1. Took to music early in life. At the age of three – watched his uncles practise the shehnai. Started accompanying his uncle, Ali Bux, to the Vishnu temple of Benaras Ali Bux would play the shehnai and Bismillah would sit captivated for hours on end.
2. Grandfather – Rasool Bux Khan, the shehnainawaz of the Bhojpur king’s court. Father – Paigambar Bux, shehnai player.
3. Couldn't adjust with artificial glamour of film industry
4. highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna in 2001
5. His early life
5.1. 21 March 1916. Family of musicians in Bihar, India.
6. Early association with music
7. Learning shehnai
7.1. 1.Started getting lessons – practising throughout the day. 2.Practicing at the temple of Balaji and Mangala Maiya, Banaras. 3.Invented ragas that were earlier considered to be beyond the range of the shehnai.
8. AIR and Bismillah Khan
8.1. With the opening of the All India Radio in Lucknow in 1938 came Bismillah’s big break. He soon became an often-heard shehnai player on radio.
9. After Independence
9.1. 1.first Indian to greet the nation with his shehnai.2.poured his heart out into Raag Kafi from the Red Fort
10. Traveling abroad
10.1. 1.First trip to Afganistan
11. Khan and Cinema
11.1. Vijay Bhatt was so impressed after hearing Bismillah play at a festival that he named a film after the instrument called Gunj Uthi Shehnai.
