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Immortal melodies
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The news of the death of the ghazal maestro, Mehdi Hassan on June 13 was like a stab in the heart. I had all the CDs of his music that I could find in my music shop and listened to them as often as I could. I also had the good fortune of meeting him many times and listening to him on several occasions. Once in Mumbai he sang for a dozen of my friends till 3 am. He had a warm personality. The first time I met him was in the Royal Albert Hall in London, which was overflowing with his Indian and Pakistani fans. He was told that Maharani Gayatri Devi of Jaipur was in the audience. He came down from the stage and touched her feet before he started his show. His rendering of Ranjish hi sahi remains a favourite with most ghazal lovers to this day.
He once told me of the danger of mixing ragas up with one another. He had done it once and on his way home from the recording studio the bus in which he was travelling collided with another. He was severely injured. He could also be very naïve. Though ghazals were his forte, he was equally adept in singing classical ragas and thumris. His rendering of Nadia kinarey mere gaaon is a soothing piece of music.
I was disappointed with the lack of coverage given to him after his death by the Urdu programme on the All India Radio. The lady on the mike spoke at length of Sun Yat Sen of China.
Role models
Full page pictures of Ambedkar and
Rajiv Gandhi
On their birth and death
anniversary
Costing crores to the country
Are indeed an example of austerity
Which in this dire economic
scenario
Is a crying necessity
Six thousand guests at a marriage
reception
Of the son of a business
man or a politician
And piles of food rotting in
the morning
Showcase the warfooting
On which we are
practising frugality!
Fleets of cars choking the
city
And ten-acre farmhouses
hosting late night parties
Mirror not only the economic
situation in the country
But also establish an identity
With the vast majority living in
poverty!
And finally, business executives with
ten crores of annual salary
Have of necessity to practise
frugality,
While with their sandals and jewellery respectively
Two shining examples of
austerity
Are Jayalalithaa and
Mayawati.
(Courtesy: Kuldip Salil, Delhi)
Love over gold
“I wanted to show Wang Xue how much I love her”, Xaio Li told reporters in Qingdao in the Shangdong province, “and I thought it would be a good joke too. I bought a gold necklace for my girl friend, and baked it inside a special muffin for her birthday party, so it would be a nice surprise. But when I gave her the muffin, before I could say anything, she had swallowed it whole, all in one bite. And I had to tell her the truth about what I’d done on the way to hospital.”
A hospital spokesman explained that “after X-raying Xue, surgeons decided to operate to remove the necklace. She underwent endoscopic surgery, where a probe was put down her throat into her stomach to fish out the necklace.”
Xiao added that “she got her necklace back eventually, but I’m not sure she will ever feel comfortable wearing it, even though I spent hours cleaning it for her.”
(Courtesy: Private Eye, London)
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