Uday Shankar the pioneer of modern dance in India.

He was born on 8th December 1900 in Udaipur ,Rajasthan to a Bengali family.Their origin was Narail , Bangladesh.His father shyam Sankar Chowdhuri was a noted Barrister.He was employee of Jhalwar Rajasthan and his mother Hemangini Devi was from a Bengali Zeminder family.Ravi Shankar was his younger brother.His father was a Sanskrit scholar and graduated with honours in Sanskrit from university of Calcutta and later he studied at Oxford university where he became a Doctor of philosophy.His father moved very frequently on account of his work. The family spent much time in Uday's maternal uncle's house at Nasratpur with his mother and brothers.

Uday studied at different places like Nasratpur, Gazipur , Varanasi and jhalwar.At his Gazipur school he learned music and photography from his drawing and craft teacher.
In 1918 he was sent  to  J.J. school of Art , Mumbai and then to Gandharbha Mahabidyalaya.

Subsequently he joined Royal college of Arts, London to study painting.He danced in few charity performances organized by his father in London.

                                                               

Uday Shankar did not have any formal training in any of the Indian classical dance forms.From young age he was interested in both Indian classical dance and folk dance as well as ballet during his stay in Europe.

He decided to bring elements of both the styles together to create a new dance which he called HI DANCE.

Subsequently he left for Rome for the advanced studies in Arts after getting a scholarship from the French government. The turning point came with his first meeting with the legendary Russian balledina Anna parlova .He created a ballet RADHA KRISHNA.The same was presented in London.
He worked with Annya for one and half years,before starting out on his own in Paris.He returned from Paris in1931,soon he started for a seven years tour to Europe and America with his own troops whom he called Uday Shankar and his  Hindu Ballet.

                                                              

He preformed for the first time in 1933 in USA in New York city. His adoption of European theatrical technique to Indian dance made his art immense popular both in India and abroad.

In 1938,he made India as his base and established the Uday Shankar Indian cultural centre at Simtal.

Uday Shankar settled in Ballygunge Kolkata in 1969,where the Uday Shankar centre for dance was later opened in 1965.In1962 he was awarded the highest award for Sangeet  Natak Academy award, the Sangeet Academy Fellowship for lifetime contributions to Indian dance.In 1971 he was awarded ,Padma vibhushan .In 1975 he was awarded Deshikottam by viswa Bharati university.He married his dance partner Amala Shankar.They had a son Ananda Shankar and a daughter Mamta Shankar He died on 26th September, 1977.

Shyama prosad Mukherjee, a person of unbelievable academic career .

Shyama prosad Mukherjee was born in a Bengali family on 6th July 1901 in Calcutta.His father was Sir Ashutosh  Mukherjee a judge of the High court Calcutta and also the vice chancellor of the university of Calcutta.

His mother was Jogomaya Devi.Shyma prosad had three brothers and three sisters.He was admitted in Bhawanipur Mitra institution in 1906 and his behaviour in school was later certified by the teachers.

                                                                           

In 1917 he passed his matriculation examination and was admitted in presidency college .He stood first in the intermediate Arts examination in 1919.He  graduated in English securing the first position in first class in1922.

He stood first in his B.L.examination in 1924.
Subsequently he left for England to be a Barrister.At the age of 33 he became the vice chancellor of the university of Calcutta and he was the youngest vice chancellor .

It was during his term Rabindra nath delivered the convocation address in Bengali for the first time in history and Indian vernacular was introduced as a subject for the highest examination of the university.He died on 23rd June 1953.

Pandit Ravisankar, the world famous Sitarist .

Pandit Ravi  Sankar was born on 7th April 1920 in Varanasi in a Bengali family as the youngest amongseven brothers. His father Shyam  Shankar was a Barrister . He was a politician and  also worked as Dewan for several years
as  Dewan of jhalwar , Rajasthan , later he worked as a lawyer in England.

At the age of ten Shankar went to Paris with the dance group of his elder brother Uday Shankar . At the age of thirteen he became a member of the group . As a member of the tour he learned to dance and play various Indian instruments. The dance group toured to Europe and united states . Shankar learned French and discovered classical music.He gave up dancing in 1938 to study Sitar playing under court Musician Aladdin Khan.

After finishing his studies in 1944,Shankar worked as a composer , creating the music for the Apu Trilogy by Styajit Roy , and was music Director of All India Radio , New Delhi from 1949 to 1956.

In 1956 he began to tour to Europe and America playing Indian classical music and increased its popularity there.In 1960s  Shankar was engaged in western music by writing compositions for Sitar and Orchestra , and toured the world in the 1970s and 1980s .

From 1986 to 1992 he served as a nominated member of the Rajya Sabha  , the upper house of the parliament of the country .He continued to perform till the end of his life.In 1999 Shankar was awarded Bharat Ratna . He died on 11th December 2012 at California.