O enemy cloud, why are you raining in my courtyard?

Eminent personalities from various fields honored at the 75th Gurujan Samman ceremony
Agra. Under the joint aegis of Pt Raghunath Talegaonkar Foundation Trust and Sangeet Kala Kendra, Agra, Guru Purnima Mahotsav and 75th Gurujan Samman Ceremony was organized on 20th July 2025 in the main auditorium of Grand Hotel Agra.

The program started with lighting of lamps in front of the first worshipped Lord Ganesha and Mother Saraswati and Pt. Vishnu Digambar Paluskar, Pt. Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande, Pt. Raghunath Talegaonkar, Mrs. Sulabha ji, Rani Saroj Gaurihar, The special guest Dr. R.S. Pareek (awarded Padma Shri) and the members of the organization garlanded the portraits of Ustad Lallu Singh and music star Pt. Keshavji. As the first presentation of the program, little student of Sangeet Kala Kendra, Nihi Singh sang Saraswati Vandana – “Jai Jai Mata Sharde”.

In the next presentation, Guru Vandana – “Guru Teri Mahima Aparampar” was beautifully composed by Nihi Singh and Raghav Garg. After this, Kishan Kumar delighted the audience by singing beautifully “Laaj Rakho Tum Krishna Murari” and Tarana in Raga Alhaiya Bilawal.

After this, paying obeisance to the Guru, Darshit Raj Soni and Sumit Kumar presented “Guru bin gyan kaha se paoon” in classical style, thereafter, by adorning the tune of Malhar, they presented “Bolan aaye dadurva” in Raga Gaud Malhar. And in Raag Miyan Malhar, the students of the centre, Archie, Aarushi Rai, Kalpana Thakur, Abhilasha Shukla and Isha Seth gave a wonderful presentation of “Bundan Barse Jiya Hulse” as per the season.

After this, the easy composition “Rimjhim Rimjhim Badal Barse” based on Raga Vrindavani Sarang and the folk composition “Bairi Badra Tu Kahe Barse” “More Angna” was presented with great energy by Mehak Jadon, Arya Bhati, Khushi Jha, Drishti Upadhyay and Shubhi Agarwal.

All these performances were directed by Guru Ma, Mrs. Pratibha Ji. The tabla accompaniment was provided by senior tabla player Manish Prabhakar of Agra, and the accompaniment was excellently provided by Pt. Ravindra Talegaonkar on the Samvadini. After these melodious performances, certificates and medals were given to the students by organization members Mrs. Vatsal Prabhakar and Dr. Abha Chaturvedi.

The next presentation of the program was the sitar performance of Harshit Kumar, a young artist of the Lucknow Gharana, who came from Nainital, Uttarakhand. He performed a sequential process in the Vilambit Gat Teentaal in Raga Miyan Ki Todi. He presented his playing as per the tradition of Lucknow Gharana.

You mesmerized the audience by presenting traditional compositions with special preparation. Tabla accompaniment was skillfully done by Dr. Bhanu Pratap Singh.

In the final phase of musical presentations, young Kathak dancer from Agra city, Ms. Urvashi Sharma enthralled the audience with her excellent presentation of traditional compositions of Lucknow and Jaipur Gharana, Aamad and Paran in Teentaal. You concluded the presentation with a composition dedicated to Radha Rani. You were accompanied by your mother and guru Mrs. Ruchi Sharma on the recitation, Subhash Saxena on vocals and accompaniment and young player Mohit Kumar on the tabla.

In the main phase of the program, eminent personalities of the city were honored for doing special work in their field. Senior literary figure of the city Prof. (Dr.) Beena Sharma was awarded the “Literature Shilpi”, Dr. Girdhar Sharma was awarded the “Education Shilpi”, Dr. Bachan Singh Sikarwar was awarded the “Mass Communication Shilpi”, Mr. Amrit Kumar was awarded the “Music Shilpi”, Shri Krishna ji was given the honorary title of “Vani Vilas”, Pt. Sanjay Devle was given the title of “Adarsh ​​Guru”, Shri Anil Sharma was given the title of “Samaj Shilpi” and Dr. Neelu Sharma was given the honorary title of “Nritya Shilpi” by the organization patron Dr. Radheshyam Pareek. President Vijay Pal Singh Chauhan, Vice President Anil Verma, Members Arun Dang, Dr. Mangala Mathkar, Ravindra Talegaonkar and Smt.Pratibha Talegaonkar presented the honorary certificates and presented the Upvastra. Dr. Mahesh Chandra Dhakad presented the biographies of all the honored guests.

On behalf of the organization, the learned people of the city were welcomed by garlanding them, among whom Pt. Debashish Chakraborty,Pt Mohit Kumar, Anil Dang, Dr Arun Chaturvedi, Deepak Prahlad, Partho Sen, Dr Abha Chaturvedi, Yogesh Sharma Yogi, Raj Bahadur Singh, Dr. Pradeep Srivastava, Dhanwantri Parashar, Dr. Sushma Singh, Dr. Vandana Agarwal, Dr. Manisha, Vilas Palkhe, Anand Haridas, Dr. Mahesh Chandra Dhakad, Aslam Saleemi, Ustad Salim Khan, Mrs. Megha Sharma, Meenu Giri were present.

The program was conducted by Shri Krishna ji with the history of the organization, importance of Guru-disciple tradition and beautiful word combination. Organization President Vijaypal Singh Chauhan expressed his gratitude to all the associates, dignitaries and students.