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Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan Reunion concert | ||
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Murali Sharma writes
Scenarios for a reunion
concert of Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan
A gentle netter wonders what would bring about a concert of Raviji and Khan
Saheb playing together. Campana suggests two good reasons, 'an act of God'
and 'a lot of money'. Being a poor atheist, I thought up some other
scenarios.
1 Yehudi Menuhin forgets who he called 'the greatest
instrumentalist, decides on a showdown to refresh his memory.
1a Peter
Gabriel gets bored with bowed Indian instruments, decides to choose between
plucked, opens the coffers and arranges a concert.
2 California decides to balance its delegation to Clinton's
proposed concert to aid Bosnia equally between So. Cal and Northern Cal.
3 Hindus and Muslims finally settle all their differences. Indian Govt.
wants a symbolic event with greater PR potential than a H.Ch./ ZH billing.
Arranges a concert.
4 'Baiju Bawra' is remade for American audiences, with even less regard for
historical accuracy than the original. Tansen is now a sarodiya, and Baiju
a sitarist. (Swami Haridas is a beenkar, while Ghasit Ram is a violinist).
To confuse the soundtrack, Vilayat Khan is brought in for the scene where
the deity bestows Yaman on Baiju.In the climactic scene, Tansen and Baiju
play their buns off trying to melt each other's cryogenically treated
strings. Tansen however breaks his strings with the sheer intensity of
playing, and forfeits the concert. The Badshah gently reproves him, "you
break your strings deliberately, O King of Sur'.
5 The Music Research Academy has narrowed the field in its search
for creator of most new ragas to these two. But finds it hard to keep
track of all the ragas and total them up. Decides on an easier way:
arranges aconcert where they are to each alternately play a creation of
theirs until one runs out.And finally,
6 They read the net, and are very annoyed by some comments and
posts.However, they realize, 25 + 50 =75
A few
readers mistook some of my frivolous posts to be serious (and perhaps my
serious posts to be frivolous). I thought I should explicitly label
this one, but now am not sure which category this is
in.
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