My ‘mānasīka namaskāraṃ’ to the proud gem of India, Pandit Ravi Shankarji on his day of birth. It conjures up in my mind when Panditji with his wife and daughter visited Brhaddhvani on February 4th 2001 at the 4th Main Road, Raja Annamalaipuram premises - the house of Shri N. R. Bhuvaragan, the Hindu Art critic. I went to invite Panditji when he was at ‘Sruti Pattabhiraman’s’ residence. He said it might be just a brief visit. But he spent nearly three hours with me at our premises witnessing our music educational work. A thrilling memorable day indeed! Here are some pictures from Panditji’s visit: https://www.facebook.com/pg/brhaddhvani/photos/?tab=album&album_id=10155013846403869
Maybe our karmas brought us together! Here is a photograph of Panditji with my grand-uncle and guruji, Karaikudi Veenai Sambasiva Iyer. Panditji stands in conversation with the world-renowned violin wizard Mr. Yehudi Menuhin, during the first presidential award function in New Delhi, when India became Republic in 1952. The first President of India, Shri Rajendra Prasad gave away the awards to the four greatest gems among Indian artistes, Pandit Ravishankar’s guruji Ustād Allaudin Khanji, Mushtaq Hussain Khanji, Shri Ariyakkudi Ramanuja Iyengar and my guruji.
