Provoked Thoughts Options

[zippoo]

Aaj HF padhhtey padhhtey desh ki bahut yaad aa gayi. Abhi ja toh nahi sakta, socha gunh gaan hee sun loon.

[rom]

Unni:
As a little kid, I saw him at a function of the Malayalee Association in Kolkata. He was the special invitee and appeared on stage to sing a few lines of the popular Malayalam song "Ambili Amaava". It was a great honour for the Malayalee community of Kolkata, since he was a legend in his lifetime and the pride of Bengal.

Thanks once more, sir!
Why don't you tell us more about your musical experiences? There are few on the HF who've actually seen legendary singers, musicians perform live... you have, and I'm sure you haven't exhausted your store of tales. I'm sure we'd all love more of those.

[P.C. Vaidyanathan.]

[quote name='rom' date='Mar 29 2005, 09:00 PM' post='80536']
[quote]Unni:
As a little kid, I saw him at a function of the Malayalee Association in Kolkata. He was the special invitee and appeared on stage to sing a few lines of the popular Malayalam song "Ambili Amaava". It was a great honour for the Malayalee community of Kolkata, since he was a legend in his lifetime and the pride of Bengal.[/quote]
[font=Times New Roman]

Unni:

I am a new member. I was browsing RabindranathTagore's Rabindra Sangeet and google search brought me to HF. In your above post you mentioned about the Calcutta Malayalee Samaj. and its "KALA SAMITI".

This incident that you are referring to now after years, is really a great flash back for me. I am also from Calcutta, and we, meaning my family were Life Members of the Calcutta Malayali Samaj.

On one of our annual meetings, Mr. Pankaj Mallick was the special invitee, and he was honoured by the President of the Samaj. The sporting person that he was, he had learnt two lines of the famous Malayalam song "Aana Thalayolam Venna Tharaamada Ananda Srikrishna Oodi Vaada|| Peeli Thala Kettil Poomala Choodam Gnyan||Neela Kar Varnane Oodi Vaada.||

The appalause that he received for singing these delighful lines from the song on the Lord of Guruvayur was really earth shaking!

The greatness of this man can be realised when he delayed his departure till my two sisters completed their dance programme. My sisters were the students of Mr. Madhava Menon, a graceful dancer, who was then working in the Indian Airlines, at Calcutta. He was a partime teacher, at the Dance School of Mr. Braja Bhasi Singha, an exquisite dancer from Manipur.

We also had a Carnatic Music Programme, the singer being Mr. Sankara Menon, who later on went to Cochin, Kerala, to work with Pierce Leslie India Ltd[PLI]., in the Shipping Division. Years later, I joined him as his coleague as Manager of the Shipping Division : PLI Ltd. Incidentally, Sankara Menon was my father's friend.

We also had a body building exibition by 'Sandow' Mani who thrilled the audience with his expertise in Uttara & Vama Nouli, that which churns the stomach, once clock wise and the next moment anti-clockwise.

Then the progrqmme can to an end with a skit presented by the young adults of the Samaj.

You might wonder why I'm elaborating so much on this social evening. If you were a member of the Samaj, you would recollect the lift the Samaj gave to Kalamandalam Govindan Kutty and Kalamandalam Thankamani, the dancing couple from Kerala. Now they have one of the best dancing schools runing in Kolkata, and lots of students have come out of their school with flying colours.

I have the photogrphs of Sri Pankaj Mullick attending the function and of others who took part in the programmes. In all, twelve black & white precious photographs in my family Album.

By this time you would have realised that he did not sing "ambili ammava" but Aana Thalayolam... Probably your memory was playing tricks with you; but then it gave an opportunity to me to express my feelings.

Regards.

P.C. Vaidyanathan.