Today we were delighted to welcome a Sitar player, Puraskar Nirwan, into school to give the boys a demonstration of the instrument and introduce them to Indian classical music. They were completely mesmerized and sang along to the tunes he played happily. The Cottonians also heard how the Sitar is made of a special dried pumpkin so that it resonates with the 18 strings. A couple of boys also had a go at trying to play the Sitar and pluck the strings but they found it very tricky.
Puraskar Nirwan is a young and dynamic Indian classical sitar player from Delhi, as well as a guitarist and composer. He belongs to one of the old and traditional musical families from Delhi Gharana. His father, the late Pandit Subhash Nirwan was a world renowned tabla maestro and a legend of his time, and mother, late Chandra Prabha was a noted Kathak dancer.
His elder brother Shri Suraj Nirwan is amongst one of the leading tabla player in our country. Puraskar is a pupil of Dr. Ravinder Adeshara and is pursuing his PHD in sitar from Delhi University. We hope he will come back again with his band and play for the whole school when he is next in Shimla.