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Music in India has suffered a great loss today.

Pandit Bhimsen Joshi (1922-2011), the “high commissioner of music”, as the legendary Kirana vocalist would call himself in jest, is no more. The maestro from Gadag in Karnataka, who ruled as the sun in the Indian musical constellation for several decades now, was unsurpassed in his brilliant interpretations and renditions of the Kirana repertoire. However, the body of music that he leaves behind transcends the boundaries of his gharana, and unfolds the rich and expansive universe of the Hindustani tradition as a whole.

Bhimsen Joshi was born in Gadag in 1922. His father Gururaj Joshi was a school teacher, and his paternal grandfather Bhimacharya Joshi, a noted musician. As a child, Bhimsen was deeply influenced by his mother, whose bhajans the young boy loved to hear. A wanderer both in life and in music, Bhimsen would often go missing from home, to his parents’ great worry. From the age of three he was wont to wander off – following the muezzin’s prayer of Allahu-Akbar as he tried to grasp its notes, or listening to the musicians in a nearby temple. As if in a trance, the little child would follow bhajan mandalis and wedding processions, completely tuned to musical notes and switched off to all else. His father would often lodge complaints with the police, only to find that a good samaritan had brought the boy back home. However, at 11, the boy left home for good after quarrelling with his mother, because she could not afford to serve him ghee with his rice. He stomped out, leaving his food untouched.

Quest for his Guru

This turned out to be the turning point in his musical journey too. Listening to the gramophone recording of Raga Jhinjoti sung by the maestro of the Kirana gharana, Ustad Abdul Karim Khan in a nearby tea shop, his heart was set on learning from him. He stood at the Gadag station and took a train that was heading north. The penniless lad gave the slip to ticket collectors by moving between compartments, singing songs for fellow passengers and begging for food. He stopped at Pune, Bombay and finally, after three months, reached Gwalior. He met and learnt from various maestros, but was not satisfied.

He then went from Kharagpur to Calcutta, and on to Delhi, finally reaching Jalandhar where the Gwalior maestro Vinayak Rao Patwardhan advised him to learn from Sawai Gandharv in Kundagol, Karnataka. Sawai Gandharv was an outstanding disciple of Ustad Abdul Karim Khan.

Bhimsen shared an exceptional relationship with his teacher Sawai Gandharv, but continued to work hard even after that to earn enough to study music. It is said that sometime in 1960, when Bhimsen Joshi sang for the Calcutta Music Circle, the famous actor Pahadi Sanyal was present in the audience.

Once the concert was over, Bhimsen Joshi went up to the actor and, much to the actor’s embarrassment, reminded him that he had worked as a domestic help for him in the years that he was looking for a suitable guru.

MIT PUNE's 1st Indian Student Parliament

It was an amazing experience attending MIT-Pune's 1st Indian Student parliament. I am proud of my college's initiative of motivating youth at national level. Hope it will bring out some positive change in paticipation of youth of India in the politics.
   MIT-Pune is growing exponentially, its amazing to see my college growing so fast. That time is not that far when MIT will become not only the best institute in India but also in the world.

this post is dedicated to Maharashtra Institute of Technology, Pune. I love my college :)

Raghu Dixit project concert @ Bangalore

NEENE BEKU Raghu Dixit @ Bangalore 

Recorded by me :)