The annual Saraswati Puja in my guru-ji's house has been running for 65 years and has featured such greats as Pt Ravi Shankar, Ud. Mushtaq Ali Khan and Pt Kanthe Maharaj. This year it was my honour to open the concert, accompanying my good friend Hiro Minamizawa who played Raga Marwa. Then followed young vocalist Priyanka Bhattacharya, and finally the highlight was Dr Sanjay Verma on mohan veena (slide guitar) with guru-ji's son Dr Debabrata Bhattacharya on tabla. Priyanka and I shared the MC duties for the day. This concert is always a very special event for me, as I fondly remember Guru-ji sitting next to Saraswati and enjoying his students' music.
Goddess Saraswati-ma and Guru-ji.
The family and students gather for the puja in the early afternoon
Guru-ji's grandson Abhishek ("Babun") in the puja. Babun and I had a lot of classes together with Guru-ji when Babun was a young 'un.
Prasad receiving blessings from Saraswati-ma. A big lunch which I always look forward to.
Yasuhiro Minamizawa (sitar) playing Raga Marwa, accompanied by Shen Flindell (tabla)
Priyanka Bhattacharya (vocal) accompanied by Jaydev Mukherjee (tabla) and Ashish (harmonium)
Dr Sanjay Verma (mohan veena) accompanied by Dr Debabrata Bhattacharya on tabla.
Newspaper clipping from Amaar Ujaala, 21 Jan 2010 about our concert.
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