ISBN 978-93-52015-66-5 © Lata Upadhyay 2016 The Publishers acknowledge with thanks the artists who have lent their talent to this book, so children may dream: Ravi Shankar: W.B. Santos (wilsonsketchblog.blogspot.com) Tenzing Norgay: R.K. Laxman (Mid-Day) Srinivas Ramanujam: pinterest.com Kapil Dev: Priyanka Goswami Verghese Kurien: Telegraphindia.com & Amul India Cover: Fravashi Aga Layouts: Chandravadan Shiroorkar, Leadstart Design Printing: Repro Knowledgecast Limited, Thane Published in English 2016 by HAPPY SQUIRREL An imprint of LEADSTART PUBLISHING PVT LTD Unit 25/26, Building A/1 Near Wadala RTO Wadala (East), Mumbai 400037, INDIA T + 91 22 24046887 +91 96 99933000 F +91 22 40700800 [email protected] Wwww.leadstartcorp.com All rights reserved worldwide No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior permission of the Publisher. Any person committing an unauthorised act in relation to this publication can be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. DISCLAIMER This book does not seek to reflect the ideas of the Publisher.

To my children, Shyla and Rouvin ~

for believing that real stories can be way more amazing than fairytales.

ABOUT THE STORYTELLER

After seven years in advertising, LATA UPADHYAY decided to be her own boss. She now enjoys running a consumer research firm where they poke and pry into what people think, feel and do. But what she enjoys most is coming back every day to her happy place: writing. She was inspired to write Why Not? by her children. The sparks of awe and delight ignited by real stories in their wonder-filled eyes drew her in completely. Soon she was hooked to researching real people and the exciting details that brought their lives alive. It was as exciting as snooping for clues to an unfolding mystery! Lata grew up in New Delhi, India. Subsequently, she has lived and worked in Canada and the US. She currently lives in New York, with her husband and two sassy children. Lata welcomes comments, feedback and suggestions from her readers. She can be reached at: [email protected]

CONTENTS CHAPTER I THE MUSIC WEAVER

The Story of Pandit Ravi Shankar………….........….………….…........…6 CHAPTER II THE DETERMINED DREAMER The Story of Tenzing Norgay……………............….....…………….….……31 CHAPTER III THE MATHEMAGICIAN The Story of Srinivasa Ramanujan…….……….............………....……....…56 CHAPTER IV THE GAME CHANGER The Story of Kapil Dev…………………..........………....…………….….….80 CHAPTER V THE WHITE KNIGHT The Story of Dr. Verghese Kurien…………..............……………..……….102 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………...….....……………….…127

W.B. Santos (wilsonsketchblog.blogspot.com)

THE MUSIC WEAVER

THE STORY OF PANDIT RAVI SHANKAR 6

1 A GLIMPSE OF WESTERN RAZZMATAZZ

He felt like a button in a box of sequins. He did not understand the language. He was placed in a lower grade at school in the hope that it would give him time to acclimatize. This did not deter the boys in his class from bullying him. But he found a way to outwit them – dodge and run like a bolt of lightning. He was older than them and a fast sprinter. They could not catch him! That is how ten-year-old Ravi Shankar started off at his new school in Paris, France. Everything was so different. Gone were the narrow lanes, the stone stairways of the ghats and the welcoming shahnais playing in temples and palaces in his hometown of Benares, India. Ravi had been born there on 7 April 1920. His Bengali parents christened him Robindro Shaunkor Chowdhury (as pronounced in Bengali). In later years he preferred to use the Sanskrit ‘Ravi’. He was the youngest in the family. Of his four brothers, Uday was the eldest and Ravi called him Dada, meaning ‘elder brother’ in Bengali. The others were Rajendra, Debendra and Bhupendra. Ravi’s father, Shyam Shankar Chowdhury, was a dapper lawyer. He was successful and respected in his profession. But for Ravi, he was an absent father. He had not been around when Ravi was born. Shortly before Ravi’s birth, Shyam Shankar had left for London and

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married an English woman. Ravi met his father for the first time when he was eight years old. All through his life, Ravi spent only a month or two with his father. Shyam Shankar rarely sent money home. Without a husband to help her, Hemangini, Ravi’s mother, had a tough time. She had no education and no formal employment. She worried about raising her five sons without a steady income. Hemangini received a small monthly pension, which she supplemented with odd jobs like sewing clothes. Sometimes, to make ends meet, she pawned her jewellery. On occasion, Ravi accompanied her to the jeweller for this purpose. Mother and son stepped out after dusk, hiding in the blanket of darkness. Hemangini covered herself with a shawl so people would not recognize her. One of Ravi’s most cherished childhood experiences was listening to his mother sing folk songs. With his head resting in her lap, he spent hours watching the night sky, entranced. Bright, twinkling stars shone as a backdrop to his mother’s melodic singing. Ravi liked to sing too. Since he was the baby of the family, he was often picked to sing before guests. Initially shy and nervous under the gaze of expectant eyes, Ravi gradually grew to enjoy the appreciation; it made him feel all grown-up and important. At home, Ravi loved to curl up with a book in hand. The Mahabharata and Ramayana tickled his imagination. When alone, he stood in front of a mirror and enacted scenes from the epics. At the time, stage plays were a popular form of entertainment. Ravi loved the exaggerated drama portrayed in the stage performances during Durga Puja and Dusshera. The delicious food, an intrinsic part of 8

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these celebrations, made his stomach rumble in anticipation. His favorite was sinni – a special sweet made of milk, flour, chopped bananas and nuts. Ravi’s childhood was not only difficult financially, but also lonely. Like a giant river, age separated Ravi from his brothers. Bhupendra was nine years older than Ravi, and Uday, twenty years his senior. He had no playmate to try out silly, fun things and play childish pranks with. Alone at home, Ravi pitterpattered about the house. He encountered music while fiddling with his brother’s musical instruments. The sitar fascinated him. Its long neck and broad gourd body was much too big for young Ravi’s lap. But when his fingers plucked the strings, he relished the unusual sounds. In 1930, Ravi’s father, Shyam Shankar, and eldest brother, Uday Shankar, teamed up to create a dance troupe in Paris. It was this family undertaking that ultimately took Ravi out of India, to France. Paris was like a dream to Ravi. Bombay was the only big city he had seen but it was nothing like the French metropolis. Cinema houses were everywhere, playing movies with sound, also known as ‘talkies’. These were very different from the silent movies Ravi had seen in Benares. In the City of Light streets swarmed with pedestrians, cozy cafés and inviting public squares. Their new home, with its eight rooms, seemed like a mansion. Stepping out into the streets, Ravi could smell the wonderful aromas of croissants, brioches and baguettes. He marvelled at the sheer size and extravagance of Versailles Palace. The lush Tuileries Garden, with its promenades and flowerbeds, fascinated him. Artists from all 9

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over the world seemed to live in Paris. Art was everywhere, as was jazz and classical music, ballet and flamenco dancing. Music was everywhere in Benares too, but the music here had new textures for Ravi. He found as much life and soul in jazz as in the music at the Benares ghats. Despite its eclectic mix, Paris felt like home.

INDIAN MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

Indian musical instruments are divided into 4 categories: 1. Stringed instruments (bowed or plucked): This is the largest and most important category, for strings are considered the best accompaniment to singing, the primary element of Indian music. The sitar belongs to this category and is one of the most popular in Hindustani music. It is played with a plectrum, worn on the right hand index finger. Some other instruments in this category are the sarod, veena, surbahar, tanpura and sarangi. 2. Family of drums: Among the many form of drums, the most popular is the tabla. 3. Wind instruments: The murali or bansuri, is traditionally associated with Lord Krishna. Another wind instrument is the shahnai, which is considered auspicious and is played at house warmings, marriages and other new beginnings. 4. Small percussion instruments: Made of metal, wood or porcelain, the percussion group (excluding drums), includes many kinds of bells, gongs and little cymbals.

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By the spring of 1933, thirteen-year-old Ravi had turned into a graceful and talented dancer. When he performed solo, audiences sat up and noticed. Ravi was ecstatic. He was one of the youngest members of the troupe but also one of the best. What more could he ask for? When he was not dancing, Ravi accompanied the other dancers as a musician. He tried his hand at the sitar and the esraj, a multistringed instrument also called the Indian harp. He travelled with the troupe all over Europe: to France, Switzerland, Italy, England, Germany, Belgium and Holland. Germany was a welcoming country, felt Ravi. Its people were somewhat more familiar with Indian culture and knew of Gandhi and Tagore, the most popular Indian personalities of those days. After touring Europe, the Shankar family troupe went to the United States. While the art and culture in Europe was tasteful, the heights of modernity and advancement in America were dazzling. With each new step, life became ever more electrifying for Ravi. Still on the ship, Ravi’s heart missed a beat when he saw the Empire State building (the tallest building in the world then), and the daunting magnificence of the Chrysler Building, rising into the New York skyline. Once on land, he loved the razzle dazzle of Times Square and had no qualms stretching and craning his neck to look up the skyscrapers all around him. Ravi was at ease in this new life. The glamour of life in the West charmed its way into his heart.

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2

AT A CROSSROAD In 1934, Uday and Ravi visited India to attend a classical music festival in Kolkata. Dancers performed with style and elegance, musicians played with technique and flair. Then Ustad Allauddin Khan walked onto the stage, sporting a long beard. He wore a round black cap on his head and a short dhoti with an ordinary tunic on top. His very simplicity made him stand out among the musicians dressed in rich tunics and bright turbans. The Ustad’s group, Maihar, astounded Ravi. Here was a band of orphan boys with no musical background except for what they had received from the Ustad, yet they played on many innovative instruments (one was made of steel pipes, another was a banjositar). Ravi also saw Ustad Allauddin Khan perform. Nothing he had ever heard before had touched him so deeply. Uday persuaded Ustad Allauddin Khan to accompany the troupe on a tour of Europe. While travelling together, Ravi discovered a father-figure in Ustad Khan. Baba, as Ravi called him, encouraged Ravi’s curiosity for classical music and taught him traditional songs and sitar. It was an incredible experience for Ravi to be able to recreate the full range of sounds on sitar by himself. Dancing was also an increasingly exciting experience for Ravi. His first choreographed dance received a fine review in the New York

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Times. But Baba was unhappy with the way things were. While leaving for India, he told Ravi, ‘This life you are living is not the way. You will be a jack of all trades and master of none.’ His words jolted Ravi. Was that true? USTAD ALLAUDDIN KHAN

Ravi Shankar’s guru, Ustad Allauddin Khan, was a music genius. Many think he created the Maihar gharana of Indian classical music, when, in fact, he was the one who restyled the gharana. He set up the first Indian orchestra – the Maihar Band, whose performance blew away Ravi Shankar. As a young man, Ustad Allauddin Khan learnt from many masters and played multiple instruments – the sarod, sitar, surbahar, surshringar, seniya rabab, chandrasarang, sitar-banjo and naltarang (made of gun metal pipes). A nonconformist, he brought in varied styles of playing. The many instruments he used brought him into close touch with their various tones and ranges. He experimented with them and taught his students innovative ways on how their musicality could be heightened in an orchestral setting.

Baba offered to train Ravi to play the sitar – but with one condition. The training would take place in Baba’s home town, Maihar – a small village in Madhya Pradesh. Ravi knew the sitar demanded many years of training. He would have to leave the troupe and his family. He had spent nearly eight years touring the world with 13

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them and enjoying it all. On one hand he had a promising career as a dancer, on the other, the tough path of a sitar player, with no certainty of success. What should he do? Before he could decide, devastating news arrived. Hemangini had passed away. She had not been able to pull through an attack of pneumonia. His mother’s death was hard on Ravi. His choice would have to wait.

3

TUMBLING INTO A STRANGE WORLD Shaven head, stubble-roughed jaw, dressed in plain white clothes – this was a new avatar for Ravi Shankar. He resolutely decided to give up the West with its many charms and learn the sitar instead. In 1938, he set out for Maihar. Ravi packed only what would fit into a cheap tin trunk. That was all he needed. Out went his fancy clothes and fine kurtas. Instead, he got a few handspun, white kurtas, pajamas, and plain sheets. After living in four or five star hotels all over the world, adjusting to life in a small village was not easy for Ravi. In Maihar, he lived in a house next to Baba’s. Initially, the hard bed, khatia, gave him many sleepless nights. Howling wolves and jackals added to his discomfort. Mosquitoes, bugs and roaches were everywhere. Snakes and scorpions crawled around. There was little by way 14

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of entertainment, unlike the movie halls in Paris, which he so loved. Getting used to Baba’s strict regimen and his swiftly roused anger, were equally challenging. Baba’s son, Ali Akbar (later a renowned sarod player), was a couple of years younger than Ravi. The two hit it off immediately. Ali, his sister – Annapurna, and Ravi, trained together. Baba was an uncompromising task master. And rather than face long hours of daily practice, Ali often ran away. If his performances were not up to mark, Baba would punish him. Once Baba tied up Ali to a tree, whipped him and left him there for many hours. Unlike Ali, Ravi never ran away. Instead, he took his lessons seriously. He was willing to put in what it took to become the best sitar player. He rose at 4 am every day and did rigorous practice for 14-16 hours. Baba’s constant presence was unnerving. One day, when Ravi was unable to do a special exercise, Baba flew into a rage. ‘You have no strength in those wrists,’ he exclaimed. ‘Go and buy some bangles to wear. You are a weak little girl.’ That was it. Nobody had ever insulted Ravi in such a manner. He packed his bags and set off to catch the next train home. But when Ali heard the news, he ran to the station. ‘You are the only person Baba has never laid a hand on; we are all amazed by that and yet you are running away because he gives you a little scolding?’ he said to his friend. He finally convinced Ravi to return to Baba. 15

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