MUSIC GIVES a perfect entertainment, relieves a person from stress and provides spiritual strength. Though songs and instruments are complimentary to each other in music, words are always stronger to express one's feelings and have more depth and variety. This is the observation of Professor Rajendra Govind Harshe, Vice-Chancellor of Allahabad University, popularly known as Rajen Harshe.
Professor Harshe is not only an academician par excellence, but also a connoisseur of music and has an excellent knowledge of Indian classical music.
He can mesmerise you by singing bhajans like 'Gaaiye Ganpati jagbandan' and 'Payo ji maine Ram ratan dhan payo.' Not only this, he is also a wonderful violin player. He had learnt violin for four-five years under the tutelage of Sachchidanand Fadke.
An expert on international relations, foreign policy, diplomacy and political theory, Prof Harshe had been classmate of renowned classical singer Pandit Shrikant Deshpande, disciple of noted exponent of classical music Pandit Bhimsen Joshi and grandson of Sawai Gandharva. Deshpande is a very good friend of Harshe and had even performed on the AU campus, a couple of months back. Prof Harshe admits he gets inspiration from Kumar Gandharva in carrying out research and experiments.
Not only classical music, Harshe also enjoys light music. He likes listening to songs of Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhonsle, Mohammad Rafi, Mukesh, Talat and Kishore Kumar. Humming "Tum na jaane kis jahaan mein kho gaye, ham bhari duniya mein tanha ho gaye," he questions "who else can sing like Lata?" After taking a pause, he adds: "Lata has sung marvellous songs on 'Death' and 'Mother' in Marathi language. I love to listening to these songs."
{{/usCountry}}Not only classical music, Harshe also enjoys light music. He likes listening to songs of Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhonsle, Mohammad Rafi, Mukesh, Talat and Kishore Kumar. Humming "Tum na jaane kis jahaan mein kho gaye, ham bhari duniya mein tanha ho gaye," he questions "who else can sing like Lata?" After taking a pause, he adds: "Lata has sung marvellous songs on 'Death' and 'Mother' in Marathi language. I love to listening to these songs."
{{/usCountry}}Harshe is highly influenced by Meera, Kabir and Tulsi. However, he claims that Kabir was the most secular poet and made better efforts to unite the people.
On the issue of secularism and unity in diversity, he said: "Jawaharlal Nehru worked for India's secular values throughout his life. I used to get immense pleasure in reading his books and articles. However, Mahatma Gandhi attracts me more these days. Whenever I feel stressed, I read MK Gandhi's autobiography 'The story of my experiments with truth.'
When asked about his post coming into his way of creativity, he admitted that holding high post does consume time but responsibilities had to be taken care of, wholeheartedly.
When asked whether he felt lonely in Allahabad, he said he never felt so because the staff members were like his family members and all of them were giving him best care and he interacted with them without hesitation.
"Moreover, if a person is deeply associated with ideals and aims, loneliness is hardly a problem for him," he remarked. And, of course, his ideals and aims focus on discipline, academic excellence, competitiveness and scaling new peaks.