Nuggets from Nagpur - Part 2

Here’s another attempt at providing temporarily relief to people suffering from “Mundane Existence Syndrome”  
Arunabha arrived in Nagpur on Friday morning. Soon Ajay and Arunabha were lost in “ hamari pehli mulaqat” saga. Arunabha almost made it to Nagpur last year and I was glad that it worked out this time. I had my own Saga going on with Arunabha, which had the opposite flavor: “ham kahaan kahaan mile the”. After recently covering London and Toronto, we were adding another chapter in Nagpur.
The focus of the day was Prof. Ishtiaq Ahmed’s talk on the partition of Punjab. However we found time to discuss a variety of topics. Saee’s scrumptious recipes were dissected over lunch and regional food preferences were debated. I was wondering how Saee managed to cook the Brinjal Sabzi without the bitter taste that’s usually associated with them and she promptly explained that it had more to do with the selection of the vegetables from the market. “Til Ka Laddu” was a popular dish. When Prof. Ahmed asked if Kachnaar ki Sabzi is made in this part of the world, Arunabha replied with “Kachi Kali Kachnaar ki hai “ We inferred that its available in this region based its usage in a bollywood song. Ajay’s fascination for Lata and Lahore was debated. While the fascination for Lata can be explained, the one for Lahore seems a little out of the ordinary. I narrated my own theory to Ajay “If you travel back in history, Lahore was just your neighboring province. Aur hum puraane khayalaat ke log hain”
Prof. Ahmed’s seminar was in the evening. It was extremely well received by an audience of about 300. One of the topics that Prof. Ahmed didn’t get time to cover was about the Lahore Film Industry. We managed to draw attention to that topic over dinner. Given that the most prominent contributors to Hindi Films and Music were from Punjab, we were curious as to which part of the state they hailed from.
We also recounted a few Ajay narrated a fascinating anecdote he heard from his father “ When Bahareni Phir Bhii Aayengi magar ham tum judaa honge” was heard on the streets in Hyderabad, traffic halted to listen to it”
We started belting names one by one; OP Nayyar, Kurshid Anwar, Roshan, Dilip Kumar, Shyam Sundar, Rajinder Kumar and so forth and to our astonishment all of them were born in and around Lahore. The actors and composers from East Punjab paled in comparison.
Saturday stared with a feast of Methi ki Kachori. Ajay and Saee keept serving them liberaly till we got completely stuffed  The kachoris were so good that we just cudn’t resist the extra servings and ended up skipping lunch. We then dropped Prof. Ahmed in the airport but not before coming to know of his singing skills. He sang a couple of Saigal songs during the drive and mentioned that he sings Mukesh during college reunions.
The big mehfil was in the evening. Ajay started by playing few of Lata’s earliest songs that included “ chidiya bole chhu, chuu chuu”, “ Piya aayega” and “paanv laaguun kar jorii re”. He also pointed out that the chronological sequence sometimes doesn’t match with the RPM record label numbers. He shared a fascinating anecdote where one of his record collector friends presented Lata with an RPM record of one her earliest songs at a function in Nagpur.
The next song had a long prelude but a few bars were enough before Arunabha nailed it as “sabze ki durfishani, phuulon ka shamiyana”. Ajay then pointed out that at the age of 18 Lata could sing such difficult songs with such maturity. “duur jaaye re” from the same year is another valid example.
Ajay then had a theme for us in which he was going to play songs from 1952 (and occasionally the ones before). Our task was to hear songs of 1953 when we go back home and come back with any differences. As per Ajay 1952 is the first cut off. The cut off on his fancy phone is 1957 although it’s not a hard stop and he does enjoy several songs even from the 70’s.
Ajay had a few songs in mind for his theme and one of the first was “Dukhiyaare naina dhuunde piyaa ko” We discussed the other songs of Nirmohi including “ ab gam ko banalengi jiine ka sahaara”.
I started requesting some of my favorites from 1952 including the following Anil Biswas ones. Ek mera dil ek unka dil and Idhar kho gaya. When the latter was being played we were reminded of the other “sitaara” from Do Sitaare which we promptly played. I am of course referring to “Meri aasmani ghodi”.
Sajjad was the next composer Ajay had in mind. He chose “wo to chale gaye ai dil” and pointed out that once the initial prelude music starts the table beats have a pause and we get the feeling that the song is going to start. However the music starts again. With Sangdil in the air how can Saiyyan be far behind. We picked “Kaali kaali raat re” from that treasure trove.
I suddenly said “Hyderabad Ki Nazneen” and walked towards Ajay who stood up and shook my hands. 1952 is incomplete without this Vasant Desai album. Jaao chamka subah ka sitara and kya kya na log chal base were thoroughly enjoyed. Inspite of our Nizam connections, we never spoke in Hyderabadi but I did recommend him to watch Farooq Sheik in the movie Lahore. ‘karna padta babu, ye bhi karna padta”. Being named after a place he is fascinated with, must be a good enough reason! Incidentally Ajay speaks flawless Hindi and chaste Urdu.
Saee now joined us and Ajay posed a quiz to all the three of us. He played a CR song and mentioned that its from 1952 and stars Madhubala and asked us to name the movie. When we all failed, Saee walked inside and immediately came back with the answer. Radha had nailed it with ease. That’s not surprising as a recent blood test revealed that Deshpande’s have 35 % Haemoglobin and 65% Lataglobin 

By now Arunabha started flexing his muscles and nailed both Chakori ka chanda se pyaar (Daman) and Kaise tum bin kategi umariya (Gumasta) while the prelude music was playing. Ajay next mentioned about a lesser known song of Bhola Shresta and the moment Lata started, I was able to identify it as “Mujhko hai tumse hi pyaar kyuun”. I said to myself “Chalo, ab Ajay mujhe ghar se nahiin bhaga sakta aur blood exam ka bhi zaruurat nahiin” LOL ! (When Ajay started collecting, he had tough times with a few collectors. They used to think that some other collector must have sent him and wudn’t entertain him). The next set of songs we enjoyed were “aaj mere nassib ne” from Hulchul and “Jhulmi naina balam ke maar gaye” from Baawra.
If you make a list of the composers of the above songs, it reads K.Datta, Bhola Shreshta, Mohd. Shafi, Krishna Dayal. What’s common to them? They are lesser known composers with outstanding Lata songs. Taking nothing away from the composers, its remarkable to note this ability of Lata to take compositions to the next level. As Arunabha rightly pointed out, outstanding Lata solos by lesser known composers could be another aspect that leads credence to the 1952 cutoff.

As the next song was being played, a usually restrained Arunabha shouted “Waffaa !”. There was a point of time when I was obsessed with the songs of this movie and he was reminding me of that phase. We enjoyed “Apni apni qismat hai” and I pointed the similarity in its lyrics to “is dil ki haalat kya kahiye”
We briefly turned beyond the cutoff. The Shankar Jaikishan stunner “Hamko chheta hai dil” from Aas was handpicked by Ajay to highlight the accordion pieces. It was past 1 am and we finally broke for dinner ! This time around I made sure not to miss out on the delicious Kichdi !
Post dinner we had a singing session. Everyone was reluctant to begin and I promptly jumped in with “tum pukaar lo, tumhara intezaar hai”. Arunabha then sang “dekho vo chaand chup ke se kehta hai ye ishaare” followed by Ajay with a Talat number that is now evading me.
Finally it was Saee’s turn and she went inside and got her lyrics book. She then asked us if we like “tuu hamko dekh aur hamari nazar se dekh” and Arunabha started reeling off the lyrics. I grabbed whatever was left behind, i.e the stats and said to myself “Arunabha ke saamne izzat bachane ke liye aakhir kuchh to karna paDegaa !” ROTFL ! (My Lata bhakti has always been there but was more or less steady but Arunabha’s graph started the ascent ever since he switched camps from Asha. The turning point was when he was finishing his Phd dissertation about a decade back. I had given him the RMIM commemorative on Anil Biswas and that influenced him so much that both Anil Biswas and myself found a place in the acknowledgements. Ever since then, his presence makes me feel proud and attentive at the same time 
I mentioned how I used to ask my family members to record songs for me from Vividh Bharati when I went to college and then used to consulate them and throw away old tapes which were repeatedly re-recorded. During one such session that I had discovered “tuu hamko ko dekh” in a old tape which I was about to junk.
“Zindagi Aur Hum Roshan” sach much Roshan ho gaye.
Mohabbat ek shoal hai followed and I then requested “aa phir se mere pyaar ki qismat sanvaar de”. It was Arunabha’s turn now but we all joined to sing “aa jaayen jaane waale, laut aai bahaare” . Meena Kumari was singing it for Sekhar in Chandni Chowk, but for us the “jaane waale” was Roshan. Ajay and Saee mentioned that their kids also watched this movie and we discussed a few other songs from the film before Arunabha looked at me “tumhara dialogue to suano” and I promptly got up and said “main vo balaa huun jo shiishe se patthat ko tod duun” . Jeevan keeps repeating this dialogue in the movie.
By now it was past 3 am and we decided to call it a day.
Sundays was set aside for meeting Vishwanath Chaterjee. We weren’t planning to stay for more than an hour but he regaled us with several anecdotes which made us sit for a while. The people he met and the efforts he put in the Geet Kosh compilations is remarkable. What amazed me was his incredible memory. Vishwanat ji has an uncanny ability to remember dates of events along with the day of the week. That last part was mindboggling.
It was evening by now and we had to leave soon to the train station. Saee made sure that we didn’t have to bother about dinner by packing “Pav Bhaji” for us. That along with boxes of sweets made us bring “deshpande hospitality” enroute and into our own homes.
We also had the good fortune of meeting Kalyan at the train station. I am a big fan of his sense of humor and he didn’t disappoint. We wanted to catch up over tea but figured that they weren’t going to allow us into the canteen without a train ticket. The canteen’s kitchen was facing the parking lot and Kalyan retorted “ If you want some excitement, jump through the kitchen. And if you want a ticket, I can just forward my sms ”.
That’s it folks. I hope that sookha bhelpuri tastes better now !

Nuggets from Nagpur - Part 1

The thought of Nagpur conjures myriad images of music, political science, food and fun delicately weaved together by threads of “Deshpande hospitality”. It’s hard to capture that last phrase in words. So friends, if you get their invite, lap it up and experience it for yourselves. For the uninitiated, here’s an attempt to capture some magic. 
The Deshpande residence is always abuzz with the presence of distinguished personalities from various walks of life. Abuzz is perhaps the wrong word as being in the mix of things has been the norm right from Ajay's father’s days in Hyderabad. So playing host comes naturally to them. Such an ambience provides the perfect breeding ground for intellectually inspiring discussions. Thursday evening was no exception as their residence was graced by the likes of noted political scientist Prof. Ishtiaq Ahmed and celebrated playwright Mahesh Elkunchwar.
It was my privilege to be in such distinguished company. After the initial introductions we hit upon a common chord with Lata Mangeshkar. Ajay asked us to request Lata classics and he was going to play for us. Mahesh ji started with an all time favorite “Subha ka Intezaar kaun kare”. At this point I was very happy, more so for Arunabha (who was going to join us on Friday), as the evening was going to begin with a Jaidev song. But in a gentle twist of fate the conversation drifted and the song was usurped by “Phaili huii hai sapnon ki baahen”. Now it was time to just feel happy for myself.
CR was the next composer of honor. “tum kya jaano” and “kaali kaali ratiyaan” followed and we all agreed that these are among our favorite Lata songs. Mahesh ji mentioned that liking for these kind of songs separates the true Lata fan from the pretender. We can endlessly debate about this topic, and even gloat about our self-imposed cut off years beyond which we occasionally foray. While we are at it, I just wanted to bring forward a good point raised by Saae (this was during lunch on Saturday when Arunabha also echoed similar thoughts) about not diluting the pleasure of listening to music by an obsession for song stats. My view is that stats by itself won’t enhance listening pleasure but can be used in conjunction to appreciate the finer nuances of the song.
Prof. Ahmed said that that he conisidered “sitaron ki mehfil sajii tum na aaye” among all time best Lata songs and we talked a little about Naushad’s music before listening to the stunner. I pointed out that its hard for me to decide if it’s the best song of Udan Khatola and “hamare dil se na jaana” is a strong contender for the same. We all agreed that Naushad’s best work was before mid 50’s. Saee mentioned that she had a special liking for “mohe bhool gaye saanvariya” and we heard that next. We were feasting over a variety of snacks during this time, and my favorite tasted like Bakarwadi although it was shaped like a “ball”. The other favorite looked like Macaroni Cheese (but tasted differently) which we had with forks. Saee meanwhile was multitasking and making sure that all the guests are well fed. Discussion then moved to Naushad’s best tracks and I mentioned that we should not forget Amar. Ajay went out for a moment and announced “andar se ek farmaish aai hai”. The Deshpande household being full of Lata bhakts, its hard to guess who requested it. I have a hunch its Saee given that it’s another Naushad number from the same time frame: “jo main jaanti bisrat saiyyan”.
Lyrics of Rajinder Krishan was next on agenda. I mentioned that he is underrated and hasn’t been ranked along with the likes of Sahir, Shailendra and Majrooh. We agreed that his work with a variety of composers from CR, Husnlal Bhagatram, Shyam Sundar to Madan Mohan and Hemant Kumar is top notch, especially with the Lata solo. We parsed the lyrics of both versions of “ye zindagi usiki hai” with an exclamation mark on “phir kahaan yeh fursaten, phir kahaan ye raat din”. The use of sitar in the happy version and clarinet in the sad verison was also noted. Ajay pointed out that its hard to find songs of this great lyricist in the 70’s as his works became sparse after he won a huge lottery.
We then enjoyed Prof. Ahmed’s farmsih, “priitam meri duniya men do din to rahe hote”. Mahesh ji had to leave early. Once he left we realized that we never got around to “subah ka intezaar kaun kare” and promptly played it.
We soon changed gears and discussed about a wide range of political and social issues with Prof. Ahmed. It continued over a scrumptious dinner of Roti, Aalu Gobi Sabzi, Dahi Wada and Rasmalai. They were so filling that I had to skip Kichdi  Coming back to music, Thursday evening was just an appetizer for what was to follow on Saturday evening. Arunabh’s arrival on Friday would set the tone for that. More on that later..

An evening of Ghazals

It was a busy Sunday morning as I was preparing to leave for Afzalgunj. I had promised to accompany my friend Prakash for a tour of the Salarjung Museum. The routine was interrupted by a phone call. The voice said, "I am performing in Ravindrabharati. If you have time do come". The fact that the performing artist had invited me was a good enough reason for me to attend. On top of that this was in Ravindra Bharati, the biggest stage in the twin cities for decades. And above all it was a tribute to Mehdi Hassan and Jagjit Singh. So I said to myself " chalo miyaa, itwaar ko yaadgaar banaaya jaaye".

By the time I reached Nampally I was overcome with excitement. This transcended into a trance when the concert began with "gulon me rang bhare". I started singing along, and happily clicking away snaps paying little attention to the names of the singers. The Mehdi Hassan favorite was followed by one of Jagjit Singh's mst popular numbers"sarakti jaaye rukh se nakaab aahista aahista". "baat karni mujhe mushkil", "Koyi fariyaad tere dil men dabi ho jaise", "nawazish karam shukriya" were some of other songs rendeed with gusto
by the other singers. Every singer was allotted 2 songs, and in most cases it was one Jagjit Singh number and one Mehdi Hassan song.

The compering was also excellent, with a sher read in introduction of every singer. There was one that just stuck in my mind.

" hatheli ki lakeeron ko maanne vaalon
jinke haath nahiin hotii, unke bhii taqdeer hotii hai"

resulting in a resounding "wah wah's from the auidence".

Every concert has a section of "over the top audience" and this was no exception. There was one character who said loudly "vo medhi hassan to main bhi haasan".

It was only during the break when all the artists were felicitated, that my intensity reduced a little and I started registering the names and faces of the performers .

Kejriwal of oriental cements started by saying that he is not a professional singer and he pursues it as a hobby. He rendered "ek baar chale aao" and "apni yaad ko zinda rakhna"prompting the comperer to say " inki aawaz to oriential cements jaise
majbuut hai".

The next singer was Swati whose opening aalaap drew applause from the audience. The Ghazal was "mohabbat karne waale kam na honge" which had lovely ashaar like "tere furqat ke gam na honge" and the audience lapped it up. With the words "Faiz gaane ki zurrat karti huun", Swati then rendered "aaye kuchh abr, kuchh sharaab aaye".

This was followed by Mazhar Khan who also sang 2 lovely Ghazals. By now "the hassan character" had started his parallel show in the back row and started doing counter aalaaps during the renedition. I will have to admit
that he was not besura. It must been an annoyance to the performers but it added to the entertainment value of some backbenchers.

Suresh Babu followed it up wih " zindagi men to sabhi pyaar kiya karte hain"

A fair and well built gentleman with a Shiv Kumar Sharma kind of flocky hair next came forward, prompting the the comperer to comment " Ye jitne sundar dikhte hain, utne hi sundar gaate hain".True to the words Sharad sang "yaad nahiin kya kya dekha tha", "tera chehra kitna suhana lagta hai" very well.

The last singer for the night was Zahiruddin Babar who regaled the audience
with "tere kushbu men bhara khat" and "har taraf har jagah".

The accompanying orchestra was excellent. Table Nawaaz Sadat Khan, who is also the organiser had a field day. Nothing less is expected of Saadat sahab who has accompanied Vithal Rao over the years.It was well into the night by now and I quickly got into an auto. I was in such a good mood that I engaged in small talk with the diver all throughout. He said " Koi tension nahiin lene ka aur bindaas rehne  ka. Ye hyderabad hai aur yahaan raat ko bhi befikr ghum sakte hain".

In all that excitement did I mention that the friend who called me was Swati,  a student of legendary Ghazal performer and teacher Pandit Vithal Rao ?Thank you Swati for inviting me.I was a little dissapointed that Pandit Vithal Rao wasn't there. However it was great to see his legacy being taken forward.

RMIM meet report - 2010 (Denver)

Thanks to Guri, Gargi and Arushi for hosting the meet. Thanks to Nishant and Nishant's mother for having me over.
taaron ki zubaan par hai muhabbat ki kahani
ai chaand mubarak ho tujhe raat suhani

It was well into the night by the time I reached Denver. The sky was clear and the celestial stars were shining. The cyber stars weren't far behind as they started trickling into Guri's residence. By the time Nishant and yours truly arrived, the bases were fully loaded. From Vijay with 'Ghanti bajii to hamne socha Ganti aa gayaa" to Nitin
Sharma giving me a hug and saying "milke bahut saal hogaya yaar" everyone greeted us and the feeling was surreal. Home run or not, it felt like a homecoming.

I could also spot Ashok, Balaji, Bhagwant, Deepak, Guri, Irfan, Narsingh, Pragya, Sajiv Anand, Saroj kalra, Vish on Saturday. Dr.Kapoor had already left for Waqar Khan's house. Casual conversations ruled while we were having dinner. The topics ranged from "Daughters Stalking Mom's" to "Complaints about Verizon
Wireless". Sajiv Anand, Guri's former classmate, took the center stage. He started with a string of Kishore songs and switched to Rafi with "ajahoon naa aaye baalamaa" and "tuu kahaan ye bataa". Mukesh's songs
soon followed. "yaad aayi aadhi raat ko, kal raat ki taubaa" started we quipped  "thoDa der se yaad aaya...aadhi raat ke baad".


Dam Dam Diga Diga prompted Balaji to comment .." 1960's, shankar- jaikishen, raj kapoor, mukesh, kalyanji-anandji, Manoj kumar - they all sound the same to me." As a L-P - Mukesh song ensued, I interjected "lets add L-P to the list and added that Husnlal - Bhagatram are the odd ones out and pointed that Mukesh sang for them
in Afsana". Balaji commented 'qismat bidagi, duniya badli' is such long that H-B finished their full Mukesh quota with it. I retorted " uske baad duniya badal gaii" promting a few laughs.The laughter wasn't reserved for the witty comments alone. Guri's background catcalls got their share too. They picked up tempo as the night passed and were accompanied with his self-choreographed gyrations. These are better left to the reader’s imagination :)
'yaad aa gaii vo nashili nigaahen' and 'na tum hamen jaano' were the next items. As 'na tum hamen jaano' started a voice from behind said 'baat ek raat ki' and I retored - ek baat nahiin do baaten - "kal raat ki tauba" aur "nashili nigaahen" referring to the songs that we just sung. By now it was past 3 am and Nishant and myself called it a day.


Saturday's events: It was approaching noon when we came back. Nishant's mother also joined us. After exchanging pleasantries with Dr.Kapoor and Vinay Jain, I went to the recording room to make copies of the commemorative cd. I could spot Balaji enquiring about his missing luggageand Ashok joined us. Ashok turned to me "How do you know Nishant? ". I told him that we met in Denver at the 2008 meet and have been in constant touch since then. I also mentioned to him about our Hyderabadi connection and to press home the point remarked "Nishant was named after the Shyam Benegal Movie"  ( The next day Nishant told me about his Nok Jhok with Ashok. Ashok enquired a few things about Nishant and when he came to know that Nisant has a sister commented "Is her name Bhumika ?". That's Vintage Ashok for you!)

The meet was formally kicked off with Sajiv Anand's renedition of namo namo'.


Introductions: Vijay introduced each of us and asked us to tell a little more. His antics resembled a talk show host. I wasn't sure if these were extemporaneous, but were laced with wit. While introducing Vish, Vijay said "Even if he doesn't attend a meet, he is always present in spirit. If he is not there we will say - Wish he was here " Vijay introduced Dr. ML Kapoor by saying " we celebrate MLK Jr's day, here's MLK Sr." Arushi then did a piano performance that thrilled the audience. Sitar player, Roshan Jamal Bhartiya, soon joined us and talked about
his music and his assocciation with L-P.  Bhagwant Sagoo talked about his introduction to RMIM and Satish Kalra's role in that. He also talked about his visits to Kalraji's place and their long association.  Dr. Kapoor turned to to Bhagwant "zaraa zor se boliye, hamaare kaan kuchh kam sunte hain" prompting Ashok to fire his first
salvo of the day "Agar kaan thiik hote to naushad ke fan nahin hote".

Bhagwant continued by saying "In my 20's I had the audacity to propose ...an idea to BBC". Guri remarked "I thought you were going to tell how you proposed to your wife" and the ever vigilant Vijay pounced "BBC ho ya BBG (Bibi Ji)". Bhagwant appealed to Vish and Guri to make time and share their knowledge with the world. He also talked about Copyright laws, making songs from saregama's archives available, and the compilations he had released on Saregama label. Irfan Anwar read out a letter he had written to EMI Pakistan regarding copyright
enforcement of his father's works and the lack of response to it.

Dr Kapur's quiz: Several video clues were played and the actor on whom the song was pictures, movie and composer had to be identified. The songs included MS Subbulakshmi from Meera, Pankaj Mullick from Mukti,
Jayashree from Shakuntala, Kanan Devi from Street Singer, KC Dey from Dhop Chaaon. Dr. Kapur also distributed cd's of Rani Ki Jhansi in color, Noorjehan in Pakistan and the inauguration of Rafi Academy.

Commemorative CD: Vish asked us to try and figure out what the theme of the commemorative this year. We were asked to make guesses and Vish would reply with a yes or no or possibly etc leading us toward the
right answer. The theme was  "MDs who did not get their day in the sun in the Hindi film domain". Vish pointed out that this could have been due to various reasons like they being too busy with other assignments
(as assistants or in regional films), or more likely not fortunate to have their day in the sun.

Ashok talked about a remark by Vish to one of his earlier Quiz "RJGK 28: Jaane Anjaane: Great Songs by Obscure Music Directors". In that Vish registered a a feeble complaint by mentioning that there were no
GS Kohli compositions in the quiz. 15 years later, Ashok did a tit for tat. Vish then mentioned why no GS Kohli compositions made it to the commemorative. Vish also added that he had only 1 song for each
composed, with one expection. The songs from the commemorative were being played as we broke for tea and snacks.

I caught up with Irfan Saheb talking to Vish about how SDB recycled "dil pukaare aa re aa re" from 'balma ne maana" (Jeeva Jyoti). I sometimes wonder if Irfan Saheb likes SDB's music more than even his
fathers ! Vijay made a comment that the Suseela & PB Sreenivas duet in the commeorative "naina jo nainon se" (Daku Bhat) is similar to "nain so nain nahii milao". I mentioned that Daku Bhupatwas dubbed version
of Telugu movie Rajanandini (1958) and the tunes were taken from there.
(Those interested can check the Telugu song 'andalu chindu seemalo"
http://www.hummaa.com/music/song/Andalu+Chindu+Seemalo/128822# )
Of course the Telugu song has similarity to "nain so nain".

Guri's quiz: After the break we resumed with Guri's video quiz. The 1st video clip showed a man blindfolded on a chair...prompting Ashok to ask Guri "your first patient?" As Guri had to run an errand I was
asked to go ahead with my quiz.

Quiz by Yours Truly: This was an audio quiz in which clips from antaras were played. Teams had to get mukhda and lyricist. Scoring was on lines of golf. Both correct answers got a Birdie (-1), one correct answer got a Par and '0' correct answers got a bogery (+1). There were bonus songs as well. Scores were announced before each bonus song so that teams can choose their strategy.  The bonus songs are like a drivable par 4 on a golf course where you can go for a green and try for an eagle (-2). But you also stand a chance of getting a double
bogey (+2). Alternately a conservative approach can be used by opting for a clue. Team 1 was called "Guptas" and Team 2 was called 'Mauryas". When I announced the teams AShok had us in splits with "So, I am chandragupta maurya". I looked at the first team and said "samudra gupta".

The teams were evenly macthed and struggling to break par in the beginning. A string of birdies followed, with Mauryas making full use of the clue "His most famous songs are for Khayyam and Jaidev" and identifying the lyricist as Naqsh Lyallpuri. They also cracked "tadap tap ke kaTii umr aashiyaane men" as well its lyricist Hasrat. The Guptas missed on both oppurtunities and infact had a bogey on "tadap tadap ke". That gave a 3 shot lead for Guptas. Although they scored a "double bogey" on the bonus song "pyaar ki rut do rangi saajan", the
Mauryas retuned the favor on the same clue. Guptas maintained their 3 shot lead till the last song "jab chaaye kabhii saawan ki ghata". Mauryas hit back with an eagle by identifying lyricist as Raja Mehdi Ali Khan and were now behind by just 1 shot. The Gupta's escaped with a par and won by 1 shot. Final scores: Guptas -6 ; Mauryas -5

Guri's quiz resumes: There were several video clues whose audios were mismatched. The audios were the prelude music of songs.We had to identify the number of clues, the correct audio and video sequence and
the theme. It was quite tough and Vish was able to crack a few.  "do din ke liye mehmaan yahaan", "yaad rakhna chaand taaro" were among the songs.

Nishant and I left briefly to buy a connecting cable. When we were at radio shack, the phone rang. It was Samik Dasgupta "jaani main meet pahunch gayaa huun.” I was like, atleast he showed up ;)

Nishant's quiz: This was another video quiz and was tited 'allah jaane kyaa ho aage" A dialogue from a movie is shown and the immediately following scene had to be guessed. In most of the cases this was a song. This was a tough quiz as well. Some songs included 'kyaa ho jo din phir rangeela ho", "kuve.n me.n kuud ke mar jaanaa, yaar tum shaadii mat karanaa", Janam Liyo Lalna. Vish was able to guess the Parivaar song after Nishant gave a hint that it was picturized on Kishore although and it was a guest appearance for him. Balaji was able to guess the Ferry clip where Dev Anand and Geeta Bali have a Sarod / Sitar duel.The sone Ke chidiya verse "aaj ki raat bahut garam hawaa chalti hai" was another clue.


Bhagwant's quiz: Bhagwants links quiz was fascinating but with our limited knowledge of Hollywood / British movies we had to resort to google searches. The clues were like Lee Van cleef - Abhijeet. That pointed to the theme music of "Good bad and ugly"


Next clue was Clint East Wood - V Shantaram and we finally zeroed in on the song from 'jal bin machli".
"ye dil na hota bechara" was the answer for another series of clues.

By the time the quizzes ended, it was past midnight and Nishant and yours truly left as we had a very long day ahead. (Unfortunately we missed the singing session but the songs sung have already been posted by Nita on facebook.) We were driving to aspen the next day. Saroj ji decided to join us and postponed her return tickets. Nishant's mother also joined us. We went to Guri's house Sunday morning to pick up Saroj Kalra and got a chance to meet some RMIMers again.

On Monday morning, Nishant was to drop me at the airport. As flights of few other RMIMer's were also on Monday, we picked up Ashok, Saroj Kalra and Narsingh from Guri's place. There is no shortage of action
when Ashok is around and he started enquiring as usual. Nishant dropped all of us at the airport and I realized that my flight was delayed. I was thinking of calling Ashok but didn't have his cell handy. The gates for the flight changed and when I went to  the new gate and relaxed in front of TV. I heard a familiar voice "what are u
doing here". It was Ashok ! In his usual style he started probing and threw a few googlies. We said goodbyes with the hope that we will meet in Bangalore.

Till the cyber stars gather again to create magic, so long..

RMIM meet report - Bangalore (2009)

Prologue: May 16, 2009 - India was in the grip of election fever. Party offices were bustling with activity as the counting began. As the evening dawned, results started trickling in,and open discussions gave way to close door meetings. Veteran members of the ruling coalition started trickling into the residence of General Secretary, Kalyanji Kolachalaji. The hopes were high and the stakes higher. Hardliner, Chetan Vinchhi, was among the first arrivals. He had mellowed down over the years, but the intensity in his eyes and sincerity in his voice was as striking as ever. Game changer, Arunabha Roy, was the most sought after member. His vote has always been crucuial, given his history of switching sides at the drop of a coin. Central observer Anup Pandey flew in from Delhi with special instructions from the high command. Dissident leader Ashok Dhareshwar moved the motion to have the RMIM meet on June 26,27,28 and it was unanimously adopted.

Yours truly got wind of the developments and was relieved. With my india trip already finalised I was hoping that the meet will coincide with my visit. It just did.

Thanks to Kalyan, Sushmita, Sirisha, Moloy, Kanchan, Chetan, Arunabha, Ashok for their tireless

efforts in organising the meet.

June 25, 2009 - I took an evening flight from Hyderabad to Bangalore. My return was delayed due to friday evening traffic. Bangalore folks attributed the delay to me getting kidnapped on the way.(One RMIMer threatened to hijack the plane since I was not visiting mumbai during my india trip!) I finally arrived at Kastle Grace and knocked on the door. Arunabha greeted me

"Chalo grocery karne chalte hain !".

We let Kalyan know about my arrival. He wanted to stop by since we had some hawala transactions to perform. We went downstairs and spotted Kalyan's car. I was tempted to say "Kalyanji, aap se milke bahut aanand mila", but realized that Chiranjeevi Singh was in the car. After exchanging pleasentaries and DVD's they left. Arunabha said "why dont we have dinner first ? We can get groceries later". I said to myself " I didn't expect nawabi tehzeeb, but atleast I am not being mistreated".

June 26, 2009 - "are ye kya kiyaa tuu ne": Although an NRB (non-resident bong) since birth, Arunabha's laid back approach has bhadralok written all over it. On top of that Kalyan assigned him the task of picking up Chiranjeevi Singh on the way.The next hour was spent with Arunabha calling several cab companies with little luck. Meanwhile Pavan called to inform that he is in mumbai but his flight from there has been delayed. After several near misses, Pavan's excitement was understandable and he asked Arunabha for periodic updates. Arunabha made calls to Moloy and Kanchan's residence and finds that Ashok; Chetan, Purvi and their kids; "Cool dude" Saksham; Abhay Phadnis; Manjari Dhamankar, have already arrived.

"intezaar aur abhii, aur abhii": After a wait of one and a half hours the cab company finally sent one.

We picked Chiranjeevi singh and reached the venue around 9:30. Attendees started speculating if the Bangalore folks would arrive later than the Jaipur / Mumbai folks but we managed to beat them by a whisker. Most of the attendees had already arrived. Apart from the ones mentioned above; I could spot

Kalyan, Sushmita, Sirisha, Sirisha's friend, Vivek Dhareshwar, and his daughter, Anup Pandey, Dr.Khaitan,

Dr.Shekhar, his wife, his mother; Dr.Mohan and his wife.

We were having a scrumtuous dinner when two gentlemen arrived; Vibhendu Tiwari and Pavan Jha.

To take a cue from Ashok "God and Gulzar finally relented" and we were thrilled to have Pavan. Ashok had already warmed up, and started reeling quotable quotes. He quipped "Ganti's reports are like Gulzar's writing!"

Introductions: A new dimension was added here with RMIMers providing insights about their fellow members.

Cool dude's introduction had us in splits. "My name is Saksham. I am 19 years old" Moloy shared Saksham's confession "In his good old days, he was a non-vegetarian". Kanchan mentioned that her first meet was in New Jersey and Chetan added that she was the co-host for her first meet ! When Dr.Sekhar's mother introduced herself, Ashok added that she won the second prize during a world space quiz and he will reveal later as to who won the first prize.

After Abhay's introduction, Chetan added that Abhay is a big fan of Begum Akhtar. Chiranjeevi Singh mentioned that he got the oppurnity to see her in person thrice. Abhay recalled that in the Chennai meet he saw two Sardarji's and wasn't sure who was Dr.Hamraaz till one of them talked in Kannada. Chiranjeevi Singh's command over various languages is well known. Ashok also mentioned that it was Mr. Singh

who won the first prize in the world space contest Manjiri mentioned that she is not all part of the new group online but has been attending meets. At the last Arunabha and myself mentioned to her that we Marathi songs but dont understand the language well. Manjari mentioned that this motivated her to translate

a few Marathi songs into Hindi.

Lata or Asha: Aruanbha complemented RMIMers and noted that it has been a great experience for him to meet lovers of vintage music in the meets. Chetan mentioned that Arunabha started out as an Asha fan and switched to Lata. Arunabha retorted that he now likes both equally well.

Sushmita Kalyanam:When Sushmita talked about her interest in old songs, Kalyan interjected and mentioned their pre-wedding exchanges. When Kalyan asked her what kind of music she liked, Bhajans was her reply and quoted that Comics are her favorite books. Kalyan noted that she tried her best not to marry him :)

Chetan mentioned a little bit about the history of RMIM meets and Anup chipped in as well.

It was my turn and I spoke Hindustani...

" mujhe is mehfil men baar-baar shaamil hone ka mauqka mila hai, lekin,

is mehfil men chand lamhe bitaane ka shauq abhii baaqi hai

is aalam ka lutf uThaane ka junoon abhii baaqi hai

"

Kalyan compared my meet reports to Sanjay narrating events of Mahabharata and Ashok quipped that I even write reports of meets that I don't attend.

"How to miss an RMIM meet" by Pavan Jha: His two near misses when he had to cancel his tickets at last minute have attained legedndary status.Pavan's talked about the art of missing and his thrill at finally

attending a meet. He introduced in Hindustani as well. Vibhendu's intrduction was followed by several people mentioning about his participation in Quiz competitions. Ashok introduced himself in Kannada. We were about to call it a day when Ashok had the last laugh with his comment to me "Your Hindi has improved since you moved to Toronto"!

Arunabha, Pavan, Chiranjeevi Singh and Your's truly left in Dr.Khaitan's car. During the drive I talked about the famous poet from Hyderabad, Maqdoom Mohinuddin, whose sher with the beher "abhii baaqi hai" inspired mine. Some of the film songs of Maqdoom were discussed. Dr.Khaitan dropped us at Arunabha's residence and went on to drop Chiranjeevi Singh. Pavan worked on the audio visual introduction on VK Murthy and was awake most of the night. Arunabha and I also looked at several books that Pavan got.

It was a memorable evening to Savor and this was only the warmup to the formal events on Saturday and Sunday !

The cloudy skies gave way to bright sun shine as the clock struck ten. It was a quiet morning with the ocassional cooing of the doves. The silence was interrupted by a phone call. A familiar voice said " When are you guys planning to come".
It was Chetan. I sensed that we were running late and alerted Arunabha and Pavan. They woke up and continued in the vein of the previous night; talk, browse books, and did i say talk ! We took turns to answer Chetan's followp up phone calls and blame the delay on the other person till Chetan announced "I will be at the door in 10 minutes".The procrastination invetably led to change of plans, and Chetan got assigned to other pick up duties leaving place for only one of us in his car. Arunabha managed to convince Pavan "You have a lot of books which won't fit in auto.You shud go in the car" We accompanied Pavan till the car and saw Saksham besides Chetan. Arunabha greeted him "Will you be singing a song spanning 3 octaves" and the cool dude shoot back "Are you Crazy. Its 2 and half at most".

As we walked back into the appartment Arunabha heaved a sigh of relief; and eased into the sofa by saying "Now I can get ready at my own pace". The delay in getting ready was more than made up by the fact that we had much better luck with the auto and we were at the venue almost on time. By the time we arrived, the auditorium was packed. We sat in a corner besides Saksham. The first event had just begun and M.A Parthasarathy, former production head at Gemini Studios, was talking about C Ramchandra. Meanwhile Kalyan came by and said that my seat was  needed to put a music system and pointed to another empty seat, right at the tail of the long rectangular table. This was a much more visible spot, and the moment I was noticed, several hands and mouths swung into action. No, it wasn't a greeting! Some were passing sheets of paper, and others were enquiring if i needed a pen. Before I could realize what was happenning Srisha came by and said "No need to take notes for the meet report. We are recording the proceedings"

Thanks to Srisha, Pavan and Anant Rege, the recording will soon be available at rmim.in.  This post is just a trailer with juicy tid-bits.

M.A Parthasarathy and the Gemini music room: Parthasarathy mentioned that, after song recording was complete, Ramchandra always wanted to see the final version of the film. But films typically needed editing, and Parthasarathy used to show him the rought cut. Several interesting aspects were revealed ; including Lata refusing to sing for Ramchandra after 6:00 pm any given day ! Parthasarathy also mentioned about a recording by Emani Sankara Sastry called "aadarsha shikara aarohanam" - the ideal progress of a musical expression, and that Ramchandra loved it. He went on to talk about Chandralekha (1948) and its composer Saluri Rajeswara Rao. During the ensuing discussion, Dr. Sekhar enquired about the picturisation of a dance sequence from Raj Tilak in which Vyjayanthimala and Padmini had a competition. Parthasarathy mentioned that the producer, S.S vassan realised that making either actress win the dance sequence would have repercussions. So he devised the scene such that the chandeliers would crash and disrupt the dance, leaving it inconclusive.

Maya Rao and the music for dance ballets: Dr Maya Rao, internationally reputed dancer, choreographer and founder of Natya Institute of Kathak & Choreography, was the next guest. She talked at length about her association with Anil Biswas. She began by giving a brief background of Anida's tryst with AIR, her introducton with him and a delightful account of his personality, which sounds plain in a report. The recording is worth listening to just for this! Maya Rao returned from Moscow after studying in Theatre Arts. She also played a couple of songs fron her dance drama on Amir Khusrau, composed by Anil Biswas.

"Gori sovay sej par, mukh par daaray kes,
Chal Khusrau ghar aapnay, rain bhaii chahu des " and

" Ai chehara-e zeba-e-tu rashk-e butaan-e-azari "

She went on to mention that Anilda also composed carnatic styles on Vishnuvardhana and Venkateshwara Vilasam for TTD (Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam) She also touched upon a Kathak number whose lyrics were by Narendra Sharma and was sung by Anilda himself. A clip of the song was played as well. An interesting anecdote on Anilda driving his car in reverse direction was also recalled. She recalled an interesting incidentg where where she hummed a Jhinjhoti tarana to Anilda that she had heard and asked him to compose something similar. Anilda retorted" tum to Bageshri gaa rahii ho" We were in splits when she shared Anilda's comments to out of tune cheoreographers, with us. He apparently said "tum sab asur ho".

It was time to wind up the discussions with chief guests and break for lunch. This was perfect time to catch up with old friends and meet new people. Apart from the attendees on Saturday; I could spot Animesh, PreetRanjan, Sushrut, Sathya and his wife. I was also introduced to Samik Dasgupa's mother, sister and brother-in-law.

Introductions: As Arunabha and Preeti mentioned; Kalyan's father's introduction was special. The remark by Kalyan's father speaking of Kalyan "Given our music preferences, I sometimes wonder if he is the father " was received with smiles all around. We all mentioned about our favorite singers and composers. Preeti's introduction was "My favorite singers are Mukesh and Anup Pandey" When a comment was made about having visibility ? Vibehndu stood up on the stage in order to be visible !

Sense of humor was displayed in abundance duing the intros.

Quiz: Kalyan was planning to do an event but had to pick up V.K Murthy. I jumped in with my quiz which Preeti has already mentioned in his report It was fun to watch IIT Profs Animesh and Preeti solving problems. While most RMImers are by now aware of the theme (matching pairs of songs with movie name of one contained in the mukhda of the other); having a subtheme for the odd clues was a more recent introduction. I gave a clue that the odd songs had the same composer. Both teams latched on when i mentioned that he was a golden era composer who was still alive I could see them rejoice when I announced that both guessed the name correctly as Ravi. I wonder if that really helped in the final analysis or people got distracted into focussing too much on finding which songs were by Ravi instead of matching the pairs.

The quiz brought out the best of Anup Pandey. Anup and Pradeep Dubey were two RMImers that I always wanted to meet, especially because of their sense of humor. Unfortunately they went back to India around the same
time I became active on RMIM and started attending meets. I finally met Pradeep a few years back and now Anup.Soon after the quiz ended, one attendee wanted to leave and Anup looked at me and said "tumhara quiz ka pehla shikaar".

V.K Murthy: Pavan Jha presented a nice audio visual about his cinematography. Murthy saab talked at techinques he used for various song picturizations. He talked about how the specific beam of light was achieved in "waqt ne kiya" from Kaagaz Ke Phool by a unique mirror arrangement. Preeti has summed this up nicely. The discussion about "saaqiya aaj mujhe" has to be heard to be savoured! Murthy saab also talked about his understading with Guru Dutt as well his work with other producers / directors like Kamaal Amrohi, Pramod Chakravarthy .

When asked about the picturisation skills of other directors and specifically Vijay Anand, he mentioned that having a good sense of music and dance helps and Vijay Anand had that. He also mentioned about his work on TV serials with Govind Nihlani, his contemporaries in India and abroad. It was a very interesting and informative session

Film on RD Burman: A lot has been written on RMIM about the film itself, whether it was appropriate to showit at an RMIM meet, and so on. I will leave it at that.

The Cigar Club: As we came out for dinner I could spot a member of this club wandering around with a Cigar and looking for the others. In earlier meets I used to see them take short breaks from meet proceedings to go out and smoke.Now they seem to take short breaks to come in and attend the meet :)

Singing session: At the Bangalore meet 2 years back, Arunabha and myself mentioned about our interest about Marathi music but our limited lyrical understanding. Manjari decided to translate a few Marathi songs in Hindi and sing for us in this meet. I can only recall "nava vadhu priya mi" right now. Actually Arunabha, by virtue of beig brought up in Bombay can understand conversational Marathi well and has much more exposure to Marathi music than me. So he shud be able to fill in the others. Manjari also mentioned that she translated some Ghazals into Marathi for the benefit of non-urdu knowing folks. This was followed by Antakshari which not surprisingly had lot of SDB sungs. There were a couple of LP songs too including "Gam ka fasana, ban gayaa accha" and Manjari even went to the extent of immitating "accha jii". We wound up the antakshari session around midnight and it was time to say goodbyes since several of us weren't going to be there on Sunday.

The meet presented a perfect oppurtunity for Arunabha and myself to relive grad school times in Chicago. We weren't the only ones having that feeling. "Bay Area Bonding" was well evident with Anup, Kalyan and Preeti getting nostalgic as well. While the get together was primarily for music lovers to come together and share their passion; it wudn't have been as lively; without the wit and repartee. It ensured the right balance.