Karnataka   

‘Complete work on Sawai Gandharva auditorium’

Kundagol: From Hubli to Kundagol, at every 200 yards, there were huge hoardings announcing that Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa would give away the Sawai Gandharva Memorial National Award at 7 p.m. The Chief Minister, however, could not make it to the award ceremony due to ill health.

But when the other dignitaries finally reached the venue at Kundagol, it was little over 10.45 p.m. and the 96-year-old recipient of the award, Gangubai Hangal, had waited patiently for nearly three hours! The Sawai Gandharva Memorial National Award was conferred upon the Kirana Gharana exponents Hangal and Bhimsen Joshi. Rambhau Kundagolkar, who later came to be known as Sawai Gandharva was a phenomenally talented artiste who gave a new turn to Marathi theatre. He was also the student of the founder of Kirana Gharana, Abdul Karim Khan Saab. An award instituted in the memory of such an outstanding actor-musician was given to his student who had done him proud. The award comprised a citation and a purse of Rs. 11,000. Pandit Joshi couldn’t make it to the ceremony for health reasons. However, the organising committee said they would personally hand over the award to him in Pune.

After receiving the award from Minister of Irrigation Basavaraj Bommai, Gangubai said: “I have been carrying on this tradition, and I’m immensely happy about it. Wherever I go, I tell people that our Kundagol listeners are very enlightened. I have local, untrained people who analyse a concert perfectly. In all these years of listening, their ears are well trained. I feel very proud of them. But if there is one wish that remains unfulfilled, it is the completion of the Sawai Gandharva auditorium. If I can sing there in my lifetime, my teacher’s soul will rest in peace.”

In his address Mr. Bommai said: “It is indeed the good deeds of my previous birth that has given me the good fortune of conferring the Sawai Gandharva National Award on Gangubai.

This two-day music festival is not merely entertainment but it is an act of watering the roots of our rich tradition. What moves me immensely is Gangubai’s great devotion for her teacher even today, which is the hallmark of our culture and tradition.” He later assured that Gangubai’s dream of singing in the Sawai Gandharva auditorium would be fulfilled and that the auditorium would be completed in the next two years.

Minister Murugesh Nirani called Gangubai a “national treasure” and promised that he would never let down the people of the region.

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