Mumbai: After almost two hours of heavy grilling, when Ustad Zakir Hussain came out of the conference room of DNA, he had a smile on his face even though he had survived the day on a bowl of boiled papayas.

It was because Zakir had proved his point by then.
"I have come here to request you to stop featuring me..." Before you wonder whether Zakir intends to turn into a recluse, he clarifies, "We need to promote classical music and the younger crop of classical musicians.

We need to tell the younger generation that there's an alternative career in classical music, and it's no way less than any other vocation."

Zakir admits that he has a bone to pick with reality shows.Give him the idea of a reality show to promote classical music and the two-time Grammy award-winner cringes at the thought.

"I don't like to see somebody sulking. The guy winning the contest will get 18 minutes of fame but the guy losing it might not do riyaz for 18 days. Everybody may not understand that these contests are not the be all and end all.

When I was young, I also entered a contest of All India Radio. I failed. Contests are horrible judges."

"I think that my integrity as a musician is in question when somebody else takes the decision through text messages. If somebody else is taking the decision, then what am I there for? I would never be a judge on a music reality show. I have turned down every such offer."

Prod him about Bollywood, and he says that he simply can't juggle the time anymore. "I have seen how Shankar (Mahadevan) does it. One day I was sitting with him at a coffee shop in Paris and there he was singing a tune to Javedbhai (Akhtar) in Mumbai to enable him to write the lyrics.

That's one way of doing it. At least he has Loy and Ehsaan backing him up; I have nobody. So I don't think I would be able to keep pace, you see."