Meet Keshava, a tabla wizard at only 15

The 15-year-old's childlike smile belies his sage-like wisdom and equanimity. When we caught up with child prodigy musician and tabla exponent Keshava just before his opening solo act at a special Pancham Nishad musical tribute to the late tabla virtuoso Shafaat Ahmed Khan, he emphatically denied a case of butterflies in the belly. "I'm only nervous with excitement about my act and raring to go," he says in a distinct American drawl.

Such confidence must stem from his genes. After all he is late ace Indian painter and culture czarina Prafulla Dahanukar's grandson. "Four years since her passing away and not a single day goes by when I don't miss her," he admits. But this is not just any grandchild remembering his grandmom. "Its more than that," he avers. "She introduced me to the tabla when I was barely 18 months old." The late painter who was pasionate about music often recited tabla bol taans around him and found to her utter surprise little Keshava reproducing them on a table. Overjoyed, she disragarded protests from the family about his young age and bought him a tabla.

Keshav and his parents lived at Auroville, Pondicherry, where director, screenwriter and film producer Bharat Bala was impressed to see him perform at an event. "He told me he was putting together Rhythms of India, the first act of the Commonwealth Games (2010) inauguration and wanted Keshava to come to Delhi to play," remininsces Gopika, Keshava's accomplished singer mom, ruffling her son's hair lovingly.

Even though visuals of him playing at the centre of a percussionists' ensemble went viral, back in Pondicherry not many at the ashram owned a TV and completely missed his act. "When they finally caught up with the coverage and reached out to me about it, the CWG concert was over and done with for me and I had moved on."

But the world wasn't ready to move on. He began getting offers from all over asking him to come to concerts, reality shows, etc. Gopika said no to it all. "Some of it was too ridiculous to even consider. Like this corporate Chennai bigwig who wanted to pay Keshav Rs 2 lakh to to come play at his son's birthday," she recounts, "I knew taking that route wouldn't be good in the long run. I wanted him to train, strengthen his foundation and then find his feet."

It was around then that the family went through an upheaval as Gopika and her husband separated, both finding new partners. In fact Gopika's partner who is also a musician based out of the US took them along to San Diego where they settled even performing together as a trio at several gigs.

And what about school? "What about it?" asks Keshava, "Why do I need to go to a school and be tied up with that routine and learn the same thing that everybody learns like everybody learns it when all our needs are clearly so different?"

Gopika remembers being baffled at first. "He told me I want to play the tabla when I grow up so why should I break my head with Chemistry and Biology? I realised he's too talented and felt it'd be criminal to disregard that and gave in," she says. Keshava who's listening adds, "That way after spending three hours at the computer I can promptly go back to tabla."

By 12 though he could accompany and play solo with great ease he expressed a desire to learn in the formal tradition. Accordingly, he first began training under Pt Aroop Chattopadhyay in San Diego and would soon go on to learn under legend Pt Shankar Ghosh's tutelage till Farukhabadi tradition maestro's passing away in 2016. He then went on to learn from Amit Kavthekar, a student of Ustad Allah Rakha and Ustad Zakir Hussain, attended several master classes with Ustad Zakir Hussain in USA, and is currently learning from Ray Spiegel. When possible, he also learns with Taufiq Qureishi in Mumbai.

In fact he follows the work of several legendary maestros of yore and even talks of their individual styles and major concerts/recordings with confidence. "Each of them is so inpirational. I follow the work of Swapan Chaudhari, Anindo Chatterjee and Kumar Bose very closely," but underlines, "But I idolise Ustad Zakir Hussain who is in a different league altogether."

Given the size of the giant calluses on his hands from pounding the tabla it doesn't seem long before he hits that league... Keshava simply folds his hands in a humble namaste.