Versatility was his middle name

Nonika Singh

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When tabla wizard Sangeet Acharya Ustad Lachhman Singh Seen received the prestigious Sangeet Natak Akademi award in 2010, he professed, “It’s too late but I am lucky to have got it during my lifetime.”

Ustad Seen, who also had deep knowledge of sitar, was known as tabla’s Khalifa of Punjab Gharana

Today as he breathed his last at the ripe age of 94, the musical fraternity is overcome by a mixed bag of feelings. It is indeed unfortunate, for we have lost a rare gem but also feel blessed for here lived a virtuoso who promoted Indian classical music in Punjab in many forms and colours.

Trained by no less than Qadir Baksh, who was also renowned tabla maestro Ustad Alla Rakha’s teacher, Ustad Seen himself trained many stalwarts, including several in his family. His disciple Pandit Sushil Kumar Jain owes his place in the musical world to his “guru’s kripa”. He adds how his legendary guru was true to the Punjab Gharana, which is quintessentially pakhawaj- oriented.

Known as tabla’s Khalifa of Punjab Gharana, Jalandhar-based Seen abhorred being dubbed a tabla player and only cared to be known as an artiste. Rightly so, for apart from gaining proficiency in tabla, he had a deep knowledge of sitar which he taught at Hans Raj Mahila Maha Vidyalaya, Jalandhar. He learnt the sitar from Pandit Jia Lal Basant from Jammu.

Interestingly, it was in Lahore that his affair with tabla began as he became the shagird of Ustad Qadir Baksh. In his nineties, Seen even got an opportunity to play in Lahore where his agility and preciseness was much lauded. Also a gifted composer, he moulded his compositions in sync with his gharana. Though his musical legacy is carried on by his son Manu Seen, well-known sitar player and grandson Avirbhav Verma, a talented tabla player, the maestro firmly believed in “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam”, that is the world is one family.