begin by worshipping it hed say bow down and pray to it to have mercy on you and come alive through your medium never approach a raga with vanity in your heart for only the purified mind can produce musical vibration he inculcated in pannalal ghosh nikhil banerjee sharan rani backliwal ravi shankar annapurna ali akbar on his part when ali akbar started playing hed offer it to the listeners believing he was at their service recounts anindo for he believed god resides in every human being and he preached music was the greatest unifier the belief was firmed when he started teaching at the american society for eastern arts in 1965 the school that also taught indian dance indonesian gamelan and japanese koto saw the largest attendance in ali akbars classes this encouraged him to set up the ali akbar college of music in berkeley in 1968 this unfortunately led to the college in kolkata losing its verve and closing down in 1970 but ali akbar saw no difference in the response of his students in calcutta or california theyre all the same devoted students who love music he once told lavezzoli students even businessmen especially in india in my time wanted to learn ragas the sound the music you didnt need to explain anything music would take them to heaven and make their hearts soft no anger full of love and devotion clearly his students drank from the fountain that didnt stop flowing from his babas time hardly surprising that his shishyas include damodarlal kabra elder brother of brij bhushan kabra rooshi pandya annapurnas second husband his own son dhyanesh khan partha chatterjee father of purbayan chatterjee tejendra narayan majumdar bahadur khan had learnt from him for a while as had rdburman in 1990s culminating in the recording of legacy with asha bhonsle rendering dhrupaddhamar albeit under ali akbar the list also boasts names like ken zuckerman and george ruckert renowned musicologists living in switzerland or teaching at mit an amazing teacher khansahib has an intuitive sense if the path got rough he made it easy and if it got too easy he made it rough thats why so many students were able to stay with him ruckert once wrote as for anindo he has the proud privilege of penning his gurus autobiography it sold off within months of its release in 2012 leading to a second edition this year