'To Bapi - the love of my life' for Ravi Shankar By Hindol Sengupta, Indo-Asian News Service
New Delhi, Aug 25 (IANS) Laughing and weeping, the world's greatest sitar maestro, Pandit Ravi Shankar, accepted what he called his greatest prize -- a book written about him by his daughter. Called "Bapi - the Love of My Life," the pictorial biography published by Roli Books has been authored by his daughter and budding sitar star Anoushka. The sepia tint cover of the book, showing the 81-year-old father kissing his 21-year-old daughter on the forehead, encapsulates the tone and verve of the book -- it's about love. "This is my greatest treasure, as she is," said the maestro, who has won almost every conceivable music award and India's highest civilian honour -- the Bharat Ratna. And then wept. "I am always compared to his great genius, but to me, he is first and foremost my father, my Bapi, and I've finally given something that is truly mine - to him," said Anoushka. And then wept. In the book, dedicated to "uncle" musician George Harrison, Anoushka deals with every phase of her father's life -- from the magical musician to enigmatic lover and joker! Born to the chief minister of a princely Indian state, Ravi Shankar, however, led a rather poor childhood after his father deserted the family. Later, he moved to Paris and high Parisian life under the tutelage of his dashing choreographer-dancer elder brother Uday Shankar. In every stage, the daughter reveals with disarming candour, titbits about her father's personal life -- like his love for the movies, and how once Marie Dressler, the famous American actress, wanted to adopt Ravi Shankar. "Of course, his brothers refused vehemently and Bapi got angry with them," Anoushka writes. "I wanted to go and live in Hollywood, Ravi Shankar is said to have cried. I wanted to be a movie star." Then came the sitar under the legendary Allauddin Khan, who once told Ravi Shankar: "Go and buy some bangles to wear on your wrists, you are like a weak little girl!" That weak-wristed Ravi Shankar was to take the world by storm through his sitar, with the wild abandon and the majestic restraint of his notes. Collaborating with everyone from Yehudi Menuhin to Peter Sellers, Ravi Shankar truly found a friend after his own heart in former Beatle George Harrison. The book was completed a couple of months before Harrison's death last year and Anoushka decided to keep all his references in first person to keep alive a loved memory of the man she had hoped would be there for her marriage and the birth of her first child. Finally, she also deals with her father's multiple relationships and his humour. >From his first wife Annapurna to girlfriend Sue Jones and finally Anoushka's own mother Sukanya. "Speaking of Bapi's many women, I want to clarify something," Anoushka writes. "Unlike many men whom I have little or no respect for, Bapi never deceived women. "Whoever he was with, he gave himself totally to at that time. Even now so many of his old girlfriends are close friends." And, said Anoushka, the funny Ravi Shankar is incredible. He plays "Yankee doodle" and "Jingle bells" on the sitar, and even talks to his pet cat Gucci. "He's a cool guy, a fun man! And I am as proud to be a daughter of this joker as I am of the musician," said Anoushka. --Indo-Asian News Service =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-W-E-B---S-I-T-E-=-=-= To Subscribe/Unsubscribe from GoaNet | http://www.goacom.com/goanet =================================================================== For (un)subscribing or for help, Contact: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Dont want so many e=mails? Join GoaNet-Digest instead ! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Help support non-commercial projects in Goa by advertizing!! * * * * Your ad here !!
