Indian Achievement

Being a typical die hard Indian, I shall in this post, start a series of posts on Indian achievement, at risk of contributing to the bombardment of such material you may already face. If its any consolation, I shall aim to expose the lesser known aspects.

My starting point is an Indian conductor of Western classical music. Born in Mumbai, he has been the longest holder of the post of Music Director of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. I am talking of course about Zubin Mehta. He had originally started studying medicine (surprise surprise) but dropped after two semesters to move to the Academy of Music in Vienna (unofficial capital of classical music). Apart from conducting in Europe and North America, formidable achievements of his include peace-making and improving diplomatic between the likes of the US and the Soviet Union; India and Israel.

Some more trivia: his first wife divorced him and married his brother Zarin Mehta, who has held the post of Executive Director of the New York Philharmonic. Yep, you guessed it, their father Mehli Mehta was also a keen conductor, founder of the Bombay Symphony Orchestra in 1935.