Zakir: I started two days after I was born. (laughs) My father gave aazan in my ear. My father didn't give aazan but started playing tabla near my ear. Everybody wondered what my father was doing? He said that my aazan was only this. I am a pujari of Saraswati and therefore this is my prayer. From then onwards, he used to hold me in my hands and play rhythm. It benefited in me in such a way that I had rhythm in my subconscious when I was three years old. Some kind of homework was already done. I recognised it like Arjun talking to Abhimanyu when he was in his mother's womb.

Shankar: When you played first concert?

Zakir: I played first when I was seven. I used to go to concerts with my father. In one concert, he was playing with Ali Akbar Khan and there was a spare tabla. I started fidgeting with it. In the midst of concert, my father asked, bajaega? I said yes. My father then moved out of stage and my baptism happened there as I played with Ustad Ali Akbar Khan for 20 minutes. I don't remember this at all. My father told me this and then I confirmed it later with Ali Akbar Khan. After that, I used to play at school plays and also on All Indian Radio.

Shankar: What was your practice schedule?