The universality of its sound has people from varied cultures relate to its music. A favourite subject of poets and literary figures throughout history, the instrument carries a deep spiritual and historic significance. Indeed, the bansuri calms the spirit and awes the listener. He also tours with a classic New Orleans Brass band and audiences love to listen to his raga music.

He finds the Europeans very receptive to his bansuri. вЂњMy student Mathew Davis is a well-trained jazz musician who implements his bansuri training in an avant garde jazz trio that tours the world. Leifer believes that the BansuriвЂ™s versatility has had a far-reaching effect with even international genres employing it. A few months ago, he organised a one-of-its kind flute seminar in MumbaiвЂ™s world-renowned conservatoire Sangit Mahabharati, where IndiaвЂ™s foremost bansuri masters participated. Acknowledged as one of the leading maestros of Western Classical flute, Chicago-based Lyon Leifer also stands as a top-ranking bansuri exponent of Panna babuвЂ™s style which he learnt from the legendвЂ™s disciple Pandit Devendra Murdeshwar. The saadhna of bansuri learning has produced outstanding representatives even beyond IndiaвЂ™s boundaries. There are Indian bansuri students from every corner of the globe - Japan, Brazil, Europe, even Pakistan! Bansuri must now be taught on university level,вЂќ he opines. He believes that his guru simplified flute playing techniques, even the Dhrupad-ang aalap, contributing to its popularity. Today, it is Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia who is credited with the instrumentвЂ™s worldwide popularity,вЂќ says the maestroвЂ™s leading disciple, famed flutist Pandit Roopak Kulkarni. It was merely an accompanying folk instrument. вЂњCredit goes to Panna babu to bring the flute to center stage. His eminent disciples have propagated his style in countries across the globe with concert halls brimming with music lovers and the uninitiated alike. This unparalleled contribution, which he fulfilled in a short span of just 20 years, would otherwise take generations,вЂќ Pandit Ghosh says.Д¬elebrated flutist Pandit Hariprasad ChaurasiaвЂ™s Mumbai institute Vrindavan Gurukul draws in students from diverse nationalities, both men and women. He did face flak from the conservatives of his era, but his conviction was unshaken. вЂњHe invented the larger, full-sized bansuri and made it a full-fledged concert instrument on par with sitar or sarod. Panna babu, he explains, pioneered the bansuri as a classical instrument. Previously it was the sitar that was the worldвЂ™s most popular Indian instrument, thanks to the Pandit Ravi Shankar wave. Individuals from around the world fly down to India to learn the instrument. Internationally renowned tabla and sitar maestro Pandit Nayan Ghosh, nephew of Pandit Pannalal Ghosh says, вЂњIn cities across India, one can often bump into bansuri players and students on a street. It was the undying conviction of Panna babu that elevated the simple piece of bamboo to one of the worldвЂ™s most sought after instruments in the 21st century. Originally a folkloric instrument associated with Lord Krishna, the bansuriвЂ™s captivating tone was confined to village gatherings and folk merry making.

Destined to be the patriarch of the Indian bansuri, he rose to become none other than the legendary Pandit Pannalal Ghosh (1911-1960) whose name remains synonymous with one of the worldвЂ™s most sublime musical instruments. A young man would sit around Kolkata docks trying out different waste materials like PVC pipes and bamboo to create the perfect sound.

Bansuri and tabla