Kumar Prasad Mukherjee passes away

Kumar Prasad Mukherjee was a true symbol of a bygone era of this country. A multi-faceted personality, he had achieved and contributed a great deal in various spheres of life. He was the epitome of refined education, polished living, accomplishment and a high degree of culture.

Born in 1927, into a well-known Bengali family, it was his father, Shri Dhurjati Prasad Mukherjee, the well-known musicologist and litterateur of his time, who provided young Kumar Prasad with the excellent education and all-round guidance, which would leave a deep impression throughout his life. Kumar Prasad acquired a Master's Degree in both Economics and Sociology from the University of Lucknow. In his professional career he had been a member of the Industrial Management Pool, Government of India and retired as the senior most Director and Deputy Chairman of Coal India Limited.

Having grown up amongst eminent musicians, authors and intellectuals of yesteryears, he had been fortunate enough to receive all his training from them. He had his early instruction in music from Professor Rabindra Lall Roy, the Chairman, Delhi University, Department of Music. Next he received taalim from the doyen of the Rampur-Sahaswan gharana , Ustad Mushtaq Hussain Khan, Padma Bhushan . He also learnt from Ustad Ata Hussain Khan, son of the famous Ustad Mehboob Khan ( Daras Piya) and brother-in-law of the great scion of the Agra gharana , Aftab-e-Mausiki Ustad Faiyaz Khan.

With such a treasure-trove of taalim , his knowledge and erudition was a force to contend with. He performed on All India Radio and Doordarshan for over 30 years and also featured in several National Programmes and Radio Sangeet Sammelans. Besides regular performances all over the country, he gave lecture-demonstrations at reputed musical institutions around the country.

His achievements and contributions were no less in the field of literature. He possessed a keen sense of humour and was widely known as an interesting convers-ationalist. He was a true raconteur and was acclaimed for his lucid articles and essays. He was also a music critic in The Statesman for quite some time. He wrote a number of Bengali books on music and cricket, his other passion. His very first novel KUDRAT-RANGI-BIRANGI received the Rabindranath Tagore Purashkar and was translated into Hindi by the redoubtable Shrimati Dipali Nag. MEHFIL, MAJLISH, KHAYAL-O-HINDUSTANI SANGEETER ABAKSHAY and DISHI GAAN O BILITI KHELA are some of the other books he had written .

He received the title of " Pandit " from Gana Kala Parishad in the year 1972. This highly talented personality was also an ace photographer with several exhibitions to his credit.

His association with ITC SRA goes back more than a decade. He had been a member of the Academy's Experts Committee till 2005 and was involved in our Gharana Project funded by the Ford Foundation.

Kumar da , as he was affectionately addressed, breathed his last on the night of May 14, 2006, at 11:15 pm, finally succumbing to a terminal disease that he had withstood with his usual savoir-faire. At the time of his demise, he had been the Vice-Chairman of West Bengal Rajya Sangeet Academy.