It is shocking to know that Steve Irwin died in a “freak accident”. Since I was traveling and not into much news I didn’t know about this tragic event. Came to know three days back from Auto driver!!!. (Well I like interacting with auto wallahs while traveling in their autos -certain places where I don’t know the language it can be frustrating). We were passing through a fish market somewhere in kerala. When he started talking about therandi fish (ray fish), actually he was bit surprise that it could kill a human being. Probably it has to do with dangerous evolution of species in and around Australia. Coming back, Steve was my favorite anchor in wild life related program (another Steve is Steve Austin who too is incredible). His enthusiasm was infectious, it mostly had this bewilderment which was riveting. He was absolutely into it whether with deadly snakes, vipers (once he realized one is behind his leg!) or in Sri lanka where he almost slip into a cobra!!. His most action was with Crocodiles, the one I didn’t watch much- no liking for crocs. With monster lizard or sea lions…..or inane happenings in Australian zoo was reported in very passionate manner. Amazing guy he was. Also I liked the Australian accent, I found it very funny. I am still not able to believe that he is dead….it is rather baffling. Very significant lose.

There are few more people who have died recently whom I admired. Offcourse the greatness of Ustad Bismillah khan needn’t be reiterated we all know it. Why am I writing this is to pay a personal tribute. I decided years back that I will make it a point to see all the great masters in action, live. And so had esteem pleasure of listening to Bismillah khan. My regret being missing MS, although I was in Madras for almost a year. She didn’t have any concert, I was a regular at madras music academy (nearby Stella Maris main attraction though, at that time. My early job was with a TV channel!!!...more on that sometime later). Another person whom I missed was Kelucharan Mahapatra. Just few months before he died he had a performance in Kamani (in Delhi) but it was too crowded and I was not in my best of health, so dropped the idea. Although I did watch ten minutes of his performance, I recall it was during the time when he was given Padma Vibushan.

Ayyapan Panicker was a well known figure in Kerala (it is amazing that you will find even the commonest people will have some idea about writers and poets). Common people’s access to great works like Dostovesky or Chekov is through translations. And most well known international writers have been translated to Malayalam (even the latest popular genre - DaVince Code!!). Ayyapan Panicker apart from being an established poet and writer was also known for his translation, particularly of Shakespeare and also Eliot’s Wasteland. I had the fortune to listen to him a year back at Trivandrum where he was a guest for Vallathol Sammanam to MT.

I have absolutely no knowledge of Hrishikesh Mukherjee except that some of his movies were great like Anand, Golmaal, Namak Haram (these too I came to know after he expired….my knowledge of hindi film industry is actually very poor) and not to forget some incredible songs in these movies.