Where: DeAnza College, Cupertino, CA
Who: Pandit Habib Khan and Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia
I want to give a little background on this concert. This wasn't a usual concert, it was organized by the The Rotary Club of Cupertino for benefiting Polio Plus.
Pandit Habib Khan is a well known Sitar player. He lives and teaches in the San Francisco Bay Area and is the founder and artistic director of the Habib Khan Saraswati Temple and Gurukul, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the classical music of North India.
Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia is internationally renowned exponent of the Bansuri or bamboo flute. Currently he heads the World Music Department at the Rotterdam Music Conservatory.
I thoroughly enjoyed the performance by Pandit Habib Khan and Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia. I bought couple of CDs from the venue to get signatures from both the artists, but Pandit Habib Khan already left after his performance (which was the first performance). Anyways, the organizers had a welcome reception for Pandit Chaurasia, which of course was "by invitation only", so we could not really go and meet the artists directly. But the good news is the reception was in a different hall little away from the concert hall, so the Pandit Chaurasia had to walk the route to get there (bingo!).
Surprisingly, when we were trying to get to the reception area we met Mr. Ram who owns Cupertino Bakery, who was part of the organizing committee as well as is an active member of the Rotary club. He told us we may not be able to get into the reception to meet Pandit Chaurasia but can come to his restaurant, where Pandit Chaurasia was supposed to have dinner later, and meet him. Anyways, while we were still speculating what to do, and me desperate to get the CDs signed, we saw Pandit Chaurasia walking alone (??? I was surprised too!) towards the reception area. People ran to meet him and get his autographs.
Somebody wanted to get his autograph on a Flute (an aspiring Flute player), but Pandit Chaurasia refused saying never do that. In India, we respect and pray the instrument we play (we do it for more than the playing instruments though :)). Anyways, I got my CD signed by him as well as got photograph with him.
Here are some pictures of the CDs I bought and got signed:
Note: Pandit Chaurasia signs along with drawing a flute :)
Polio Eradication:-
Here is a video of Rotary's efforts for Polio Eradication:
According to Wikipedia, "As of 2006, polio remains endemic in only four countries: Nigeria, India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan". It is sad that even though India is developing so fast and our economy is booming, we are not able to eradicate Polio from our country. Here is the link for the India National Polio Plus Committee for more information on the current status of Polio in India.
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