Place of birth precedes one's karma: Thankamani

Crediting the 'mitti' of Bengal to whatever she has become today, legendary danseuse Guru Thankamani Kutty says personalities like Pt Ravi Shankar can be born here only.
"I believe place of birth is entwined with one's karma. Panditji has proven this with his work," Kutty said at 'Shraddhanjali' a classical event studded with performances of Ustad Zakir Hussain, Pt Tejendranarayan Majumder, Shubha Mudgal, Pt Bickram Ghosh, Kaushiki Chakrabarty, conjuring up the best of pure classical music in different forms.
Acknowledging people of Kolkata for "Making what I am today," Kutty said, "My ancestral place Kerala and my later phase in Kolkata shaped my destiny."

"Similarly this city has shaped the destiny of many doyens of music," famous classicist-instrumentalist Pt Tejendranarayan Majumder said.
"The very fact that a packed audience waits patiently even at 10 30 pm on a chilly night in a southern suburb shows classical music is popular among the general public too in this magical city of Panditji. It is a misnomer than classical music is on decline graph here," he said.
"If late night programmes of modern Bengali and Hindi songs can be such a success in even remote areas, we must appreciate there can a discerning audience for classical music too," Tejendranarayan, having been part of the soundscape in some Bengali films too, said.

Organised by Behala Sanskriti Sammilani, the unique musical treat is aimed at weaning over the ever dwindling number of listeners to this genre of classical music.
A Japanese tourist, visiting the programme, said the meditative aspect of Indian classical music is something unparallelled in the world.