26 October 2017
Pankaj Sinha, a Visually Impaired PG student in the Dept of Music, Viva Bharati University, Santiniketan, appealed to SVH for audio books on his MMus syllabus. Pankaj took a courageous step. He did his undergraduation in Liberal Arts, possibly History obeying the wish of his family guardians. But his heart pined for music and hence at PG level he listened to his heart and got himself admitted in the Music Dept.
When I asked Pankaj whether he owns a harmonium he said he was in dire need of one but at the moment cannot buy one. I offered him to play one frequently used scale-changing harmonium of SVH, perfectly cared, loved and tuned. One of our old volunteers, of live reader service, Mrs Poonam Nand Dey of Kolkata, presently a Japanese language teacher, donated it to perpetuate the memory of her late mother-in-law, though the harmonium came in a tattered condition. My uncle Setar-artist late Netai Bose, sometime in 2003 or so, arranged for its re-life through a skilled harmonium mechanic. Since then so many vision impaired musicians, music teachers and students have played it from time to time delivering immense joy to many many listeners.
SVH decided to loan this instrument to Pankaj to enable him to continue his studies in Music till it is possible for him or us to find a sponsor for a scale-changing harmonium!
Yesterday SVH volunteer Debasish Paine escorted Pankaj with the harmonium to his hostel at the VB University, Santiniketan and we gave a reluctant bye to our friend Harmonium! Santiniketan Photos attached.
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