Desert Souls

With Pradeep Chaturvedi, Sunil Gupta, Ranjana (singer) and Vishwa Mohan Bhatt

Wednesday, December 21^st, 2011: I arrived in Jaipur yesterday evening. Today evening was the inauguration of Desert Souls – a series of programmes on Rajasthan's talents (picture).

Desert Souls is a joint initiative of Rajasthan National Forum, a non-governmental organisation, of which I am the serving President, and the ITC Rajputana Hotel. The series would showcase the multi-faceted talents from diverse fields that truly represent the soul and heritage of Rajasthan.

This series was conceptualised at a brain-storming session held on November 8, 2011, at the Rajasthan Polo Club lunch that was attended by eminent citizens from the field of art, culture, literature, theatre, music, dance and journalism.

The first of the series was a session with eminent Urdu poet Ikraam Rajasthani (file picture).

The series started with an interview of Ikraam Rajasthani by Saleha Gazi. During the half an hour interview, Rajasthani spoke about his personal life and creative writing. He recited his favourite poems and presented tunes of folk songs written and composed by him which were very popular two decades ago.

Vishwa Mohan Bhatt said, “There is a dire need of encouraging Rajasthani talent and the forum could achieve this goal with the help of the people of the state.”

Today’s Desert Souls, the first programme, was a great hit and it reached highpoint when Mr Haridas Kotahwala, President of RANA (Rajasthani Association of North America, New York) stood up in the crowd and gave an open invitation to Ikraam Rajasthani to recite his poetry at the annual meeting of RANA in New York. The forum appreciated the gesture very much.

Ikraam Rajasthani was overwhelmed with emotion and said that has never ever got this type of platform in his life. Many of the guests present, including an ex-ambassador of India suggested that this series must continue and one corporate house has to be roped in as sponsor for this.

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