Padma Vibhushan Dr. Prabha Atre (1932-2024): The Complete Artiste Breathes Her Last

On the eve of Uruka, Magh Bihu, this Saturday morning delivers us a shattering blow—more devastating because of its suddenness and unexpectedness. The legendary Hindustani Classical Vocalist and the senior-most artiste of the Kirana Gharana, Padma Vibhushan Dr. Prabha Atre has passed away in the wee hours at his Pune residence at the age of 92. Ragini’s Guru cum friend-philosopher-guide cum an away mother for both of us for a span of nearly 35 years has ceased all of a sudden, leaving us helpless and perplexed. It is very sudden and unexpected as, defying even the nineties, she’s had always been lithe, lively, active and spirited; she’s had been commuting between Mumbai and Pune constantly—still climbing the three flights of stairs in her Matunga flat in Mumbai and doing her creative work and teaching in her Gurukul residence in Pune. Madam, as we called her since 1990, was to perform tomorrow in Mumbai at the Sureshbabu Hirabai music conference that she herself started in 1991 at the Tilak Vidyalaya Premises, Vile Parle. Only last week she called up Ragini asking about her music and everything, and as always asking about me ‘Chinmay kya karta hai’ and asking us to come to Pune to stay with her. Our grief has increased all the more because we’ve been planning to visit her positively this time, during the last week of January, and this has come to a naught. We also feel helpless: in a repetitive cycle we invariably fail to be with our closest ones during times of death  or distress for reasons beyond our control which, naturally, are interpreted by others as mere excuses; this time too we’re unable to at least go and have a last darshan of the legendary artiste in Pune, because Ragini had a surgery in a Thane hospital in the last week of December 2023 and has been strictly instructed by the doctor to not travel for one month. We ask Madam for forgiveness and pray for the eternal bliss of her great soul.

Memories flood in. Ragini’s Guru Birendra Kumar Phukan and her father Sangeet Jyoti Bibekananda Bhattacharyya had suggested Dr. Prabha Atre as her future Guru in Mumbai. Accordingly, one day I went to the SNDT Women’s University at Marine Lines, Mumbai where she was the then Head of Music. On being directed to her practice room I peeped in asking the few ladies present inside for Dr. Atre. Her profound simplicity and modesty struck me the moment she came out into the passage with a warm sweet smile. I introduced myself and told her about the purpose of my visit. She listened very carefully and then gave me a telephone number to call her after a few days. For about fortnight she kept us hanging which, we understood later, was just to test Ragini’s sincerity and dedication to music learning and to pursue a career. Finally, she called us over to that SNDT practice room and asked Ragini to sing, also allowing me to sit on the carpeted floor of the room where a few other disciples were also present. And Ragini qualified to be the legend’s disciple along with some sound advice and instructions. That was sometime in 1990 and since then Ragini has been learning from her in various ways—in her direct class lessons, from the telephone conversations and through the conferences/stage concerts/lectures.  In her classes at her Mumbai flat as well as in all stage concerts I too was most welcome whenever I could make it. We were also blessed to have the love and attention of her lovely parents who lived with her in Mumbai. 

In less than two years I came to know the great artiste from very close quarters and discover the greatest human being in her. We got bold enough to invite her to Assam in March 1992 for stage concerts. To our ecstasy she accepted immediately and spontaneously, without bothering about the fees she normally charged that time. She performed at Ravindra Bhawan in Guwahati and also in Nagaon. She stayed in our Sankardev Nagar residence and in Bauli Bahor, Nagaon, like a most intimate member of the family. In a souvenir published for the Guwahati concert I wrote an article on her describing her as ‘The Complete Artiste’. To my profound delight and gratitude, she praised the article like anything, and later got it translated into Marathi and published it in a Marathi music journal.

Over the decades Ragini stayed and traveled with her on various occasions; both of us lived with her for some time in her Matunga residence; and she also came to stay with us at our Wadala government quarters for a few days along with her associate Dr. Bharathi MD. She occasionally involved me in hers books too and acknowledged my contribution accordingly. Apart from being a performer par excellence she’s also been an organizer of music conferences-workshops-competitions, musicologist-author and an avid music teacher-Guru.

We feel sorry that we couldn’t meet in her in person for the last few years, particularly after my transfer from Mumbai. However, she kept up constant contact with us, with words of advice, encouragement and persistence, both as a Guru and as a mother. Thanks to my stint in Mumbai Doordarshan News the legendary artiste was humble enough to request me for publicity for her various events that continued till now. In the meantime, she started her YouTube channel broadcasts and I used to get the publicity matter, dot on time every time. The last time she talked to me directly on phone was in September 2022 (her Birthday on 13^th September) when the celebrations were going to for her 90^th Birthday.  She gave an invaluable article on various music theories and guidance to upcoming vocalists that she wanted me to try publishing in leading newspapers as well as in my blog. In Kolkata that time , I put in my maximum efforts to justify her confidence in me and published the article also in my blog. Luckily, I still have the link to that invaluable article.

We have lost one of the closest persons on earth for us, but we feel she’ll be with us for the rest of our lives and that her music is all set to go on, forever. A Salute to The Complete Artiste. 

(A while ago I've received the confirmatory email from Dr. Prabha Atre Foundation along with the artiste's full bios.)

IPL-2022: As Pat Cummins Gives An Incredible Third Win To KKR Top Winners CSK And MI Complete Hat-Tricks Of Losses!

Indian Premiere League-2022 (IPL-2022), with 10 franchises only for the second time and restricted only to fours stadiums in Maharashtra till the play-offs, was expected produce hot rivalries and upset wins or losses in the process. That’s exactly what’s transpired in the first ten days of the T20 cricket extravaganza. More definitively, the results so far are evenly split between successful chases and defenses, thus neutralizing the perception that in the Indian pitches the chasing teams always win the matches. Before going to those details, we must first capture what Pat Cummins, a leading Aussie fast bowler of world cricket in both Tests and ODIs, has done last night in a match between Mumbai Indians (MI) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) played at Maharashtra Cricket Association stadium, Pune.

 

MI put up a rather dicey target of 162 runs to chase for KKR on a pitch where the batsmen have been seen to struggle to score runs. MI had the match in good control capturing the top 5 KKR wickets including the hero of its previous win Andrew Russel at 101 runs in the 14^th over with KKR needing 61 off 41 balls. Pat Cummins comes in at that moment with all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer (50 not out) struggling to retain his place in the team. Cummins does not bother about settling in, and makes it 47 runs off 36 balls to win. In the next over he makes it 35 runs in 30 balls. The match is now in favor of KKR, but the fall of a wicket at this stage is the danger of MI coming back. Anyway, most of the spectators thought the match would go on for at least three more overs. But Cummins had other ideas.

 

He picks up a team-mate Australian debutant fast bowler Daniel Sams for his demolition act. And lo! He settles everything in that single over, collecting 35 runs with 4 sixes and 2 fours and making Sams the fifth most expensive bowler in IPL history. And Pat Cummins becomes the second batsman to notch up 50 runs in just 14 balls thus joining KL Rahul who achieved the feat in 2018 playing for Punjab Kings IX against Delhi Capitals (DC). Pat remains not out with 56 in 15 balls with 6 sixes and 4 fours, hitting the last ball of that memorable over out of the boundary and giving KKR their third win by 5 wickets with four overs to spare. KKR occupies now the top spot with three wins out of four.

 

However, Yuvraj Singh still remains the top batsman to score a fifty in 12 balls in T20 cricket World Cup history in spite of the leaps and bounds the T20 cricket format has taken over the years thanks to the formation many leagues like the IPL. Who can ever forget that memorable innings of Yuvraj Singh in the ICC T20 Cricket World Cup-2007 when he hit six sixes in that over bowled by England fast bowler Stuart Broad in Durban helping India win the match by 18 runs and going on to lift the World Cup beating Pakistan in the final?

 

The most striking feature of IPL-2022 is that, so far, the top championship winners MI (5 times) and CSK (4 times) are yet to open their winning account, both completing hat-tricks of losing three consecutive matches each. CSK and MI occupy the 8^thand the 9^th spots respectively in the points table with negative net run-rates, and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) who had a forgettable performance in the previous IPL version too ornamenting the last spot losing both their matches.

 

The newbies, the KL Rahul-led Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) and Hardik Pandya-led Gujarat Titans (GT), are doing quite well with GT winning both their matches and LSG winning 2 out of 3 matches so far. A few of the biggest upsets so far in IPL-2022 are Mayank Agarwal-led Punjab Kings (PBKS) overhauling 205/2 by Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) at DY Patil stadium, Navi Mumbai on 27^th March; LSG chasing successfully a mammoth target of 210 runs set by CSK at the Brabourne stadium Mumbai on 31^st March and winning the match by 6 wickets; GT suffocating DC in Pune on 2^nd April and winning the match by 14 runs; and the absolute rout of CSK by PBKS at Brabourne stadium on 3^rd April with the latter winning by 54 runs thanks to an incredible all-round performance by its most expensive buy England cricketer Liam Livingstone.     

 

Of course, it’s still early days to focus upon the possible play-off teams as each team would go on playing 14 matches each. Besides, the greats like Rohit Sharma (MI), Kane Williamson (SRH), Virat Kohli (RCB), Rishabh Pant (DC), Shreyas Iyer (KKR), Jasprit Bumrah (MI), Ravindra Jadeja (CSK), Hardik Pandya (GT) and a few others are yet to play to their full potential. The glorious uncertainties always make cricket exciting in any formats it’s played.

Sensational Bairstow-Stokes Batting Powers England To Tremendous Win Over India, Paytm ODI Series Level at 1-1!

 Jonny Bairstow

When a team chases a down a massive target of 337 runs with plenty of overs to spare you can only watch wonder-struck at the sensational batting display that has to be the cause of it and cannot really blame the rival team. England have done this tonight, overcoming the Indian target that looked quite formidable very easily at the end thanks to the spectacular batting performances of all the top three: Jason Roy notching up 55 off 52 balls falling to a terrible run-out; Jonny Bairstow registering a magnificent ton of 124 off just 112 balls; and most importantly, Ben Stokes scoring an incredible 99 in just 52 balls, getting out caught 1 run away from what could have been a memorable century. There were 24 fours and unbelievable 20 sixes (10 of those go to Stokes) in their victorious innings. At one stage of the game they were scoring almost 20 runs an over with Bairstow and Stokes firing all cylinders in their partnership of 175 runs. So then, England won the second one-day international match by 6 wickets with more than 6 overs to spare, thus levelling the Paytm ODI Series at 1-1 in Pune today.

 

Ben Stokes

The Indian players on the field, particularly Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, showed their frustration and irritation quite clearly quite frequently as they looked helplessly at most of their bowlers being hit mercilessly by the England batsmen all around the park with consummate ease. Except for Bhubaneshwar Kumar who too got hit at the death overs, all other India bowlers, particularly Kuldeep Yadav, could not make any impression on the English marauding batsmen. The first wicket of Roy came in the form a run-out thanks to a brilliant piece of fielding by Rohit Sharma, after the first partnership of 110 runs with Bairstow in the 17^th over. When India did manage to get three quick wickets in Stokes, Bairstow and Buttler it was too late, because the devastatingly definitive batting left plenty of balls to get the required runs. Curiously for India, both the Pandya brothers continued to play and Hardik Pandya not bowling a single over. Rishabh Pant was brought in replacing Shreyas Iyer who unfortunately got injured in the last match while fielding and was ruled out not only for this series but also for the forthcoming IPL-2021.

 

The batting of the Indians, of a very high order no doubt, goes into oblivion as this failed to win the match for them. Consistent with regained form KL Rahul scored a ton, captain Kohli a half century and Pant and Hardik played explosive innings of 77 (40 balls) and 35 (16 balls) respectively. If one compares the top English batsmen with the Indian counterparts one can see the difference, Indians consuming more balls for the runs scored: Dhawan’s 4 in 17 balls; Kohli’s 66 in 79 balls; and Rahul’s 108 in 114 balls. However, their final score of 336/6 still looked very challenging.

 

There were a few changes in the England team for this match: Liam Livingstone making his ODI debut; Dawid Malan coming in place of injured Sam Billings (I was wondering about him as he was in top form in the T20Is, but the practice of playing only ‘specialized’ players for various formats nowadays leaves out in-form and most useful batsmen in the wilderness on many occasions for many teams); pacer Reece Topley making a comeback after years, replacing Mark Wood; and captain Morgan ruling himself out due to injury. Taking into account the last two T20I matches England have won the toss for the fourth time in a row. English spinner duo Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid bowled much more effectively than the Indian duo of Kuldeep Yadav and Krunal Pandya.

 

Now, 28^thMarch is going to be a super Sunday when the cracker of a decider is going to be played between World Champions and No.1 team England and No.2 India. The pressure at the moment seems to be more on India after their bowlers miserably failed to defend a massive total today. Apart from that there is nothing much to choose from the two teams. However, it’s time Virat Kohli wins a toss!

Neutralizing The Toss For The Third Time India Beat England In The 1st ODI: A Case Of Constants & Variables?

In the first one-day international (ODI) of the three-match Series played in Pune India have beaten England by 66 runs yesterday, taking a 1-0 lead in the series. Like the last few matches this game too was played to empty stadiums due to the second wave of COVID-19 virus in India. India’s captain Virat Kohli lost the toss yet again, for the third time in a row taking into account the last two T20 internationals, and it proved to be a good toss to lose, yet again. It was heartening to see India’s regular opening pair, Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan, coming in to open the innings. Perhaps this being the first match of the series India started very cautiously to avoid the oft-repeated first-match blues, and concentrated on doing the groundwork for a good total. However, they did not get into a shell which also proves to be India’s undoing on many occasions. In the power-play overs they managed to put up 64 runs when Rohit departed for 28 off 42 balls.     

 

The first hundred-run partnership of the Indian innings was achieved between Dhawan and Virat Kohli, and Kohli fell to Mark Wood for 56 off 60 balls at the team score of 169 in the 33^rd over. Shreyas Iyer, coming in at no.4, became Wood’s second victim at the team score of 187 in the 35^th over. The player-of-the-match Dhawan had been going on steadily at the other hand, but unfortunately he could not accomplish the landmark of a ton and fell to Ben Stokes for 98 runs in the 39^thover at the team score of 197. When big-hitter Hardik Pandya followed suit immediately for just 1 run to give Stokes this third wicket India were in some spot of bother, because at 5 down for 205 in the 41^st over the ideal target of 300+ runs looked distant with only KL Rahul as the recognized batsman and who had been doing poorly despite the rigorous restoration project undertaken for him by the team management.

 

However, Hardik’s brother Krunal Pandya, making his debut in the ODI format, changed it all, and as a welcome change Rahul started playing fluently. The second hundred-run partnership of the innings, the longer and the game-changing one, happened between the duo with the strikingly dominant partner Krunal making 58 not out off just 31 balls and Rahul making 62 not out in 43 balls. India crossed the 300-mark and put up a challenging target of 318 for England to win. In modern ODI cricket the 300+ landmark is no longer unassailable and it seemed that India fell short by about twenty runs.

 

As if to exacerbate such fears in the minds of the Indian fans England opening pair Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow started in the most destructive manner, notching up incredible 135 runs in the 15^th over. The formidable asking rate now had become very manageable under 6 an over, and with wickets in hand the game shifted dramatically to England’s favour. At that point of time another debutant for India ODIs, pacer Prasidh Krishna, captured the crucial wicket of Roy (46) and then cutting short Ben Stokes for just 1 run.

 

The fall of Bairstow to Shardul Thakur for 94 off 66 balls delivered another death blow to England’s aspirations, at 169/3 in the 23^rd over. After that the combination of Krishna (4/54) and Thakur (3/37) ensured England losing wickets at regular intervals with Bhubaneshwar Kumar, economical as ever, joining in at the end for 2 wickets. Sensational debutant Krunal also opened his wicket account with a solitary one. Finally, England were all out for 250 in the 43^rdover which meant that but for the lack of enough wickets in hand the visitors were always in the chase.

 

With tremendous bench strength building up all the time for India, particularly the emergence of of quite a few promising fast bowlers, Team India seems to be swimming in a stream of constants and variables. The number of constants in the team seems to be dwindling from time to time in favour of the variables. See, India have achieved the last victories without the services of their main strike bowler Jasprit Bumrah, not to speak of another stalwart all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja. Of course, there have been contradictions in retaining non-performing constants, like the rigorous restoration project for KL Rahul and hark!—captain Kohli never looks at the prospect of experimenting with himself! This curious syndrome of ‘constants and variables’ should continue to work for India if not taken out of bounds. With the kind of experimentation going on it is not certain if Prasidh and Krunal are going to figure in the next team for the second ODI at all. Performing players should always be rewarded consistently and non-performing ones should be made to realize how precious and competitive the positions in Team India have become of late.

Maharashtra: Ashtavinayak Yatra Or Pilgrimage: Day 3

We got a little late because we had to check out of our hotel this third day being our last of the tour. Our bus was underway around 7am. This morning we were served breakfast at the hotel.

Vighneshwar Temple: Our seventh temple of the Ashtavinayaka tour was the Vighneshwar Temple at Ozhar. It is situated on the banks of Kukadi River, 95 km away from Pune city, just off the Pune-Nashik Highway, in the Junnar taluka of Pune district. The temple is enclosed on all sides by high stone walls, and its pinnacle is made of gold. The Ganesha form worshipped here is called Vighneshwar, ‘Lord of obstacles") or Vighnahar (spelt also as Vignahara, "Remover of obstacles") and is associated with the legend of Ganesha defeating Vignasura, the demon of obstacles.

The temple is surrounded by a walled compound with a large gateway flanked by two large stone Dvarapala (gatekeepers) sculptures and a row of four musicians in bas relief on the lintel. One can view the Lenyadri shrine and Shivneri Fort standing on the wall. Two large stone Deepamalas (lamp towers) stand near the gateway in front of a fine corridor of seven cusped arches. There are owaris (small room for meditation) on both sides of the gateway. The courtyard is tiled. The central temple has three entrances with sculptured side posts and lintels; the east one being the central one. The central one has a lintel with a Ganesha in relief surrounded with monkeys and parrots on trees. The temple has two halls, with first one (20 feet high) having the entrances to the north and south too and has the image of Dhundiraj Ganesha. The next one (10 feet high) has a white marble mushika (the mouse, which is the vehicle of Ganesha) seating in attendance. The temple walls are filled with murals and colorful sculptures. The shikhara - over the sanctum - is covered with gold foil. It also has two wide stone Prakarams (outer path outside a Hindu sanctum). Ozhar is prescribed as the seventh temple to be visited in the Ashtavinayaka circuit, though pilgrims often visit Ozar fifth, as it is a more convenient route. However, we have visited this as our seventh destination only.

Riverside, Ozhar

Girijatmaj Temple: Our eight and last temple of the tour was the spectacular mountain cave temple, Girijatmaj, at Lenyadri ('Lena' in Marathi meaning "cave" and 'adri' in Sanskrit meaning "mountain" or "stone") very near to Ozhar. The temple is situated within a series of 30 rock-cut Buddhist caves on a mountain, which are also called Ganesha Caves—the seventh cave housing the Ganesha temple. The temple hall with the altar has around 18 rock-cut cells used as meditation rooms. Situated 97 km from Pune, you have to climb 307 steps to reach the temple.  The idol here is not a separate idol but has been carved on a stone wall of the cave, from which only one eye of the idol can be seen. The mountain temple campus are full of monkeys who mix well with the devotees and accept the food offered.

Would Look in Spring

‘Girijatmaj’ literally means Ganesha the son, atmajmeaning son and Girija another name of Goddess Parvati or Goddess Durga. Legends have it that desiring to have a son; Parvati underwent austerities meditating on Ganesha, for twelve years at Lenyadri. Pleased by her penance, Ganesha blessed her with the boon that he will be born as her son. Accordingly, on the fourth lunar day of the bright fortnight of the Hindu month Bhadrapada (Ganesh chaturthi day), Parvati worshipped a clay image of Ganesha, which came alive. Thus, Ganesha was born to Parvati at Lenyadri. Later, he was named Gunesha by Lord Shiva. Shiva gave him a boon that whosoever remembers him before starting a job, will successfully complete that task. For 15 years Gunesha grew up at Lenyadri. Sindhu, who knew that his death would be at the hands of Gunesha, sent demons like Krur, Balasur, Vyomasur, Kshemma, Kushal, and many more, to kill Gunesha, but all of them were instead killed by him. At the age of six, the architect-god Vishwakarma worshipped Gunesha and endowed him with the weapons of Pasha (noose), Parashu (axe), Ankusha(hook) and Padma (Lotus). Once, little Gunesha knocked an egg from a mango tree, from which emerged a peacock. Gunesha mounted the peacock and assumed the name Mayureshwara. Mayureshwara later killed Sindhu and his army-generals at Morgaon, the most important Ashtavinayaka temple.

Twenty-six of the caves are individually numbered. The caves face to the south and are numbered serially from east to west. Caves 6 and 14 are chaitya-grihas (chapels), while the rest are viharas (dwellings for monks). The latter are in the form of dwellings and cells. There are also several rock-cut water cisterns; two of them have inscriptions. The layout of the caves, in general, is similar in pattern and shape. They mostly have one or two sides with two long benches for occupants' use. The caves date from between the 1st and 3rd century AD; the Ganesha shrine situated in Cave 7 is dated to the 1st century AD, though the date of conversion to a Hindu shrine is unknown. All of the caves arise from Hinayana Buddhism. 

 

Our fellow passengers have shown a perfect sense of camaraderie and support in climbing nearly 350 stone steps to the temple

—inspired by the Republic Day being observed on 26^TH January, 2014 today. The young helped the older and waited for them to get their breath back now then on the way up. Ashtavinayaka tour has been quite hectic but very fulfilling for us. Taking three days off during a continuously busy schedule we planned our very first Ashtavinayaka trip and completed the full darshan thanks to the blessings of Lord Ganesha. Religious beliefs and sentiments would naturally vary from individual to individual, but you do not need to be bound by a particular religion to visit such wonderfully vibrant ancient sites. Like the way cosmopolitan Mumbai celebrates Ganesha Festival every year.

We were given lunch at a nearby hotel. For the first time during this hectic tour people were seen taking their time and relaxing a lot. The bus dropped us back in Mumbai around 8 pm.