artist. Perhaps I was a
stupid, backward boy .My father always said so. Such attitude towards his father the accompanist has .Stealing the
shares of his brother and sister proves him unkindly ,irresponsible ,unsociable and naughty boy. Now he is married
and has become the man of the world but has no interest in his married life while in his childhood he was crazy for
the street beauties and the cinema heroines and put himself in the place of their screen lovers. He considers that he
married for his mothers pleasure, I even married. That is, my mother managed to marry me off to some
neighbour;s daughter of whom she was fond. The girl lived with her. I seldom visited her. I can barely remember her
name, her face. Whenever he gets the chance to go home for a few days to rest, he desires of cutting short these
holidays and returning to his house in the city to practice.
The love for music and ustad Rahim Khan changed everything in his life and he gave up all his childhood pleasures
and pranks. All fell away from me ,all disappeared in the shadows on the other side. Ustad took the place of
his mother s sweet halwa ,the cinema heroines, the street beauties ,marbles and stolen money. Ustad Rahim
Khans company brought several changes in his life and gave birth to him as Bhaiya, the tanpura player. All his
attractions regarding playing with the mischievous boys of mohalla and going to cinema disappeared. All his follies
and stupidities or bad habits disappeared for ever .Music has taken their place and become the goal of his life.He is
fully satisfied with this goal. Thus he devoted his whole life to ustad and became his true friend and accompanist
because he was nothing. It was Ustad Rahim Khan who saw me, hiding awkwardly in the shadows of an empty hall
with a tanpura in my hands and called me to come to him and showed me what to do with my life. I owe everything
to him, my very life to him. Thus he decided to remain royal in the same position giving the ustad the base material
on which he would compose his music.
The intimacy between the accompanist and his ustad could not be perceived or understood by his childhood friends
and their act of provoking him against his ustad failed and cultivated in him a strong sense of commitment towards
his ustad. Having the feelings of self-assured, poised and self-satisfed he hired a tonga and asked the driver to take
him to his ustad, his creator. Only one thing was going in his heart.
I maintain I am his true accompanist, certainly his true friend.
The feelings of the accompanist to ustad Rahim Khan are expressed in the above line. He feels that he always plays
the notes given by the ustad repeadly and he builds his music on the background provided by him. Thus he feels he
is a true accompanist. Above all he never expects anything and never tries to compete in the performance with him.
He never seeks the attention of the audience ,their attention is always on the ustad ,whenever his ustad suffers with
the hacking cough in a concert ,he always asks the accompanist to prepare the opium to quieten it, these points make
him a true friend as well. Tha accompanist stands for pure love and selfless service. When the ustad asked him, Do
you play? These words contain a sense of security and relief, love and affection which were absence in his life. As
a matter of fact, love is above money, above all the material gains and achievements. About the power of love,
Coleridge has rightly observed:
All thoughts ,all passions, all delights Whatever stire this mortal frame Are all but ministers of love And feed their
sacred flame. 5 The accompanist keeps on showing his true love and service to the ustad without any wish for
gaining anything in return. We have traveled all over India and played in every city, at every season. It is his life
and mine. We share this life, this music, this following. What else can these possibly be for me in this world?
It is interesting to note that Desai has beautifully presented the inner conflicts of the accompanist and also his
victory over them. In fact, she believes in dealing with the mind and the soul of a character ,his inner workings and
hidden and silent thoughts rather than his outer appearances .Similiarly, The Accompanist has a fine fusion of
feelings and form and proves itself a great example of Desais art and craftsmanship since her main business as a
fiction writer is to expose the truth. Thus the story accentuates the importance of selfless love, devotion, dedication
and gratitude in human relationship.

Accompanist Main

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Desais The Accompanist elaborates the beautiful relationship between Guru and Shishy and proves it more

I maintain I am his true accompanist, certainly his true friend.

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