Path: Lehigh.EDU!Lehigh.EDU!sm0e From: sm0e@Lehigh.EDU (SAMIUDDIN MOHAMMED) Newsgroups: rec.music.indian.misc Subject: THE RMIM Get-togher: Ramesh's aankhon dekha haal !! Date: 21 Apr 1995 00:36:42 GMT Organization: Lehigh University Lines: 235 Distribution: world Message-ID: <3n6umq$1n1b@fidoii.cc.lehigh.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: ihd117d.cc.lehigh.edu Keywords: rmim meeting YO RMIMers!! Finally, here's the promised "aankhon dekha haal" of the first RMIM get-together from the soon to be Dr. Ramesh Hariharan! This guy has done an amazing job at remembering almost each and every detail. I'll comment on the authenticity later :-) Ramesh's server just wouldn't post this write-up from Princeton 'cause it sensed a serious error when he tried to link my name with the Shanky-J fan club! Talk about artificial intelligence!! :-) I am therefore posting this on his behalf. The Lehigh computers have been programmed to overlook attempts to besmirch my reputation. Ramesh also erred in including Mohan Rathore's name in the KKKlan... I'm sure Mohan is already on his way from Rutgers to Princeton for Ramesh' blood. Dude, you got about 30 mins to run for your life :-) Finally, I would like to thank Ketan Dholakia for taking the initiative to arrange this meeting and for being such a hospitable and excellent host! Without his efforts, I'm sure this meeting wudn't have been possible. He had thought of each and every detail right from providing the directions to getting the delicious food. THANK YOU KETAN!! Without further ado, here's Ramesh's version of what happened... it's mostly true but for the Shanky-J/Sami connection :-) As for all those who couldn't make, we really did miss you all!! Sami Mohammed (A Naushad fan)... who was fortunate to attend the RMIM get-together **************************************************************************** @Begin(Ramesh's write-up) **************************************************************************** From: hariharn@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Ramesh Hariharan) Date: Thu, 20 Apr 1995 19:39:58 EDT After Mohan Rathore's article on eager anticipation of the first rmim get-together, it's my pleasure to give my aankhon dekha haal for fellow rmimers. I am not sure if I can fully communicate the amount of unabashed excitement enjoyed us (bunch of fanatic rmimers). It's safe to say that there was never a dull moment during the 8 hrs that we spent at Ketan's place, who was the gracious host for the event. Although most of us were near-strangers just a few hours back, the ease with which all of us vibed was remarkable; the common bond of music created the good chemistry between all of us ... Tu jo mere sur mein sur mila le Tho zindagi ho jaaye safal After the introductions and some rambling, the event kicked off with Kedar's audio quiz. He had recorded the prelude of about 25 songs and the two teams were supposed to guess the song with (preferably) P-stats. The considerable ease with which the junta was cracking the tunes convinced us that we were sitting with a bunch of hard-core rmimers. A large fraction were Shanky-J tunes which (surprise !) made Sami remark "Oh ! Another Shanky-J tune ... but this is one of their good ones" Actually this was something that went on all day.. a Shanky-J tune would be played/sung and Sami would land up saying ... "This is one of their great one !!" To the discerning observer, it was starkly clear that our dear friend had a problem. It was a hidden love for Shanky-J that was surfacing albeit frequent attempts to cover it by 'Shanky-J bashing'. Recent empirical evidence from the results of RJGK on Shanky-J also points to the same problem :-) My sincere advice is that he should seek professional help from Princeton, Clemson or College Park. I posed a few more qns following Kedar's quiz by singing aalaps or initial tunes from Chashme Buddoor, Muqqadar ka Sikkander, Dil tera Deewana and Leader which were all cracked in a jiffy. Refreshments were thoughtfully arranged by Ketan from one of the local desi restraunts where inspite of the all the hindi I spoke, the guy insisted on speaking in Englipiss. The afternoon session kicked off with two other rmimers Nritya and Seema joining us. Pradeep was humming some cute tunes on his Karoake along with his guitar. All day long his excellent feel for delicate inflections in tunes was evident and it was a pleasure to hear some songs which I had not heard in a long time. The songs 'Chota sa ghar hoga' and 'Rimjhim ke tarane', especially the latter a quick tempo oldie, stand out in my mind. I tried extending my finely tuned :-) bathroom singing skills to the party with a couple of songs from the movies Kabhi Kabhi (accompanied impromptu on the synth by Surendra) and Amar Prem (Chingari koi bhadke). Also they got to hear the poor man's version of Amitabh dialogues from the classics Anand and Kabhi Kabhi. The singing session was temporarily interrupted by a quiz on 'How rough are the Rafians' and 'Truly loyal KKK's ?' So I split up the junta into KKK's and Rafians .... even the few who were reluctant to take sides. Ok .. let's meet the ... RAFIANS Surendra Harrisburg Sami Mohammed Lehigh Bhavin Doshi Lehigh Kedar Naphade Lehigh Ramesh Hariharan Princeton (also the ref !) Sandeep AT&T Sandeep's son Princeton class of 2006 :-) KKK's Ketan Dholakia Edison Mohan Rathore Rutgers Pradeep Dubey IBM, New York Seema New York City Nritya CUNY Charu Varshney SUNY, NY City, winner of RDB RJGK Satish Mohaptra Lehigh (ref2) Get ready to rumble....!! The game was that words such as 'nazar' or 'sharaab' would be announced and the KKK (or Rafian) who could think of a song sung by KK (Rafi for Rafians) would clap hands to declare that he/she is the one who thought of the song first and then sing the song he/she has in mind. The first word was 'deewana' and Ketan (who was the acting KKK president (in the absence of Dr. Parrikar) burst out after a clap: "Deewana mujhsa nahi is ambar ke neeche" (hhahahahahah) So after all Ketan was a Rufian in disguise. After this most claps were practically instantaneous and I had trouble determining who clapped first till Satish Mohapatra helped us with it [This was after I was alleged to be deaf in my left ear by the KKK's :-) ]. It was funny when none of the guys including Sami could come up with a KK/Rafi song having the word 'sadgi' in it. Sami ! How could you forget the song: "Ye teri saadgi, ye tera baankpan" Perhaps Sami is not that rough afterall :-) It was hilarious when Ketan clapped his hands by reflex for a difficult word and did not have any song in mind. I am sure he felt like the characters in 'bugs-bunny' who walk over the cliff and realize only when it is too late. After the quiz there was a truce signed on holy parchment paper title "The treaty of Edison". There was however some skepticism on the potency of this truce/treaty as the presidents of the Rafians (joint president Abhay'ASAD'Avachat) and KKK (Rajan P) were not present ! The skepticism was justified when a few hours later Ketan started making fun of how Rafi would sing 'Chala jaata hoon kisi ki dhun mein' and Sami fought back with 'Oh ! Duniya ke rakhawale' in 'KK's voice'. Sandeep presented a Rafi-for-Shammi song with his son who inspite of being a kid demonstrated good control on the synthesizer. Also he presented the soulful Jagjit Singh number from Arth : "Jhuki jhuki see nazar bequaraar hai ki nahi ?" On the request of Nritya he also cooed the title song from the movie 'Roja' (Tamil version). Only a few of the various discussions we had jump out in my mind. Sandeep stomped his foot on the ground (and many hearts !) when he argued that Illayaraja is FAR superior to all the hindi md's of the golden era including SDB. I guess it was hard to comprehend for loyal SDB fans like myself, Pradeep and Ketan. Ketan opined that Illayaraja's semiclassical stuff stand out as absolute gems but most of his other songs tend to be lousy ... so much for extreme opinions. Then we had a more interesting discussion on the best lyricist. I think the junta was equally split between Sahir and Gulzar although Pradeep pitched in for Yogesh (who had several gems with Salil). On the lighter side, we wondered why rmimers from UK (esp. the bhangra types) always posted everything with their 'CAPS LOCK' key on.. we figured they just love to scream ! The butt end of all the criticism was the great :-) Kumar Shanu... there was so much vitriol flying towards the virtuoso. The hilarity touched a peak when Pradeep said: "RDB must've had a heart attack after Kumar Shanu sang for him in 1942-ALS" Sami claimed that they would've to give him a Benz to go to the Alka Yagnik-KSanu concert !! The person who really stood out in terms of musical skills was Surendra. This guy could be a pro with the synthesizer as was evident in his fluent exposition of 'Jaago Mohan Pyaare'. One of my regrets was that he did not present more solos. Kedar joined us again late in the afternoon and demonstrated his facile touch on the keyboard. This was a chorus session where we went non-stop from one song to another. He joined Pradeep+Ketan+junta on the Manna Dey-KK song "Ek chatur naar karke singar" from the movie Padosan. Bhavin Doshi provided improvised percussions apart from coming up with quiz answers most others were stuck on. Mohan Rathore and Charu Varshney gave encouraging accompaniment and backed up the lyrics when the singer was in trouble, apart from providing plenty of enthusiasm. In the middle of this fun we also spoke to one of our rmimer friends (Nuts) .. I am not sure if he could feel the excitement through the dumb phone lines ! Saanjh ka waqt ho hee raha tha when we had Sami's audio quiz. This quiz had the qns in the order of Sami's ranking of MD's Thanks to several of his quality postings his ranking of MD's was no mystery (esp. his top five), although we were pleasantly surprised to find SJ at #7... maybe he won't take long to recover. Seriously though, he demonstrated tremendous energy in organizing this whole get-together. Time had passed by so fast that we did not have time for Sami's video quiz or the lightning Antakshari that we were planning. We took a few joint pictures with a very wrong person holding the guitar. Let's hope Sami's puts it up in his home page... hamare is khushi ke din ki choti si nishani hogi. The get-together ended with a circle-high-five among us right outside Bombino (local cassette ka dukan). In this article, I might've used too many superlatives, perhaps my high spirits after the party may have something to do with it. In any case, the meeting exemplified friendship, love and camaraderie that our news group symbolizes. In our minds, we were left saying at the end ... Dil kahe rukh ja re rukh ja yahin pe kahin Jo baat is jagah hai kahin pe nahin