International Day Of Families Today; 15-Member Music Family, 16-Member Football Family & Band Of 7 Bros

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Music and football have kept three families from the city together across generations. Seven Bhatt brothers have formed a musical group of their own while in the family of Ustad Latif Khan, 15 members play either sarangi or tabla, and in the city’s Football Family, eight members are associated with the game in one way or the other.

On the eve of International Day of Families, Free Press spoke to members of three families who are united by a passion.

Family music group

While growing up in Ujjain, the seven Bhatt brothers learned music at Madhav Sangeet Mahavidyalaya due to their music lover father. Three brothers made a career in music while others joined different fields. But their love for music never left them. The youngest of them, Rajesh Bhat (56), is programming head at All India Radio in Bhopal.

The eldest is 78. The brothers have formed a music group called RUDRAMS. The group name has the first alphabet of the names of all the brothers. “My brothers live in Indore, Ujjain, Nagda, Surat, Pune and Mumbai but we make sure to organise at least one joint concert every year in which three generations of the family perform,” says Rajesh whose wife Sulekha Bhatt is a top-grade AIR classical singer.

Rajesh’s two sons Aalap and Onkar work in Bollywood music industry. There are engineers, doctors and corporate executives in the new generation of the family but their love for music remains intact.

Heritage has to be nurtured

Music runs in the blood of the family of well-known sarangi player Ustad Latif Khan. Till a few years ago, Ustad Allauddin Khan Sangeet Evam Kala Akademi, a wing of state culture department, would organise an annual fest to commemorate him.

Ustad’s son Farooque Latif Khan lives in Mumbai while other family members live in Bhopal. Of the 15 members of the family, six are sarangi players and the rest play tabla. This is the seventh generation of the family to have taken to music.

“We have got music in heritage. But heritage has to be preserved and nurtured,” says Farooque who has performed at prestigious music festivals in India and abroad.

Football binds us together

Jai Prakash Singh has been teaching the finer nuances of football to budding players at the TT Nagar Stadium in the city for many years. Till a few years ago, 16 members of his and his brother’s family were associated with the game.

Now, their number has fallen to eight. JP Singh’s son Devendra Pratap Singh is a football coach at Delhi Public School in Bhopal. His brother’s daughter Shalini Singh is a Khelo India coach in Burhanpur and Shalini’s brother is also a football coach.

Another member of the family Sayendra Singh is a football referee. Saman, Nayan and Purvi of the next generation are learning to play football. “We live in a joint family and football is what binds us together,” says JP Singh.