When we entered the shop of Ziauddin, the 75-year-old Pride of Performance winning sitar-maker was working on a sarod’s wooden frame in deep concentration. He looked up to welcome us, and putting his tools away, sat down for an interview. From time to time his eyes wandered to the instruments hanging on the walls, the instruments he had made with his hands, with the knowledge his father had passed down to him.

Ziauddin is an experienced instrument-maker who specializes in crafting the sitar, and also makes a wide variety of other musical instruments. He is one of the last sitar-makers in all of Lahore with an impressive family history.  His father Ustad Sher Muhammad Khan, a Pride of Performance awardee, was world-famous for his sitar-making talents, and taught the great Rikhi Ram himself, who made sitars for a variety of famous Western and Eastern musicians including the Beatles! While absent-mindedly brandishing a file, he told us that his ancestors used to make sword sheaths during the Mughal era, and later on shifted to making the sitar and other string instruments. While one of his brothers, Ustad Ramzan Khan Sahib used to make the sitar like he does, his other one, Ustad Salahuddin, used to make harmoniums.

Upon being asked if he sold more sitars in the past than he does nowadays, he replied that the number has not changed much, states that he did not sell that many sitars earlier either, and cautions against romanticizing the past.  However, it is important to note that there has indeed been a drop.

When asked if he has any students, he tells us that he has taught sitar making to no one except for one of his sons, Muhammad Kashan, and that no-one else other than him is currently carrying on the family legacy. His other children work in various firms and companies and help financially support him.   He did not encourage them to pursue his profession, as he believes that there is no financial security in it.

His father, Ustad Sher Muhammad, pulled him out of school when he was in fifth grade to teach him making instruments, a knowledge which has supported him all of his life. That knowledge also stood him in good stead when he made sitars for experienced sitarists like Ustad Sharif Khan Poonchawaley, Ustad Kabir Khan and Ustad Nafees Ahmed Khan throughout his career. Even though he knows how to play the sitar, he has never seriously taken it up as an occupation, preferring to stick to his ancestral profession of sitar-making.

At the end of his interview, he wishes to pass on a message to the future generation, telling them that playing music saves them from many flaws and errors, and encourages them to take up playing classical music.

After his interview ends, we thank him and leave the shop. Even as we leave, we look back to see him return to his work, exactly as we left him, the file shining in the light. Suddenly, we stop.

“What is that on the wall?” “Oh, that’s a poem which was composed in honour of my father by the famous poet Syed Zameer Jafri.” “Can we look at it?” “Why, of course!” came the answer. You can see it below along with its translation and typed version.

An Orchestra (Translated by Mubeen Irfan Chaudhary)

Sher Muhammad, into how many instruments have you instilled the miracle of life?

The instruments came to life, and they learnt their art.

From your instruments you coax honey-filled voices,

From your hands, dead and dumb wood begins to sing.

From the sparkling of the stars the doors of the heart have opened

And the fairies that slept for eons, woke up and flew high.

Sher Muhammad, into how many instruments have you instilled the miracle of life?

The voices of the tanpuras boomed, the shehnai’s shrieks pierced the air,

The sarod’s strings went “chum chum”, my flute shrilled too.

From your breath even loneliness spoke,

From your art the quiet jungle of this world got a voice

And the fairies that slept for eons, woke up and flew high.

Sher Muhammad, into how many instruments have you instilled the miracle of life?