IS THIS MUSIC, MY LORD ?

IS THIS MUSIC, MY LORD ?

Is it fair to deprive one's wife and son of flourishing musical careers that threaten to overshadow one's own? Where is ethics, where morality? And, yet, this is the alleged history of one of the outstanding geniuses of instrumental music who precipitated circumstances and actively plotted, so the allegation goes, to destroy two budding careers for achieving the perverse end of self-survival as the emperor of instrumental music. Was it worth it to sink to such abysmal levels and yet remain unrepentant about it lifelong? Are people perverse as well that they dance to the tune of such an engineer of ends and forget to pay homage to the greater genius of the wife who kept up the tradition of pure classical music, oblivious of return? Have they forgotten the wasted form and worn feathers of the fledgling who was coaxed out of the rigorous discipline of taaleem under the mother and left to fend for himself in a world of pleasure and pain that was alien to him while his ripening talent was allowed to wither away in distant land, far from the comforting care of his disciplinarian mother who was on the verge of furnishing for the world a rare virtuoso who would sweep all before him? Has anyone heard of any other instance of a near one doing so much damage to one's very own for self-promotion, such elimination of perceived rivals? I leave it to you to wonder.

Written by Sugata Bose