Isal with Pandit Ravi Shankar and Ustad Alla Rakha, in 1984. It was the late sitar maestro who gave her association its name

Until 1983, Isal worked on an ad-hoc basis. “I didn’t even have a structure. But when [Pandit] Raviji [Shankar] came on board, I suddenly felt we needed something more concrete. That’s when I registered as a non-profit. We still didn’t have a name. Then Raviji arrived in Paris. I remember being very nervous. So, my husband Jean-Pierre decided to drive Raviji to the hotel. During that drive, Jean-Pierre may have mentioned to him that we were looking for a name for our organisation, and that’s when he came up with the name, Association Sargam.” The logo was designed at Chimanlals Pvt Ltd in Fort.

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Isal had a near nine-year association with Pandit Ravi Shankar helping him find concerts in Paris; she had an even longer professional  relationship with his sister-in-law Lakshmi Shankar, who she says became family. The late Ustad Bismillah Khan, however, had a lasting impact on her. “Nobody came anywhere close. He was unique. Even now, I talk to him every day. He taught me so much. When I was going through a personal sorrow, Khansahib gave me advice that was easy to comprehend and comforting to live with. He also symbolised an immense, deep and unwavering faith in God, and that I think, coloured everything he said and did,” she shares. During the long drives to their concert halls or hotels, he’d never talk. “He was always praying, and sometimes, I’d find myself doing the same.” The last time they met—a few years before his passing in 2006—at the Nehru Centre in Mumbai, he told her, he’d come running, if she invited him. “That’s my only regret.” The shehnai maestro, she says, could never envisage a trip to the West without a mandatory pilgrimage to Karbala in Iraq. “But the war had broken out in Iraq, and the city was only accessible via an overland route from Jordan, and he was too old for that.”  She also writes about many celebrated artistes, Begum Parveen Sultana, Geeta Radhakrishna and Bharatanatyam exponent Rohinton Cama whom she feels “has never received his just dues by way of performances and participation in dance recitals [in his home country],” which led to his tragic early retirement from the dance scene.  

Ustad Bismillah Khan and Isal in 1993. Pics Courtesy/Association Sargam

She has steered away from talking about the unpleasant events with artistes, even though there were a few because she feels it would breach their trust. On an average, Sargam sent every artiste to at least six different European cities. “Raviji really laid the groundwork for other Indian artistes. I think it’s very important that everyone realises his contribution.”

 Isal ran Sargam for 39 years between Paris and London, where she moved with family in 1990; she hung her boots in 2018 with one last performance by her dear friend Begum Parveen Sultana. “Sargam wouldn’t have been possible without these artistes. They were all so gentle and understanding of the conditions in which I was working. I owe them a huge debt.”