As far as Indian music is concerned I wouldn't call myself a torchbearer. It's the media that focuses on it, like at one time Pandit Ravi Shankar was… - Zakir Hussain

When I began there was an expectation that I play like Abbaji, but over the years luckily for me music lovers got around to accepting me for what I play... Look at others like Ustad Bismillah Khan’s son who has lost his way in trying to play shehnai like his father. Copying his father is one thing but taking his music forward is quite another.

There are incredible number of great Indian artists around like Aditya Kalyanpur, Subhankar Banerjee, Satyajit Talwakar, Amaan and Ayan, among women are Anuradha Pal and others. It is great that such musicians are around. But the media has not adopted to give them the push or put them in open. They deserve to be up there.

As a child I remember accompanying Abbaji to private mehfils in the homes of the ‘beautiful people.’ While they wined and dined, musicians would wait in the kitchen and only come out when summoned. I personally remember bringing back large Tiffin carrier|tiffin carriers with left-over food as honorarium.