India's highest civilian award bestowed on a maestro, who has spent his entire life nurturing the soon to be lost treasure of Hindustani Classical music, on the same day as arguably the worlds most influential (if not powerful) nation went on to elect a new President.***
And had you turned on any channel, i bet my savings (cause i don't have any now) that you will see a complete run down on Barack Obama, his parents, his birth, his upbringing, his family, his non-existent political resume, his perfect electoral campaign and his historic win as the first ever Black president of the USA. Our own hero, a full 36yrs elder to Obama, with an impressive resume, found cursory mention on one Marathi Channel during news for a full 5mins. No "Vishesh", no breaking news, no special reports, no programs charting the course of the Maestro's journey so far!!
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The print media was much more caring going out of their way and printing the news on front page with the Maestro's picture in some corner. The web again, for example, ibnlive.com, were perfect twins to the TV. No news, no pictures, nothing. I actually searched on "Bhimsen" on ibnlive.com to look for the news and all i found was 5 lines!
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So much for national pride! When India was all gung ho about Obama and the channels were analysing what he could do or not do for India, the Bharat Ratna was reduced to a mere piece of insignificant news. It was just such a non-event! If world today is a global village, the celebrations at the main square seem to be attracting all the attention. Wonder if Pt.Bhimsen Joshi would want it if he were younger/healthier and more aware of the current goings.
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