Fluidity of Flute

Kindly Click On The Embedded Video Below To Listen



This particular piece has mesmerized my senses, transcending me to a different plane altogether. Presenting Dinesh Kumar with the ever-enchanting Fluidity of Flute :) Enjoy the wonderful composition of Peace !

Chess mahotsav 2010 – Guiness World Record

A world record of twenty thousand people playing the royal game of chess simultaneously on December 24, 2010 at Ahmedabad – kudos to Shri Narendra Modi and his government. Gujarat became the world leader in a record beating the previous best of Germany of thirteen thousand population.

The bottom line was to promote chess amongst school children of Gujarat with a view to instil patience and an exercise of intellect. The top line was the exhibition of such a mammoth event in very less time, with the help of GSCA(Gujarat Chess State Association), NIIT and Govt. of Gujarat. It was splendid.

GMDC ground at Ahmedabad was chosen to be the venue. Top chess players from all over the state were invited to participate. So were multitudes of school kids. Uniquley and quite exquisitely decorated, the playing arena looked like a giant chess board of blacks and whites from over the top. Huge chess pieces greeted you at the entrances. So were the army of State buses fetching the kids.

I happened to luckily play the event as a Master. Lucky, for I perhaps entered last in the registration. There were around 900 masters altogether; each one having to play against 20 school kids simultaneoulsy. The event witnessed, as guests and mentors, many luminaries - prominent amongst them were GM Vishy Anand, GM Tejas Bakre, Paresh Rawal, Manoj Joshi and last but not the least - the dynamic CM Shri Narendra Modi.

Wonderful chess players, arbiters , kids, organisers ornamented the event. For me, it was a rendezvous with lot many chess players with whom I used to play incessantly few years back. I met my coaches, my friends and many parents.

Playing agaisnt 20 players simultaneously is pretty exciting, but by the end of the games I felt it was exhausting circling for an hour or two constantly. The stages were colossal chairing CM and the GMs, Bollywood actors and also most other dignitories. It was great fun when the Shri Narendra Modi walked past me through the aisle of my playing arena.

During the presentation, I managed to be seated onto one of the diases, clicking pictures with my bloody 2MP camera I had at that point of time. Even though I did manage to click some great shots. Witnessed the flamboyance of CM Modi – his charisma, his power, his thrust of speech. The huge event came to a fantastic end with Gujarat being officially declared as Guiness World Record Holder for maximum number of chess players playing in a simultaneous. The exact figure was 20,484 ! Shri Modi was conferred upon the Certificate by the Guiness adjudicator.

The event was one of its kind and shall remain ingrained in my memory for years together.

- Susnato.

Dipawali and Kolkata

Pic Courtesy : Indian Express

They say madness gives you an oblivious joy. I was mad for a vacation in Kolkata and it has given me lots of joy, ebullience after almost a year; especially owing to dipawali and an incidental birthday in-between.
Relatives, long lost special ones, near and dears, a few marriage invitations, religious places visits, mouth-watering local snacks, biriyanis, a digi-cam and a guitar (the last two not exclusively for me though) were my dipawali greetings in Kolkata.

Kolkata has changed a lot now (I suppose just like its name) except for the insanely bombing population and vehicles. Colossal malls, multiplexes; brand business ventures at every nook and corner, big ultra-designed buses with LEDs, new infrastructure viz. bridges, real estates, more lip-sticks and face-powders (I suppose :) ) but with the simple sophistication that always differentiated it from the rest of the world.
The Kolkatians are simple. They are ascetic just like Kolkata itself. They are beautiful, more than mere prettiness (though a few of them I saw are real pretties now-a-days). The population here jostle for space, but they are tolerant. Similarly, local trains bubble with heads, so do buses.

Dipawali is very different here in Kolkata. Not only is it grand and colourful, but also the very preparation of making the exquisite pandals with huge idols of Maa Kali and lighting (beauty-parlouring) every house with ropes of bulbs top to toe make it even more enthralling. Every pada (locality) here will greet you with pandals and idols based on beautiful latest themes of the day, each one exceptional and different from all others. Besides, various cultural programmes, loudspeakers, Bengali hit numbers – all await your presence at every mandap. The rnguha road Kali is 3 storey tall – one of its kind in North 24 paraganas.

I also got an opportunity to visit two wonderful rural areas – Shantipur and Baghnan. Rural Bengal is beautiful and romantic. The rice fields, the cattle, the serpentine mud roads, the fragrance, and the simple residents – almost everything is wonderful.

The best and the luckiest part was that my birthday coincided with Dipawali (Kali puja). And that surely called for a celebration in Kolkata. Things were organized grander than I expected. Too heavy, varied, luscious a lunch followed by a rendezvous with a few ISIians and then a late-evening visit to a restaurant with relatives.

A visit to Kolkata lures everyone to shopping. I did buy in a few panjabis on the penultimate day, and a few other indigenous things. I guess I bid adieu to Kolkata in a mad ecstasy pretty akin to the madness of immersion procession of Goddess Kali in Bengal. I shall cherish such wonderful and splendid memories for a long time.

A DIASPORIC CELEBRATION

Pic Courtesy : whatsuplife

This is a humorous piece and should be dealt with in such a spirit. I dedicate this epistle to ‘Gouranga’ – my beloved Kalyan kaku, the man who I owe much more than what I am today.

I have wondered at times as to what could be the topic that will live on for at least a year in a Souvenir especially in such a rapidly changing world. To this, I guess a ‘celebration’ can never die, notwithstanding any age.

I am talking of this year’s Durga Puja, a native celebration with couture range of ‘celebrities’, and being celebrated on a foreign land. Here at Chandkheda, it is precisely like bringing a feel of Bengal in Gujarat. Or can we say we do actually borrow many parts of Bengal vis-à-vis, the shilpi and his idols, the purohit, themes, ideas and incidentally some ground-breaking singers.

Bengal, I guess, must have plenty more variety to its puja. The very ubiquitous airy fragrance of pujo, the exquisite colossal pandals based on wonderful themes, the road-side lighting, the incessant sounds of the feathery dhaak, durga idols crafted out of all types of materials, kumari-puja and lastly the insane explosive crowd. We have surely replicated a few of these nuances, if not all, with an equal devotion.
But for a diaspora like me, more than anything else, it is worshipping joy and celebration. At times when the cultural programmes got so enthralling, with nuanced effects of light and sound, I guess even Goddess Durga could not have remained confined to just showing up for her out-house devotees. The charm coerced me to dance, something I did for the first time in my career. I danced! I danced with gouranga. Remember him? The tall, healthy, handsome guy wearing a garland of beads; attired in the printed white half-sleeved kurta, with a big tattoo on one of his hands. Yes he is the man who is gonna infect you with an infatuation. And yes he made me dance.

The pujo days were filled with fun and some austerity. Fun part was in queuing up for the grand exemplary bhog-prasad and enjoying unusual bangla gouranga hits. Austere merely due to the sight of some of the usual lot of devotees, requiring you to act too ascetically.

But, every night seemed to be an extravaganza, a complete take-over of the ‘light’ of spirituality by the ‘lights’ of cultural committee. Honestly, I enjoyed every part of it. I loved my friend’s company; also enjoyed the haute -couture of gentlemen and ‘gentle-women’, which I guess follows and consumes the ‘mirch-masalas’ of the Occident voraciously. It indeed makes the puja more diasporic. The innocence of the budding singing talents fascinated me, so did the maturity of the drama ‘Sandhya Tara’. Seeing the luminaries getting younger, dancing obliviously to hit-numbers was fun. Special kudos to Gouranga! After such tremendous performances we all could surely have lost some weight (like Jojo) only had we been a little more generous with our Dashami’s bhoj.

Dhunuchi naach was exhilarating. My feet started dancing, but I needed the company of Gouranga. Sindoor khela was equally entertaining. I guess, without all the make-up and pun cakes, that is an only chance to identify the beautiful celebrities or I should say the ascetic Bengali household ‘gentle-women’. Last but not the least, I cannot forget thanking all our little photographers who have captured and shared vivid memories of CBCA Durga Puja 2010 throughout the web. These memories remind me of Gouranga. All those willing to meet him again, like me, hold on to this news…he is appearing even bigger next year, rajnikanth ishtyle.

Bolo Durga Maa ki jai … asscche bocchor abar hobe !

Durga Puja 2010 Greeting !

Pic Courtesy: India Today

On this durga puja, I wish and convey to all and sundry my greetings of Sharadiya. Happy Durga Puja 2010 !

shakalke জানাই আমার শারদীয়ার সশ্রদধ প্রণাম আর আনতরিক প্রীতি ও ভালোবাসা.




Let's celebrate the 150th birth anniversary of world-poet Rabindranath Tagore. (Read the article on the link below. The site contains a song of Tagore in his original voice.)

http://indrus.in/articles/2010/09/23/russia_recalls_tryst_with_tagore04722.html

Pic Courtesy Wiki Page of Tagore

Saina – The Pride of India

“I remember, in 1990, when as a five month-old baby, Saina visited the indoor stadium at Hissar, she suddenly broke into a hearty laugh. I believe she fell in love with the game from a very young age.”
-Saina's father Harvir Singh on Saina Nehwal / June 21, 2009

Pic Courtesy : Wikipedia Page of Saina

Fearless, focused, gritty, determined shall perhaps be the words to describe this young prodigy the best. Saina Nehwal, as it stands, is currently number 2 in the world of Badminton (wef 15th July 2010 till date). She is an Arjuna awardee (2009), a Padma Shree (2010) and has been recently nominated for the highest national sporting award – the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna. Her incredible achievements in a very short career span have won her many accolades. She is, in fact, the glory, the pride of our motherland.

Born in Hisar, Haryana in the year 1990, Saina was introduced into the world of badminton by her father Dr. Harvir Singh, now a scientist at the Directorate of Oilseeds Research, Hyderabad and her mother Usha Nehwal, both of whom were former badminton champions in Haryana. Saina’s badminton career started precisely at the Lal Bahadur Stadium in Hyderabad under Nani Prasad, which entailed an excruciating 50 kilometers of daily travelling and considerable expenses. The tight-rope walk continued until 2002, when sports brand Yonex offered to sponsor Saina’s kit. As her status and rankings improved, the sponsorships increased. In 2004, BPCL signed the rising star onto their payroll, and in 2005 she was spotted by the Mittal Champions Trust.

She never looked back after that. The perseverance, determination and tremendous discipline sailed her through turbulence of former national and inter-national champions convincingly. Records were re-created, history was newly written. This girl has shown it to the world – even to the mightiest oppositions of her Chinese counter-parts. After her semi-final victory in the Indonesian Super Series June, 09 she told her dad –
“Papa, I wanted to win this match. I lost a close math to Lu a few months ago. I was confident this time that I would beat her.”

“Don’t worry I will beat the Chinese girl” – were her another set of words minutes before the final of the same tournament. Such was and is the confidence and resolution in the little champion. And it was indeed a history in the page of Indian Badminton when Saina won the finals of the Indonesian Open.

‘Brand Saina’ now endorses many a brands. She is also the ambassador of Deccan Chargers, the IPL team of Hyderabad. Interestingly, the austere champion also tried walking on the ramp but much to an immaturity. Despite all the glam of being a world champion, she incessantly cultivates the hunger of reaching the apotheosis. She is currently trained and nurtured by two of the former world baddy champions – Atik Jauhari and Pullela Gopichand.

“She will very soon become world number one.”
— Prakash Padukone (June,09 After her win in Indonesian Series)

Saina’s painstaking achievements coupled with her ornaments of asceticism and austerity leaves me infatuated for sure. Like former champion Prakash Padukone, let us also join in wishing and praying that Saina mountains the status of the exclusive racket Queen of the world as early as possible.

The face of joy with a hidden anguish

This epistle stands as a tribute to a life of asceticism, versatility and disability.

Impeding the pictureque sunlight that is peeping through the long window curtains, you can see a face. It houses an old heavy-dioptred spectacle on it. A thin bush of clinical moustache remains fevi-quicked and the little grey hair creep the forehead. He, rather his face, always gives you a confident look notwithstanding the fact one of his eyes can't see anything. And the disability of vision is probably his first and the biggest pain.

But he doesn't complain. Living an ascetic life, he runs on for his daily scheduled music tuitions far off his home. At times, he compromises with food, torn-clothes to compensate for an on-time arrival, which normally is a prolonged jouney with his blindness. Drowned in debts, he knows he has to earn to support spiralling food-grain prices and his sons' fees. So, he fights incessantly even with the excruciation of tolerance.

Posturing in his own royal style in the sofa, he tells with a smile and a hidden pain - "Mein ro pada". He continues with more agony - "bete ne college mein do din se khana nahin khaya; sirf naste pe ji raha tha". It was indeed painful; circumscribed by the vicious circle of debts, inflation and crude amenities he was orphaned of a stock - the 'green paper' stock. It was unendurable to witness him writhe in a desperation. He only consoles himself in the feet of God - His worship is his faith.

A Jack of all trades and precisely a master of singing, he will take you through the joy of his classical voice, his nuances of flute and harmonium and often sitar. His compositions on ragas are unique and enthralling. Save his musical talent, he is a vociferous articulator - he debates it out with me exhilaratingly on any topic.

We, often, in our bustling schedules fail to encourage and support such noble human-beings. Lending a part of our own vision, time, aid and praise for igniting the darkness in the lives of these indomitable talents will certainly dispel all kinds of destitution and diseases.

I salute this wonderful, gifted, blissful, versatile musician and wish that God gives him much more than his prayers.