This Day In History- August 30

1574 – Guru Ram Das became the fourth Sikh Guru. It was also in this year that Guru Ram Das founded Ramdaspur which later became the holy city of Amritsar where he designed the holy ‘Harmandir Sahib’ also known as the Golden Temple. Guru Ram Das also composed the Laava, the hymn chanted while solemnising an ‘Anand Karaj’, the marriage ceremony. The Laava beautifully describes the meaning of marriage to the couple entering matrimony.

Guru Ram Das

Guru Ram Das

1921 – Popular wrestler Jatindra Charan Goho also known by his ring name ‘Gobar’ Goho defeated Adolph Ernst  ‘Ad Santel’ to become the World Light Heavyweight Champion at the Coliseum in San Fransisco. With this victory Gobar Goho also became the first Asian to win a World Professional Wrestling Championship in the US. Ad Santel was a Judoka with a 5th degree black belt and the best ever before he turned a professional catch wrestler.

Gobar Goho

Statue of Wrestler Gobar Goho

1923 – Renowned poet, lyricist Shankardas Kesarilal popular by his pen name ‘Shailendra’ was born. Shailendra got interested in poetry during his days at the Indian Railways. It was in a ‘Mushaira’ that Raj Kapoor was impressed by Shailendra’s way with words when he was reading out his poem ‘Jalta Hain Punjab’.

Thus in 1949, Shailendra wrote ‘Patli Kamar Hain’ and ‘Barsaat Mein’ which were composed by Shankar-Jaikishan along with other songs for the movie ‘Barsaat’ (1949). Several of Raj Kapoor’s hits had songs penned by Shailendra and composed by Shankar-Jaikishan. The team also gave ‘Awaara Hoon’ which was hailed as a chart buster not only in the Indian sub continent but also in the then existing Soviet Union, China, Turkey, Afghanistan and Romania.

Shailendra also associated with composers like Salil Chowdhary, S D Burman and Ravi Shankar and filmmakers like Dev Anand and Bimal Roy. He also gave ‘Ramaiya Vastavaiya’, ‘Mud Mud Ke Na Dekh’, ‘Mera Joota Hain Japani’ (all from Shri 420), ‘Khoya Khoya Chand'(Kaala Bazaar), ‘Gaata Rahe Mera Dil’, ‘Piya Tose Naina Lage Re’ (all from Guide), ‘Kisi Ki Muskurahaton Pe’ (Anari) etc. Shailendra won the Filmfare Award for Best Lyricist thrice. They were for ‘Yeh Mera Deewanapan Hain’ (Yahudi) in 1958, ‘Sab Kuch Seekha Humne’ (Anari) in 1959 and ‘Main Gaoo Tum So Jao’ (Brahmachari) in 1968.

Shailendra

Shailendra

1983 – The Geo Stationary satellite INSAT-1B was launched. It became fully operational in October 1983 only after its solar arrays were successfully deployed. It returned about 36,000 images of the earth.

INSAT 1B

INSAT 1B

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