by ASGHAR VASANVALA
Dear friends,
About a month ago, I met a gentleman named Solly Essa, original from South Africa and now living in Anaheim, California. During conversation, name of Bekal Utsahi came up. He told me he was a part of a group who had invited the poet and had held Mushaeras in different cities in South Africa and that he was having audio cassettes of these Mushaeras events. Next week he mailed me his total valuable collection. I thought to digitized the audio tape and preserve it permanently,
Please click the following link and Must listen and enjoy Bekal Utsahi singing his beautiful Ghazal Ashk-e-shabnam pe gul ke laboN par hansi
(When the morning dew sheds tears, flowers’ lips beam with smile) in a melodious tarannum. The venue was a Mushaera in South Africa, May 1975.
In the year 1976 Bekal Utsahi was awarded Padmashree. He was born in Balampur but I can’t find his birth year. I think he may have been born in 1930’s or 1940s.
Asghar Vasanwala can be reached at asgharfv@gmail.com