Obits

• Veteran Indian lyricist, Anand Bakshi,who wrote over 4,000 songs including all time hits from several Hindi films, died today at 8:45 pm IST following a protracted illness. {Hindustan Times} {Rediff}
  
  Bakshi Trivia:..."Maine poochha chand se", composed by S.D. Burman was written for Ramesh Sehgal's film. But it never got made. Later son R. D. Burman recorded it for Sanjay Khan's 'Abdullah'...{an old Filmfare article}
  


• Britain's Queen Mother dies at age 101 .. {TOI}

Persian New Year celebrations(belated of course)

Heavy showers didn't prevent me from attending the Persian New Year celebrations organized today evening on campus. There was music, food, and dancing. The music for the evening comprised two performances. The first introduced me to the tar, the tombak and the santoor (the last one, of course, was not altogether a surprise, since it is a popular instrument in India too). The second performance, after dinner, was a selection of popular songs on a classical guitar. Ali Zomorodi has more information about Persian music and instruments.