Talking drum

The talking drum is an hourglass-shaped drum from West Africa, whose pitch can be regulated to mimic the tone and prosody of human speech. It has two drumheads connected by leather tension cords, which allow the player to modulate the pitch of the drum by squeezing the cords between his or her arm and body. A skilled player is able to play whole phrases. Similar hourglass-shaped drums are found in Asia, but they are not used to mimic speech, although the idakka is used to mimic vocal music.

Names in West Africa

History

Hourglass-shaped talking drums are some of the oldest instruments used by West African griots and their history can be traced back to the Yoruba people, the Ghana Empire and the Hausa people. The Yoruba people of south western Nigeria and Benin and the Dagomba of northern Ghana) have developed a highly sophisticated genre of griot music centering on the talking drum . Many variants of the talking drums evolved, with most of them having the same construction mentioned above. Soon, many non-hourglass shapes showed up and were given special names, such as the Dunan, Sangban, Kenkeni, Fontomfrom and Ngoma drums. Interestingly, this construction is limited to within the contemporary borders of West Africa, with exceptions to this rule being northern Cameroon and western Chad; areas which have shared populations belonging to groups predominant in their bordering West African countries, such as the Kanuri, Djerma, Fulani and Hausa.

Bappi Lahiri

HIDDEN ERROR: Usage of "spouse" is not recognizedHIDDEN ERROR: Usage of "Born Place" is not recognizedHIDDEN ERROR: Usage of "political party" is not recognizedHIDDEN ERROR: Usage of "children" is not recognized

Bappi Lahiri (Born Alokesh Lahiri on 27 November 1952) is a music composer in the Indian film industry. He popularized the use of synthesized disco music in Indian cinema and sang some of his own compositions. He was popular in the 1980s and 1990s with filmi soundtracks like Wardat, Disco Dancer, Namak Halaal, Dance Dance, Commando, Gang Leader, Sailaab and Sharaabi among others.

Bappi Lahiri joined BJP in 2014. He was declared a BJP candidate from Srirampur in West Bengal for the Indian general election, 2014 and lost.

Biography

Early years

Bappi D. Lahiri was born in Jalpaiguri, West Bengal. His parents, Aparesh Lahiri and Bansari Lahiri both from Jalpaiguri, West Bengal were famous Bengali singer and musician in classical music and Shyama Sangeet. He is their only child.

Alia Bhatt

Alia Bhatt (born 15 March 1993) is an Indian actress who appears in Bollywood films. The daughter of filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt and actress Soni Razdan, Bhatt first appeared on screen as a child artist in a minor role in the thriller Sangharsh (1999). As an adult, she made her acting debut with Karan Johar's romantic drama Student of the Year (2012).

Bhatt's portrayal of a teenage girl who develops stockholm syndrome in Imtiaz Ali's road movie Highway (2014) garnered critical acclaim. She won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress and also garnered a Best Actress nomination at the same ceremony. She went on to establish herself in Bollywood by starring opposite Arjun Kapoor in the romantic drama 2 States (2014) and Varun Dhawan in the romantic comedy Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania (2014).

In addition to acting in films, Bhatt has sung two of her film songs. She participates in stage shows, and has launched her own line of clothing for women.

Early life

Bhatt was born on 15 March 1993, to Indian film director Mahesh Bhatt and actress Soni Razdan. Her father is of Gujarati descent and her mother is of Kashmiri and German ancestry. Bhatt has an elder sister, Shaheen (born 1988) and two half-siblings, Pooja Bhatt and Rahul Bhatt. Actor Emraan Hashmi and director Mohit Suri are her paternal cousins, while producer Mukesh Bhatt is her uncle. Alia Bhatt was the student of Jamnabai Narsee School IBDP and she completed her high school in May 2011.

Varun Dhawan

Varun Dhawan (born 24 April 1987) is an Indian actor who appears in Hindi films. The son of film director David Dhawan, he studied Business Management from the Nottingham Trent University after which he worked as an assistant director to Karan Johar on the 2010 drama My Name Is Khan. Dhawan made his acting debut with Johar's 2012 romantic comedy Student of the Year, for which he received a Filmfare nomination for Best Male Debut.

Dhawan established a career in Bollywood by starring in the romance Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania (2014) and the dance film ABCD 2 (2015), both of which earned over ₹1 billion (US$15 million) worldwide. He garnered critical acclaim and received a Filmfare Award for Best Actor nomination for portraying an avenger in Sriram Raghavan's crime thriller Badlapur (2015).

Life and career

Dhawan was born on 24 April 1987 in a Punjabi family to David Dhawan, a film director, and Karuna Dhawan. He has an elder brother, Rohit, who is a film director. He has a degree in Business Management from the Nottingham Trent University, United Kingdom. Prior to his acting career, Dhawan worked as an assistant director to Karan Johar on his directorial My Name Is Khan (2010).

Badrinath

Badrinath is a holy town and a nagar panchayat in Chamoli district in the state of Uttarakhand, India. It is the most important of the four sites in India's Char Dham pilgrimage and gets its name from the temple of Badrinath.

Name

Badri refers to a berry that was said to grow abundantly in the area, and nath means "Lord of". Badri is also the Sanskrit name for the Indian Jujube tree, which has an edible berry. Some scriptural references refer to Jujube trees being abundant in Badrinath.

History

Badrinath was reëstablished as a major pilgrimage site by Adi Shankara in the 9th century. In earlier days, pilgrims used to walk hundreds of miles to visit Badrinath temple.

The temple has been repeatedly destroyed by earthquakes and avalanches. As late as the First World War, the town consisted only of the 20-odd huts used by the temple's staff, but the site drew thousands each year and up to 50,000 on its duodecennial festivals. In recent years its popularity has increased still more, with an estimated 600,000 pilgrims visiting during the 2006 season, compared to 90,676 in 1961. The temple in Badrinath is also a sacred pilgrimage site for Vaishnavites. Badrinath is also gateway to several mountaineering expeditions headed to mountains like Nilkantha.