Ram Marathe remembered on birth anniversary as classical and Natyasangeet singer

October 23 is the birth anniversary of Ram Marathe, a leading Hindustani classical vocalist, noted composer and accomplished actor. He was born in 1924 and died on October 4, 1989.

Marathe trained in classical music under several eminent gurus, among them Pt Manohar Barve, Master Krishnarao, Agra gharana's Ustad Vilayat Hussain Khan and Pt Jagannathbuwa Purohit.

He gained special recognition on the Marathi stage through musical plays such as "Mandarmala" and "Madan Ki Manjiri". He was also hugely popular for the natyageet songs he sang in his powerful voice. In recognition of his contribution to music, the Maharashtra government conferred the title "Sangeetbhushan" on him. He also received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1987.

He was not only a classical singer. He had deep knowledge of jod ragas and anavat ragas. His singing had purity of raga and he had an excellent command over layakari. He served classical music and Natyasangeet all his life and enriched the world of Marathi music. A music competition is still held in his memory at Talegaon Dabhade.

October 23 is also recorded in history for several other events. In 1707, the first Parliament of Great Britain met. In 1850, the first National Women's Rights Convention began in the United States. In 1890, Hari Narayan Apte began writing short stories in his weekly "Karmanuk", which laid the foundation of the Marathi short story.

In 1940, Adolf Hitler and Francisco Franco met at Hendaye and discussed the possibility of Spain entering the Second World War. In 1944, during the Second World War, the Soviet Red Army entered Hungary. In 1973, the war between Israel and Syria ended after United Nations-imposed sanctions. In 1997, Kiran Bedi was given Germany's Joseph Beuys award for social service. In 1998, Israel and the Palestinian Authority signed the Wye River Memorandum. In 2001, Apple Computer released the iPod. In 2007, Space Shuttle Discovery launched on STS-120, and Pamela Melroy became the second woman to command a space shuttle.

Several well-known people were born on this date. They include Kittur Rani Chennamma (1778); Shankar Ramchandra Rajwade, an advocate of Vedic dharma (1879); English cricketer Douglas Jardine (1900); and, in 1923, Damodar Dinkar Kulkarni, founder of Shri Vidya Prakashan, and Aslam Farrukhi, an Indian-Pakistani linguist, writer and scholar. Ram Marathe was born in 1924, actor, director and producer Deven Verma in 1937, Brazilian footballer Pele in 1940, and actor and theatre producer Shafi Inamdar in 1945. Journalist and writer Aravind Adiga was born in 1974, actress Malaika Arora in 1975, film actor Prabhas in 1979 and film actor Siddharth Jadhav in 1981.

Some notable people also died on this date: King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) of Thailand (1910); English cricketer W. G. Grace (1915); John Boyd Dunlop, the Scottish researcher who developed the air-filled tyre tube and founded Dunlop Rubber (1921); Christian Dior (1957); and Bengali poet and novelist Sunil Gangopadhyay (2012).