East Coast RMIM Meet 2002 : An informal account
Ritu
digging into a particularly delicious lunch. "Mental notes?" I looked
at Ashok quizzically." Mental notes for what?". You are supposed to be
official meet reporter, he said. Didn't Chetan tell you?. Official
Meet Reporter???? I said choking over my more than generous helping of
srikhand/puri. Yes, said Ashok with a twinkle in the eye now. I'm sure
you must have noted down **all** the relevant activities till now .
Noted down **all** (choke) activities????… but but but (me gulping
down some water).. Chetan never told me I protested. Never mind says
Ashok you can goto people take details and create a report. Ouch!
………Yes, I said bravely, I'm sure I could do that….
And so, I spent the rest of my afternoon thinking of people who could
provide me details (write the report for me). After a couple of
agonizing hours my friend Madhuraji casually mentioned that Kanchanji
was taking notes throughout the meeting. She is the official meet
reporter!
Ashok that was not a very kind thing to do to a poor harmless soul
enjoying a quiet lunch….. !
So, while we wait for Kanchanji to come out with an official and
detailed meet report. Here is an informal account from my memory. Add
on guys and put in your two bits too.
The RMIM Meet for me started 5 days before the actual meet as I tried
to come up with a quiz I had promised Chetan I would do (why do I
leave everything for last minute). So after a sleep starved week, I
left office on Friday, picked up dear madsji and her gobhi aaloo (for
the potluck dinner in the evening) from her place, headed home and
then finally headed out to the hosts Chetan and Purvi's place for the
informal get-together. It was close to 10:00 by the time we got there.
Obviously everyone was hungry enough to eat us by then :-). Chetan it
can be told now… we almost forgot the gobhi aaloo behind !
Anyway, after gulping down a scrumptious dinner (thanks Purvi for
keeping us really well-fed with delicious fare throughout the meet) we
got down to getting to know the people around. Quite a few people had
reached by Friday Satishji and Sarojji, Surjit Singhji and Harmeshji
who came all the way from San Diego (we hope you do this every year
:-)), Ashok, Sanjeev and Armeen, Ramesh Hariharan(whose wife Radhika
unfortunately could not make it. Ramesh tell Radhika we missed her!),
the co-hosts for the meet.. Moloy and Kanchan Bannerjee who came from
India….isn't that nice? Kumjum and Rajesh and their little daughter
Shubangi, Vijay Kumar – ISB, Vijay Kumar –Saigal (sorry guys but can't
think of another way to distinguish you :-) , Arunabha and Srinivas
Ganti (who formed THE twosome of the evening!) and Abhay Jain (have I
missed anyone? Hope not)
The Friday session was marked with the usual music discussions that
were followed by a singing session kick-started by our dearest Sarojji
with a very cute love song in Hinglish based on the tune of ‘Aie dil
hai mushkil jeena yahan'. The singing session was accompanied by
little discussions as well alongside. Sanjeev's comment on Hemant
Kumar's flamboyant singing had us cracking. While Rajesh's mouth organ
rendition of ‘Aie dil hai mushkil' and ‘Hai apna dil to awara' had us
tapping our feet. Sanjeev delighted us as usual with his near perfect
rendering of a Rafi number. While Ramesh sang a couple of songs for us
on karaoke. And Ashok kept our spirits up with his wonderfully timed
one-liners. Yours truly and Madhura also took full advantage of the
benign crowd and belted out '‘Garjat barasat saawan aayo re'.. and
yes.. they were good enough not to belt out tomatoes in response!
We then attempted antakshari with keywords. The first set was ‘Pawan,
hawa and bahar' but that did not last too long. The next was ‘Duniya'
which had an equally short life.
We finally wound up that night by 1:00 as everyone headed out…
Saturday morning was again marked with the interesting discussions and
antectodes. From the SJ-Lata fight to OPN's ghoda gaadi beats lots was
discussed.
More people like Ami, Ajit, Shashak and his wife arrived.The formal
meet started after the DC crowd landed in. The first event was the
distribution of the Commemorative CD on Geeta Dutt. This was
accompanied by Molloy's account of his meeting with Manna Dey.
The day was followed by a series of quizzes of which the official
report would elaborate (I'm bad at remembering details). Notable was
Arunabha made his exit before lunch. Hey Arunabha had you come all the
way from chicago for a Saturday morning breakfast :-)????.
One of the interesting highlights of the event was Sanjeev and
Armeen's very imaginative game based on Fantasy football. They put in
a lot of hard work preparing the game and we guys had great fun
playing it. Great idea Sanjeev/Armeen. We really enjoyed it.
The high point of the whole evening though was a presentation by Vijay
kumar ‘Saigal' . He played for us a few songs of Master Madan and KL
Saigal that are very rare to get. I had read about Master Madan in the
past but after hearing him I'm speechless. Nothing I say will do
justice to the way I felt upon hearing that voice. I still get goose
pimples when I think of it. Thanks ever so much Vijay for giving and
(the others) an opportunity to experience this tragic phenomenal
voice.
Vijay has very generously agreed to put up this extremely valuable
resource up as an MP3 and I (and I'm sure the rest of us in the group)
are eagerly looking forward to it.
A few highlights of the meet:
- Ramesh Hariharan during the ‘Duniya' antakshari session on Friday.
After we sang the song ‘Duniya mein logon ko' he wanted know if it was
composed by Bappi Lahiri. Very earnestly he says ‘Isn't it a really
BAD song? Has to be Bappi Lahiri!!!! :-D!- RDB supporters you know
where to find him!
- Vijay Kumar ‘Saigal' (on how he acquired his rare Saigal songs)……. I
went to this meet where everyone was IAS, everyone 100 and everyone
wore a safari suit. The performer Mr JC Pandey(IAS) played 2 tanpuras,
had wives in the past but now lived with 3 dogs (there were
speculations on whether the dogs played the tanpura as well) and
singled me out for his affections maybe because I was not 100, not IAS
and did not wear a safari suit !!
- Sanjeev/Armeen's quiz
- The greying population in the meet grouped together in one team
called the ‘Young lads'.. they had Vijay Kumar ‘Saigal' as the only
anomaly in their group who I'm sure after wining and dining with 100
year olds found his teammates to be truly ‘young lads'
- Ketan, Shalini, Ramesh and I formed the deadly Force-UM.. we were
potentially unbeatable but…… Ramesh and I watched in wonder as Shalini
in a couple of minutes created this long list of singers and MD post
1990s.
- Satishji, Srinivas and two other's initially called their team
Srinivas (Ganti's answer to Sanjev's question ‘What is your(team)
name' – Srinivas ! ) What did you guys finally call yourselves
- Poor Vijay Kumar ‘ISB' was stuck with a 2 rowdy females(Madhura and
Preeti) and 1 controlled one(Kanchanji).. they aptly called their
group ‘The losers'
- Any guesses who won???? Yeah ‘THE LOSERS'… though I think they
should have had 50 points cut for screeching too much.. Sanjeev are
you listening?
- Srinivas Ganti mistaking SD Burman's voice for Rafi!..And over that
missing out on identifying most SDB songs in the Musical Potpourri
quiz. Ganti…. SDB is going to give you a tough time when you meet him
up there :-)!!
- Chetan, (after hearing the Aaram piano prelude) in the quiz.. you've
given a longer play time to easy songs and shorter ones to the
difficult ones.. which were the difficult ones ‘Ganga aaye kahan se',
‘Diwana mastana hua dil' !!!!
- … Sanjeev's comment ‘Popular songs should make a comeback on RMIM"
(particularly relevent after Chetan's above comment)
- After Guri's quiz, where he played a Shamshad Begum number
backwards. The general consensous : Shamshad Begum sounds better
backwards than forwards. This one was guessed by Saroj Aunty and
Harmesh Aunty and Saroj Aunty actually sang another song backwards for
us.
Overall, we had a blast for 2 days and one feels sad that the next
meet is now a year away. A very big thanks to all the organisers of
the event. Chetan and Purvi, you were great hosts. Thanks to everyone
who worked on the commemerative CD. I am enjoying myself thoroughly
listening to it. And thanks to Malloy and Kanchan for co-hosting the
meet.
Cheers
Ritu
ajit
>
> More people like Ami, Ajit, Shashak and his wife arrived.
>
> Ritu
AFAIK - I did not arrive anywhere on the east coast of USA, in the
recent past atleast :-). I guess I need to change my nick while
posting on RMIM?
Thanks,
Ajit
Radhika and Ramesh Hariharan
Great job of taking mental notes .. and keying them in record time...
your post really brought out the congenial spirit of the mela!
I just want to add that I am greatly thankful to hosts for all their
hardwork and hospitality. Purvi looked really tired.. to the point
that she didn't even have the energy to sing .. big loss for all of us
!!
While I am guilty of not doing any work for the meet and showing up at
the nth hour, I do have 2 suggestions to make for the future melas to
offload/minimize the amount of cooking load that the host usually
burdens:
1. It should be obligatory that all the folks who are not flying to
meet should bring one or two dishes to the meet.
2. Additionally, we should jointly clean the home Sunday am before we
leave so that the host is not burdened with this task.
Let me know what you folks think. IMO .. unless we change, these melas
that we all enjoy may not be sustainable.
Best,
Ramesh [who had to sneak out of work to a Internet Cafe to by pass
draconian rules at GE about surfing newsgroups :-)]
Mads
summary, here's a big Thank you to Chetan and Purvi and Maloy and
Kanchan for hosting this meet and making it such a wonderful event !
> Ashok that was not a very kind thing to do to a poor harmless soul
> enjoying a quiet lunch….. !
Rituji, you and harmless and hold it what was the other - oh yes,
Quiet too ???
Ashok, you have the honour of being one of the few folks that can get
Rituji to hush - congrats !
> The RMIM Meet for me started 5 days before the actual meet as I tried
> to come up with a quiz I had promised Chetan I would do (why do I
> leave everything for last minute).
Rituji forgot to mention the horror of trying to get the songs to stop
exactly where one wanted them to, then the greater horror, of wanting
to change the sequence. I think, I shall be dreaming of those for a
while to come.
Sanjeev & Armeen, that quiz was simply wonderful. I have to admit that
I am a tad curious as to where you get these innovative ideas from,
just so that I can borrow them every once in a while ?! And yes, the
LOSERS (Vijay Kr- ISB, Kanchan, Preeti and Madsji) would like to thank
you for allowing us to show the world what Shakespeare's said a long
time ago - "Naam main kya hai" !!
Heartfelt thanks to Vijay Kumar Saigal for the giving us the
opportunity to listen to Master Madan- I have no words that would
aptly describe the experience.
Ketan and Shalini, an especial thank you to for providing me
additional fodder in the ongoing Rituji vs Madsji war on Dev Anand :)
Yikes, I almost forgot - thanks all of you for making my birthday more
bearable :) with that wonderful cake and the Happy Birthday chorus
sung by one in number Shubhu which went along the lines of ..."how old
are you(with a suitably sad face) ... how old are you "
I think special thanks need to go out to all those folks that
travelled a ways to get to the meet.
Had a wonderful time. Met some wonderful people, thank you all.
-M
Ket...@att.net
rc0...@rediffmail.com says...
>And so, I spent the rest of my afternoon thinking of people who could
>provide me details (write the report for me). After a couple of
>agonizing hours my friend Madhuraji casually mentioned that Kanchanji
>was taking notes throughout the meeting. She is the official meet
>reporter!
>
>Ashok that was not a very kind thing to do to a poor harmless soul
>enjoying a quiet lunch….. !
So you fell for Ashok's trick huh? I think Ashok must have gone and asked
atleast 10 others at the meet this "So you are not taking notes?" question.
>One of the interesting highlights of the event was Sanjeev and
>Armeen's very imaginative game based on Fantasy football. They put in
>a lot of hard work preparing the game and we guys had great fun
>playing it. Great idea Sanjeev/Armeen. We really enjoyed it.
I think all the quizmasters had really enjoyable quizzes. However
Sanjeev/Armeen--Where the heck do you get these incredibly innovative ideas for
a quiz? This is the 3rd RMIM meet in a row that you have had all the
participants wishing the quiz would just go on and on. Adding that twist of
"post 1990s' music" was really worth it. As Surjit Singhji said--I am so glad
you weren't asking us for the P-stats to some of the songs. You would have had
mostly blank faces.
>- Ramesh Hariharan during the ‘Duniya' antakshari session on Friday.
>After we sang the song ‘Duniya mein logon ko' he wanted know if it was
>composed by Bappi Lahiri. Very earnestly he says ‘Isn't it a really
>BAD song? Has to be Bappi Lahiri!!!! :-D!- RDB supporters you know
>where to find him!
Yes, I hope to see him real soon, and I hope to reenact the modern version of
the Boston Tea Party--throwing Ramesh overboard. :)
>- Sanjeev/Armeen's quiz
>- The greying population in the meet grouped together in one team
>called the ‘Young lads'.. they had Vijay Kumar ‘Saigal' as the only
>anomaly in their group who I'm sure after wining and dining with 100
>year olds found his teammates to be truly ‘young lads'
It was actually very amusing to see the "greying population" shouting, screaming
and going nuts over 1990's music. Probably for the first and last time, Anu
Malik, Vinod Rathod, were like Gods for their team.
>- Ketan, Shalini, Ramesh and I formed the deadly Force-UM.. we were
>potentially unbeatable but…… Ramesh and I watched in wonder as Shalini
>in a couple of minutes created this long list of singers and MD post
>1990s.
Well, Shalini calls herself a Roshan fan(atic) but now you know where her real
tastes lie. I have a feeling she means Rajesh and Hrithik Roshan. :)
>- Poor Vijay Kumar ‘ISB' was stuck with a 2 rowdy females(Madhura and
>Preeti) and 1 controlled one(Kanchanji).. they aptly called their
>group ‘The losers'
Actually I do protest. Having an ISB-wallah in their group is what helped them
win. I mean after all, he would know all the P-stats by heart and hence find it
easier to pick the right MD-singer combo.
>- Srinivas Ganti mistaking SD Burman's voice for Rafi!..And over that
That must be SDB's voice on a really bad day. :) I think the bigger problem was
him thinking that a photo of Smt. Mogubai Kurdikar was actually SDB's photo.
Once again, thanks to both sets of hosts: Chetan/Purvi & Molloyji/Kanchanji for
a great time. Looking forward to next year.
Ketan
Srinivas Ganti
"Samba Magic" immediately after the Mela is probably a once in a life time
experience!
Many thanks to the Vinchhi'sand Banerjee's for hosting the meet.Thanks to
Abhay
Jain for letting us watch the world cup final at his house at the unearthly
hour.
> >Ritu wrote:
> >One of the interesting highlights of the event was Sanjeev and
> >Armeen's very imaginative game based on Fantasy football. They put in
> >a lot of hard work preparing the game and we guys had great fun
> >playing it. Great idea Sanjeev/Armeen. We really enjoyed it.
Yes!! Two of the biggest motivating factors for me to fly to East Coast Meet
every year are their singing and their quizzes.
They even prepared sheets so that we cud change the Singers, MD's drafted
into our teams, put some ppl. on bench etc. Those were never needed though,
since ppl. used to Rush to the board and do the changes. Their quizzes are
so
meticulously planned!
> >- Srinivas Ganti mistaking SD Burman's voice for Rafi!..And over that
>Ketan wrote:
> That must be SDB's voice on a really bad day. :) I think the bigger
problem was
> him thinking that a photo of Smt. Mogubai Kurdikar was actually SDB's
photo.
No.I said that if SDB was born as a female he may look like this!
Coming to me missing many SDB clues, such things happen to me at every meet.
As the day progresses, I become more and more excited, and my brain becomes
less and less efficient. In the 2000 west Coast meet the commemerative tape
on Lata was being played and I asked "Who is the singer ?"! That was also
at the fag end of the meet.
sg.
SKalra902
...snipped...
>I think all the quizmasters had really enjoyable quizzes. However
>Sanjeev/Armeen--Where the heck do you get these incredibly innovative ideas
>for
>a quiz? This is the 3rd RMIM meet in a row that you have had all the
>participants wishing the quiz would just go on and on. Adding that twist of
>"post 1990s' music" was really worth it. As Surjit Singhji said--I am so glad
>you weren't asking us for the P-stats to some of the songs. You would have
>had
>mostly blank faces.
I (belonging in the last place team), actually wished they had asked for the
P-stats to at least some of the songs. Might have given us a better chance.
In any event, both Ashok and Chetan (who remained missing most of the time
during the quiz) had declared right form the beginning that our team would be
the real winner if we finished last. :-) And we did not disappoint them.
Special mention must be made for the Master Madan numbers, which were a delight
for all the music lovers. The 'shabad' "Man kii, man hii maa.nh rahii.."
brought goose bumps to me - it is a personal favorite among bhajans and
shabads.
>Once again, thanks to both sets of hosts: Chetan/Purvi & Molloyji/Kanchanji
>for
>a great time. Looking forward to next year.
Ditto.
By the way, how is Maloy's name really spelt?
Happy listenings.
Satish Kalra
Ritu
posts)
ajit...@hotmail.com (ajit) wrote in message
> > More people like Ami, Ajit, Shashak and his wife arrived.
>
> AFAIK - I did not arrive anywhere on the east coast of USA, in the
> recent past atleast :-). I guess I need to change my nick while
> posting on RMIM?
Well, the Ajit mentioned actually turned out to be an
ex-neighbour(and a friend of my relatives) and the first question I
asked him was 'Are you the Ajit that posts on the net' but he says he
used to post on RMIC 5 years back and doesn't post anymore. So you can
continue with your nickname :-)!
Ket...@att.net wrote in message news:<afskg...@drn.newsguy.com>...
> >And so, I spent the rest of my afternoon thinking of people who could
> >provide me details (write the report for me). After a couple of
> >agonizing hours my friend Madhuraji casually mentioned that Kanchanji
> >was taking notes throughout the meeting. She is the official meet
> >reporter!
> >
> >Ashok that was not a very kind thing to do to a poor harmless soul
> >enjoying a quiet lunch….. !
>
> So you fell for Ashok's trick huh? I think Ashok must have gone and asked
> atleast 10 others at the meet this "So you are not taking notes?" question.
That adds insult to injury! First the ignominy of having been taken
for a ride and then a public proclamation that there were 10 other
people but they were a lot smarter than you(that takes away my martyr
image as well)!..
Now Ketan, that too was not very kind :-)
> >- Sanjeev/Armeen's quiz
>
> >- The greying population in the meet grouped together in one team
> >called the ‘Young lads'.. they had Vijay Kumar ‘Saigal' as the only
> >anomaly in their group who I'm sure after wining and dining with 100
> >year olds found his teammates to be truly ‘young lads'
>
> It was actually very amusing to see the "greying population" shouting, screaming
> and going nuts over 1990's music. Probably for the first and last time, Anu
> Malik, Vinod Rathod, were like Gods for their team.
Yups I think the Force UM were the only restrained, focused lot.. it's
a pity we lost. The 'Young lads' competed with the 'Losers' in the
lung power department :-)!
>
> >- Ketan, Shalini, Ramesh and I formed the deadly Force-UM.. we were
> >potentially unbeatable but…… Ramesh and I watched in wonder as Shalini
> >in a couple of minutes created this long list of singers and MD post
> >1990s.
>
> Well, Shalini calls herself a Roshan fan(atic) but now you know where her real
> tastes lie. I have a feeling she means Rajesh and Hrithik Roshan. :)
Me thinks it's Kumar Sanu. She had great devotion for him. Wouldn't
want to let go of him at all :-) Shalini, come on tell us the truth.
Though, must add she made a fine captain for our team with her first
choice of AR Rahman.
>
> >- Poor Vijay Kumar ‘ISB' was stuck with a 2 rowdy females(Madhura and
> >Preeti) and 1 controlled one(Kanchanji).. they aptly called their
> >group ‘The losers'
>
> Actually I do protest. Having an ISB-wallah in their group is what helped them
> win. I mean after all, he would know all the P-stats by heart and hence find it
> easier to pick the right MD-singer combo.
I don't think he got an opportunity to doing much thinking after their
one and only winning pick -Alka Yagnik... He was too frazzled by the
lung power displyed by his teammates.
>
> >- Srinivas Ganti mistaking SD Burman's voice for Rafi!..And over that
>
> That must be SDB's voice on a really bad day. :)
It was SDB in the alaap before 'Prem ke Pujari' surprisingly no one
got that one right. When I had put that song in the first spot my idea
was that the first song would be a give away with SDB's distinctive
voice. Quite surprising it was not that way.
>I think the bigger problem was
> him thinking that a photo of Smt. Mogubai Kurdikar was actually SDB's photo.
Oh! yes how could I forget that one!!!
Ganti me thinks when you finally go up there you will find SDB
(accompanied by Mogubai Kurdikar) standing next to St Peters with a
'danda' telling St Peters.......'agar yeh ondar aaya toh hom yahan se
chola jaayega' or better still, he may have already composed a tune on
how the danda would sound on your head :-)! dana na dan dan, dana na
dan dan
> a great time. Looking forward to next year.
Yups and make sure you guys stay on till the end next time :-)!
And oh! Yes, thanks Ketan and Shalini for the video presentation. Gave
me an opportunity to see some more of Dev Anand. So what if he was
wearing maroon lipstick in the shots. I think he was great :-)!
rha...@hotmail.com (Radhika and Ramesh Hariharan) wrote in message
> 1. It should be obligatory that all the folks who are not flying to
> meet should bring one or two dishes to the meet.
I agree, the cooking load should not fall only on the hosts. Though I
have a better idea, why not cater from outside and have all the people
in the area divide the cost. Because at times not everyone has the
ability to cook for such a large number of people(in terms of the
actual preperation). Since the host are already providing the venue
maybe it makes sense that the rest go dutch and cater the main items
like veggies? What say?
> 2. Additionally, we should jointly clean the home Sunday am before we
> leave so that the host is not burdened with this task.
Yes.. that's a very thoughtful suggestion. We should really do that.
And finally response to Ms Mads(aptly chosen nickname!)
>msp44...@yahoo.com (Mads) wrote in message
> LOSERS (Vijay Kr- ISB, Kanchan, Preeti and Madsji) would like to thank
> you for allowing us to show the world what Shakespeare's said a long
> time ago - "Naam main kya hai" !!
Don't trouble Shakespeare...ever heard of something called fluke?
> Ketan and Shalini, an especial thank you to for providing me
> additional fodder in the ongoing Rituji vs Madsji war on Dev Anand :)
I think you are basically in denial mode. Admit that you like Dev
Anand and things will fall right in place dear 'Mads'(maybe you could
even end up changing your self-descriptive nickname)
>
> Yikes, I almost forgot - thanks all of you for making my birthday more
> bearable :) with that wonderful cake and the Happy Birthday chorus
> sung by one in number Shubhu which went along the lines of ..."how old
> are you(with a suitably sad face) ... how old are you "
You got that one slightly wrong. She sang 'How old you are!, 'How old
you are'! (Exclaiming in amazement!)
Cheers
Ritu
Ket...@att.net
>Me thinks it's Kumar Sanu. She had great devotion for him. Wouldn't
>want to let go of him at all :-) Shalini, come on tell us the truth.
>Though, must add she made a fine captain for our team with her first
>choice of AR Rahman.
"Excuse me! Kya re?" Shalini was opposed to both ARR and Shankar-Ehsan-Loy. That
both turned out to be cash cows was mainly because of one of the male members of
the team who fought vociferously for their inclusion(and I don't mean Ramesh) :)
>I agree, the cooking load should not fall only on the hosts. Though I
>have a better idea, why not cater from outside and have all the people
>in the area divide the cost. Because at times not everyone has the
>ability to cook for such a large number of people(in terms of the
>actual preperation). Since the host are already providing the venue
>maybe it makes sense that the rest go dutch and cater the main items
>like veggies? What say?
Been there, & done that in the first and the second meet, and have been shouting
myself hoarse saying it since then.
Ketan
SPS22
>
> Special mention must be made for the
> Master Madan numbers, which were a delight
> for all the music lovers. The 'shabad'
> "Man kii, man hii maa.nh rahii.." brought
Is it possible for someone to post the Master Madan songs/Shabad? I
have heard much about his singing, but I have never listened to him. I
beleive there are 8 or 10 total songs in existence. Is there any
commerciall recording available? Do RMIM'ers have all of his songs?
Thanks.
-Surinder
surjit singh
>
> >- Sanjeev/Armeen's quiz
>
> >- The greying population in the meet grouped together in one team
> >anomaly in their group who I'm sure after wining and dining with 100
>
> It was actually very amusing to see the "greying population" shouting, screaming
> and going nuts over 1990's music. Probably for the first and last time, Anu
> Malik, Vinod Rathod, were like Gods for their team.
>
Whatever little knowledge of post-1980 films I may have is due to my wife Harmesh.
Surjit Singh, a diehard movie fan(atic), period.
<MORE DELETED>
>
> Ketan
Abhay Jain
Wonderful job of taking notes and transcribing so colorfully.
Couple of misses - Mahendra Kapoor video by me (lesson in how not
to video tape live programs) and discovery of an unknown Rafi song
by honrable Satisji and another song discovery by Chetan.
They well earned crsip $10 (10 singles) each from Surjit Singhji.
Surjit Singji has upped the ante from $1 to $10 (must have made
a klling in the stock market) for finding a previously not known songs.
Chetan is a superman. Having stayed up nights for weeks
(according to Purvi) to make preparations for the meet,
yet being so alert and a cheerful host.
Abhay Jain
"Ritu" <rc0...@rediffmail.com> wrote in message
news:8777cccd.02070...@posting.google.com...
> "So, are you taking mental notes?" Ashok asked me as I sat diligently
> digging into a particularly delicious lunch. "Mental notes?" I looked
> at Ashok quizzically." Mental notes for what?". You are supposed to be
> official meet reporter, he said. Didn't Chetan tell you?. Official
> Meet Reporter???? I said choking over my more than generous helping of
> srikhand/puri. Yes, said Ashok with a twinkle in the eye now. I'm sure
> you must have noted down **all** the relevant activities till now .
> Noted down **all** (choke) activities????. but but but (me gulping
> down some water).. Chetan never told me I protested. Never mind says
> Ashok you can goto people take details and create a report. Ouch!
> ...Yes, I said bravely, I'm sure I could do that..
>
> And so, I spent the rest of my afternoon thinking of people who could
> provide me details (write the report for me). After a couple of
> agonizing hours my friend Madhuraji casually mentioned that Kanchanji
> was taking notes throughout the meeting. She is the official meet
> reporter!
>
> Ashok that was not a very kind thing to do to a poor harmless soul
> enjoying a quiet lunch... !
>
> So, while we wait for Kanchanji to come out with an official and
> detailed meet report. Here is an informal account from my memory. Add
> on guys and put in your two bits too.
>
> The RMIM Meet for me started 5 days before the actual meet as I tried
> to come up with a quiz I had promised Chetan I would do (why do I
> leave everything for last minute). So after a sleep starved week, I
> left office on Friday, picked up dear madsji and her gobhi aaloo (for
> the potluck dinner in the evening) from her place, headed home and
> then finally headed out to the hosts Chetan and Purvi's place for the
> informal get-together. It was close to 10:00 by the time we got there.
> Obviously everyone was hungry enough to eat us by then :-). Chetan it
> can be told now. we almost forgot the gobhi aaloo behind !
>
> Anyway, after gulping down a scrumptious dinner (thanks Purvi for
> keeping us really well-fed with delicious fare throughout the meet) we
> got down to getting to know the people around. Quite a few people had
> reached by Friday Satishji and Sarojji, Surjit Singhji and Harmeshji
> who came all the way from San Diego (we hope you do this every year
> :-)), Ashok, Sanjeev and Armeen, Ramesh Hariharan(whose wife Radhika
> unfortunately could not make it. Ramesh tell Radhika we missed her!),
> the co-hosts for the meet.. Moloy and Kanchan Bannerjee who came from
> India..isn't that nice? Kumjum and Rajesh and their little daughter
> Shubangi, Vijay Kumar - ISB, Vijay Kumar -Saigal (sorry guys but can't
> think of another way to distinguish you :-) , Arunabha and Srinivas
> Ganti (who formed THE twosome of the evening!) and Abhay Jain (have I
> missed anyone? Hope not)
>
> The Friday session was marked with the usual music discussions that
> were followed by a singing session kick-started by our dearest Sarojji
> with a very cute love song in Hinglish based on the tune of 'Aie dil
> hai mushkil jeena yahan'. The singing session was accompanied by
> little discussions as well alongside. Sanjeev's comment on Hemant
> Kumar's flamboyant singing had us cracking. While Rajesh's mouth organ
> rendition of 'Aie dil hai mushkil' and 'Hai apna dil to awara' had us
> tapping our feet. Sanjeev delighted us as usual with his near perfect
> rendering of a Rafi number. While Ramesh sang a couple of songs for us
> on karaoke. And Ashok kept our spirits up with his wonderfully timed
> one-liners. Yours truly and Madhura also took full advantage of the
> benign crowd and belted out ''Garjat barasat saawan aayo re'.. and
> yes.. they were good enough not to belt out tomatoes in response!
>
> We then attempted antakshari with keywords. The first set was 'Pawan,
> hawa and bahar' but that did not last too long. The next was 'Duniya'
> which had an equally short life.
>
> We finally wound up that night by 1:00 as everyone headed out.
> - Vijay Kumar 'Saigal' (on how he acquired his rare Saigal songs)... I
> went to this meet where everyone was IAS, everyone 100 and everyone
> wore a safari suit. The performer Mr JC Pandey(IAS) played 2 tanpuras,
> had wives in the past but now lived with 3 dogs (there were
> speculations on whether the dogs played the tanpura as well) and
> singled me out for his affections maybe because I was not 100, not IAS
> and did not wear a safari suit !!
>
> - Sanjeev/Armeen's quiz
>
> - The greying population in the meet grouped together in one team
> called the 'Young lads'.. they had Vijay Kumar 'Saigal' as the only
> anomaly in their group who I'm sure after wining and dining with 100
> year olds found his teammates to be truly 'young lads'
>
> - Ketan, Shalini, Ramesh and I formed the deadly Force-UM.. we were
> potentially unbeatable but.. Ramesh and I watched in wonder as Shalini
> in a couple of minutes created this long list of singers and MD post
> 1990s.
>
> - Satishji, Srinivas and two other's initially called their team
> Srinivas (Ganti's answer to Sanjev's question 'What is your(team)
> name' - Srinivas ! ) What did you guys finally call yourselves
>
> - Poor Vijay Kumar 'ISB' was stuck with a 2 rowdy females(Madhura and
> Preeti) and 1 controlled one(Kanchanji).. they aptly called their
> group 'The losers'
>
> - Any guesses who won???? Yeah 'THE LOSERS'. though I think they
> should have had 50 points cut for screeching too much.. Sanjeev are
> you listening?
>
> - Srinivas Ganti mistaking SD Burman's voice for Rafi!..And over that
> missing out on identifying most SDB songs in the Musical Potpourri
> quiz. Ganti.. SDB is going to give you a tough time when you meet him
> up there :-)!!
>
> - Chetan, (after hearing the Aaram piano prelude) in the quiz.. you've
> given a longer play time to easy songs and shorter ones to the
> difficult ones.. which were the difficult ones 'Ganga aaye kahan se',
> 'Diwana mastana hua dil' !!!!
>
> - . Sanjeev's comment 'Popular songs should make a comeback on RMIM"
Arunabha S Roy
time it was cut short due to another commitment falling, alas,on
the same Saturday. Accordingly, I had to make the most of Friday
evening and Saturday morning.
I had a ride to the meet venue in a car peopled by a host of hosts:
Chetan, Molloy and Kanchan Banerjee and Ashok. In conformity with the
traditional hospitality at RMIM meets, Poorvi had masala tea ready for
all of us within no time. While browsing through Chetan's tapes, I
came
across the newly released Kishori Amonkar recording in tribute to the
late Mogubai. Upon seeing Mogubai's photo, Srinivas "jinake h^Riday
shrii SDB base" Ganti, who sees manifestations of SDB in all things,
living or inanimate, immediately pronounced it to be SDB in a female
avataar.
In keeping with tradition, the local people were the last to turn up.
Surjit-ji, Harmesh-ji and the two junior Singhs , (who arrived
together
with Satish-ji and Saroj-ji) ought to be given a special mention for
coming over all the way from California. Had it not been for the
co-hosts of the meet, the Banerjees from Bangalore who clean bowled
them, they would have been the attendees travelling the maximum
distance.
Chetan was kind enough to produce a tape of some charming Gujarati
songs
sung by Lata, which I proceeded to play at a modest volume so as not
to drown
out the conversation. Leave alone the conversation, even Swar
Samraddni's
voice was not equal to the competition. Competition in as unlikely
shape and form as a talking sunflower plant. Powered by a tireless
Energizer
battery, it crooned ceaselessly in a voice that shattered glass,
informing us in stentorian tone: "You are my sunshine, my only
sunshine, you make me happy, ..."
By dinner time there was a sizeable attendance list, and people split
up into small groups, discussing musical issues, some with the
currency of
Ismail Darbar's Devdas score, and others as old as the woods, as they
say, or, as we say, Salil-Mozart. I suggested to Ashok that, as a
first
time, he be the scribe for the meet. With feigned modesty, he replied:
"Who
will ever read it then ?" Of course, as I observed, he really meant
:"If I
write the report, who on RMIM will (dare) bash it ?" And despite
Chetan's generous "I can volunteer to do the bashing" offer, Ashok
steered clear of the assignment, going over instead to wheedle Ritu
and nine other
bakras for the job. I delegate, therefore I am.
Following an excellent dinner, we settled down for some musical
activity. This is the great thing about the meets: people are so
willing to sing, spontaneously. There is hardly any amount of feeling
self-conscious
about the whole thing; they need about as little prodding as the
sunflower
plant. Ramesh Hariharan sang a lovely Yesudas song from Naushad's
solitary foray into Tamil films. Rajesh, a first time meet attendee,
played
"ai dil hai mushkil" and "hai apanaa dil to aawaaraa" with gusto on
the mouth
organ. Saroj-ji sang her own composition, written in a disarming
mixture of Hindi and English, to the tune of "ai dil hai mushkil",
with the
refrain "teraa welcome, teraa welcome, teraa welcome, pyaare" There
was
talk of incorporating it (suitably ITRANsed of course !) in the ISB,
and I do hope that will happen. The warmth and free-spirited nature of
her
singing brought forth rousing applause.
Sanjeev Ramabhadran is probably tired of accolades by now, and yet
there is no putting it any other way. A farmaayish came from the
audience
:"ho jaaye, Sanjeev, ek hasiin shaam". Despite being a little
under the weather, he readily obliged with the Rafi evergreen from
DULHAN
EK RAAT KI "ek hasiin shaam ko dil meraa kho gayaa". It is one of the
few
(among the 25,000) songs of Rafi that I was, and still am crazy
about (no flames, please!) Yet, there was something spellbinding about
hearing Sanjeev sing, live and without any accompaniment, that
surpassed even listening to Rafi's sublime rendition on CD.
Come to think of it , Rafi(ans) ruled the show on Friday night. Which
explains Ketan's absence (or is it the other way around ?). Next to
follow was Ramesh H with a moving rendition of the Rafi sehra from
GAZAL
"ra.ng aur nuur kii baaraat kise pesh karuu.N". In the film, I am
told, Sunil
Dutt's singing this at Meena Kumari's wedding has the profound effect
of bringing back her speech, stilled long back from some shock. Quite
the
opposite in our case. During a spell of desultory conversation, Ramesh
casually went over, switched on the karaoke track, and began to
sing. For the next five minutes, he had our undivided attention,
people
falling silent instinctively. We discussed the two other versions of
this song : "naGmaa\-o\-sher kii sauGaat kise pesh karuu.N" and the
least
discussed, "ishq kii garmii\-e\-jazbaat kise pesh karuu.N" Someone
observed that "ra.ng aur nuur", unlike the other two, is not a gazal,
and consequently the reference in it :"ye mere sher mere aaKrii
nazaraane
hai.n" is in error. Some perspicacity of observation, that !
For those who were unfamiliar with "ishq kii garmii\-e\-jazbaat",
Sanjeev
sang it, faltering only because he couldn't recall the last sher. This
was the moment juste to prevail onVijay Kumar ISB-wallah who had the
ISB on his laptop. But due to the inherent delay in booting a computer
with a particular OS installed, the song remained incomplete. As
people nodded in appreciation of Madan Mohan's composition, and
Sahir's poetry, there was a request to Armeen to sing the Lata
version, thus completing the trio. It was our loss that she was not
well enough to sing.
Ritu and Madhura presented quite charmingly, "garjat barsat saawan
aayo
re". I forget who sang Suman's lines and who sang Kamal's, but the
division of the lines was exactly as in the film, which added a
certain
authenticity to the singing. We then organized ourselves into two
teams
for the antakshari, exploring themes such as raat, duniyaa and hawaa.
Satish-ji, true to reputation, was equally at home with "duniyaa ra.ng
ra.ngiilii baabaa" vintage as with "duniyaa re duniyaa, very good ,
very good, duniyaa waale very bad very bad" riff-raff.:-) Vijay ISB
Kumar sang "jin
raato.n me.n nii.Nd u.D jaatii hai" which well thematizes RMIM meets.
Even the youngest member Shubhangi was wide awake till 1 am,
fearlessly
collecting the ages of all the women present. She was persuaded to
sing
a song,(from KABHI KHUSHI KABHIE GHAM) with Satish-ji encouraging her
:"aao, ko_ii Hindi gaanaa gaa_o, mujhe to a.Ngrezii nahii.n aatii.
chalo - "shava shava" gaate hai.n ek saath" And they proceed,
Shubhangi a
little tentative to begin with, Satish-ji absolutely no-holds-barred :
ruup hai teraa sonaa, sonaa
sonii terii paayal
chham chhamaa chham aise chhanake
At this point Satish-ji's internal chip that contains his formidable
music bank had a crossed circuit due to which he could not recall the
subsequent line. Surjit-ji pleads ignorance of any music after 1980,
but here
he unwittingly came to the rescue, with :"well, if there's paayal in
the
2nd line, the 4th line has to end with ghaayal - no other choice"
At 12 , I think, Rituji brought in a cake to celebrate Madsji's
birthday. Imagine. A meet full of music lovers. Many of them excellent
singers,
at that. And yet, when it comes to the Happy Birthday song, the
inevitable happens. "guzar jaaye din din din" was known to give
Kishore
nightmares due to its perilous scale changes. Well, let's just say we
left the Salil composition far, far behind in that musical aspect.
phir kyaa thaa - "raat ke humsafar thak-ke ghar ko chale". Leaving
Chetan, Ashok, Srinivas and me to have free-form discussions till 5 in
the
morning. Remarkably you can get away, at these meet soirees, with
inflammatory opinions on holy cow topics, whereas on the net, far
milder statements leave you slashed and burnt. The whole dynamic is
quite
intriguing. You may digress to any subject, musical or otherwise- last
time I remember Ashok discussing the mythology pertaining to the seven
horses of the sun. One question that wasn't resolved this time was a
doubt I had regarding the lines of a Raag Rang song. As I am wasting
enough
bandwidth already, let me advance that query to rmim as well : the
song
is : kisakii nazar kaa mast ishaaraa hai zi.ndagii
The second stanza is
kyaa kashtiyaa.N rahe.Ngii ye laharo.n se hoshiyaar
laharo.n se hoshiyaar
unake hai.n jinase laakh umiido.n ke beqaraar, haay beqaraar
dariyaa kaa ek bahataa kinaaraa hai zi.ndagii
There was some discussion about whether it is "unake" or "tinake" in
the 3rd line. Can someone clarify ? Neither choice seems to make
sense,
grammatically or otherwise.
Then there is the puzzling urgency and abruptness with which the song
finishes.
Back to the meet, towards noon on Saturday we had everyone arrive. The
meet commemorative on Geeta Dutt was distributed, with words from
Ashok
on the history of rmim meet compilations and how the Lata, Asha and
Manna
Dey releases had been sent to the respective artistes. Particularly
pleasing was Molloy's description of his meeting with Manna Dey to
present him
the RMIM tape of his songs, which he heard and greatly appreciated. By
the time the introductions were done, it was time for me to leave. I
left,
knowing fully well what I would have to miss. I particularly regret
not
being able to listen to the songs in Jaidev's own voice- now I know
what my farmaayish for the next meet will be. Meanwhile, I'll settle
for the vicarious pleasure of reading the official and other
meet reports that are to follow.
A big thank you to the organizers , and see you all again !
- Arunabha
Srinivas Ganti
>Arunabha S Roy wrote:
>While browsing through Chetan's tapes, I came across the newly released
>Kishori Amonkar recording in tribute to the late Mogubai. Upon seeing
>Mogubai's photo, Srinivas "jinake h^Riday shrii SDB base" Ganti, who
>sees manifestations of SDB in all things, living or inanimate, immediately
>pronounced it to be SDB in a female avataar.
Something like this happenned at last years meet in Philly also. Only 1
person heard my comments though. There was this child prodigy
(reminded me of a young Sunidhi Chauhan) from Nepal / North-east
who was singing on the TV. When I saw her I felt that she
was an incarnation of SDB.
btw Sachin Tendulkar was named after SDB.
> Ritu and Madhura presented quite charmingly, "garjat barsat saawan
> aayo re".
I don't know why Ritu called us "The Twosome" but its more appropriate
to describe them. The frequecy of their fights is about 5 minutes.
Remember the "haathi vaali baat" :)
sg.
Ritu
> >Arunabha S Roy wrote:
>
> >While browsing through Chetan's tapes, I came across the newly released
> >Kishori Amonkar recording in tribute to the late Mogubai. Upon seeing
> >Mogubai's photo, Srinivas "jinake h^Riday shrii SDB base" Ganti, who
> >sees manifestations of SDB in all things, living or inanimate, immediately
> >pronounced it to be SDB in a female avataar.
To think of it 'Gantisri' was suggesting a couple of days back that
**I** display this trait! i.e I tend to SDBize every discussion.
Ganti, Pot calling a shining new kettle black? :-)
>
>
> Something like this happenned at last years meet in Philly also. Only 1
> person heard my comments though. There was this child prodigy
> (reminded me of a young Sunidhi Chauhan) from Nepal / North-east
> who was singing on the TV. When I saw her I felt that she
> was an incarnation of SDB.
Why do you always see poor SDB in female incarnations? I understand
most of SDB's songs(the ones he sang) were lyrically feminine but
still...:) I'm sure neither Mogubai not old man are going to be
pleased by your observations.. I can almost hear it ..dan na na dan
dan, dan na na dan dan!
> btw Sachin Tendulkar was named after SDB.
That's more like it ! :-)
Cheers
Ritu
Nitin Sharma
following:
1. The list of songs in the commemorative tape/CD.
2. Pictures from the meet, hopefully capturing the spirit
of the meet, rather than the usual as-if-it-were-college-
farewell-group-photo :-)
Can someone please post them? First one should be easy.
Second one too, I hope - in this age of digital this and
digital that..
-nitin
Chetan Vinchhi
"Nitin Sharma" <ni...@cs.washington.edu> wrote:
> More than a week after the meet, we still dont have the
> following:
>
> 1. The list of songs in the commemorative tape/CD.
That, I can provide :)
(song title : film : lyricist : music director)
CD 1:
1. ye ritue.n ba.Dii suhaanii : Kavi Kalidas (1959): Bharat Vyas : S.N.Tripathi
2. hi.ndustaan mahaan hamaaraa (with Srinivas and ch.) : Mr.Sampat (1952) :
Pt.Indra : B.S.Kalla
3. haule haule havaa Dole : nonfilm (year?) : Bharat Vyas (?) : Nikhil Ghosh
(?)
4. javaanii kii rel chalii jaay re (with Lata & Chitalkar) : Shehnai (1947) :
P.L.Santoshi : C.Ramchandra
5. vaadaa kar ke . dil kii duniyaa me.n (with Surendra) : Meri Kahani (1948)
: Zia Sarhadi : Datta Korgaonkar
6. har shai pe javaanii hai (with Lata) : Majboor (1948) : Nazim Panipati :
Ghulam Haider
7. suno suno banavaarii morii : Jeet (1949) : Prem Dhawan : Shyam Babu Pathak
8. gaa ai dil matavaale jhuum kar : Karwat (1949) : Saifuddin Saif : Hansraj
Behl
9. tuu muskuraa : Lekh (1949) : Qamar Jalalabadi : Krishna Dayal, BSc
10. saajan tuu bichha.D kar : Hamari Manzil (1949) : Qamar Jalalabadi :
Husnalal-Bhagatram
11. tuu meraa chaa.Nd (with Shyam) : Dillagi (1949) : Shakeel Badayuni :
Naushad
12. paradesii se lag ga_ii preet : Jaan Pahechan (1950) : Shakeel Badayuni :
Khemchand Prakash, Manna Dey
13. gaharii gaharii nii.ndiyaa me.n soye matavaale (with Asha) : Wafa (1950) :
D.N.Madhok : Vinod
14. ro_kar mai.n jo kah duu.N : Bhed (1950) : Madhukar Rajasthani (?) : Mukul
Roy
15. dil jo tum ko de diyaa : Aahuti (1950) : Tandan : D.C.Dutt
16. priit kaa naataa jo.Danevaale (with Suraiya) : Afsar (1950) : Pt.Narendra
Sharma : S.D.Burman
17. kisane ye kisane chhe.De taar (with Mukesh) : Hamari Beti (1950) : Randhir
: Snehal Bhatkar
18. dhak dhak karatii chalii : Dilruba (1950) : ? : Gyan Dutt
19. kaise muralii bajaa_ii : Nishana (1950) : Nakhshab : Khurshid Anwar
20. more tum se, ho, tore mujh se : Bedardi (1951) : S.H.Bihari : Roshan
21. aaj mile kal bichha.D gaye : Jauhari (1951) : Tejnath Jar : Pt. Harbans Lal
22. buujho buujho ai dilavaalo : Zalzalaa (1952) : Uddhav Kumar : Pankaj Mullick
23. dil hai diivaanaa : Aasmaan (1952) : Prem Dhawan : O.P.Nayyar
24. ghir aa_ii hai ghor ghaTaa : Badnaam (1952) : Shailendra : Basant Prakash
25. tan-man meraa tarase : Patal Bhairavi (1952) : Pt.Indra : Ghantasala
26. thii aur mulaaqaat vo : Nirmal (1952) : Moti, BA : Bulo C.Rani
CD2:
1. raat mohe miiThaa-miiThaa sapanaa : Tamasha (1952) : Bharat Vyas : Manna Dey
2. ham ne ye dil ke lagaane kii sazaa paa_ii hai : Rangeeli (1952) : Raja Mehdi
Ali Khan : Chic Chocolate
3. raat abhii baaqii hai : Baghdad (1952) : Raja Mehdi Ali Khan : Bulo C. Rani
4. piyaa, in charaNan balii jaa_uu.N (with Hemant) : Rami Dhoban (1953) : Ram
Moorty : Hiren Bose
5. balaa se hasarate.n miiT gaii.n. sochaa hai sahe.nge : Shole (1953) :
Majrooh Sultanpuiri : Dhani Ram
6. qalam davaat morii : Firdaus (1953) : D.N.Madhok : Robin Chatterjee
7. ham aur tum jo mil gaye (with Md.Rafi) : Nav Durga (1953) : Ramesh Chandra
Pande : S.N.Tripathi
8. aa sapane tujhe bulaa_e.n : Hamdard (1953) : Prem Dhawan : Anil Biswas
9. tujh se shikavaa kiyaa nahii.n jaataa : Lakeeren (1954) : Shewan Rizwi :
Hafiz Khan
10. har roz kahaa har roz sunaa : Baadbaan (1954) : Indeewar : Timir Baran &
S.K.Pal
11. chaahe bhii jo dil : Milaap (1955) : Sahir Ludhyanvi : N.Dutta
12. barakhaa kii raat me.n he ho haa (with ch.) : Sardar (1955) : Uddhav Kumar :
Jagmohan Sursagar
13. vo dekho udhar chaa.Nd nikalaa gagan me.n (with Manna Dey) : Roop Kumari
(1956) : B.D.Mishra : S.N.Tripathi
14. agar pyaar me.n muskuraaye na hote : Laalten (1956) : Kaif Irfani : Hemant
Kumar
15. rut phire par din hamaare : Pyaasa (1957) : Sahir Ludhyanvi : S.D.Burman
16. tu ne khuub rachaa bhagavaan : Nagamani (1957) : Pradeep : Avinash Vyas
17. dil teraa diivaanaa (with Asha) : Mr.Qartoon, MA (1958) : Hasrat Jaipuri :
O.P.Nayyar
18. aa.Nkh milaane ke liye : Chandan (1958) : Rajinder Krishan : Madan Mohan
19. maane naa maane naa : Savera (1958) : Prem Dhawan : Shailesh
20. dekh aasmaa.N me.n (with Kishore) : Shararat (1959) : Hasrat Jaipuri :
Shankar Jaikishen
21. o mast nazar waale : Commander (1959) : Sarshar Sailani : Chitragupta
22. cha.ndaa Dhale pa.nkhaa jhale : Pyar Ki Pyas (1959) : Bharat Vyas : Vasant
Desai
23. ek jahaa.N aur bhii hai (inclomplete) : Jwalamukhi (1950s) : Dukhi Amritsari
: Devraj
24. ai raat zaraa aahistaa guzar (with Madhukar) : Aasmaan Mahal (1965) : Ali
Sardar Jafri/Majaz : J.P.Kaushik
> 2. Pictures from the meet, hopefully capturing the spirit
> of the meet, rather than the usual as-if-it-were-college-
> farewell-group-photo :-)
Vijay Kumar (Saigalwalla) is working on putting up a few pictures. The
rest of you Camerawallas, please put up whatever pictures you can (I
suppose you can mail them to Vijay if he is willing to incorporate them
into his site).
C
Ashok
asr...@yahoo.com` says...
>
>Here are some personal vignettes and impressions of the meet.
Thanks, Arunabha, for the nice writeup ... oops, I should
say admirable writeup, as the lurking Lila would have it
(who was Lila? Was that you, in fact? In any case, where
has she/he/it disappeared after talking about one song?)
Anyway, no good deed should go unpunished, so a few flames
follow. :) I think you expected it, because you wrote:
>Remarkably you can get away, at these meet soirees, with
>inflammatory opinions on holy cow topics, whereas on the net, far
>milder statements leave you slashed and burnt.
Why disappoint you?! Plus, it might further prove why I
shouldn't be writing meet reports!!
>I had a ride to the meet venue in a car peopled by a host of hosts:
Do note: the host of hosts wasn't in the car; she was home
preparing!
>Chetan, Molloy and Kanchan Banerjee and Ashok. In conformity with the
>traditional hospitality at RMIM meets, Poorvi had masala tea ready for
>all of us within no time.
She happens to spell her name "Purvi", but let us not hold it against
you, since "Poorvi" is a plausible orthography (then there is the
little matter that I have made the same error in the past!). But a
Bong referring to another as "Molloy", that too repeatedly? What's
going on here?
>In keeping with tradition, the local people were the last to turn up.
>Surjit-ji, Harmesh-ji and the two junior Singhs , (who arrived
>together
>with Satish-ji and Saroj-ji) ought to be given a special mention for
>coming over all the way from California. Had it not been for the
>co-hosts of the meet, the Banerjees from Bangalore who clean bowled
>them, they would have been the attendees travelling the maximum
>distance.
What is this California-centricity? Are you sure that Washington
State isn't farther from Marlboro than California?
>Chetan was kind enough to produce a tape of some charming Gujarati
>songs
>sung by Lata, which I proceeded to play at a modest volume so as not
>to drown
>out the conversation. Leave alone the conversation, even Swar
>Samraddni's
>voice was not equal to the competition. Competition in as unlikely
>shape and form as a talking sunflower plant. Powered by a tireless
>Energizer
>battery, it crooned ceaselessly in a voice that shattered glass,
>informing us in stentorian tone: "You are my sunshine, my only
>sunshine, you make me happy, ..."
That thing got on the nerves of many people, but we all felt helpless,
as it didn't seem to have an on/off button. It fell to Dr Surjit
Singh to end the annoyance. With quicker thinking than was displayed
by the assorted scientists on the spaceship in "2001 Space Odyssey",
he just shook the batteries out of the gizmo!
>Following an excellent dinner, we settled down for some musical
>activity. This is the great thing about the meets: people are so
>willing to sing, spontaneously. There is hardly any amount of feeling
>self-conscious
>about the whole thing; they need about as little prodding as the
>sunflower
>plant.
Looks to me like a slyly executed evaulation of the singing. :)
>Ramesh Hariharan sang a lovely Yesudas song from Naushad's
>solitary foray into Tamil films.
The "Madrasi" virus strikes again. It's a Malayalam film,
Yesudas is from Kerala, and Ramiesh H. has been valiant
in his attempt to establish his identity as a Malayali!
And ... ... lovely was it? :) Yes, Ramesh is a very good
singer; he can make even Naushad sound lovely.
>phir kyaa thaa - "raat ke humsafar thak-ke ghar ko chale". Leaving
>Chetan, Ashok, Srinivas and me to have free-form discussions till 5 in
>the
>morning. Remarkably you can get away, at these meet soirees, with
>inflammatory opinions on holy cow topics, whereas on the net, far
>milder statements leave you slashed and burnt. The whole dynamic is
>quite
>intriguing. You may digress to any subject, musical or otherwise- last
>time I remember Ashok discussing the mythology pertaining to the seven
>horses of the sun.
Man, I think the earlier discussion in Denver was about your name!
"aruNa" being the (legless) charioteer of "soorya", his "aabha"
appears before sunlight does. I don't know anything about the seven
or however-many horses of the sun; I have even missed the Shyam
Benegal film all this long. Anything you or others can tell me would
be welcome.
>By the time the introductions were done, it was time for me to leave. I
>left,
>knowing fully well what I would have to miss.
>- Arunabha
We are also the losers. Had it been possible for you to stay on, we
would have been treated to a fuller account of the meet in your
inimitable, oops!, admirable style.
Ashok
Chetan Vinchhi
Hi All,
Following is the Meet Report from Kanchan Bannerjee. I have added a few brief
comments parenthetically.
C
REPORT OF THE RMIM EAST COAST MEET June 2002
Ek hasein shyam ko.... the 7th East Coast RMIM took off on 28th June at the
residence of Purvi and Chetan Vinchhi , in Marlboro, New Jersey. There were
first-timers like Rajesh, wife and their cute moon-faced daughter; and Kanchan
Bannerjee, who had come with her husband Moloy Bannerjee (no new-comer
he), from Bangalore. And of course there were veterans like Mr and Mrs
Kalra, Ashok Dhareshwar, Srinivas Ganti . Mr Surjit Singh with a 4 strong
(all in the family) contingent from the West Coast.Abhay Jain.et al.
People introducing themselves. getting into real-time chat groups..just
jamming .. some others, puffing (mercifully, off-stage).
"Her Gujarati diction is not bad.." , ."except that the way she pronounces
'huh', gives her away".. "But her mother is Gujarati, isn't it?" Overheard
at the group which was listening to Gujarati songs sung by Lata. A bunch
of people were seriously into " . but America has always been supplying
arms to Saudi. so what can you expect.", as they seriously downed beer.
Another group was analysing the ups and downs of Raj Kumar's acting
career which got charged when Ganti, who normally is seen languidly
pontificating, suddenly jumped up to enact a particularly dramatic entry and
dialogue of the actor.
After dinner there was singing. Ramesh Hariharan set the pace by a soulful
rendering of an invocation sung originally by Jesudas. Sanjeev with his
Rafi-esque voice followed suit with " Ek hasein shyam ko, dil mera kho
gayaa" , While first-timer Rajesh was coaxed to take out his mouthorgan
and play a few tunes beginning with.."Hai apna dil to awaara" The
effervescent pair of Ritu and Madhura sang 'Garajata barasata saawan aayo
re". Infected by the spirit of the evening, Mrs Kalra sang a ditty to the tune
of 'Ai dil hai mushkil, jeena yahain", with the refrain "tera welcome, tera
welcome, tera welcome pyaare"! Vijay Kumar snapped open his laptop
and sourced more songs.
Two teams decided to get out of the clichéd antakshari mode and sing
first lines of songs on selected themes, beginning with 'Hawa'..'Hawa
mein udta jaaye, mera laal dupatta malmal ka,' and so on. Even the quiet,
innocent-faced Arunabha broke into a melodious song. And when most
people called it a day, a few like Chetan , Ashok and Arunabha were
heard chatting.
On Saturday the door opened to let in more people, old faithfuls as well
as newcomers. Following the customary round of introductions, it was
time for a small speech by Ashok to introduce the theme behind the
special CD recording made so painstakingly for this Meet by the
Chetan-Ashok duo. "Gaa ai dil matavale jhuum kar." containing
lesser known songs of Geeta Dutt, was distributed to everyone. At this
juncture, Moloy Bannerjee recounted his meeting with Manna Dey in
Bangalore, during which he presented the tape ("swar ki sadhana")
prepared on the occasion of the 1999 Meet, containing the singer's
rarer songs. Manna Dey was quite overwhelmed and appreciated the
selection and reminisced about the old days and old friends.
(C: While expounding on the history of the commemorative tapes/CDs,
Ashok mentioned that three of the tapes dedicated to artists have been
directly or indirectly handed over to the artists themselves! Moloy's
account of his meeting with Manna Dey was wonderful, especially in
light of the pride we can take in Manna's assessment of the 1999 tape :)
As an aside, the first tape - Rare Classical Songs - had been given to
Anil Biswas by RMIMer Kalyan Kolachala)
The pace was set by Guri calling to wish the Meet and 'Meeters',
and a quiz waiting to be answered, but not before Surjit singh was
banished from the scene (perhaps he had helped in the research?).
Guri played a few lines of a song which contained the words sung
backwards. Who was the singer and what was the song? Perplexed
looks, strained ears, wild guesses and soon enough the
encyclopaedically gifted Mr Kalra had the answer - the singer was
Shamshad and he knew the lines, the right way round , as well.
Srinivas Ganti had a music quiz. Opening lines from south Indian
songs were played, and listeners had to guess which Hindi film songs
were based on each of these. There was a fair mix of recognizable
and esoteric songs.One stumped even Mr Kalra and Mr Surjit singh.
(C: Ah, the ubiquitous and by now boring North-South quiz :) Srinivas,
you really *have* to come up with something more constructive.
Thankfully, I missed most of it this time - Arunabha ko Metro station
chhoDane ke chakkar me.n)
Abhay Jain had brought along an amateur video recording he had
made at a function organized in Indore, to honour the septuagenarian
singer Mahendra Kapoor. The video showed him receiving honour
and adulation from his fans, followed by his performance on the
stage. It also recorded a rare gesture where he honoured a young
12 year old local girl who gives performances and collects money
for medical relief for the needy.
(C: The award in question was the MP govt-instituted Lata Mangeshkar
award. The ceremony was held in Lata's birthplace Indore. Mahendra
Kapoor's performance included a short medley of songs where he
pays tribute to KK, Rafi, Hemant etc. Anyone recall the songs he
chose? Abhay?)
After this, Sanjeev and Armeen took the stage. They had
painstakingly put together a game : "Fantasy Draft" on the lines of
selecting a top international Cricket Eleven, if you could draft any
player in the world. At first hearing it sounded convoluted, but soon
the doubts were cleared and the mission clear . They had put together
a list of Hindi movie songs of the 1990s. The players need to select
a (dream) team of Music Directors and singers, to match the songs.
The team with the highest 'hits' is the winner. The teams were 'The
Losers', who won, scoring in the last round over fancied 'Young
Lads' as well as 'Winner's curse' and 'Forcesome'.
(C: It *was* a novel idea and contrary to my own apprehension at
the time period involved, turned out to be a lot of fun. Sanjeev has
promised to make a full post about the concept and the goings-on
at the event.)
A quiz of a another kind was administered by Ritu and Madura. Only
the opening bars of music - no lyrics - was played in dizzying quick
succession . The players had to recognize the singer and movie, again
in double-quick time. This was won by the Mogubai team, thanks
to (99%) of Mr Kalra's efforts.
There were other kind of rewards, too. Mr Surjit Singh's quest for
undocumented songs of Mohamad Rafi was rewarded by Satish
Kalra's unearthing of a Rafi-Batish duet from Baalam and of course
Satish was appropriately rewarded for his efforts :) Chetan was also
presented an award for "finding" an undocumented snippet from
Basant Bahar.
An interesting interlude was the recording of Vijaylakshmi's program
on Voice of America of a Geeta Dutt sing-alike, which included
generous references to the RMIM activities. The singer (Vatsala
Mehra), presented a copy of her CD to Vijaylakshmi, from which
we heard snatches. And of course there was more mellifluous
singing by Sanjeev-Amreen, and Ramesh.
(C: Incidentally, the program was to be aired on VOA later the
same day.)
A special mention must be made of the excellent, all-Gujarati menu
for lunch including 'Undiyo' and 'shrikand' - 'Ghanu saaru hatu' -
and the Bhel and Masala chai at tea time. The evening ended on a
note of rare songs sung by Master Madan, which Vijay Kumar
(the IInd) had painstakingly colleced after some adventurous
encounters in Delhi. It was a treat to hear the precision and facility
with which the young singer executed the taans. ...And while
some sleepy heads rolled off to bed, some others were heard
carrying on esoteric discussions on music into the wee hours
of the morning...
Kanchan Bannerjee has offered to host a Meet in Bangalore.
December could be a good time. Any takers?
(C: That's the spirit, Kanchan! A Meet in Bangalore sounds like
a great idea! For this Meet itself, you were the ideal co-host,
quietly taking over hosting duties without making a fuss of any
sort and I & Purvi thank you.)
Chetan Vinchhi
Following up to a couple of points raised by Ramesh Hariharan.
This is based upon email exchange/discussion with Ashok and
hence includes his input.
Ramesh wrote...
>While I am guilty of not doing any work for the meet and
>showing up at the nth hour, I do have 2 suggestions to make
>for the future melas to offload/minimize the amount of
>cooking load that the host usually burdens:
>
>1. It should be obligatory that all the folks who are not
>flying to meet should bring one or two dishes to the meet.
Cooking load is a total red herring of an issue. The mode of
providing the food for attendees is, purely and simply, the
hosts' call. It doesn't take great feats of penetrating thinking
to come with possible alternatives. They are all well-known:
cooking, have it catered, potluck, a combination. For any
given meet, it is best to leave the mode to the hosts. The
choice would depend on their preferences and
circumstances.
The cost of providing food is also a non-issue. The meets
are no longer confined to RMIMers who live witin an easy
driving distance--if they ever were. It is a great pleasure to
the hosts to count among the attendess those who have
made the trip from Bangalore, San Diego and Seattle. The
cost of providing food is not higher in magnitude than the
resources needed to attend the meet from any significant
distance.
In any case, Ramesh's suggestion has always been in
operation at an informal level - recruiting help from "local"
RMIMers in providing food, drinks etc. So, Ramesh,
since you did not fly how come you didn't act on your
own suggestion this time :)
Incidentally, it costs more effort and resources to make
ready the commemorative recording. Once again, the fact
has no particular implication except to note that persons
other than the hosts can undertake to do it. In short, the
hosts' reward for their efforts is just this: enthusiastic
participation by a large number of RMIMers and their
family and friends.
In fact, we did have a few awkward moments of having
to field questions about the price of the CDs. Once upon
a Meet, we did play around with the idea of collecting
funds (completely voluntary of course) and then passing
them on to artists' families thorough a reliable agency
(Naushad's Fund may be one such). That, however, is
an important and tricky issue in its own right and has
nothing to do with the "cost" of Meets or
Commemoratives.
>2. Additionally, we should jointly clean the home
>Sunday am before we leave so that the host is not
>burdened with this task.
Frankly speaking, there hasn't been much to clean up,
really. Participants have been known to take naturally to
chores such as taking out garbage, putting utensils in the
dish washer etc. That is enough. No need to earmark
time for cleanup, especially if it eats into meet time!
And meet time is quality time. Talking of quality time,
your suggestion does lead to another issue: you cannot
start cleaning-up operation while the meet is progressing!
You can help in cleaning only if you stay beyond the
duration of the meet and the attendees are welcome to
do that. In reality, however, many RMIMers behave
quite differently. There are quite a few RMIMers who
shall remain unnamed (Hopefully, Ketan is reading it),
who are veritable prima donnas, who have to be
persuaded to attend the meet and who, if they do
show up at all, seem to grudge every minute spent at
the meet. As soon as they arrive they start shouting
themselves hoarse about when they have to leave.
So, forget cleanup; remember participation.
>Let me know what you folks think. IMO .. unless
>we change, these melas that we all enjoy may not
>be sustainable.
If it is not clear already, both the issues you have raised
are trivial. The meets will be sustainable if enough
RMIMers want them to be. But here is something else
to think about: Your suggestions make the implicit
assumption that the same group of people will keep
hosting the meets and look for way to reduce THEIR
burden. The future of the meets would be brighter if
many RMIMers stand up to take on full or partial
hostly duties. Providing a venue and providing food are
only the tip of the iceberg. And it is not as if playing
host is a full package; many tasks and steps can be
unbundled and shared or delegated. For example, it is
possible for a person to decide to host the next RMIM
meet and request the use of the house of a second
RMIMer (or a non-RMIMer for that matter), ask a
third person to take over preparation of the
commemorative recording, solicit m local fiends to
provide lodging to oustation attendees, enlist n
localites to pick up and drop attendees, pester 10
different attendees to write the meet report hoping
that at least one would oblige, and so on and so
forth. You can decide to have the food catered or
potlucked and you can even decide to charge for
attendance and assign attendees to cleanup chores !
It is good to remember that RMIM meets have
evolved over time and a large number of hosts and
participants have contributed to making them what
they are. It is heartening to note that Kanchan
Bannerjee, a first-time participant, has grasped this
aspect and is ready to act on it.
naniwadekar
Chetan Vinchhi <vin...@hotmail.com> wrote -
>
> Frankly speaking, there hasn't been much to clean up,
> really. Participants have been known to take naturally to
> chores such as taking out garbage, putting utensils in the
> dish washer etc. That is enough. No need to earmark
> time for cleanup, especially if it eats into meet time!
> And meet time is quality time. Talking of quality time,
> your suggestion does lead to another issue: you cannot
> start cleaning-up operation while the meet is progressing!
> You can help in cleaning only if you stay beyond the
> duration of the meet and the attendees are welcome to
> do that.
>
I have heard some rmim-ers involved in organizing meets
express opinion quite contrary to yours. One such fellow
feels particularly strongly that the guests should start coming
at 10 AM in the morning and everyone should be out of
the host's house by 10 PM. He did accept that this is very
difficult to achieve. But he felt this should be the aim to begin
with. If some guests want to extend their stay by 24 or 48
hours, the host, who is usually on excellent terms with the
guests, is put in a difficult position. All things considered,
those who have hosted meets over the years deserve
sincere thanks.
- dn
Abhay Jain
"Chetan Vinchhi" <vin...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:ah99e8$4...@nntpa.cb.lucent.com...
>
> Hi All,
>
> Following is the Meet Report from Kanchan Bannerjee. I have added a few
brief
> comments parenthetically.
>
> C
>
>
> REPORT OF THE RMIM EAST COAST MEET June 2002
>
>
>
> made at a function organized in Indore, to honour the septuagenarian
> singer Mahendra Kapoor. The video showed him receiving honour
> and adulation from his fans, followed by his performance on the
> stage. It also recorded a rare gesture where he honoured a young
> 12 year old local girl who gives performances and collects money
> for medical relief for the needy.
>
> (C: The award in question was the MP govt-instituted Lata Mangeshkar
> award. The ceremony was held in Lata's birthplace Indore. Mahendra
> Kapoor's performance included a short medley of songs where he
> pays tribute to KK, Rafi, Hemant etc. Anyone recall the songs he
> chose? Abhay?)
>
The tribute songs were:
Hemant Kumar - Jagat Bhar Ki Roshni Ke Liye
Kishore Kumar - Zindagi Ka Safar Hai Yeh Kaisa Safar
Mukesh - Chhoti Si Yeh Zindagani
Talat - Zindagi Dene Wale Sun
Rafi - Main Zindagi Ka Saath Nibhata
Abhay Jain
guri
for this year's Denver RMIMeet: one big change... the dates have been moved
to October 4/5/6 instead of the traditional 2nd weekend of Sept. We will put
in the plug in a separate post also... please read that for details.
Regards
nita/vish/guri
SKalra902
...snipped...
>> (C: The award in question was the MP govt-instituted Lata Mangeshkar
>> award. The ceremony was held in Lata's birthplace Indore. Mahendra
>> Kapoor's performance included a short medley of songs where he
>> pays tribute to KK, Rafi, Hemant etc. Anyone recall the songs he
>> chose? Abhay?)
>>
>
>The tribute songs were:
>
>Hemant Kumar - Jagat Bhar Ki Roshni Ke Liye
>Kishore Kumar - Zindagi Ka Safar Hai Yeh Kaisa Safar
>Mukesh - Chhoti Si Yeh Zindagani
>Talat - Zindagi Dene Wale Sun
>Rafi - Main Zindagi Ka Saath Nibhata
>
>Abhay Jain
Considering that all the other songs had the "zindagi" theme in them, M. Kapoor
should have chosen "O zindagii ke dene waale ..." from Nagin as his tribute to
Hemant Kumar.
Happy listenings.
Satish Kalra
Ket...@att.net
>other than the hosts can undertake to do it. In short, the
>hosts' reward for their efforts is just this: enthusiastic
>participation by a large number of RMIMers and their
>family and friends.
>quite differently. There are quite a few RMIMers who
>shall remain unnamed (Hopefully, Ketan is reading it),
>who are veritable prima donnas, who have to be
>persuaded to attend the meet and who, if they do
>show up at all, seem to grudge every minute spent at
>the meet. As soon as they arrive they start shouting
>themselves hoarse about when they have to leave.
Correction: I only announced my ETD(expected time of departure) since I was
specifically asked this question by people desiring a ride back to Wash DC with
me. Your characterization, that I was persuaded to attend the meet and then
grudged every minute of it, is inaccurate. I would have stayed longer had
circumstances allowed. In my case, Bonnie was driving the getaway car, so I was
pretty much the hostage. :)
Since you have raised this issue, here are my 2 cents.
RMIM meets' do not exist in a vacuum. Life doesn't necessarily come to a stop
just because there is a meet happening. Circumstances do take place that require
that people's original plans need to be altered. This becomes even more
pertinent, when one is car-pooling from distant cities with some other RMIMers.
What does one do if one of the guests(or the car-owner) needs to get back
because of other commitments? You either ditch the idea of car-pooling and ask
each one to make their separate ways to the meet and back, or you compromise.
The first option might bring down the total number of participants(which
according to you, above, is undesirable), whereas the second option will
maximize the participation but force you to reduce the amount of time that you
might like to spend.
As you saw yourself, I was not the only one with plans. There were others who
left because of other commitments or did not even come to the meet, despite
being very much around. Heck, even the finals of the World Cup soccer were
deemed more important than hanging around for the meet on Sun. Again, this is
not the first time it has happened. In 1995, a whole herd of RMIMers did act
prima-donnish, and disappeared for a classical music concert, did they not? The
host for that event was "moi".
One solution would be to allow people to enjoy the meet in their own way. It is
not right to expect everyone to show up on a Fri night and leave on a Sun
evening. There are some who can take 2 1/2 days of RMIM talk and there are some
who cannot take more than 1/2 a day of it. While a structure for the Meets' is a
nice idea, imposition of an agenda is a sure-fire way to kill interest. Whereas
the earlier goal of the RMIM meets' was to enable people to put a face to a
post, these days it has begun to resemble a Sanjay Leela Bhansali production.
That, IMHO, might sustain interest, but is definitely not going to bring forth
too many people willing to host it. Purvi/you on the East coast and Neha on the
West coast, are naturally good hosts, who take to the task like ducks to water.
To expect everyone to live up to this standard is unrealistic.
>So, forget cleanup; remember participation.
Good point. One place to start would be, to stay inside the house where
discussions, quizzes and assorted wisecracks are being passed around. If
however, smoking is more important to you, and you prefer conducting your own
meet on the steps outside, than you cannot criticize others if they choose to
seek their own comfort levels.
Ketan
SanjeevR
>After this, Sanjeev and Armeen took the stage. They had
>painstakingly put together a game : "Fantasy Draft" on the lines of
>selecting a top international Cricket Eleven, if you could draft any
>player in the world. At first hearing it sounded convoluted, but soon
>the doubts were cleared and the mission clear . They had put together
>a list of Hindi movie songs of the 1990s. The players need to select
>a (dream) team of Music Directors and singers, to match the songs.
>The team with the highest 'hits' is the winner. The teams were 'The
>Losers', who won, scoring in the last round over fancied 'Young
>Lads' as well as 'Winner's curse' and 'Forcesome'.
>
>(C: It *was* a novel idea and contrary to my own apprehension at
>the time period involved, turned out to be a lot of fun. Sanjeev has
>promised to make a full post about the concept and the goings-on
>at the event.)
Extreme apologies for the delay...this will be done in the next day or two.
I've preserved the scoresheet and draft results, just finishing the write-up.
Thanks all for your patience.
Sanjeev