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Originally posted by: charades
Anu it exists...copy the link and please take out the space between the period and mp3 then it will work.
Yes Vijayda, it works now.. Thanks a lot...
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Originally posted by: charades
Anu it exists...copy the link and please take out the space between the period and mp3 then it will work.
Anu ji, Great start beautiful contribution by all.Originally posted by: ans24us1
Welcome Qwestda,
Thanks for the article...
photo from the first music conference
after India's independance (1948)
Front Row: 1. ? 2. Nissar Hussain Khan (vocal) 3. Ahmedjan Thirakwa (tabla) 4. Hafiz Ali Khan (sarod) 5. Mustaq Hussain Khan (vocal) 6. Omkar Nath Thakur (vocal) 7. Rajendra Prasad (first President of India) 8. Kesarbai Kerkar (vocal) 9. Allaudin Khan (sarod) 10. Kante Maharaj (tabla) 11. Govind Rao Bharanpurkar (pakhawaj) 12. Krishna Rao Shankar Pandit (vocal) 13. Manohar Joshi (vocal)
Originally posted by: Abhilash D
Sorry, Not able to upload anything...connection is breaking frequently... 🤢 🤢 🤢
New Delhi, April 26 (UNI): Minister of State for Home, Sriprakash Jaiswal, will visit Shehnai maestro Ustad Bismillah Khan's house in Varanasi on Friday to personally extend an invitation to the legend, who has expressed his 'last wish' to play at the India Gate in July for global peace and communal harmony.
The non-agenarian Ustad, who enthralled a newly-independent India from the ramparts of the Red Fort in 1947, has now been given official nod to fulfil his wish of a solo concert, titled 'The Tune India' at the India Gate on July 15.
Jaiswal will visit the frail Ustad at his CK-46/62 house at Sarai Harha in Varanasi to extend the invitation and inquire about his well-being.
The initiative was taken by the capital-based couple Neena Jha and Shivnath Jha, who have launched an initiative "Bismillah" (The Beginning) to provide succour to musicians, academicians and artists who have brought laurel to the country.
"As a part of the initiative, I am going to request the maestro to play his melodious 'sur' at India Gate for global peace and communal harmony and to pay respects to the World War I martyrs," said Jaiswal.
The Minister said the government fully backed the noble endeavour of Bismillah Khan, who wants to fulfil his 'antim abhilasha' (last wish) by playing at the India Gate.
On August 15, 1947, Bismillah Khan had performed from the ramparts of the Red Fort after being pursuaded by Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru.
For the July 15 concert, the Union Home Ministry has asked Delhi Police Commissioner, K K Paul, to complete all formalities.
The only musician to have been decorated with all the top national awards (Bharat Ratna, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri), Bismillah Khan had expressed his wish to perform at the India Gate during his 91st birthday celebrations in Varanasi last month.
His well-wishers had cut a 91-kg cake on his 91st birthday, the celebrations of which he delayed to pay respects to the victims of the twin blasts in Varanasi a fortnight before his birthday.
"More than 5,000 people from across the world are expected to attend the concert," said the Jha couple, who co-authored a monogram on the maestro two years ago.
Union Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal, who had announced a financial assistance of Rs 10,000 per month for the ailing musician, said the concert would "play a key role in restoring peace and communal harmony not only in India, but across the world."
Jaiswal said he would ask Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to extend monetary help to the living legend.
The 'Meri Antim Abhilasha (My last wish) - Tune India Shehnai concert' is being performed by the Bharat Ratna recipient on July 15 to pay tribute to the unsung heroes of World War I and for global peace and communal harmony.
'We have requested Lataji, who was awarded the nation's highest civilian honour Bharat Ratna along with Ustad Bismillah Khan on 25th January, 2001, to grace the occasion,' said journalist Shivnath Jha, who along with his wife Neena is organising the event.
'It was Bismillah Khan's heartfelt desire to play the shehnai at the India Gate before he takes his last breath. He repeated his desire on his 91st birthday this year. We had assured him that it would be fulfilled and finally we got the nod from the Union Ministry of Home Affairs,' said Jha.
Incidentally, the India Gate - a war memorial built to pay tribute to Indian soldiers who died in World War I and the Afghan wars - completes 75 years in 2006.
Bismillah Khan had played the shehnai from the ramparts of the Red Fort on Aug 15, 1947, when India gained independence from British rule, said the couple who have also initiated 'Bismillah: The Beginning' movement to help the nonagenarian musician.
The couple said they would meet Lata Mangeshkar personally and invite her for the event. 'We are confident that she will not reject our plea as she has a more than 60-year association with Ustad Bismillah Khan and treats him like a brother,' Jha said.
Since his performance at the Red Fort, when he was in his 30s, almost 60 years have elapsed.
According to the Jhas, on April 28 Union Minister of State for Home Sriprakash Jaiswal called on the maestro at his abode in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, to invite him to perform at the India Gate.
The invitation left Bismillah Khan elated. 'Ab to mein India Gate par shehnai bajaunga. Hindustan meri hai, India Gate hamara hai (Now I shall play at the India Gate, India is mine, India Gate is ours,' an emotional Bismillah Khan said, according to the Jha couple.
The couple has brought out a monograph on the maestro to help him financially.
The ailing maestro is mostly confined to his modest house in Varanasi and his performances have become rare. He is not able to stand with his advanced age and has to be taken around in a wheel chair, said Neena Jha.
'More than 5,000 people, including from other countries, are expected to attend the function,' she said. The couple has received e-mail enquiries from the US and Britain about the function.
While Neena is a teacher, her husband is a journalist with Sahara Times, an English weekly newspaper.
Musicians now seek 'instant success': Bismillah Khan
Varanasi, Feb 8 (IANS) Shehnai maestro Ustad Bismillah Khan, who received the Bharat Ratna in 2001, is upset with the musicians of today and their disciples, saying they only hunger for instant success.
The 'guru-shishya parampara', the sacred relationship between the musician teacher and the disciple, is "finished", bemoaned the nonagenarian musician. "Sab kuch khatam ho gaya (everything is finished)," Khan told a Delhi-based journalist couple Neena and Shivnath Jha at his Varanasi home.
Neena Jha runs an all-women magazine 'The Indraprastha NCR', while her husband works with Sahara Time, a weekly news magazine.
Khan said the teachers and disciples of today have no patience to hone their music.
"Today, both the guru and the disciple want instant results and have stopped believing in the virtue of patience. The guru today has neither discipline nor does his shishya possess 'adab' (respect). Everything is gone. Ab to Allah ka hi karam hoga to music bachega... sab khatam ho gaya (Only if god is merciful will music survive)."
The musician, who has been ailing for a while, reminisced how his forefathers would perform for a few rupees a month at a temple in Varanasi on the banks of the Ganges.
"When my grandmother performed, do you know what the deal was fixed for? Fourteen annas!" he told the Jhas at his double-storied dilapidated house in a narrow lane of Sarai Rohla in Varanasi, 280 km from Lucknow. (Sixteen annas made a rupee then)
The Jhas presented the great maestro, who has also received the Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan, a book on his life. They hope to raise money through the sales of the book to help the musician who is not well off financially.
On his frail health, Khan said: "Sab Allah ki meharbani hai (it is all a gift of god). I am too old to fight age. But I still feel young. My begum (the shehnai) is with me."
Khan, who turns 91 on March 21, will cut a 91-kg cake in celebration. He will pay tribute to the old maharajas of Dumraon and Darbhanga in Bihar whose palaces he used to visit as a child.
"I have never celebrated such a type of birthday," he said.
Khan, who was born in Dumraon in Bihar, reminisced how he would do rigorous 'riyaaz' (practice) for four or five hours every morning under the guidance of his maternal uncle Alibux Khan.
He regretted that his old age had made it difficult to go to some of the Hindu temples in Varanasi as he would do in earlier days.
"I do feel like going there, but my old age prevents me," he said.
To a question, Khan said he had never faced any hurdles on account of being a Muslim.
"Music has no caste. I have received love and affection all over the world. The government has given me all the four highest civilian awards in the past five decades."
However, the maestro at the same time alleged that he had been denied an opportunity to play at New Delhi's India Gate because he was a Muslim.
According to Khan, since musical functions had been held at the India Gate lawns earlier, he should also be invited to play there.
The maestro became emotional when asked if the government had given him any financial aid. He received Rs.500,000 from the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government when he was ill.
"No one in the government or any of the prime ministers has extended any financial support. Barring that (Rs.500,000), the government has extended no support. They have not released a single paisa which they promised me down the years."
Asked how much he was expecting to get from the government, Khan said: "Not less than Rs.10 lakhs (1 million)."
The maestro said he believes that music dispels all evil. "The shehnai is one such instrument whose melodious sound dispels all evil."
Fifty-six years ago, he had greeted the birth of a secular republic from the Red Fort by pouring his soul into raga Kafi. But when the bombs targeted that secular fabric on March 7, for a while the music stopped for Ustad Bismillah Khan. Till the 90-year-old shehnai legend hit on an idea to restore for himself and his hometown the sense of harmony that has been the lifeblood of his music. He issued an appeal that has now inspired scores of Muslim men and women to donate their blood to save the lives of the injured, who are overwhelmingly Hindus. "He hadn't been touching his shehnai since March 7. He was restless. He prayed for peace," a relative said. "He is a private person, but the blasts had clearly jolted him out of his normally serene state of mind." So the ustad dictated the appeal that was spread across the town by his army of pupils, associates and admirers with help from social organisations. As doctors and Muslim bodies welcomed the initiative that is certain to save many lives, they said they also expected it to help prevent any communal tension arising from the blasts. The message drew over 150 Muslims last evening itself to Varanasi's main blood bank, run by the Indian Medical Association. "At least 30 of them were women," said the chief of its local unit, Dr Sanjay Rai. Many more came today. Over a dozen Muslim organisations have joined the effort to mobilise donors. Bismillah's family and friends are organising a blood donation camp at Dalmadi near his home. "This is the least we could have done to save our brethren and our culture of brotherhood," said Javed Ahmed, a relative. Bismillah, he added, "is most happy and said he would try to be present at the camp". "The secular-minded Muslims are hurt and distressed by the suffering caused by the terrorist organisation's act," said Khalid Siddique, a community leader. "We are against bloodshed and want to make it clear that we are solidly behind our Hindu friends here." Dr Sunil Kumar Singh at the IMA blood bank said the city's normal requirement of blood is 50 units a day, but has now risen to about 150 units. "We are particularly thankful to Khan Saheb for inspiring people to donate blood." |
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