Saturday, August 11, 2007

Wah Ustad!

Ustad Zakir Hussain teaches Indian Music in Stanford. Last quarter, he had called for teaching assistants. My little sis PeeVee sent across her (music) resume. He liked it, called her for an interview, and selected her and two others as his teaching assistants.

And since we are a music-loving lot, the news of PeeVee being a TA to Zakir Hussain spread far and wide in family and friend circles, and she probably got more congratulatory calls for this than when she got an admission to Stanford!

So for three months, she interacted with the Ustad pretty closely. It is quite obvious to anybody who knows of his existence that his is a very charming personality, and according to P, he is a "genuinely nice person, very down to earth, light-hearted, friendly and affectionate. Goes out of his way to help everybody." Heart-warming!

Anyway, during this quarter, the Little One was born, and when she was about a week or two old, when we played music to her, she would go all silent and listen intently. When that part of the rendering began, in which the Tabla dominated, she used to go all round-eyed and would start beating her limbs non-stop. Well, it happened too many times to be a coincidence, and so we decided that she loved the Tabla. And since most of the music we played for her had Zakir Hussain's tabla, we jokingly concluded that she was a fan of Zakir Hussain's.

Well. On the last day of the music class at Stanford, Zakir Hussain, his wife and daughter took PeeVee and the other TAs out for dinner. PeeVee took a printout of one of the snaps of the Little One I had sent to her, took it to Zakir, and told him that this baby, her niece, was his youngest fan and could he please autograph it.

He was fascinated by the snap. (Says PeeVee). He took it in his hands, and said "Oh, what a beautiful baby... beautiful hands....look at her long fingers...touchwood.. touchwood...". Then he asked PeeVee for the Little One's name, and wrote out a little message on the snap, and autographed it.

PeeVee showed it to us through the webcam, and man, am I thrilled! :)

Why am I posting this almost two months later? Coz I have been waiting and waiting for PeeVee to take a snap of that autographed picture which is a printout of a snap that I sent to her and send it to me (confused you, didn't I?), so that I could put it up along with this post. But she is too lazy busy. So I am going ahead with it.

19 comments:

Madhat said...

it is a small world indeed. one of my close friends was also a TA for the same course.. :)

PeeVee said...

Ok Ok I'll send it to you!! How subtle was the "lazy" thing!!

Anonymous said...

Looks like the family's tradition of over achievment has been passed to the junior aswell :)

Raj said...

Well, the little one had to be musically inclined what with all the genes and stuff. I don't think she had a choice. Unfair, actually!! :)

I love Lucy said...

All I can say is...WOW!

8&20 said...

somehow, i don't think it's going to happen shruthi :). if nothing happens till september, i promise to do something about it :).

Shammi said...

wow! Speechless! Waiting for pic! :)

praneshachar said...

wonderful congratulations to peevee and of course the full family it is nice to hear something like this where one known to us TA to world renowned person
congrats to one and all

pranesh

Madhu said...

Thats so nice! Kudos to Peevee for getting to do what she loves and that too with the Ustad himself! And a big hug and lots of encouragement to do something big to the lil' one!

Anonymous said...

Ha ha! Shruthi, what a novel way to get things done promptly! I'm sure you'll have THE pic in no time! Do put it up as an update.

Shark said...

wow! what an entry it's going to be for her baby book :)

eagerly waiting for the photo...

Sunita Venkatachalam said...

OMG I love love Zakir Hussain. Obviously for his looks ;)

I once volunteered as a organizer at a concert of his (Jugalbandi with Mandolin Srinivas) and he borrowed my talcum powder for his Tabla.

I stored that powder dabba for a long long time :) I was a silly 19 then..

Lucky little one and PeeVee

Shruthi said...

Madhat, ah, small world indeed!

PeeVee, let's see!

Anon, oooh, big words! Name please! :)

Raj, heh heh ;)

I Love Lucy, :)

8&20, oh yes, do.. that's so sweet of you!

Shyam, me too! :D

Kadalabal, thank you!

Madhu, :) thanks! Let's see!

Chaitra, I really hope so!

Shark, yeahh won't it? :)

Poppins, LOL! So like a starstruck teenager - but you know, I understand exactly how you would have felt :D - Have done silly things myself ;)

Anonymous said...

Wonderful... your sister is lucky..

~nm said...

Haha..I'm sure your sis will now send you the autographed pic's pic soon :D after the lazy err busy line at the end of your post :D

Wow! Your daughter is surely one lucky girl to have signed collectibles this early!

Unknown said...

Very Cool, Shruts! Congratulations to Peevee and the little one.. I have a feeling the little one will be handing out autographs one day :-)

Anonymous said...

Awesome..Nice to hear about it.

Sudipta Chatterjee said...

Wow! Maybe you would be able to isolate a music gene somewhere.

P.S. - Since PeeVee doesn't reply or post on her blog, my congratulations to her from here itself. :)

Usha said...

YOur sister must be really talented of Zakir hussain was impressed with her CV. And now the little one has a lot of reputation to live up to. My best wishes.

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