Rib-Tickling, Convulsive Laughter! By -Alka Verma,Vice President UPICA

Toronto has witnessed many events over the past several years. However, the South Asian community, has for the first time, enjoyed something, never experienced before, namely, three hours of rib-tickling, convulsive laughter! People had tears streaming down their cheeks as they watched Raju Shrivastava and Sugandha Mishra regale the audience at the Hil, Hil, Hilarious comedy show organized by Prachee Sangeet Academy Toronto’s Principal and founder, Aliya Sharafi. The tickets sold off like hot cakes and people from all the South Asian communities could be seen at the show.

The daughter of the late Kalim Sharafi, the renowned Rabindra Sangeet exponent of both the Bengals , Aliya is herself the student of Padmavibhushan Smt.Girija Devi and has mastered classical and semi classical music.Ghazal being her exclusive favourite.

As a human being, she comes across as a soft spoken and very humble person who is completely dedicated to promoting music with the mission of keeping it alive for the future generations.

She displayed her excellent taste in the choice of the venue and the décor of the hall. A colorful brochure was handed out to all those present. It paid tribute to Aliya’s father Kalim Sharafi, gave brief biographies of the leading artists Raju Shrivastava and Sugandha Mishra, carried greetings from prominent dignitaries including the Mayor of Mississauga Bonnie Crombie and highlighted the growth of the Prachee Sangeet Academy and the platform it gives to it’s students excelling in the arts.

Aliya is herself, a renowned classical singer and started her career at 12 as the first child playback singer for a film SOOTARANG which was the highest selling record of EMI Gramophone company that year and earned a name in Bangladesh. And since then performed all over the world with classical and semi classical songs.
Being a student of Pharmacy she chose music as her passion and dedicated her soul and mind to it.

Aliya is multi talented. She has in the past, organized a six nation, one of a kind classical musical program, Sur Tarang, where she combined artists from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and Trinidad.She is able to converse in various languages from around the world,she has organized many events and is set to give Canada many such memorable experiences in the coming years.