Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia

While our Bollywood copy-cat filmmakers are busy scrambling over themselves, trying to ape Bono and other rock demi-gods with high hopes of gaining Western mainstream acceptance, acclaimed flutist Pundit Hariprasad Chaurasia quietly beat them at their own game, showing all our starry-eyed wannabes just how things are done.

Even as Mr. Ego-maniac Khan flaunts his barely-deserved honorary PhD, the 71-year old flutist who is a regular feature at haute Parisian music fests, was knighted by the French Government – an honor hitherto reserved for modern-day living legends like magician and illusionist David Copperfield and Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling.

What’s more, Punditji is also being honored with a special two-day long celebration in Paris… this, at a time when classical Indian music is so passé with our teeny-bopper brat-pack who causally flaunt faux accents and wax eloquent about their phoreign getaways.

So, in an era of shameless Hollywood posturing, the news of Pundit Chaurasia’s mega-success comes as a much-needed breath of fresh air… especially for all those of us who seem to have forgotten the very foundation of super-stardom and international acclaim. And no, it isn’t about your latest designer threads, or how well you can ape Rihanna under your bathroom shower – it has to do with three little things called ‘hard work’, ‘perseverance’ and ‘sheer genius’.