I can’t speak of Pankaj ji as a person who has passed away because I am yet to comprehend his passing. I fail to come to terms with the fact that I cannot meet him, and hear his words of wisdom. I’m glad to have been embraced in this family called Khazana. I built a relationship with him in the last 10 years due to it. I’ve been listening to him since childhood, but what I learnt about patience, grace and dignity in the last 10 years is unparalleled. Few artistes have the grace to only speak well of people. Even if someone spoke ill of anyone, he’d ignore the conversation.

On Khazana, he was the most instrumental person, but he was always eager to give someone on his team the credit for his work. That shows his humility. Usually, in the Khazana melody, everyone is on stage. But [sometimes], he’d sit in the front row, watching every artiste. He’d patiently await his turn, even if he had to perform at 3 [am]. These are practices to adopt.