In Memory of Begum Akhtar

As the Chief Guest Sheila Dikshit came and went, the compere Mirza Arif remarked, "ek zalzala sa aaya aur gaya." A few other luminaries came in as Sheila ji was walking out prompting him to say "chaand baadal ke piiche chhip gaya lekin sitare nazar aane lage". This was just an intersting sidelight of thethe curtain raiser to centenary celebrations of Mallika-e-ghazal Begum Akhtar.

The evening started with Shiela ji presenting BAAG (Begum Akhtar Academy of Ghazal) awards to shayar Rajesh Reddy, Photographer Avinash Pasricha. Lifetime BAAG award was presented to Ahmed Hussain and Mohammad Hussain.

This was followed by a 20 minute video on Begum Akhtar that was conceived by Rita Ganguly. It went into the intricate details of her childhood, how she escaped an attempt on her life at the age of 3 when her food was poisoned, the burning down of her house and all the trials and tribulations she had as a kid.

The documentary was extremely well made and was laced with Akhtari Bai's Ghazal excerptsas well as her spoken voice. The different phases of Akhatri Bai's life, including the 8 years after marriage when she didn't sing, the personal tragedies, the near death experience after which she came back to sing on Radio after advise from doctors were all highlighted.

Rita ji then talked a bit about how she became Akhtari Bai's disciple. Rita ji was a disciple of Siddheswari Devi when Begum Akhtar heard her sing in a concert. Akhtari Bai wanted to make Rita her disciple and approached her, but Rita cudn't as she was disciple of Siddhewari Devi. On top of that Begum Akhtar and Siddhewari were not on very good terms.Akhtari Bai went to Siddheswari's house to ask for Rita and that very same day the "ganda bandh" was done. Two of Rita ji's Guru-behan; Savita Devi (daughter of Siddheswari Devi) and Shanti Hiranand (discple of Begum Akhtar) were present on the ocassion.Rita ji also fondly recalled her days as a disciple of Siddheshwari Devi.

The other celebrity present on the occasion was Jackie Shroff. Rita ji announced that she is going to make a picture on the life of Begum Akhtar with the support of Jackie Shroff.

This was followed by Rajesh Reddy's shayri recital. Rajesh Reddy regaled the audience with sher's presented in tarannum style. Here is one that caught the imagination of everyone.
"yahaaN har shaks har pal haadsa hone se darta hai, khilona hai jo miTTi ka fanaa hone se darta hai;
mere dil ke kisii kone men ek maasuum sa baccha, baDon ki dekh kar duniya, baDaa hone se darta hai;
ajab ye zindagi ki qaid hai, duniyaa ka har insaan rehaai maangta hai aur rehaa hone se darta hai"

And finally we had a Ghazal session with Ahmed Hussain and Mohammad Hussain. They first presented a lovely number weaving the names of all popular ragas and then Hasrat Jaipuri's "ishq agar ek tarfa ho to sazaa deta hai aur agar dono.n taraf ho to mazaa detaa hai". Their next number "mausam aayenge jaayenge" was very well received and they closed with a Ghalib Ghazal.

Perhaps the most poignant moment of the evening came when Rita ji said that just like all humans artists also have flaws. So when you enjoy the artists don't talk about the drawbacks in their personal lives. If you want to say something, do it after proper research. And research does not mean looking up google. That last line had the audience in splits but the message was well received.

It was quite a memorable evening and I am looking forward to many more of these.

An evening with Savita Devi

As I was stepping into the India Habitat Center theater, I saw an elderly lady walk by. She was in her 70's but there was so much grace in the face that I told to myself, "Perhaps she is Savita Devi". I have never seen her in a performance before and the pictures I could recall were of her younger days.

As I was collecting my thoughts, I heard a voice from behind " aap hi ko sun ne aaye hain". Allright ! That was Vidushi Savita Devi herself and I hoped that her voice has also sustained the ravages of time.
I settled down into a spot that gave a good view of the stage. A group of artistes from the Siddheswari Devi Academy of Music took center stage. They began with Guru Vandana, followed by "jao jao tose nahin boluun" in raag Janasamohini. Their Kajiri, "arey raama saavan maas shuvan" was very well received and it was a great demonstrationof chorus singing. The last item presented by the ensemble was the bhajan "chait re ghumani".
An announcement soon followed that Padmashree Rita Ganguly has graced the occasion. Rita ji proudly spoke of the sanctity of Benares, and her Guru, Vidhusi Siddheswari Devi. She went on say that her Guru loved her disciples as much as she loved her daughter Savita. An entertaining wordplay between the two Guru-behan followed.
Savita ji then took stage and talked a little about Purab ang thumri. She then started with 3 of her disciples accompanying her on the vocals. A thumri in mishra khamaj, "bin chuvo baiyan hamari,dekho shyaam vihaari re" was the first number. She mentioned that she grew up on a staple diet of Thumris of her mother and the dominance of the Krishna motif in her selections was obvious.
Savita ji then talked about a bandish that was very dear to her mother and invited Rita ji to join but Rita ji politely refused.It was "piya re aao aao nagariya hamari".This was followed by the mostwell received number of the evening"rang darungi re, nand ke lalan par". Every murki of this "hori" was lapped up by the audience with claps and appreciative nods. Savita ji said that although we are past the season for Hori, she wanted to present it for the sake of completeness.
She then talked about Bhojpuri dialect and presented a Kajri "tarasava jiyara hamar naihar men" and explained that this represents the waiting of a lady for her beloved. The final presentation was a nirgun of Kabir," pad gaii ... daag chunariya" which was a fitting way to end a magical evening on a sublime note.
Here’s one of her earlier recordings. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bP7dmRB8qeM

Shalini Ved's Concert review

As Dr. Shalini Ved Tripathi sang "Mere Daag-e-Dil Se Hai Roshni" the lights went off at the India Habitat Center. This divine intervention was one of the many highlights of this weekends concert. After having such a great experience last weekend I headed out to a Thumri, Dadra and Ghazal concert, "Rimjhim-Phuhaaren" by Dr. Shalini, a disciple of Girija Devi. Unlike last week's feature which was in the Stein Audiotirum this was in the basement auditorium and the audince was also fewer. I wanted to get a front seat but realised that several of the artists families and friends were occupying the front rows. So I eased into the third row and a well dressed gentleman walked in and sat next to me. It was still a few minutes to the beginning and the front benches started glancing backwards to spot their friends. Their ogles were responded by Aadabs by my neighbour and before I could introduce myself to him, he was invited to sit in the front row.

The concert began with Shalini ji's children giving introduction and explaining the various forms like Dadra, Kajri etc.. Shalini ji then introduced her parents, husband and all the artists; Murad Ali Khan on Sarangi, Pandit Mishra on harmonium and Mithilesh Jha on the table.

Shalini ji began with a Thumri in Raag Khamaj set to Kherawa "bheji jaauun main" and explained that Thumri's use the Awadi and Brij Basha dialects. She then talked about her Guru Girija Devi and presented her Dadra 'tum saanchi kaho".

The next section was devoted to Ghazals and Shalini ji mentioned that she was going to sing a number penned by Shakeel Badyuni "mere humnfas mere humnava, mujhe dost banke daga na de". As she came to "mere daag-e-dil se hai roshni" the lights went off but she continued as the audience started promting "aap ki aawaaz se hi roshni" The singing continued and when the lights came back, she had come to the line "mujhe ai chhoD de mere haal par" promting Mishra ji to point upwards towards the lights to say " the lights want to be left alone". This was followed by a Khumar Bharabankvi Ghazal "Ek Pal Men ek Sadi Ka maza hum Se puchhhiye, Do din ki zindagi Ka maza hum Se puchhhiye".

The best received item of the day was the next number "kuchh to duniyaa ki inaayaat ne dil to.D diyaa" As Shalini ji sang " ham to samajhe the ke barsaat me.n barasegii sharaab, aayii barsaat to barsaat ne dil to.D diyaa" the whole audience hummed along. And every time the punch words like Rawayat, Khayalat, Sawalaat were utterred, the adience echoed with "kyaa baat hai".As Shalini ji was preparing
to end the concert the inevitable happenned. A voice came from the back, "aaj jaane ki zid na karo" gaaiye and she obliged.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable performance in which the singer established good rapport with the audience.

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..