Pandit Ravi Shankar's 96th B'day

पंडित रविशंकर के जन्मदिन पर जानें ये 5 बातें

शास्त्रीय संगीत की दुनिया में सितारे की तरह चमकने वाले सितार वादक पंडित रविशंकर को उनके 96वें जन्मदिन पर गूगल ने अपने डूडल के जरिए नमन किया है. 7 अप्रैल 1920 को वह वाराणसी में पैदा हुए थे.
कभी नृत्य में की विधा में खुद को ढालने की कोशिश करने वाले पंडित रविशंकर ने संगीत की दुनिया में भारतीय शास्त्रीय संगीत को विशेष पहचान दिलाई.
1. बड़े भाई की तरह बनने की थी ख्वाहिश
पंडित रविशंकर अपने बड़े भाई उदयशंकर की तरह नृत्य के क्षेत्र में बुलंदियों को छूने की ख्वाहिश रखते थे. इसके लिए उन्होंने भाई के साथ देश-विदेश का दौरा भी किया और कई कार्यक्रमों में हिस्सा लिया.
2. नृत्य छोड़कर सितार पर लगा मन
लगभग 18 साल की उम्र में पंडित रविशंकर ने नृत्य छोड़ दिया और सितार सीखने लगे. पं. रविशंकर उस्ताद अलाउद्दीन खां से सितार की दीक्षा लेने मैहर पहुंचे और जीवन में सितार की धुन को ही बसा लिया.
3. विश्व प्रसिद्ध बैंड के साथ बजाया सितार
पंडित रविशंकर ने भारतीय शास्त्रीय संगीत को दुनियाभर में न सिर्फ पहुंचाया बल्कि ख्याति भी दिलाई. विश्व प्रसिद्ध बैंड बीटल्स के साथ भी उन्होंने सितार की प्रस्तुति दी.
4. भारत रत्न और पद्मविभूषण सम्मान
पंडित रविशंकर को संगीत में उनके सराहनीय योगदान के लिए 1999 में भारत रत्न और 1981 में पद्मविभूषण से नवाजा गया. उन्हें तीन बार ग्रैमी पुरस्कार मिला. साल 1986 से 1992 के बीच वह राज्यसभा के सदस्य भी रहे.
5. गूगल ने जन्मदिन को बनाया खास
गूगल ने पंडित रविशंकर के जन्मदिन को आर्टिस्टिक डूडल के जरिए खास बनाया. अपनी धुनों पर बड़े-बड़े नृत्य कलाकारों को थिरकने पर मजबूर करने वाले पंडित रविशंकर का 92 साल की उम्र में दिसंबर 2012 में अमेरिका के सैन डिएगो के एक अस्पताल में निधन हो गया.

Web Title : google pays tribute to pandit ravishankar on his 96th birthday by artistic doodle

Pandit Ravi Shankar, the Indian virtuoso who introduced The Beatles to the sitar

When Shankar was 10, his father and brother (Uday Shankar) left India to live in Europe. In 1930 he moved to Paris to be part of his brother's musical troupe and moved back to India eight years later to begin his formal training. 

He apprenticed himself to Ustad Allauddin Khan, affectionately known as Baba, and spent a number of years learning the sitar under his tutelage.

Once his apprenticeship was finished, he began to create a name for himself in radio and film, composing music for movies such as Dharti ke Lal, and Cheetan Anand’s Neecha Nagar (1946).  

In 1949 he moved to Delhi to become a music director of All In India Radio and continued to travel back and forth between India and the West.  He held this post until 1956, during which time he founded a national chamber orchestra called Vadya Vrinda – an Indian ensemble with a few extra western stringed instruments.

Ravi Shankar and George Harrison collaborate

In 1966, Harrison befriended Shankar and began to take lessons from him and the latter's protégé Shambhu Das.

6 things about Pt Ravi Shankars glorious life you probably didnt know

A representative of Indian culture and heritage all over the world, Pt Ravi Shankar is a name that defines "a life well lived". The icon, however, had humble beginnings--after completing his training in sitar in 1944, under musician Allauddin Khan, Shankar moved to Mumbai and joined the Indian People's Theatre Association, for whom he composed music for ballets in 1945. He then went on to be the music director for All India Radio, New Delhi, from 1949 to 1956.

Not many know that it was his influence on Beatles' guitarist George Harrison that helped popularise the use of Indian instruments in pop music throughout the 1960s.

Having lived an exemplary life as a doyen of classical Indian music--with both his daughters, Anoushka Shankar and Norah Jones, carrying the baton forward--Shankar remains the brand ambassador of Indian art, culture and influence on the Western world.

Here are a few things about his glorious life that not many know of:

1. Ravi Shankar started out as a dancer, performing in his eldest brother Uday Shankar's dance troupe. Shankar was only 10 when he started touring with the troupe; he started his study of the sitar only at the age of 18.
























2. The song, Sare Jahan Se Achha, was tuned by Ravi Shankar. Though the iconic song was written by Muhammad Iqbal in 1904, it had a more drawn-out tune, till Shankar did his magic and turned it around to be the song we know it as today. This was back in 1945.














3. After Mahatma Gandhi's assassination (1948), Shankar was asked to play "some mournful music without tabla accompaniment" on All India Radio. Since he was composing in the memory of Gandhi, Shankar took the three sargam notes that approximate Gandhi's name--"Ga" (third), "Ni" (seventh) and "Dha" (sixth)--and developed a new melodic theme. He called this new raga Mohankauns because it was very similar to raga Malkauns. He later used the same raga as a refrain in his score for Richard Attenborough's Gandhi.





















4. Ravi Shankar was nominated by Rajiv Gandhi to the Rajya Sabha and served as a member of Parliament between 1986 and 1992.

5. His performance at the Woodstock festival (1969) remains one of Ravi Shankar's greatest regrets. He termed his stint there "a terrifying experience", and recalled that the audience reminded him of "the water buffaloes you see in India, submerged in the mud". He was so put off post Woodstock that he did not perform in the US for the next year and a half.

6. When Beatles' guitarist George Harrison came to India to learn sitar from Shankar, he asked Harrison to arrive in disguise, to avoid being recognised by people. Harrison changed his hairstyle and grew a moustache (an attempt that he himself later described as naive). He managed to clear customs and immigration, but got caught by the elevator boy at the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower hotel in Mumbai. Soon enough, there was a crowd outside. Shankar and Harrison fled to Srinagar, where they lived on a houseboat and continued Harrison's study of the sitar.

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