Facts about Indian Music and Musicians

7 Facts about Indian Music and Musicians I bet you never knew!

After discovering the astonishing facts of India, here are some fascinating facts about Indian music and musicians. Known as ‘sangeet’ in India, the music here has got the oldest traditions and heritage in the world. The origin of Indian music can be found in the Vedas, the ancient scriptures. As compared to other music forms in the world, it has got a varied and unique style.

1. First woman Shehnai player of india:

Bageshwari Qamar, crowned as “Shehnai Queen” in Chandigarh, is India’s first woman Shehnai vadak. She represented India at “The Bharat Mahotsav”, held in Russia, in the year 1988. Along with solo recordings, she has also recorded “jugal-bandi”, with her guru, Ustad Bismillah khan.

2. First woman Sarod player of India:

Sharan Rani, born in 1929, in Delhi, is the first woman sarod player of India. She is popularly known as Sarod Rani and she played Sarod for almost 70 years. She learnt playing sarod from the great music maestros like Ustad Ali Akbar and Ustad Allaudin Khan.

3. First music school in India:

“Gandharva Mahavidyalaya”, in Lahore (which was then part of India), set up by “Pandit Vishnu Digambar paluskar” on 5th may, 1901, is the first music school in India.The school was run by the funds raised by public support, concerts and the richer class of the society. After independence, eventually the school was shifted to Mumbai.

4. First Musician to receive Padma Bhushan Award:

MS Subbulakshmi, was the first musician to receive Padma Bhushan Award and it was in the year 1954. Later, in 1975, she was also awarded with Padma Vibhushan Award. She was popularly known as the Nightingale of India.

5. First folk album in India:

‘Banjaran’, by Ila Arun, was the first folk album of India. It was released in the year 1983. Ila Arun is famous for her husky voice and incredible talent. She majorly sings folk songs and also won the Filmfare best singer award in the year 1993.

6. First computerised album of India:

‘Baby Doll’, sung by Alisha Chinoy, released in the year 1988 by HMV, is the first computerised album of India. Rajesh Johri, who also happens to be Alisha’s husband, was the sound engineer of the album. Popularly, she is known as Indian Madonna, and she made Indipop history with music album, ‘Made in India’.

7. First Hindi rap album:

‘Thanda Thanda Pani’, by Harjeet Singh Sehgal (popularly known as Baba Sehgal), was the first Hindi rap and it was a remake of “Ice Ice Baby’ by Vanilla Ice. Surprisingly, Baba Sehgal happens to be an engineer by profession.

Life in India

A day in the life of INDIA

India in a day - a crowd sourced film, is a great masterpiece work by Richie Mehta and Anurag Kashyap, along with Google, made with videos shot by people all over the country. 10 October, 2015, the day when millions of Indians all across the country, recorded their lives and uploaded footage to a website, through the initiative backed by Google, to expose a day in the life of India. This documentary is a beautiful edition, portrayed as one of the world’s largest and most spellbinding country. Depicting the real life moments, ranging from sweet to sad, through the bustling cities to peaceful villages and tragic to humorous, it gives an appealing message that it’s all about the simple things in life which are the real ones and which actually matters after all. The film beautifully captures the diversity of india and the strength of human spirit.

अखंडता भारत की 'मानस', और एकता हैं मिसाल।
हाथ थामकर, एक जानकर, भेदभाव की गिरे दीवाल।

India in a day (2016) - First Look!

Facts of india

7 Astonishing facts of India you never knew!

1. World’s highest cricket ground

The Chail Cricket ground in Chail, a hill station in Himachal Pradesh, at an altitude of 2,444 meters, is the world’s highest cricket ground. It was established in 1893. The ground is surrounded by forest and is used by Chail Military School as a playground.

2. India’s first rocket was transported on a bicycle

The first rocket was transported to the Thumba Launching Station in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala on a bicycle. It was so small and light in weight so it could be easily carried that way.

3. World’s largest vegetarian-friendly country

Be it because of individual choices or religious reasons or both, around 20-40% of Indians are veggie lovers, making it the biggest vegetarian nation in the country.

4. Snakes and ladders had its origin in India

Snakes and ladders is one the ancient Indian board game. Anciently it was popularly known by the name Moksha Patam, which was initially invented as a tool for teaching good deeds versus bad to children.

5. The floating post office

India has the largest number of post offices in world is a familiar fact. But did you know about the floating post office in India? The Dal Lake in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir has the country’s first ever floating post office.

6. Largest gathering - visible from space

The Kumbh Mela - 2011, was the largest gathering of people with over 75 million pilgrims. The gathering was so large that it could be captured from the space.

7. World’s first granite temple - The Brihadeeswarar Temple

Brihadeeswarar Temple, located in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, is the first granite temple in the world

Girls no more compromise

There is no good gender, just good people...

After a motivational letter to all the granddaughters of india, here is another powerful message by Amitabh Bachchan in his latest box office hit, PINK. Inspired by his message, i write this post about the feudal mindset existing in predominant India, where men and women are judged by a different standards. People often make delusive connections from a girl’s smile, companionability and welcoming behaviour. Women in today’s society are impelled to look and behave in a certain way as if their entire identity revolves around their physicality. The deep-seated prejudices in this society holds women back from realizing the real potential within them.

This may not be the case for every female but most of us are often enforced with rules like act as woman, don’t be too outspoken, be independent but not too independent, do this and don’t do that and so on. But on the other side, it's not the case with boys and men of this society. It is like an intelligent, strong headed, independent woman is a threat to the “values” of the society. The funniest part is that as soon a girl turns 21, the entire society becomes so responsible to find a “perfect” groom for her. Instead why don't they become equally responsible and supportive of her own interests and dreams?

Now, it’s really high time to educate the people of the society that gender equality isn’t a woman’s issue, it is a human issue and it affects us all. It requires strong conscious effort to never generalize and not use the societal norms to create opinions. For all I know, it's too much to ask from the society to not judge girls, or anyone for that matter, but we must make an attempt to calibrate our judgements to be unprejudiced and common for both genders. I do not wish to be pushed by any rules or forced by any opinions of others. I hope to inspire the courage to exert the right to choose.

Make choices for yourself - for you and about you. Be the way you want, talk to whoever you want, wear what you want, have as many feelings as you want, talk too much or talk little, say whatever you want to say, work wherever you want to,travel where you want to and live where you want to. Push the limits and test all the boundaries. Do what you love.

I, as a woman of this society, wants to be defined by the person who truly I am, not by my gender!

This video by Blush's UnBlushed series featuring Amitabh Bachchan urges women for no more compromise #AbSamjhautaNahin

A ride to save nature

All the fruits of tomorrow are in the seeds of today

~Thanks to Akbar & Abel :)

Hello folks!! You all have stories of best friends, childhood friends and so on, but what about “The Green Friends”?? Akbar Sha and Abel George - two friends from Kochi college has embarked a journey, showing their dedication towards Mother Nature by planting seeds all through their journey. Inspired by a Spanish film, “The Motorcycle Diaries", where two friends, Guevara and Granado, head on a journey by motorcycle, across South America, gain a great difference between ‘the rich’ and ‘the poor’, Akbar and Abel, along with a friend, Antony, started contemplating about one such journey. After 3 years, however they planned their expedition. But unfortunately, Antony met with an accident, leaving just the two of them with the journey.

They started the ride in June-July this year, travelling 12,538 kilometres, covering 18 states in 46 days. They took around 500 seeds and seedlings of tamarind, coralwood, jackfruit, jamun and vaka, but could plant only 150 because of the climatic differences and soil. In fact, all the leftover seeds were utilised on another trip after their return, this time to Nelliyampathy. In the course of their journey, they met Nitin Chaturvedi, the BSF Deputy Commander at Kota, who had planted 1,000 seedlings by himself. He became a great source of inspiration for the duo.

If at least ten people from a college, school or university starts planting across the country annually during trips, it will become much more environmental-friendly, says Abel. On being asked about the experiences from the rides, Akbar and Abel unanimously answered, that though the communication was a barrier half the times, as they hardly knew the language, there were people who provided them food and lodging without charging, reminding us the famous Sanskrit verse - “Atithi Devo Bhava”. They also realised how the villagers could live a healthier life than the urbans. From the experience of the journey of Green friends, we all get to learn lessons for a healthier lifestyle and a better future

We all know the well known proverb - “As you sow, so shall you reap”, and also how important the greenery is and we all talk about it, but the two friends has taught us how we can take a step forward to save our nature and give a better gift to the coming generations.

Letter to all granddaughters - Bollywood Megastar Amitabh Bachchan

Don't ever let somebody tell you you can't do something!

The topic of women empowerment and equality with men is an important issue all over the world today. The term women empowerment means authorizing women wherein women can make decisions of their own and stand for themselves whenever the situation demands to. It also refers to improve and increase the economic, political, social and legal strength of women and also making them confident enough to claim all their rights and ensure them equal rights.

In ancient times, women were treated with great respect and honor but as time crept, the position of women became inferior. But now in the independent India, women are offered a lot of opportunities. Many of them have already marked their achievements for India such as Kalpana Chawla (Astronaut), Pratibha Patil (first woman President) and many more; not to forget our recent pride Indian daughters, P.V. Sindhu and Sakshi Malik who won medals in Rio 2016 Olympics. However, discrimination is still visible in various rural and urban areas, even though India has moved away from male domination culture. Every other day we get to hear about issues that women are facing like dowry, rape, female foeticide etc.

Amitabh Bachchan’s thought provoking letter to his granddaughters, Aaradhya - Abhishek and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s daughter and Navya Naveli - Nikhil and Shweta Nanda’s daughter, is a must read for every girl. It assumes the significance of the gender issues and crime against women, also the difficulties that a woman faces. As he says, it's a letter to all the granddaughters. No matter, they carry ‘Bachchan’ and ‘Nanda’ as their surnames, that will not lessen the difficulties a woman faces in this country and that applies to every woman on how making their own identity is of utmost importance. His letter has recalled the great words of our national leader, Jawaharlal Nehru - "You can tell the condition of a Nation by looking at the status of its Women."

Click on the image to zoom

When there is an equal contribution of men as well as women in improvement and development of society, the world will surely become a better and beautiful place to live. I hope empowerment of women would result in a better and developed society.

WATCH: Amitabh reading his open letter to his beloved granddaughters.