An office-bearer of the Shanmukhananda Sabha blamed Ravi Shankar's wife, Sukanya, for the commotion. "She interfered with the sound arrangements and kept instructing the sound in-charge so as to highlight the performance of Panditji and Anoushka."
We have spent about Rs 2 crore on Shanmukhananda's acoustics and it is the best in the country. If we had been allowed to handle the system there would have been no problem," he added.
Sukanya, however, refuted the charge. "I don't know anything about sound engineering. But as a music lover, I felt that something was wrong with the music emerging from Zakir's mike.

I was sitting next to tabla artiste Tapan Bose and asked him if Zakir's sound was okay. He told me that it was not and that is when I told the sound in-charge to raise Zakir's volume.
How can this be construed as interference? My husband and daughter Anoushka were playing and I only wanted the best quality music.

This altercation would not have happened had it not been for the unseemly behaviour of Zakir. No matter what his celebrity status happens to be, every seasoned musician knows in his heart that the music he performs is far more significant than his own persona. Has one noticed the placement of different instruments in a symphony or an orchestra? Whether it is western or an Indian classical music, the existence of an heirarchy among different instruments is indisputable, though subtle. Nobody refutes the fact that the Shruti box or the Tanpura that plays unobtrusively in the background along with the vocalist or an instrumentalist is as important as the vocalist or the instrumentalist. This argument in no way diminishes the role that the Shruti box or the Tanpura performs in overall success of the event but restate an order of importance that is integral to the success of a musical performance.

The Tabla in the Indian classical music tradition has always been an accompaniment and has never shared the same status as a Sitar or a Sarod or a Veena. The present generation of seasoned tabla players do not subscribe to this school of thought. One of the reason for this stems from the fact that most of these Tabla players are involved in Jazz and fusion music. Jazz and fusion music has ample provision for the tabla players to showcase their talent to a huge international audience. Tabla-players who perform in these Jazz and Fusion events should not allow their ego, relevant in one realm, to impinge on their secondary role in Indian classical music.