I started playing tabla at the age of four. I have a photograph in my house which shows me sitting on Lata Mangeshkar’s lap when I was four years old. I played the tabla till I was 10 or 11 years old. My father was a very well known classical singer and I gave a public performance where I played the tabla while my father sang. I was very fond of playing cricket. But one day, someone told me that if you play the tabla or piano, you should not play cricket because you may hurt your fingers.

My tabla guruji was Pandit Shankar Prasad. I was an only child but I wasn’t very naughty. I started taking my career very seriously from a very young age. I went to Chetla High School and wasn’t very good in studies because I had decided to make a career out of music.

I used to be a very stubborn child. Once when I was very small, I had to play the tabla at a programme. The auditorium was packed. So when I went up on stage I started vomiting out of nervousness. My mother changed my shirt but I was crying so much that I couldn’t play. I was known as Master Bappi. The organiser of the programme came up and told me he was ready to give me anything I wanted. I asked for a toy gun. They couldn’t get a toy gun and gave me a real one instead. It was only then that I stopped crying and played the tabla.

Once I was playing solo at a stadium in Calcutta and Lataji had come for a performance with Naushadji. I was so small that the audience could not see me. I had to be propped up on pillows to be visible to the audience.

I was very serious as a child. I always asked for this or that and, although I was never given any pocket money, I always managed to get the things I wanted, thanks to my stubbornness.

I enjoyed practising my music and went to Mumbai at the age of 16 and embarked upon my professional career rather early in life. Although I have been in Mumbai for so many years now, I still cherish the memories of my childhood days in Calcutta.