It's Sayajirao's day today

VADODARA: "If body needs food, so does soul. Music is soul's food. And my effort would be to provide good food to the audience," upcoming artist Dhruv Sangari promised this on Sunday. He is in Gujarat's cultural capital for the Sufi music concert that will be held on the serene premises of Laxmi Vilas Palace on Monday evening as part of Maharaja Sayajirao Day celebration to mark the diamond jubilee of the visionary ruler of erstwhile Baroda state.
The concert is being organised as a launching programme for 'We the Barodians' - an open, unstructured forum of citizens, patronized by royal scion Maharaja Ranjitsinh Gaekwad.
This January 3 marks the completion of 75 years of Sir Sayajirao's diamond jubilee (60 years of golden rule provided by the Maharaja of erstwhile Baroda state since his accession to the throne).
As Dhruv with his troupe 'Rooh' comprising of 'sarangi', 'tabla' and percussion players readied to mesmerize the audience in the city, he added that Sufi music's future is well secured.
"It is only Sufi music that can create a bridge between two countries and communities," said Dhruv, who had recently performed at Wagah border. "Even in countries like Sweden, Switzerland and United States, there are stalls of maestros like Ravi Shankar and late Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan as music is a universal language."
Dhruv, who has also received training from the legendary maestro late Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan in Pakistan, has learnt Khayal, Dhrupad, Sufi music and Qawali and has blessings of Gwalior, Lucknow and Delhi gharanas. His repertoire includes Persian, Arabic, Punjabi, Hindi Sufi and Urdu poetry.
He opined that government and non-governmental organisations need to support upcoming musicians who live in small 'kasbas' across the country.