'Was spared as we changed names and kept mum', says musician after returning from violence-hit Bangladesh

Kolkata: It took tabla player Mainak Biswas an additional 48 disturbing hours to reach the safety of his motherland from trouble-torn Bangladesh, after a Sarod artiste he was supposed to accompany in Dhaka managed to escape from a zone sizzling with anti-India sentiments, leaving the percussionist stranded.

Shiraz Ali Khan, a renowned Sarod player, escaped the clutches of a rampaging mob and returned to Kolkata on Saturday after the venue of his concert, ‘Chhayanaut’, in Dhaka’s Dhanmondi area was targeted and vandalised, and his scheduled programme called off.

Khan’s mother, Ayesha, and the rest of his team members, including Biswas, were left stranded amid the ongoing turbulence in the neighbouring country and could return only on Monday, albeit with lingering anxieties and scarred memories.

"I had been to Bangladesh several times before, but never faced such a situation where the undercurrent of tension and hostility among a section of locals were so palpable," Biswas told PTI, recounting the turmoil still fresh in his mind.

"I kept myself locked inside the hotel room most of the time, and restricted my movements to its lobby since the violence broke out on the intervening night of December 18-19. But, when some urgent need forced me to venture outside, I was careful to hide my Indian identity and changed my name to one that sounded more like a Muslim,” he recalled.

Khan, a descendent of Sarod maestro and composer Ustad Alauddin Khan, and having family roots in Brahmanberia in Bangladesh, is based out of Kolkata and had reached Dhaka on December 16, along with his team for a jazz concert in upscale Banani.

It was during a rehearsal session at the hotel that they realised their scheduled classical music recital venue the following day on December 19 was under attack by a frenzied mob.

While Khan left Dhaka the very next day, Ayesha and the rest of the team had to wait anxiously till December 22 to catch a flight to Kolkata.

The musician said on arrival in the city on Saturday night that he had suppressed his Indian identity on the way to Dhaka airport, a decision born out of desperation and one he had never thought he would have to make.

Elaborating on their ordeal, Biswas said the remaining group, which also comprised Khan's assistant programme coordinator Pallab Ghosh, booked a morning cab to head for the Dhaka airport, and waited at the lounge for hours to catch the 6 pm flight out of the country.

"We couldn’t take a risk since there were reports of regular demonstrations and gatherings on the streets of Dhaka since the night of December 18, which had put us under a lot of mental stress. We heaved a sigh of relief only after stepping inside the Dhaka airport," Biswas said.

The tabla player said he was particularly worried about his instrument during his ride to the airport, courtesy the viral images of harmonium and other musical instruments getting flung to the ground and smashed by the marauders at ‘Chhayanaut’.

"Thankfully, we did not experience any obstruction en route to the airport, and was glad after collecting my tabla intact on the conveyor belt at Kolkata airport," he said.

Biswas said he was spared harassment and possible manhandling on the streets of Dhaka only because he chose to stay mum.

"I could sense the strong anti-India sentiment prevailing among people, though they never expressed that on my face. We chose to keep our mouths shut since the locals in Dhaka would have immediately made out our Indian identities from the difference in dialect," he said.

"The fact that we changed our Hindu names while booking cabs with assistance from our hotel staff undoubtedly helped us in ensuring our safety," Biswas added.

The young tabla player has a concert lined up in Kolkata in a few days, and regretted that although the wounds in his mind will heal with time, the scars will remain.

"Things will never be the same for me until the situation normalises in Bangladesh, and I am able to revisit the country with my music. Our dialects may be different, but we speak the same language and we are not their enemies,” said Biswas.

‘Chhayanaut’, the cultural centre in Dhaka that was set up in the 1960s, was ransacked in the early hours of Friday, as violence spread in Bangladesh over the murder of Inqilab Mancha spokesperson Sharif Osman Hadi, a prominent figure of the July 2024 uprising against ousted PM Sheikh Hasina, and a prospective candidate for the upcoming parliamentary elections in that country.

Several musical instruments like tabla and harmonium were smashed and damaged by a mob that managed to barge into the cultural centre, an attack which took place around the same time protesters were on rampage inside the office of The Daily Star newspaper.