B V Keskar । বি ভি কেসকর

Just a couple of days after the sad death of the one and only Ameen Sayani, I stumbled upon a photo with him, taken by his son at the NCPA, Mumbai. ‘August 2019’ was scrawled on it and I had gone there to deliver the Jamshed Bhaba Memorial Talk on Indian Culture. I was his great admirer and came to know him well from the time I headed All India Radio and Doordarshan, as CEO, Prasar Bharati.

Just a couple of days after the sad death of the one and only Ameen Sayani, I stumbled upon a photo with him, taken by his son at the NCPA, Mumbai. ‘August 2019’ was scrawled on it and I had gone there to deliver the Jamshed Bhabha Memorial Talk on Indian Culture. I was his great admirer. And came to know him well from the time I headed All India Radio and Doordarshan, as CEO, Prasar Bharati.

কাহিনির সূচনা ১৯৫২-র অগাস্ট মাসে সিংহলি রেডিওতে একটি হিন্দি ফিল্মি গানের অনুষ্ঠানের মধ্য দিয়ে। পাঁচ বছর আগেই ভারত স্বাধীন হয়েছে। দেশভাগ, দাঙ্গা ও আঞ্চলিক সংঘাতের বাতাবরণেও বাহ্যত দেশটা তখন সংহত, ঐক্যবদ্ধ। তবে সে দেশের না আছে কোনও সাধারণ ভাষা না আছে কোনও অভিন্ন আবেগ। 

B V Keskar was Pandit Nehru’s Information Minister for a decade, from 1952 to 1962. For him, Hindi film songs were a strict ‘no-no’ where Akashvani was concerned, as in his opinion, it should be the mission of the public broadcaster, to encourage only classical music. He had to face a lot of pressure and ridicule for this rather obdurate stand, but there is no doubt that had it not been for him, Indian classical music may have never reached and enthralled the common man,because classical music by its very nature was meant primarily for the elite.