Ayaan Ali Khan: We only performed at girls’ colleges when we were young

As Ayaan Ali Khan performed for the young audience of a Gurgaon school recently, he revisited his younger days.
In a candid chat, he recounts his days of performing in girls colleges when they were younger and why he performs more in Delhi and not in Gurgaon.
Gurgaon’s concert culture needs to evolve
Ayaan promised the school’s students that he will play in Gurgaon with his father and guru, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, soon.He says they end up playing more in Delhi than in Gurgaon, as the latter city is a tad stingy about inviting them. Ayaan says, “Delhi is officially home. We keep shuttling between Delhi and Mumbai and work keeps us moving most of the time. Concerts generally happen in Delhi since most auditoriums are here. But many music lovers who come to those concerts are from Gurgaon. Very few invites come from Gurgaon. Now that there are good auditoriums and most of the music lovers are also there, I hope they evolve the concert culture in
Gurgaon.”
READ: Zohan and Abeer changed my life: Ayaan Ali Khan
We used to perform only at girls’ colleges
Performing at a school reminded him of the days when he used to get invites to play at girls’ colleges. He said, “When we (Ayaan and his brother Amaan) were much younger, we used to perform only at girls’ colleges. They were more disciplined. The moment you go to a boys’ college, you have no idea ki kya ho raha hai. Now it’s mostly IITs from across India that invite us to perform.”

Introduce music as you break news to kids
While playing the sarod, he kept telling students about the raags. “You should enjoy whatever you listen to. You should try and connect to the music, especially when you listen to music without lyrics. Behind every song there are only those seven notes. Since this is a morning concert, I will conclude my recital with the morning raag, which is raag bhairavi. We have raags for different hours of the day,” he said. When we asked him how he connects with the young audience, he said, “It’s not about coming on stage and flaunting your knowledge. It is very important to interact. Like we break some big news to kids in a certain way, similarly, we have to introduce music to them in a different form, so they can understand. You have to speak a language they connect with. When my father started teaching me music, he started with those nursery rhymes. We gave a tribute to Kalam and Mahatma Gandhi today to make the connect. Every child knew the song Vaishnav Jana.” He added, “We generally play at universities and colleges, not schools. More such outreaches happen when we are abroad, but it’s nice to be in Gurgaon. It’s good to see that schools have evolved so much. In our school, we didn’t have an auditorium like this one. And these kids were such a good audience. I could not imagine students of Class VI-IX being so quiet. Today’s students have a very strong sense of what they like and what they don’t, but they are open-minded.”

Strong connect between music and monuments
When asked about the 'Raghupati raghav raja ram' rendition video which he posted on Gandhi Jayanti (performed by Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, Amaan and Ayaan), he said that he played it for the Gurgon kids too. He added, “The video was created for Gandhi Jayanti and was shot with the Qutub Minar in the backdrop and at the Ashoka stambha.” While talking about performing at monuments, he said, “When you perform in front of a historical monument, it’s a different exposure. It’s kind of inspiring, because at the end of the day, it is architecture, and architecture is creativity. Yanni (the Greek-American composer) made us realize the value of monuments as concert backdrop.”

Ayaan on Ghulam Ali Row: I respect everyone’s patriotism
Speaking about the Ghulam Ali row, Ayaan said, “Frankly speaking, musicians have no borders, they will go wherever invited. They are Sufi by nature. Having said that, so many soldiers are dying at the borders, how would you justify their deaths to their families? Twenty-something soldiers die on the border, and then you have these cultural exchanges happening? I am not against it, but I respect everyone’s patriotism. It is easy for me to say that music has no boundaries, but if you talk to a mother who lost her son on the front, her take will be very different.” He added, “ We have always welcomed artistes from Pakistan with so much love affection and warmth and we will continue doing so. But I don’t even remember when an artiste of that stature from India was invited there.”
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WATCH: Sarod Maestros Amjad Ali Khan, Amaan Ali Khan and Ayaan Ali Khan | Musicians at Google