my musical hero was alla rakha who i had listened to on many recordings.sleep on the floor of his hotel and take care of errands and help out with driving, cooking, shopping, cleaning, anything. and when he felt like it he would teach me. these lessons were not formal. he never wrote anything down for me. in fact, i never sat in front of him with drums. he only would recite compositions to me and i was expected to remember them and, at a later time write them down. (das gupta) in our instrumental music, you have to gather the ability or acquire the ability of singing whatever you are playing. the teacher can say to you "here's a theme, "gi-ni-da, da-ga-da-da da-ga-da, kae-na-ga-da da-ga-na-da, di-ni-di-ni-da." and then you recite back to him, gi-ni-da, da-ga-da-da, da-ga-da, kae-na-ga-da da-ga-na-da, di-ni-di-ni-da. ♪ ah-ma-nei-za, ma-ma-nei-za, ♪ ♪ nei-pa-ba-lama-lama- ba-lama-nei-za. ♪ you have to reproduce. [plays same piece] this ability comes only from singing whatever you're playing. it requires a lot of memory, and you have to be on your toes at all