Santoor player Pandit Satish Vyas met sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar exactly two months before his demise last week. Vyas recollected that though Ravi Shankar's health was far from steady, he was, as always, more than welcoming. "The news of his leaving us has, therefore, come as a big shock to me," said Vyas who believes Panditji was a true cultural ambassador of India to the world. "When we travel abroad, we inform immigration officers about our classical instruments, and they often react by saying these are 'like Ravi Shankar instruments' ." Vyas also recalled an anecdote that demonstrated the lighter side of Ravi Shankar's personality. "Once Vasant Sathe (the late Union minister of information and broadcasting of the 1980s) attended Panditji's performance, where he requested him to perform for Doordarshan. Panditji replied simply with a 'we'll do it after DD goes colour' ." Those were the days of black-and-white television.
Well Read
It was an inauguration marked with much fanfare. The renovated betterstocked M M Sharma Library at the Institute of Chemical Technology was being thrown open on this scientist's birthday . Several faculty members had contributed to the making of the new bibliotheque . Instead of naming professors of a specific school or department or those who had donated grants, director G D Yadav asked the higher education minister, Rajesh Tope, to do something different: Hand out mementoes to those who "really built the knowledge room" . So, came the painter in his yellowed white shirt and faded trousers, then a man who put up the false ceiling, the electrician and the worker who did all the civil work. "Fellows," as Yadav put it, "who worked day and night to construct this library." As Yadav called out the names, he told the minister how he had received support from all of them, many of whom had worked at a nominal charge to see the library standing.
States of Weddings
Shia scholar Maulana Kalbe Sadiq was in the city recently to deliver a series of sermons commemorating Imam Hussain's martyrdom during Muharram. One night, after the sermon , the scholar recounted a wedding celebration that changed his perception about weddings. A few years ago, recalled the cleric, he was invited by a friend in Bangalore for his son's wedding . After reaching Bangalore, he found that the nikah was to take place in Iran. He reasoned with the host that they didn't need him to solemnize the nikah as there were many good qazis in Iran, but the host insisted he accompany the baraatis. "A planeload of baraatis reached Iran. Before the nikah, I wanted to know the mehar amount (a gift from the Muslim groom to the bride). I was flabbergasted when they said it was 83kg gold."
'Are you joking?' Sadiq asked the boy's father. 'It is true,' he was told. After the nikah, the party moved to a fivestar hotel in Dubai for the reception. The scholar has decided against attending any more ostentatious weddings , "when there are thousands of poor girls waiting to get married" .
Healthy & Wise
Mothers who stress over ways to feed broccoli or spinach to their children would have relished listening to actor Rajeev Khandelwal at a recent function held to underline the link between health and nutrition. Khandelwal tends to a kitchen garden where he grows colourful vegetables and obsessively eats only homemade food, even during shoots. His mantra is to eat fresh fruits rather than their juice version. Several disciplined professionals are perhaps equally driven to eat nutrientrich meals, but what set the audience clapping for Khandelwal was how he had transformed his noodles-gobbling nephew into one who eats nuts and fruits without a murmur. At the root of this change was the simple application of behaviour therapy: You want pizza? Let's chomp on some nuts first. "The child is then invariably too full to indulge in junk dishes," he said. Children apparently eat by association rather than taste. Hence, he said, kids whose families regularly rustle up noodles would invariably love the calorie-rich concoction. It must have also helped that he has a long-term goal. The actor said he was fanatical about eating right because he wants to climb Mount Everest on turning 60. The path to dream fulfillment, it would seem, is a healthy diet.
Some Christmas Cheer
This Christmas, instead of dusting off your vintage Luther Vandross and Jim Reeves holiday albums, you could play something completely off the charts, like Crompton Texeira's new album Natal . The 65-year-old Texeira is a composer from the East Indian community, who has just launched his Christmas set of 16 songs in Marathi and its East Indian dialect, of which four are his original compositions . "I spent one whole year working on one alone, a song called San Aila Natal (A New Spring has Come)," says Texeira. The album features artistes such Hyacinth D'Souza on the keyboard, Deon D'Souza on the violin and Ashley Quiney on the guitar. Rendered in another tongue, familiar carols such as Silent Night (Sum Sum Raat Pavitra Raat), Joy to the World (Anand Duniya), We Wish you A Merry Christmas (Bon Fest Sagli Gaazu Natal) and Away in the Manger (Laamb Laamb Gotiyan) are a reminder that good tidings are for everyone.
(Contributed by Bharati Dubey, Hemali Chhapia, Mohammed Wajihuddin, Malathy Iyer and Joeanna Rebello Fernandes. Compiled by Rucha Biju Chitrodia)
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