ChaiTimeRadio

Sonu Nigam is one of the very loved and respected singers from Indian Movie Industry. In this show we play some of his hit songs and wish him all the best for his upcoming live performance at SAP center, San jose, CA on May 25th. This is a charity show to help Sankara Eye Foundation.

Zindagi Kaisi Hai Paheli - Golden voice of Manna De by Chai Time Radio

In this Chaitime Show, we talk to Dr. David Szanton, President of Ethnic Art Foundation(EAF), about his journey and experiences on preserving the traditional art of Madhubani or Mithila paintings practiced in the region of Mithila in Bihar, India. David talks about The Mithila Art Institute (MAI), a free art school in Madhubani town, founded by EAF with the hope that the MAI would encourage the development of a new generation of Mithila painters. Now eight years later it has graduated some 180 students, many having received national and even international recognition. David also describes many paintings which are dear to him and those paintings are included in this blog.

To see the photographs of Madhubani paintings and more details visit:

http://chai-time-radio.tumblr.com/post/77609470053/chaitime-with-dr-david-szanton-on-mithila-paintings

In this Chaitime we talk to accomplished Hindustani Classical singer Madhuvanti Bhide.

Born and raised in Pune, India, Madhuvanti’s fascination with singing started at an early age. Madhuvanti’s golden voice and poignant rendering is a powerful combination that indeed captivates audiences wherever she performs. Madhuvanti has been residing in the Bay area for more than twelve years and has given sparkling performances, time and again. She has received training from N.V.Diwan, Dr Alka Deo Marulkar, and for a brief period, from Pt. Arun Dravid, a renowned exponent of Jaipur Gharana. She has released two albums “Arpan" and "Ase Sur Gave”.

In 1991, Madhuvanti was awarded the sangeet visharad degree by the Gandharva Mahavidyalaya, Pune.

In this show Madhuvanti is also joined by Shraddha Joglekar, Artistic Director of Kalavishkar to talk about their upcoming performance Sur-Nartan.

You can enjoy this enchanting evening of Indian Classical culture - a union of Hindustani vocal and Bharatnatyam dance on Jan 25, 2014. Details can be found here : https://www.facebook.com/KalaawishkarDanceSchool/posts/80170271984509.

In this Chaitime we talk to Mahmood Farooqui about Dastangoi and also listen to few excerpts from his live shows.

Dastangoi is the once thriving art of Urdu storytelling in North India which came to an abrupt end with the death of the last great practitioner in 1928. Farooqui is credited with almost single-handedly reviving a traditional performance art of story-telling, dastangoi. He has published on this subject, and received awards for his cultural work in this arena. His engagement with dastangoi is more than scholarly, however. Farooqui is a performance artist who is reviving this art form through his own practice. His performances have been critically acclaimed.

Farooqui is also known for his film Peepli Live (2010), a scathing critique of post-liberalization media culture and politics in India, which he co-directed.

For more information on this art form see:http://dastangoi.blogspot.com/

In this Chaitime show, we talk to Anusha in-depth about her movie Peepli Live, which has attained a status of cult movie in India. Peepli Live is a 2010 Indian satirical comedy film that explores the topic of “farmer suicides” and the subsequent media and political responses. It is written and directed by Anusha Rizvi as her directorial debut. It has been three years since the movie was released but the ideas presented are still relevant.

In this Chaitime we talk to the team from Sankara Eye Foundation, USA and Sankara Eye Care Institutions, India who are working tirelessly to make the goal of Sankara’s mission of eradicating preventable blindness a reality.

The guests, Sundar Radhakrishnan, C.N. Srivatsan, Murali Krishnamurthy, Dr. Kaushik Murali and Bharath Balasubramaniam were here in San Francisco to attend the Symposium, “Scaling Up Social Impact,” organized by the SEF.

Sankara’s achievements are big but their goals are bigger still. SEF and SECI working together have achieved phenomenal progress. They have gone from one eye hospital and 8,000 eye surgeries to 1 million free eye surgeries this year at nine state of the art hospitals all over India. Their plan is to build 20 hospitals by 2020: Vision 20/20 by 2020.

In today’s show, we talk to our guests about the challenges and opportunities they see. Also, we get an in-depth view of the operations, organizational capabilities, and innovations being made by Sankara to provide eye care at a large scale level and make it sustainable. Their effort is not only noticed and appreciated by the patients, volunteers and donors, but also by others. Recently SEF received a four star rating by the Charity Navigator, America’s largest charity evaluator.

Tune in to KZSU Stanford 90.1 FM on Sunday, Dec 1st at 3.00pm to get inspired and become part of a movement which is changing the world.

Jagjit Singh passed away two years back on October 10th. In today’s Chai Time we will listen to memorable songs and ghazals by Jagjit Singh.

दुनिया जिसे कहते हैं जादू का खिलौना है

मिल जाए तो मिट्टी है खो जाए तो सोना है

दुनिया, कभी सोना तो कभी मिट्टी ये गहरी बातें, ये फ़लसफे तो हम बहुत आगे जाकर, बड़े होकर जान पाते हैं लेकिन बचपन इन सबसे अछूता होता है, मासूम होता है। आनेवाली ज़िंदगी के थपेड़ों से अंजान, बचपन तो बस दौड़ना जानता है, भागना जानता है। साथियों, मैं जब भी झुर्रियों से लिपटा कोई चेहरा देखती हूँ, तो लगता है कि एक कहानी होगी इस चेहरे के पीछे और ऐसी कई कहानियाँ हर चेहरे के पीछे लेकिन एक चीज़ जो सबके लिए एक सी होती है, वो है बचपन। सबका एक अतीत-बचपन… हर कोई दौड़ता है, भागता है, बारिश में बेशुमार भीगता है, धूप में नंगे पाँव घूमता है, साथियों के साथ शरारतें करने में मशगूल रहता है, तब कोई शोर कोलाहल नहीं लगता, कोई शाम उदास नहीं होती, हर दिन एक नया आगाज़ होता है और बस खुशियों का खज़ाना होता है। फिर हम बड़े होने लगते हैं, ज़िंदगी की रेलपेल में लग जाते हैं, कुछ पाने की होड़ में जुट जाते हैं, पा भी लेते हैं लेकिन…लेकिन वो बचपन की मासूम खुशी फिर कभी दस्तक नहीं देती और तब लगता है कि सब कुछ छिन जाए तो चलेगा पर वो आँगन, वो गलियाँ, वो दिन वो बचपन वापस मिल जाएँ|

ये दौलत भी ले लो, ये शोहरत भी ले लो भले छीन लो मुझसे मेरी जवानी

मगर मुझको लौटा दो बचपन का सावन, वो कागज की कश्ती, वो बारिश का पानी

The above ghazals and all of his work will stay with us forever.

In today’s ChaiTime we talk to Kavita Krishnan.

Kavita Krishnan is Secretary of the All India Progressive Women’s Association (AIPWA), a women’s group that is especially active among women workers, agricultural laborers, and other sections of poor laboring women in rural and urban India. The AIPWA has a record of resistance against feudal violence on women and state repression against women. Kavita has also been a student activist, helping to organize women students on many campuses to demand mechanisms against sexual harassment.

Kavita Krishnan was in UC Berkeley to give the third "Maharaj Kaul Memorial Lecture," a lecture series on the theme of social justice. This lecture series has been established in the memory of Maharaj Kaul (1940 - 2009), a UC Berkeley alum, tireless campaigner against injustice and for peace, the founder of groups such as India Relief, Education Fund, and Coalition against Communalism, as well as a long-time supporter of CSAS’s mission and activities.

In this conversation Kavita shares problems faced by women in India as well as her inspiring ideas and thoughts to address them.

In this Chaitime show, we listen to melodious voice of Rahat Fateh Ali Khan.