Ayub Bachchu Refused to Take a Guitar Even at Half Price After His Country Was Insulted
His mother and father did not want their son to be into music, to become a singer. His father used to say there was no place for bauls in the house. At one point, nursing a grievance, Ayub Bachchu came to Dhaka with big dreams. He then had only 600 taka in his pocket. He put up at a hotel on Elephant Road, and would stay on the floor, spreading a mat in the hotel lobby. Through practice, devotion and single-mindedness, that very youth one day became the country’s renowned guitar wizard and singer.
Ayub Bachchu loved his mother very much. Around 2004, when his mother fell ill, he brought her to Dhaka for treatment and also had her treated abroad. He always used to say, ‘The country must be loved before everything else. Because if mother is in pain, the country will be in pain.’
In an interview, speaking about his mother and father, he had said, ‘Without my mother and father, I am nothing. My life is due to their contribution. This is a blessing from Allah. Those who send their parents to old-age homes — there can be nothing more shameful for a person than this. The mother in whose womb I was born after staying 10 months and 10 days — leaving that mother in an old-age home and coming away, what greater misfortune can there be for a child than this! If you have money, instead of sending them to an old-age home, at least rent a house and keep your mother separately. An old-age home cannot be the life of parents.’
He had a deep pull towards his roots. Once, coming to a concert at the Patiya school field, he said in the language of Chattogram, ‘Aar bari Poitya, toyara aare gaiber lai noh dah dawat no do’ — that is, my home is Patiya, why do you not invite me to sing? Then someone said, ‘Brother, your honorarium is high, that is why we do not dare.’ In reply, smiling, he said, ‘Age dawat dita, sommani no loitam eri’ — you should have invited me first and seen, I would not have taken an honorarium.
This was in 1998. Ayub Bachchu had gone to give a concert in New York, America. After the concert ended, he entered a shopping mall with the members of the LRB band. Going to a large guitar shop, he began looking at the guitars. He had an addiction to picking up and examining guitars of new brands. Suddenly his eyes fell on a guitar of the world-famous Japanese brand Ibanez, and he liked it.
When he wanted to see the guitar, the shopkeeper asked which country he had come from. On hearing the answer was Bangladesh, the shopkeeper said dismissively, ‘This guitar is not for a Bangladeshi. This is the most expensive guitar in this country; you will not be able to buy it, look at another one.’
Hearing this, Bachchu was deeply hurt. He was hurt most of all by the insult to the country. A stubborn determination gripped him. He told the shopkeeper, ‘With the dollars everyone in my team has, I hope we can take the guitar.’ Despite the shopkeeper’s unwillingness, he let him see the guitar. Taking the guitar in his hands, Bachchu began to play. He played with such feeling that people gathered throughout the whole market.
This time the shopkeeper’s tone changed. He said, ‘You play extraordinarily; this guitar is for you. I will give it to you at half price.’ But Ayub Bachchu replied politely, ‘Even if you give this to me for free, I will not take it. You have insulted my country. The guitar for which my country is insulted — Ayub Bachchu will not take that guitar for free, and will never play it a second time.’
Ayub Bachchu was a devotee of Sufism. He was a devotee of the Maizbhandar Darbar Sharif, and had a deep fondness for spiritual Sufi culture. At the home of PHP Group chairman Sufi Mizanur Rahman, Bachchu became emotional while embracing him. Despite being a legendary artist of the subcontinent, he greatly respected Sufis and practised Sufism.
One month before his own death, when the father of a member of the LRB band died, Ayub Bachchu went to bid him a final farewell and said, ‘Uncle, you are going, we are coming.’ Exactly one month later, Bachchu himself departed for the land of no return. Before his death he had gone to Chattogram to visit his mother’s grave. Giving money to the caretaker of the Chaitanyagali graveyard, he had said to keep his mother’s grave clean at all times. Advising him to plant flower saplings, he had said that if anything happened to him, he should be buried beside his mother.
Guitar wizard Ayub Bachchu had wanted to build an ‘AB Lounge’ in Chattogram for new band artists, where new singers would play guitar and sing. He also had a dream of building a hospital at his village home in Patiya. The dreams could not be fulfilled. On 18 October 2018, leaving millions of fans in tears, he departed for the land of no return.
It is a matter of great regret that the grave of this Ekushey Padak-winning artist at the Chaitanyagali graveyard is unprotected and neglected. There is no epitaph. Fans who come to visit the grave cannot find it. The heartfelt demand of the fans is that a guitar academy named ‘AB Lounge’ be established in Chattogram. They have sought the kind attention of the Chattogram City Mayor in this regard.
