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Ever since Sanjay Raina announced the Hari Prasad Chaurasia Concert 2010 last year, he became the butt of jokes, and sometimes these jokes even came from his close associates. When he announced that he would have Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia performing in Sydney initially in March 2010, no one expected the show to pull though. In the midst of popular performers like Daler Mehndi, Gurdas Mann, Jagjit Singh, Sonu Nigam, Shreya Ghoshal and Sunidhi Chauhan who were performing in Australia, Sanjay was advised he had no chance of pulling his show together. Sanjay who normally lives in India, had a difficult time as coordinating things from India and it was proving to be too time consuming.
Watching the Election Campaign 2010, you can’t help but notice how the attention this election has turned away from the prime contenders Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott to players who are not fighting the elections. Old Prime Ministers and old ministers and advisors are all over the air waves which gives an indication that the electorate thinks that two main contenders have been forced down their throats by the political parties. Both of them don’t come across as dominant leaders who can steer Australia to a more commanding position. The elections have so far focussed on the former Prime Ministers primarily John Howard and Kevin Rudd apart from fringe players like Mark Latham and Laurie Oaks.
Having closely observed the larger than life image of politicians in India and seen them and their kith and kin enjoy the spoils of the office; interest in politics comes naturally to almost all Indians. The thought of joining politics in Australia does cross the minds of many of the Indian immigrants living in Australia, but fades when they get lost in the daily chores of their life and attending to the twin objectives of looking after their kids and reducing the mortgage. Strathfield resident Mark Sharma vowed not to get stuck in the same rut and decided enough was enough and took the plunge to join politics.
India’s melody queen Shreya Ghoshal has sung several songs for Bollywood and other Indian film industries. Besides Hindi, she performs in Assamese, Bengali,Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Punjabi,and Tamil songs. Ghoshal is one of the most awarded playback singers in recent times, with four National Film Awards and four Filmfare Awards to her credit.
She is a great fan of Vani Jayaram. Shreya caught the attention of film director Sanjay Leela Bhansali when she participated in Sa Re Ga Ma Pa for a second time, this time as an adult. In 2000, he offered her the opportunity to be the voice of Paro, the lead female character of his film Devdas, who was portrayed by Aishwarya Rai. Shreya sang five songs under the musical direction of Ismail Darbar in the film. Her performance won her the Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer, as well as Filmfare’s RD Burman Award for New Music Talent, given to upcoming talents in music. She also won a National Film Award for the song “Bairi Piya“.
Her songs “Jaadu Hai Nasha Hai” from Jism, “Mera Dholna” from Bhool Bhulaiyaa, “Teri Ore from Singh Is King”, “Yeh Ishq Haaye” from Jab We Met and “Barso Re” from Guru are all smashing hits you can’t ever forget.
Rohit Revo interviewed Shreya Ghoshal on the eve of her tour to Australia.
Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma’s name is synonymous with santoor, Indian classical music instrument. Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma is credited with single-handedly making the santoor a popular classical instrument. Shiv Kumar Sharma modified santoor to make it more suitable for his classical technique. He introduced the new chromatic arrangement of notes and increased the range to cover full three octaves. He also improvised a new technique of playing with which he could sustain notes and maintain sound continuity. Shiv Kumar Sharma brought Santoor at par with other classical instruments, well established it not just all over India, but also across the globe.
Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia has become one of India’s most-respected classical musicians, earning several awards, including the National Award of the Sangeet Natak Academy, which he won in 1984. In 1992, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan and the Konarak Samman. In 1994, he was bestowed the Yash Bharati Sanman and in 2000, he was awarded the Padma Vibhushan. In the year 2000, he also received the Hafiz Ali Khan Award and the Dinanath Mangeshkar Award.He is one of the busiest and most sought-after contemporary musicians in the world today.
Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma and Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia are coming to Australia to perform at the Freedom Concert 2010. Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia answers questions on the eve of his Australian performance.
Australia is looking forward to having you perform at THE FREEDOM CONCERT 2010, how have your past experiences in Australia been?
I have visited Australia a number of times, and each time has been better than the previous one. I am really looking forward to perform in Australia and celebrate our Independence Day with all of you this time.
What is going to be the theme of your concert on the eve of India’s Independence Day in Sydney and also in Melbourne?
Fears of an Australian Indian confrontation were reignited again last month after John Howard’s bid for Vice President of International Cricket Council, as an Oceania candidate, got rejected. Had John Howard been elected he would have become the President of ICC after two years, when the current President and a powerful Indian cabinet minister Sharad Pawar steps down. However the controversy did not snowball into a media and a diplomatic tug of war, which partly showed how much John Howard is disliked these days even in Australia.
How does it feel to be in the company of most oppressed nations like China , Iran and other smaller nations with no freedom of speech and how does it feel to be the only Western Country being lumped with this category. “Some internet content is simply not suitable in a civilised society. It is important that all Australians, particularly young children, are protected from this material”.
No these words were not said by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of Islamic Republic Iran but by our own Stephen Conroy.
Thanks to Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy Federal Stephen Conroy, we are now faced with the prospect of Government censoring what is available on the Internet. The plan involves blacking out about 10,000 websites deemed by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) to be so offensive that they are categorized as ‘RC,’ or Refused Classification.
Lord Ganesha is one of the most beloved Hindu deities. In Hinduism it is believed that Ganesha is the God who can protect His devotees from any vigna or obstacle, and hence the name vigneshwara. In many parts of South Asia it is a practice to seek His protection and blessing before starting any activity or enterprise. He is also known as Ganapati and is the God of Knowledge and is invoked at the beginning of any religious function, be it a marriage, the teaching of alphabets to a child or any festival in a temple. It is believed that for the fulfillment of one’s desires, His blessing is absolutely necessary.
At around 10.30 pm on 13th May, a car filled with petrol drums was driven at high speed into the office building of Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) office at Lidcombe, setting it instantly on fire. Luckily no one was hurt when the car exploded causing a major fire. People working in CFMEU believe it was the blessing of the Ganesha idol installed inside the office which averted a major catastrophe from happening that night.
United Indian Associations (UIA) an umbrella body representing many Indian community organizations met the Federal Minister for Immigration, Chris Evans in Canberra and made submissions in regards to the proposed Visa Capping Bill and its impact on the International Students. Also present in the meeting were Federal MP for Reid, Laurie Ferguson and Federal MP for Parramatta, Julie Owens.
Vyalar Ravi, Union Cabinet Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs and a member of Rajya Sabha is also a very highly regarded Indian Parliamentarian. He visited Sydney recently. Editor-in-Chief, Rohit Revo interviewed Vyalar Ravi and discussed wide ranging issues.
It has been a long standing demand of people holding Indian passports especially in the Gulf to get voting rights in India. Group of ministers (GoM) has cleared a draft bill that will allow persons holding an Indian passport studying or working abroad to vote. Can you explain this a bit.
This is a long standing demand of the Gulf people. In the last UPA government, in our 4th year we introduced the bill. It has been sent to the Parliamentary standing committee. They have come up with suggestions to the bill and also sought clarification about who has voting rights. Then it had to go again to the Indian cabinet and then the Parliament. Prime Minister has appointed a Cabinet committee which consists of AK Anthony as Chairman of the Committee, P Chidambaram, Kapil Sibal, Veerappa Moily and myself as members. The new draft had made it clear that those who are holding the Indian passport can vote. We made a provision to the People Representation Act.
If anybody was not staying in their regular residence for more than 6 months then there name would be deleted from the list which included the names of people working in the Gulf and many students who go abroad and they are Indian passport holders. The clause of this bill is simple. By the reason of employment or studies, if anyone holding Indian passport is living abroad, their name will appear in the voters list of their village, They can vote whenever they are in India during election time.
It was one of those rare occasions when you feel so proud of your community, watching young children from the community excel in education and sports. Global Organization for People of Indian Origin, (GOPIO) came up with the idea of recognising children from the Indian community who had excelled and executed the concept brilliantly. Watching the young kids being felicitated on the stage did bring up a few watery eyes in the audience. Members from the Australian political community were in attendance obviously impressed by the kids and the venue was full with over 400 people attending the event on a Sunday evening. Young Achievers Award Nite or Gyaan 2010 organised on 23rd May was a noble initiative by GOPIO to honour thirty two high achieving students from the Indian community in the fields of academics, arts and sports.
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