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Kamruddin alias Ustad Bismillah Khan was a permanent fixture during all our national functions, especially the Republic Day. The melodious notes from his shehnai would gently wrap our beings, giving our souls the much-needed tranquility. Although he had a choice of several musical instruments, he chose the shehnai as his vehicle for spiritual-musical communion with the divine and the temporal. In the process, he transformed the rather humble two-reed wind instrument into a world famous organ of classy as well as classical music. Poddar has done well to delineate the maestro’s plus points in her pen portrait. Pasricha’s photographs facilitate the coming alive of Bismillah on the pages of this book. But the warts are missing. Why?
Humour is in short supply. More
so, original humour. Hence, one began reading this book with certain
reservations, expecting clichés and stereotypes. But soon one was smiling,
chuckling and occasionally laughing rather heartily. The situations in this
collection may appear familiar but the treatment is certainly original. The
very first story The Adult Mind is a humorous take on a teenager’s
perception of his parents. Also, there are quite a few stories on the famous
Indian ritual called ‘The Bride Seeing Ceremony’ in which every prospective
groom’s parents indulge. Although matrimony forms the staple of most of the
stories, the variety is provided by both the treatment as well as myriad
regional flavours, plus the crossover types like It’s all relative
wherein an US-based Iyer lad plays mind games with his Sikh Meditations Essentially, this is a translation of Jap, the first book of Sikh scriptures that comprises 38 hymns. The translation has been done with an eye on the western Anglophone readership. There are explanations of Sikh and Hindu terms that appear in the original. The book, authored by a Canadian citizen, has understandably tried to draw similarities between Christianity and Sikhism even as it highlights conceptual and practical differences with Hinduism. The reading of this translated work is interesting as well as enlightening.
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Bismillah Khan
India Smiles
orthodox parents in
order to extract their consent for having and Muslim bride. There are other
stories too like oh, Baby Baby on first parenthood, Page 3 party and
Oops! Let me politically correct that, which are quite entertaining.
This book can help you spend your leisure hours smiling.