This week saw the sad demise of Shri Ravi Shankar. I am not a soul dipped
in music and aware of the nuances. He had been positioned as a great son of
the soil; thats why I went through many of the obituaries of him on the
internet and the print media. As a follower of Amitabh Bacchan on twitter,
I came across an article on him by Sr. Bacchan on Dec 5.. I had shared the
same with few like minded souls; little did I know that it would be one of
the last written by a great man about another. This weekend I present this
article to all of you. I hope you like it. Such exceptional talent...all in
one blood stream, the senior Bacchan comments!!
One thing comes out clearly, all great people are primarily humble and
carry huge respect for others.
T 952 - My BLOG for the DAY .. interesting inside ...
srbachchan
DAY 1693
Just about in the Isles Dec 5, 2012 Wed 11:05 PM gmt
Strangely, and for the first time, I had a call from the house of the great
sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar. His wife Sukanya ji wanted to talk to me
to get me to talk to Ravi Shankar ji, because he had expressed a desire to
speak with me. He has been unwell she informed me and was going in for a
surgery on Thursday.They are in California, USA.
This has been a most unusual occurrence. We all know Pt Ravi Shankar, who
doesn’t, but I must admit that even though we have met on a few occasions,
his association with my Father, our association with his elder brother the
great dance exponent Uday Shankar, my own association with his son and
daughter in law, and with Uday Shankar ji’s actress daughter … this has
been the first time ever, when such a request was made to me.
Many years ago, Ravi Shankar ji and his wife Sukanya ji were house guests
at my brother’s house in London. There have been several occasions when we
have attended his recitals, where he has performed with the great sarod
maestro Ustad Ali Akbar Khan and the tabla guru Allah Rakha - a trio of
incomparable genius. Those occasions had through time and age covered an
entire era of my life and career ; their performances at one of the most
important classical Indian music soirees in Kolkata, then Calcutta, at the
Ballygunj Music Festival, are legendary. Legendary too are the escapades of
some of my music loving colleagues and I, when I was working as an
executive in Kolkata, keeping awake all night to listen to some of the
greatest artists of Indian Classical music perform at this festival. We
were never of any substancial means to buy the exorbitant tickets to enter
the open air events. But we waited behind closed barriers, listening to the
sound coming out of those old fashioned loud speakers, and then as time
passed by, quietly sneaking in, begging the authorities and seeking the
ticket stubs of those that were leaving the venue, posing as genuine ticket
holders that had gone ‘to spend a penny’, and gradually moving up in the
stands to get as close as possible to the stage, waiting for the performers
to strike the right raga, the early morning one, before dispersing.
Invariably it used to be Vilayat Hussain Saheb, another genius on the
sitar, that came on at that hour !!
Aahh !!! Those were the days !! ‘Those were the days’ … the famous Beatles
number. And then meeting the Beatle member, George Harrison at a common
friend’s place in London for lunch, and reminiscing those days of
psychedelia, Ravi Shankar, India and their Guru’s and the sitar, which if
there are any Beatles lovers among you, will remember the famous “Norwegian
Wood” and the strains of the sitar played by George Harrison.
Ravi Shankar ji’s elder brother, the renowned contemporary dance exponent,
Uday Shankar and his troupe that performed to world wide audiences in the
late 20’s, 30’s and 40’s, in London for King George, Paris, Europe and the
USA and his legendary pairing with Simki, his female counterpart, of great
renown, are now iconic references of his multifaceted genius in music and
dance.
What great times we have lived through ! Uday Shankar ji’s son, Ananda
Shankar, a friend, himself a great sitar exponent designed his own dance
and music troupe with his wife Tanushree, a member of the group. Many of
those performances I had the privilege to be invited to, and recently to
have given a voice over to a dance drama that has been choreographed by
Tanushree, after the sudden passing away of Ananda. Mamata Shankar,
Ananda’s sister and daughter of Uday Shankar ji, was in films as an
accomplished actress, doing mostly films in Bengali. I had last met Uday
Shankar ji at a literary friend of my Father’s in Kolkata. He had aged, his
glamour seen the vagaries of time, but his presence still invoking those
early years of his exquisite face and body, renowned for its masculine
virility that it propounded on the dance stage.
Pt Ravi Shankar and his sarod counterpart in the ‘jugal bandi’, Ustad Ali
Akbar Khan were pupils of the grand master Ustad Allauddin Khan, (Ustad Ali
Akbar Khan was Allauddin Khan’s son), known to be one of the greatest
musicians of the country. Ravi Shankar ji married his daughter, and long
after, a separation, he married Sukanya ji, his present wife. They have a
daughter, the famous sitar player Anushka Shankar. Ravi Shankar ji also had
a daughter through another liaison, who is the famous pop singer that won
several Grammy Awards a few years back, Norah Jones.
Such exceptional talent … all in one blood stream !!
But tonight to get a call from this great master, this legend and icon of
Indian music, must go down as one of my most privileged moments. He just
wished to speak to me. He is unwell and shall be undergoing a surgery on
Thursday. He said he and his wife loved my work … whew !! … and then he
blessed me !
I pray that all goes well with him and his treatment. Would it be asking
too much for all our Ef to pray for his good health ? Thank you …
Amitabh Bachchan
As I always say, brickbats and bouquets welcome
-Sukhi
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