Yogesh Gogwekar's Blog

Dattaram Wadkar: Known for Dattaram Theka in Hindi film music  Very recently, I was listening to one song from the film Ab Dilli Door Nahin which was made in 1957 and the song was Chhun Chhun Karti Aayi Chidiya. This is a children's song sung by Mohammed Rafi. Its music was composed by Dattaram Wadkar. The rhythm for this song was the genesis of dholak and so distinctive and came to be known as Dattaram Theka in the music circle of Bollywood. Many music directors remained unsung in the history of Bollywood music and Dattaram was one of them. In any time, the history of Hindi Film music will be written, the name of Dattaram cannot be forgotten. In fact, his name would be on the top as a prominent music director of Hindi films. From Yogesh Gogwekar Dattaram Wadkar was born in Pedne village of Goa in a poor family in 1930. His original surname was Shirodkar and not Wadkar. There are no proper details available about the change of his name from Shirodkar to Wadkar. Since he...

Romancing with Life: An Autobiography of Such Actor Who Romanced With his Life Till His Death “From an ordinary boy, anon-entity, to now, as I stand here in front of you today, this book is about 62 years of my struggles…… (About) my joys, my sorrows, my highs and my lows. It is an honest depiction of a man with all his strengths and weakness”.  These are the words of Dharamdev Pishorimal Anand, popularly known as Dev Anand, an evergreen hero of Bollywood.  He said these words at the time of releasing his book Romancing with life and this book was released by the former Prime minister Dr. Manmohan Singh. This memoir talks about an honest tale of his life, which revolves around his family, friends, movies, his love affairs and his romantic encounters. Yes, it is a story of such a romantic hero who romances women two generations younger, on screen.  Dev Anand was an effervescent personality which means lively or high-spirited personality.  His life was ful...

P D’mello : A great labour leader who has been forgotten in Today’s world . It is quite befitting to say that Narayan Malhar Joshi was the first person to start the labour movement in India. Even though his priceless contributions to the various labour movements, he could not form any labour organization. Similarly, Shripad Amrut Dange had spent his life in the labour movement for nearly fifty years, but still he also could not organise workers on the class basis during his tenure in labour movement. Such a labour organization was first formed by a philanthropic and very skilled leader P D’mello who was one of the greatest leaders in the labour movement in India. Today, many are not aware about P D’mello but more than thousand Mumbaikars are using his name because a 6-km arterial stretch between the south end of Eastern freeway and north end of Colaba Causeway is being called P D’mello Road. From Yogesh Gogwekar Placid D’mello, son of Raymond D’mello and Cecilia Serra, w...

The Case of India: A Perspective book written on the state of India around 1930. William James Duran an American writer, historian and philosopher is very much known for his work story of Civilization written in 11 volumes with the help of his wife Ariel Durant. His work on philosophy is so excellent that his book story of philosophy has been described as groundbreaking work to popularize the philosophy to common persons.  This young American historian and philosopher travelled around the world with his wife to write about the Story of civilization. In 1930, he came to India to study ancient India and to write about Indian civilization. During his visit, he saw how British bled India year after year to the point of death.  According to Durant, there was no major famine in India before the arrival of British rule. It was only during the British rule, Millions of Indians died every year from famine. Therefore, he kept his work aside and understood the Indian situation in...

Conversation with Waheeda Rehman: A Great Book of her Memoir.  When we start reading memoirs of any celebrities, we always try to find out insights of every aspect of their life. Through these memoirs, we would like to know about their life, their family, their professional and their relationship with other professional colleagues and try to understand their views about the life.  The same thing happened to me when I started reading the book titled as Conversation with Waheeda Rehman written by Nasreen Munni Kabir. This book is nothing but the life story of legendary actor from her childhood till leaving of film industry to start her family and to enjoy the world of her own. Nasreen Munni Kabir is working as director and author for British Terrestrial Television Channel 4 in United Kingdom.  Before this book, she has done several documentaries and written nearly fifteen books on Indian Cinema. She has published the conversation with many personalities in film indust...

Shivnarine Chanderpaul: An unsung hero  from Guyana , West Indies His behaviour was calm and peaceful on the field; but still he has been called as Tiger and this nick name was given to him by former West Indian legend cricketer Rohan Kanhai because his attacking batting style on bowlers.  I was also amazing with his stance. He used to turn his stand in such ninety-degree angle, so that one can feel that he was facing a bowler coming from square leg. He was the most consistent performer and popular for his unorthodox style of batting rather than technique or shots. He is nothing but Shivnarine Chanderpaul a Guyanese left-hander batsman. From Yogesh Gogwekar Shivnarine Chanderpaul was born on 16 th August 1974 in Guyana into the family of Indo-Guyanese family. They are original from Bihar India. Even though this family settled down in West Indies, they are following their ancestral religion i.e. Hinduism and Shivnarine is highly religious and spiritual in his appro...

Gangubai Hangal: Doyen of Kirana Gharana in Hindustani Classical music Hubali and Dharwad are two twin cities and very well known for their glorious contributions in the Hindustani classical Music. Some vocalists like Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, Pandit Mallikarjun Mansur, Ramchandra Kungolkar (Sawai Gandharva) and Jayateerth Mevundi is the examples, but Gangubai Hangal is possibly the most well-known of them all. Multifaceted and Humorist Marathi writer P L Deshpande once rightly said that,” Hubali and Dharwad is the twin city and known for Sidharth Math (a national renowned Spiritual Ashram) and Gangubai Hangal. If Hubali and Dharwad is on the world map,  it is largely due to these two”. From Yogesh Gogwekar Gangubai Chikkurao Hangal was born on 5th March 1913 in family of occupational musician in Dharwad, Her Mother, Ambabai, was a vocalist in Carnatic music and was an expert in singing Javali a gebre of semi erotic song. It was being said that Ustad Adbul Karim Khan used t...

Intertwined Lives P N Haskar and Indira Gandhi : A fantastic Biography of P N Haskar. Mrs. Indira Gandhi had become a Prime minister of India in 1966 when India was facing lot of political and economic crisis. Parliament was attacked by Gau Rakshaks, there were shortage of food and due to this India was depending upon USA for food. Devaluation of Indian Rupee brought political and economic disaster. Congress Party started losing its control in important states which resulted slowly split in the Party.  India’s policies regarding economic and politics became fragile due to this there was a challenge to the external situations. Prime minister, Indira Gandhi, was too young and inexperienced. She was yet to come of her own. She was surrounded by so many opponents within the party and government. During this time, one man came to bring harmony by resolving these issues not only by helping Prime minister but also to pull out the India remarkably from the internal and external crisi...