Not just another birthday!

Pt Hari Prasad Chaurasia’s birthday on 1 July is a day we look forward to eagerly. For us, it’s a day of celebration....celebrating God’s gift to all of us…celebrating the fact that we live in the same era as him!

On 1 July this year, all of us gathered at the Gurukul and spent a blissful evening together. We had 4 different varieties of cake…yes Rajeev, this one’s for you! ;-) The highlight of the evening though was the aesthetically produced film on Panditji, with relevant clippings of the previous year’s evening. Rajeev, thanks for a replay of memories.

Let me share with you the magical evening we had a year ago, on his 70th birthday.

The students of Vrindaban Gurukul along with his family and his well wishers decided to make it a special day for Panditji. The evening definitely deserved an element of music but the kind that would give a glimpse of a not so known brilliance of Panditji. He’s worked his magic in most songs in films of yesteryears and has associated closely with music directors of then. Besides ofcourse creating the famous duo 'Shiv-Hari with Pt Shiv Kumar Sharma! We chose some of the popular songs and had a team of musicians and singers to perform these songs live. Now to tell his story, who better than himself! To engage him in conversation, we needed someone who understood music; capable of thinking on one’s feet and a popular figure in his own right!

The choice boiled down to one person…Sonu Niigaam, who gracefully accepted our invitation to be the host! And the event was set – “Hari Rang, Hari Sang”

The evening unfolded with a flute recital by the students of Vrindaban Gurukul paying a tribute to their Guru.

Panditji’s biography ‘Woodwinds of Change’ was ready and we were looking for someone befitting to do us the honors of launching the same. We couldn’t look beyond Mr Amitabh Bachchan. Formalities done, we had his consent and both he and Mrs Jayaji kept their date with us at the Nehru Centre, Mumbai. To quote Mr Bachchan, ‘main yeh nahi kahoonga ke yeh mera sobhagya hai; balki, yeh mera kartavya hai!’

Sonuji, Suresh Wadkarji and Devki Pandit too regaled the audiences with one song each….

Panditji’s 70th birthday celebrations have been etched in the memories of those present there, even as we look ahead at making it grander for his 75th!
Amen!