Page 40 - Seniors Today Dec 2019

Ravi Shankar with daughters Anoushka Shankar and Norah Jones

attend his press conference. My son was born on
March 12 1999, the day the event was scheduled.
I called up my office to inform them, when I got
the news that Menuhin had passed away. A few
hours later, I was on my way to The Oberoi to
get his personal tribute to the great violinist.
Though he was in a rather sombre mood,
Shankar congratulated me on my son’s birth
and told his manager Terry to give me a box of
sweets. He spoke at length about Menuhin’s love
for India, how he encouraged him to perform in
the US, and their 1967 collaboration West Meets
East.
By then, I had realised that I had slowly built
up a collection of Ravi Shankar cassettes, many
of which I eventually bought on CD. There
were jugalbandis with sarod maestro Ustad
Ali Akbar Khan, his sitar concertos conducted
by Previn and Mehta, and recordings of lesser
known compositions in raags Asa Bhairavi,
Bhinna Shadja and Pancham Se Gara. I also
followed sitar maestros Ustad Vilayat Khan,
Pandit Nikhil Banerjee, Ustad Abdul Halim
Jaffer Khan and Ustad Rais Khan. The choice of
listening would often depend on the mood and
the preferred raag. Late at night, it often had to
be Rais Khan’s Darbari.
One of the most memorable moments was The Shankars with George and Olivia Harrison
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