Remembering the maestro

Oxford Bookstore Connaught Place in association with Delhi Diary hosted Remembering Ravi Shankar, an evening dedicated to the legendary musician as Sujit Sanyal presented an audio visual talk show on the life of the extraordinary musician. 

Pandit Ravi Shankar was one of the best-known exponents of sitar and a composer of Hindustani classical music. He is the recipient of several prestigious awards like Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, Padma Bhushan, Padma Vibhushan and Bharat Ratna. Shankar was born in Varanasi (Kashi) and spent his youth touring Europe and India with the dance group of his brother Uday Shankar. He gave up dancing in 1938 to study sitar playing under court musician Allauddin Khan. 

After finishing his studies in 1944, Shankar worked as a composer, creating the music for the Apu Trilogy by Satyajit Ray, and was music director of All India Radio. Shankar was born Robindro Shankar on April 7, 1920, in Benares, which is considered the holiest of cities in India. He was the youngest son of a family of Bengali Brahmins, coming from an upper-class background.