When Lata Mangeshkar came to Doordarshan...

On 28 September 2013 the Melody Queen Lata Mangeshar will complete 84 years. We are lucky to have been born during the life and times of Lataji

Her golden voice has been a paneca to our souls. . Through this Post I wish her a long, happy and peaceful life. May she continue to inspire us.

Bharat Ratna Lata Mangeshkar or Lata Didi as we address her,

visited DDK Mumbai on 23rd April 2004 , as the chief guest for the Sahydri Navratna Awards. Since Broadcasting schedules are time bound , I had to take her date well in advance. I was told she had a weakness or liking for Orchids. I bought some of the prettiest orchids I could lay my hands on. It was a sight to see Lata Didí's expression . Like a child the smile ran on her face. "How do you know that I like orchids" said Didi, while holding them. "I did my home work Didi before coming to you ", was my immediate response.

Needless to mention she accepted the invite but with a rider. She will be with us, only for half an hour . I agreed, but destiny had something else in store . I remember she had a severe headache when she arrived at Doordarshan. I told her she can leave in 10 minutes, after she had inaugurated the show. But to my surprise she did not leave.

Her reason to sit through the entire function, in her own words was, "It is a very well conceived show and a far cry from what the pvt TV channels are producing . I do not want to miss it . Sharma if you can organise some tea and medicine , I would like to watch the entire show". Andhaa kya chahe do aankhe...... And rest is history. Lata Didi sat for full three hours with us. As usual after the show she complimented us and the following remarks in Marathi language were etched in the memoir book of DDK Mumbai
.

"Doordarshan madhey kelesya sudharna pahun faar anand vatla. Ya poorvi hey darshan doormach dhayve ase vaate. Pan aata maatr ha jhalela baddal abhinand aahe.Shri Mukesh Sharma yaanche mee abhinandan karte , dhanyavaad dete."

(I am very happy to see the changes made at Doordarshan. Before this, one only wanted to watch it from afar (pun on the name Doordarshan). But now these changes are truly commendable. I not only congratulate Mr. Mukesh Sharma but thank him for it as well.)

THANK YOU LATA DIDI FOR THOSE KIND WORDS......................

Sahyadri Navratna Awards

Sahyadri Navratna Awards announced

Ashish Mitra
Posted online: Friday, April 28, 2006 at 0000 hours IST

The Sahaydri Channel has, for the last five years, been giving away awards of excellence to eminent Maharashtrians for their good work in a particular field of interest
This year the ’Godrej No.1 5th Sahayadri Awards 2006 will be presented to eleven well-known personalities in their field of interest namely music, films, drama, sports, social work, journalism, women, industrialist and literature. Nine jury members comprising the likes of Chandrashekhar Dharmadhikari, Kiran Shantaram, Prabhakar Panshikar, Dr Prabha Atre, Madhukar Bhave, Ms Rupa Shah, V.V. Karmarkar, Vijaya Rajadhyaksha and Chandrakant Salunkhe put their heads together and came out with a list of awardees.The names of the nine awardees were announced recently.

Mukesh Sharma, Director, Doordarshan Kendra, Mumbai said, “Going by the reach of the Sahyadri Channel, it was our endeavour to salute and honour eminent personalities from various fields. To our good luck Godrej agreed to lend a helping hand to us by sponsoring the event. We are soon going to bring out a coffee table book at will comprise the names of all our awardees for all these five years. This will be not just a souvenir, but will be something to treasure.” Said Chandrakant Salunkhe, “Though it wasn’t an easy task to select awardees, we never at any moment had any friction in choosing any of the personalities. Their names came out according to merit and it was good that all the others approved of the same. Kiran Shantaram was also of the same view and said, “this time we unanimously chose all the awardees according to their merit’s worth.”

This year the Godrej No.1 Sahyadri Awards would be presented to Ulhas Kashalkar for music, Amol Palekar for films, Mohan Wagh for drama, Sachin Tendulkar for sports, Ms Madakini and Prakash Amte for social work, Pratapsingh Jadhav for journalism. Ms Nasima Hurzul in the woman’s category. Ajit Gulabchand for industrialist and Mangesh Padgaonkar for literature.

It may be recalled that the Godrej No. Sahyadri Awards for 2005 were awarded to Snehal Bhatkar in the music category, Rajdutt for films, Vijay Tendulkar for drama, Dr Abhay Rani Bang for social work, Dinu Randive for journalism, Mrinal Gore as woman of substance, Dilip-Subhash Dandekar for the industrialist category, Dr Vishwanath Karad in education and Namdeo Dhasal for literature.
SOURCE:http://www.screenindia.com/old/fullstory.php?content_id=12488