D M Harish Memorial Government College has for years celebrated Moot Court which is very popular and actively supported by leading law firms. Prior to the Moot Court, they host a panel discussion at Mumbai University’s Convocation Hall and I was privileged to be a part of that discussion this year.

The event started on time with lamp lighting and all the panelists took the position on stage. I was happy to be seated amidst my fellow journalist Siddharth Bhatia and young politician Milind Deora. The moderator began by asking all the panelists what was their definition of Diversity and it was interesting how all the speakers perceived the topic and connected it to personal anecdotes. The GLC students guarded the floor and the audience comprised distinguished lawyers.

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So many years later it was interesting to be invited by another group of young girls and briefed for something similar to be addressed to a group of brand heads in Mumbai. I had to speak on Hindi cinema once again and the audience comprised of mainly foreigners. I was surprised at how interested they were in knowing about our icons and listened to me attentively as I traveled

from Silent to Talkies, Black &White to color, neo-realistic to multi-starrers and middle of the road cinema to cinema of age.

Fashion and beauty changed in every decade, while some things changed drastically every few years, many things remained the same. So what is beauty really? Is it conventional, traditional, or modern?  Does it change like fashion or is it all about perception? I feel beauty lies in the eye of the beholder and for me and for cinema beauty has always been more than physical.

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In 2005 Hindustan Unilever Ltd had invited me to Umaid Bhawan, Udaipur to make a presentation on Beauty & Skin in Cinema over the years. The presentation must have gone very well because this year I was invited to their plus office to make a similar presentation.

It is interesting how all of us have selective memories of our experiences and what I remember of my Udaipur trip is interacting with very bright HUL girls and all of us sharing wine and dinner at Umed Bhawan.

The following day was all work and no play for everybody as the girls got down to preparing for their innumerable sessions while I sat in my room and brushed up on my presentation. Hindi Cinema is a fascinating subject and when I went down memory lane I could not help but feel passionately about every decade.

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As we are chatting more people walk in and join the session, they appear interested in music because when Khan saab to explain a point breaks into an alaap there is a smile on everyone’s face. He says he started learning when he was only four or five years old and was put on the stage for his first solo performance when he was only 12 years old. His father Ustaad Haafiz Ali Khan was also his guru and he learnt to submit to his father and guru as a little child.

“Many times parents of young musicians ask me if their children will make a name for themselves, now this is an impossible question to answer because how can one determine who fortune will favour. Today, the musicians are after success whilst all we hankered for was approval from our gurus. Their ‘Shabash’ was our award. Today, the guru shishya parampara is not what it used to be.  They want to ape the gurus and expect instant success but that’s not how it happens.

“I say this at all my seminars that classical music is not for the greedy and the impatient. You need years of practice and dedication to become a credible musician and there is no guarantee that no matter how good you are, you will be successful”.

To be continued

Venue: Kala Ghoda Arts Festival. My conversation with the maestro continues…

Few people know that Amjad Ali Khan’s family gets its music lineage from Miyan Tansen, the maestro has never talked about it. He says that the future of Indian classical music will always be bright because we are fortunate to have had strong pillars of music as in Swami Haridas, Swami Purandara Das, Swami Mutthuswami Dikshitar, Syama Shastri, Swami Thyagraja, Swathi Thirunal and the Baiju Bawra of our country.

“Indian classical music has always been and continues to be an integral part of our identity. It does not belong only to the world of entertainment, music is in fact a way of life, it is based on surrender, on faith, on spirituality and most important on discipline, which is the reason why the guru shishya parampara is a part of our culture.

It is impossible to learn music without first submitting to your guru. The Amighty comes after the guru because it will be the guru who will lead you through the dark tunnel and make you see the sunlight at the end of your training”.

To be continued

It is my privilege that I was asked to interview sarod maestro Amjad Ali Khan at the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival. We were asked to assemble at the David Sasoon School at 530 pm and as expected Khan Saab was present before time. After a brief chat over lemon tea in the adjoining room we were escorted to the Garden decorated with art and fairy lights.

Amjad Ali Khan began talking about music and emphasized that India is the only country in the world which has two traditions of classical musc- those of South or Carnatic and of North or Hindustani. The basis of all music in the world is the same seven notes- Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni in Indian classical music and Do Re Me Fa So La Ti in Western classical.

And the beauty of music is that it connects the whole world, it does not belong to any one race or religion.

To be continued

I met Abhishek for the first time when he was literally knee high. He was playing with his friends in the garden of Pratiksha, their bungalow in Juhu when I entered the house with his mother, Jaya Bachchan. Abhishek spotted us and came running to meet his mother and then looking at me shyly folded his hands into a polite Namaste.

A year later, I met him again when we were shooting a family picture for the magazine I then edited. The shoot was conducted at their home and the photographer and I both that out of the four members Abhishek was the most self-conscious in front of the camera.

When Amitabh Bachchan’s company, ABCL at that time went through a rough time, Abhishek took the decision to opt out of college and assist his father in production. The film was Major Saab and we got to spend a lot of time chatting at the location shooting in Bangalore.

Soon he was launched by J P Dutta in Refuge and in the years to come did all genres of films. A decade later he got married, became a father and continued to   do films.

Today Abhishek has expanded his canvas beyond cinema and is the proud owner of Kabbaddi and Football teams.

The beauty about Abhishek is that after all these years and so many films, he is still the little boy I met in the 90s and even today wherever he meets me, he folds his hands into a Namaste and becomes a little boy again.

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