(Top) Ustad Amjad Ali Khan performs at the concert in Mumbai on Friday; (Below) The maestro displays the cracked sarod to the audience on Thursday. (PTI)

Mumbai, Jan. 15: The audience was enthralled as the strains of Raag Khamaaj wafted through the packed auditorium, but for Ustad Amjad Ali Khan the sound was not quite the same.

The maestro, whose favourite sarod — which he has described as his “heart” — was damaged by handlers of Air India yesterday, had to stop four times during his first performance this evening to tune the instrument, hurriedly brought from New Delhi by wife Subhalakshmi.

The sarod, like most of his favourites, including the one he lost yesterday, was made by Hemendra Chandra Sen, the Calcutta-based instrument-maker who passed away on January 2.

“It’s not about old or new, it’s about the emotions attached to an instrument. The sarod (that was damaged) was 34 years old, almost as old as our marriage. He (Ustad Amjad Ali) is very attached to his sarods and has a name for most. He was very emotionally attached to the sarod that broke, which he had named Ganga,” said Subhalakshmi.

The 1,300-seat auditorium at the Chembur Arts Society was chock-a-block this evening as the maestro took the stage for the concert in memory of vocalist Pandit C.R. Vyas.

It was at this very venue yesterday that the ustad had held up his sarod for all to see — the teakwood was cracked and the skin torn off at places — before telling his audience he would not be able to perform.

He started playing around 8.45pm today, beginning with Raag Khamaaj, but interrupted himself four times, wiping the sarod and tuning it. “It’s not completely unusual but obviously he wasn’t happy with the tonal quality and its notes,” said S. Kaushik, a classical music aficionado.

After the first performance, the maestro spent a considerable time tuning the instrument, which doesn’t have a name and which wife Subhalakshmi said the ustad had rarely used. He had once performed with it during a show with Ustad Bismillah Khan, who passed away in 2006, but not in any major concert since.

The tuning done, the maestro was in full flow, playing Raag Maru Bihag and variations on Pilu.

“It was a very spirited and emotional performance. It was almost as if Khansahab wanted to send the message that the show must go on,” said Pandit Satish Vyas, santoor player and son of Pandit CR Vyas.

Pandit Satish Vyas called for airlines to show greater sensitivity to musical instruments, a request Ustad Amjad Ali, who had spent the day at his Breach Candy residence tuning the new instrument, made to the government today.

“Praful Patelji (the Union civil aviation minister) called me and apologised for the incident (on an Ahmedabad-Mumbai flight). I told him that a special counter could be an answer to avoid such incidents,” Khan told The Telegraph before his concert.

The damage caused to the treasured sarod has opened a floodgate of complaints from maestros who often have to brave callous porters and loaders of airlines.

Percussionist Taufique Qureshi, the younger brother of Ustad Zakir Hussain and the man who came up with the path-breaking album Rhydhun, recalled a similar experience in the US.

Qureshi had to perform at a concert in Houston and travelled there on a British Airways flight, but neither his clothes nor his instruments reached the Texas city with him.

“I learnt that my baggage was stuck at the London airport. I had to borrow a set of kurta-pyjamas from someone, created a contraption on my own and performed at the concert. For rhythm players like me, it is still possible to perform when a mishap happens, but for soloists like Khan-sahab, instruments are personal and just indispensable,” said the Mumbai-based percussionist.

Jaipur-based Satvik Veena player Salil Bhatt, the son of Grammy award winner Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, said he understood “Khansahab’s pain” and recalled a similar mishap that happened last month with his father.

“My father returned from a concert with Pakistani band Junoon in the US last month and found his 30-year-old Mohan Veena in pieces on landing. He just came home and wept like a child. He said this was the second most horrible day in his life, the first was when he lost his mother,” said the junior Bhatt.