Santoor maestro Satish Vyas comes from a musical family and his father C.R. Vyas, was a famous vocalist. Satish began training with his father and then learnt the santoor under the tutelage of Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma.

Vyas wasn’t always confident about taking up music as a career, so he did an MBA and then joined ICICI bank in Mumbai in 1977. But a decade later, he took to music full time. He’s passionate about the santoor and has also fused his music with the sounds of Shankar Mahadevan, Sivamani and Louiz Banks (in the album Pure Silk with Sony Music) while the other albums to his credit include Moods Of Yoga with Navras Records of the UK. He’s also known for the Gunnidas Sammelan that he organises each year in Mumbai, Calcutta and Delhi.

Satish’s wife Rekha is a senior manager at HDFC Bank, Mumbai. The couple has a son, Vikram who’s studying in the US.

SATISH:

Ours was an arranged marriage and Rekha came from a non-musical family. But that was never a problem as she adjusted well after we were married in 1979. In fact, she completed her graduation after we got married because my mother didn’t want her to be idle. At that time, I was working with ICICI bank and knew Deepak Parekh (who’s now the Chairman of HDFC bank). Since the bank was recruiting I recommended my wife’s name and she got a job at HDFC.

My corporate career took me to work with well-known organisations starting from ICICI to the National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA), Philips and HMV (now Saregama). But my wife never complained about my shifting jobs. In fact, she gave me seven years time to prove myself.

I am grateful to my wife for believing me at every point in my career. She’s an extremely positive person and I always count on her for support and help. For newlyweds financial stability is very important, but she never ever complained about it.

She was never too fussy and demanding because she knew what my profession was like. Even though she was also working, the family was her top priority. But I was not in India when our son Vikram was born. This is one grudge that she holds against me to this day.

We have been together for 27 years now, but I have no complaints about her. She’s very accommodating and never interferes in my work. But sometimes I pull her leg saying that wives of famous musicians take pains over how their husbands dress for shows — which she doesn’t.

She has a good ear for music and gives me frank opinions about my performances. Since she’s in the audience when I perform, she often gets a better sense of what my listeners want to hear. Though she doesn’t get time to travel with me on long tours, I like to take her with me on weekends for outstation shows. And when required, I also request my wife to accompany me on stage on the tanpura, which she does sometimes.

REKHA:

Though we had an arranged marriage what struck me the most was the fact that he was good-looking and impressive. Also, he’s from a very refined family, and was extremely well-mannered. I agreed to working in a bank mainly because we wanted to buy our own house.

Before marriage I wanted to join the Army and had even trained for that. However, today, I have no regrets about my career move and I am grateful that Satish encouraged me to work. As a husband, he has been very inspiring at every stage in my life.

We’ve had a long and lovely marriage and I cherish every moment with him. What I like about Satish is the fact that he is very focused and dedicated to his work. He is a perfectionist and insists on doing all his homework before each and every show. Also as an organiser of the Gunnidas Sammelan, he’s very efficient and has been conducting it for so many years now.

However sometimes, I don’t like his foul temper as he tends to get angry if things are not done properly. He’s a cleanliness freak and gets on my case to keep things organised. Satish also gets impatient sometimes and becomes jittery about taking decisions. For me, if you have decided on something, then you should stick to it no matter what.

Despite being away for shows, he is also committed to the family and we celebrate most festivals like Diwali and Ganeshotsav at home. At the end of the day, we like to spend time in each other’s company. Though my son Vikram is now completing his education in the US, when he comes down to Mumbai we really have a wonderful time together.

What has made our marriage work is the mutual understanding and respect that we have between the two of us. Over the years, we have become good friends and he guides me in every possible way.

Photograph by Gajanan Dudhalkar