Bharat Yagnik, Ahmedabad: Legendary ghazal singer Akhtaribai Faizabadi, popularly known as Begum Akhtar, breathed her last in Ahmedabad in 1969, a well-known fact. But very few people know that his relationship with Gujarat was before he got a name in the field of music.
Ghazal Queen was given shelter at the beginning of her career in Bajana, 100 km from Ahmedabad, when she was only Akhtaribai. The last ruler of Bajana was Kamalkhan Malek, at whose invitation he visited Bajana and stayed there.
The legacy of the singer, who was born on October 7, 106 years ago, may have been forgotten with the Bajana state time, but not completely. The rest house where Begum lived is still known as 'Akhtar's room'. The rest house was converted into a veterinary hospital in 1060. The building was badly damaged during the 2001 earthquake and was rebuilt.
"We don't know how our great-grandfather met Begum Akhtar or chose to shelter him," Farhad Khan, a descendant of Kamal Khan, told our correspondent Times of India. We also have no record of this. All we know is that he was playing in the early 1930s, early in his professional career. '
Farhad Khan is now trying to find out more about the singer's relationship with Bajana. 'Akhtaribai has been visiting Bajana state for more than a decade. After independence our family lost contact with him. He had not visited Bajana since 1947. But by then he had become a household name and had even acted in some Hindi films.
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