apaiofsflorida

On Saturday, August 30th our organization presented Shujaat Husain Khan. Right
from the beginning, I felt I am working with a professinal paerson because he
followed through. He showed up at the airport right in time, he did his sound
check in time and he performed Sitar as well as he sang in his melodious voice.
He made the organizers happy and the audience happy. His Sitar playing
technique was unique. No wonder , he is a son of Ustad Vilayat Khan so music
is in his blood. I was expremly happy to work with him and I will invite him
again and again.

spambasket

The implied comparison of "professionalism" is a little unfair.
Shujaat Khan is by way of being akhanofscalifornia and does not have
to deal with INS for his travel. He must also be quite used to the
routine of doing sound checks in time.


I can only agree to the sitar part. His singing is mediocre at best.
But more important, an artist of his mastery over sitar has no
business singing infantile gazals on stage!


Havanur

anwar_khurshid

I am Anwar Khurshid.

Before any thing else being said, Ustad Shahid Parvez does have a P3
visa and has already performed in Midland Texas on Friday 5th of
September, 2003.

How quick the jury of peers is to crucify someone in a one sided
inquisition. It reminds me of a witch hunt where blame implies guilt.
Where is the wisdom gone? Where is the compassion? What happened to
respect, tolerance and reverence for our artists? What has gone wrong
with the love of music that we all care for so much.

Since 1999 I have cofounded Sitar School of Toronto with Ustad Shahid
Parvez. I am the director of the school. We have successfully
arranged concert tours in Canada, Europe and Australia for the last
three years. Ustad Shahid Parvez comes to Canada three to four times
every year to teach. We have been very blessed and very thankful that
he takes time to provide such very high quality instructions, of which
there was a huge dirth in Canada.

This is the first time I am writing on Indian Classical Music News
group. I was surprised to see so many musicians being trashed so
easily. Musicians come in varying shades and levels and have to be
accepted for who they are. I was sorry to see that Subhen Chatterjee
and Kadar Khan were trashed so harshly. And even Villayat Khansahib
was dragged into the debate somehow or the other.

No artist wishes to alienate an organizer. Bharti Chowksi seems to
think that artists are out there to make a fool out of the organizers.
Is it insecurity that motivates this comment? She also claims that
artists are after "our dollars". Neither the organizer nor the
artist becomes rich hosting a few concerts. Who is really after "our
dollars" is not for Bharti Chowksi to decide and judge.

Ustad Shahid Parvez has been coming to North America for the last
twenty years. Never before has anyone said anything about him.

My experience with Bharti Chowksi had been quite difficult. Before
actually deciding to cancel the concert on September 30th she was
always threatening to cancel the concert on every little thing. After
the cancellation every thing has been nothing less than traumatic and
the results are displayed in this angry thread of messages started by
her. Actually the only time she was nice was while she was actually
canceling. I found that she does not listen. I found her quite
abrupt, crude and unrefined in my dealings with her. She has been
known to leave the artists to fend for themselves after the concert
ends. I have actually seen her do that myself two years ago in a
concert in West Palm Beach, that she had organized. She left the hall
after the concert leaving the artist by themselves in a city unknown
to them.

Last Minute?
Lied to her?

What surprises me is that Bharti Chowksi cancelled the concert herself
way before the scheduled date. Yet she claims to be the victim. The
real victim if a concert is cancelled is the artist. She told me
that she would like to work with us in future just after she had
cancelled the concert and was very understanding at that point. Then
suddenly she took a 180 degree about turn and started posting messages
on this news group. It is not true that I lied to Bharti Chowksi.
Had I not told her that the artists did not have the visa yet, why
would she have cancelled the concert? What other reasons did she have
for canceling the concert. She had enough time to arrange for a
replacement way before the concert that she had herself canceled.

Bharti Chowksi herself cancelled the concert scheduled on the 30th of
August six days before the day of, fully aware of the exact situation
with the visa processing. Six days is not the last moment, as she
claims. She knew that there was still a chance that the artists can
arrive in Fort Lauterdale for the concert. She understood that the
artists had received their visa approvals. She talked to Ustad Shahid
Parvez in Pune, who told her in a very matter of fact way what was
happening at the Consulate in India. He explained to her very nicely
that so far they did not have a visa but was hopeful to get it soon.
Ustad Shahid Parvez has been to the U.S atleast twelve times if not
more. He understands what is actually involved in getting the visa.
And Ustad Shahid Parvez is a tremendous human being. He is a very
wise person and He Does Not Lie. He has no reason to lie about such a
matter anyway. No one can say for sure what might happen at the
consulate. Lying about having a visa when you don't have it is very
short sighted. Ustad Shahid Parvez will not do such a thoughtless
thing. People who know Ustad Shahid Parvez will vouch for that. I
communicated with Bharti through out the ordeal that the artists went
through. She knew all along where things stood. She was getting
nervous and concerned that the concert on the 30th might not be
possible to hold. We also discussed Saturday the 5th of September
as being an alternate date for the concert. She said that she needed
to inform her grants director and will consider moving it. Ustad
Shahid Parvez told her that if she moved the concert to a later date,
whatever her expenses and losses were, they would be covered. He
conveyed this to her. I told her exactly all this as well. But
instead she came back to me saying, "Bhai Sahib, we have decided to go
with other Sitar player as we don't want any chance". And these were
her exact words. And grammar too. I did not lie to her or withhold
any information until the last minute as she so maliciously claims. I
told her that this is very regretful and is her decision. And that I
am sorry to hear of this. I told her that since the approval document
is already in India, the artists will most likely get the visa. And
that it is just beauraucracy holding them back. I apologized to her
saying that I am sorry we could not procure the visa according to her
expectations six months in advance.

Since she had already cancelled, the case for getting the visa for
30th of August became quite weak. Pressure could not be applied to
insist that the visa be provided as an emergency. The artists were
stunned by this added difficulty as they had been insisting on the
first concert being on the 30th of August. I believe that had she
not cancelled we would have obtained the visas in time for the concert
in FortLauterdale. Bharti Chowksi thus in her action was unconcerned
for the difficulty to the artist. Instead of sending out a fax or
pressurizing the consulate about her concert, or helping out in any
way, she chose to cancel the concert. In her actions Bharti Chowksi
was very selfish.

Travel Arrangements?
The travel arrangements had already been made with the tour starting
from Fort Lauterdale. The international tickets and the coupons for
traveling within the U.S had also been booked as this has to done way
in advance. This was not left to the last minute.

Humilty?
Bharti Chowksi has no right to imply that Ustad Shahid Parvez is not
humble without really knowing him. Just because he couldn't play her
concert because she had canceled it Ustadji is not all of a sudden
high and mighty , proud and arrogant. She has never talked to Ustad
Shahid Parvez at length or made any efforts there of. Please don't
judge Ustad Shahid Parvez's attitude so harshly based on her
irrelevant statements. Ustad Shahid Parvez is very level headed,
rational and a reasonable human being. He is extremely generous and
has a big heart.

Thank you,

Anwar Khurshid

nick h (uk)

It is good to see the other point of view, and the only point whith
which I can argue specifically is that six days, in terms of organising
replacement artists is, I would have thought, very much 'the last minute'.

Nick H

doogar rajib

That happens for all perfomers anywhere ... the specific cause may be
as different as health or, in this case, problems with the paperwork.
If you are going to do this on a regular basis you learn to live with it.

One bad experience of one unknown organizer is not going to influence
a whole lot of people on this group against an organization that has
been doing many such events. Also your comments on the parformers and
organizers individual habits are uncalled for. From your diatribe I'm
sure you are no great gift to humanity yourself. Neither are any of
us individually. That's called being mortal and fallible.

Cheers.

--
Rajib Doogar www.cba.uiuc.edu/doogar