O enemy cloud, why do you rain in my courtyard?

Eminent personalities from various fields were honored in the 75th Gurujan Samman ceremony

Agra. Guru Purnima Festival and 75th Gurujan Samman Ceremony was organized in the main auditorium of Grand Hotel Agra on 20th July 2025 under the joint aegis of Pt Raghunath Talegaonkar Foundation Trust and Sangeet Kala Kendra, Agra.

The program started with the lighting of the lamp in front of the first revered Shri Ganesha and Maa 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 with Padma Shri) and the members of the organization garlanded the pictures of Ustad Lallu Singh and music star Pt. Keshav ji.

As the first presentation of the programme, a 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 presented by Nihi Singh and Raghav Garg. Thereafter, Kishan Kumar delighted the audience by singing beautifully “Laaj Rakho Tum Krishna Murari” and Taraane in Raga Alahiya Bilawal.

After this, paying obeisance to the Guru, Darshit Raj Soni and Sumit Kumar presented “Guru bin gyan kahaan se paun” in a classical manner, Thereafter, by embellishing the tune of Malhar, in Raga Gaud Malhar “Bolan Aaye Dadurva” and in Raga Miyan Malhar A wonderful presentation of “Bundan Barse Jiya Hulse” as per the season was given by the students of the centre, Archie, Aarushi Rai, Kalpana Thakur, Abhilasha Shukla and Isha Seth. After this, a light composition based on Raga Vrindavani Sarang, “Rimjhim Rimjhim Baadal Barse” And the folk composition “Bairi Badra Tu Kahe Barse More Angna” was presented with energy by Mehak Jadoun, Arya Bhati, Khushi Jha, Drishti Upadhyay and Shubhi Agarwal.

All these performances were directed by Guru Maa Mrs. Pratibha Ji. Senior tabla player Manish Prabhakar from Agra provided excellent accompaniment on tabla and Pt. Ravindra Talegaonkar provided excellent accompaniment on Samvadini. After these melodious performances, certificates and medals were given to the students by the organization members Mrs. Vatsal Prabhakar and Dr. Abha Chaturvedi. The next presentation of the programme was sitar recital by Harshit Kumar, a young artist of Lucknow Gharana who had come from Nainital, Uttarakhand.

You performed in the Vilambit Gat Teentaal in Raag Miyan Ki Todi in a systematic manner as per the tradition of Lucknow Gharana. You mesmerized the audience by presenting the traditional compositions with special preparation. Tabla accompaniment was done skillfully by Dr. Bhanu Pratap Singh.

In the final phase of the musical presentations, Ms. Urvashi Sharma, a young Kathak dancer from Agra city, enthralled the audience by giving an excellent presentation of the traditional compositions of Lucknow and Jaipur gharanas, Aamad and Parnas in Teentaal. You concluded the presentation with a composition dedicated to Radha Rani.

Your mother and guru Mrs. Ruchi Sharma accompanied you on Padhant, Subhash Saxena on vocals and dialogues, and the young player Mohit Kumar on tabla provided you with perfect accompaniment.

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 conferred with the title of “Sahitya Shilpi”, Dr. Girdhar Sharma was conferred with the title of “Education Shilpi”, Dr. Bachan Singh Sikarwar was awarded the “Mass Communication Sculptor”, Shri Amrit Kumar was awarded the “Music Sculptor”, Shri Krishna ji was awarded the “Vani Vilas”, Pt. Sanjay Devale as “Adarsh Guru”, Shri Anil Sharma as “Samaj Shilpi” and Dr. Neelu Sharma as “Nritya Shilpi” With the honorary honour of the organization patron Dr. Radheshyam Pareek, President Vijay Pal Singh Chauhan, Vice President Anil Verma, Member Arun Dang, Dr. Mangala Mathkar, Ravindra Talegaonkar and Mrs. Pratibha Talegaonkar honoured her by presenting the upgarb certificate. Dr. Mahesh Chandra Dhakad presented the biography of all the respected guests.

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

The program was conducted by Shri Krishna Ji with the history of the institution, the importance of Guru-Shishya parampara and beautiful combination of words. The institution’s president Vijaypal Singh Chauhan expressed his gratitude to all the associates, dignitaries and students.