Path: Lehigh.EDU!Lehigh.EDU!sm0e
From: sm0e@Lehigh.EDU (SAMIUDDIN MOHAMMED)
Newsgroups: rec.music.indian.misc
Subject: Re: THE RMIM Get-togher: Ramesh's aankhon dekha haal !!
Date: 22 Apr 1995 05:03:46 GMT
Organization: Lehigh University
Lines: 403
Distribution: world
Message-ID: <3na2ni$1ofs@fidoii.cc.lehigh.edu>
References: <3n6umq$1n1b@fidoii.cc.lehigh.edu>
NNTP-Posting-Host: wh457d.cc.lehigh.edu
Keywords: rmim meeting


Friday night hai, aur Friday night ko main aur meri tanhaai aksar RMIM par
post karte hain :-)

Yo RMIMers,

Here's another report on the RMIM get-together... I'm just filling in some of
the blanks left by Ramesh and of course, making a couple of important
corrections! Aur haan, a covert motive is to make those who cudn't be there
feel worse :-)

>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!!

I won't delete the above passage... Ketan's efforts cannot be overstressed...

>Sami Mohammed (A Naushad fan)... who was fortunate to attend the RMIM
>                                    get-together

.... unlike those who cudn't be there :-)


Ramesh gaaru in his "Aankhon dekha haal" wrote:

>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 ...

This is so very true. We never felt as if we were meeting for the first time.
As and when each RMIMer walked in, I felt like saying "Ajnabi, tum
jaane-pehchaane se lagte ho...."

>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.

But for the countless Shanky-J tunes, this was a thoroughly enjoyable quiz. We
split up into 2 teams. Although the division was random, it was quite close to
being along the RAFIan/KKKlan lines :-)

>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

True. I think we cracked all the tunes except 2 which unfortunately our team got.
Anyway, we didn't accept defeat 'cause the other team cudn't crack it either
:-) Aur phir they got a tune which brought a puzzled look to almost every
face. I felt proud for a minute 'cause I thought that I was the only one in that
music-fanatic crowd who could identify it... It was a song which I can never
forget: "Udhar tum hasin ho, idhar hum jawaan hai....." Just when I thought
that our team had won, Charu said: "Arre ye to wohi hain na... woh udhar tum
jawaan ho or something..." DAMN! She finally got it, but we were still in the
race. Aur phir we got the last clue which none of us knew :-( And again, Charu
cracked it to give them victory... it was from the movie Roja (or was it
Rudali)... anyway, humara abhimaan TooTa nahin, kyunke woh ek "nae zamaane" ka
gaana thha :-) STEREOTYPICAL, eh ?

"Ye maana meri jaan ke hum stereotypical hai
 Maza isme itna, MAGAR kis lie hai...." :-)

>large fraction were Shanky-J tunes which (surprise !) made Sami remark

Ah! "Rameshji jhooTH mat bolo, KHuda ka paas jaana hai..." DAMMIT! U've made
me use a Shanky-J song... Ganga to door hai.. I'll take a dip in the nearby
Lehigh river :-)

>        "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 !!"

Ok, here's what REALLY happened... whenever an SJ tune wud come up, I'd say
"Oh no, not again" And then all these guys wud pressurize me and scream "Hey,
don't tell me that this is not good" Aur phir, just to please the junta I said
"Haan, ye theek hai..." Woh Tajmahal ka gaana hai na "..jaan jaae ke rahe,
baat nibhalete hain..." :-)

>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 :-)

Damn that quiz!! Kitna mana kiya ke bhai Shanky-J par quiz mat karo.. lekin
aajkal ke naujawan buzurgon ki baat maante hi nahin :-)

>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.

I must add that Ramesh sang the Kishore aalaap which Amitabh sings in MKS
before the stanza "Iske aageki ab dastan mujhse sun..." very well!

>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

Zabardast mehfil jami thhi... Surendra and Kedar were on the keyboard, with
Ketan and Sandeep's son joining them every now and then. Pradeep was playing
the guitar, Bhavin was at the make-shift tabla; Sandeep and Ramesh were the
lead singers with the others in the chorus.. Aur main ? Arre apne haath
Jagannath!! Main taali baja raha thha :-)

>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

Pradeep started off with the song from Rudaali "Dil jhoom-jhoom (?) kare..."
which I was listening to for only the second time... he really sang it very
well... Salilda's "Chhotasa ghar hoga..." and "Aha rimjhim ke ye pyaare pyaare
geet lie..." then followed...

>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.

Ramesh's best dialogues were before the song "Chingari koi bhadke..." when he
copied Kaka Khanna "Ye aansu poch Daalo Shobha... ye namkeen paani, saline
water... I hate tears" That was really great!!

>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 ...

Ah! This was the quiz in which we RAFIans salvaged the pride lost in the first
quiz :-)

>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.

This was a great idea! Ramesh gave us just 3 secs to sing the song with the
particular word... that not only added to the pressure, but the fun as well...

>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)

HAHAHAHAHAHA... this was hilarious!! The KKKlan got a solid -5 for this
blunder :-)

>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 :-)

Oye, RAFIan ko kuch nahin bolna, nahin to..... :-) Actually, I did rem. a song
(from Dil tera diwaana ?), but CHOSE (!) to remain silent because of the MD!

>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.

Oh man, what an analogy!! This had me rolling on the floor :-) This incident
was really funny... the word was "guftagu" and Ketan clapped only to realize
that he cudn't find any song with it... we cudn't either... we cudn't find any
song of any singer that had the word guftagu in it.. BTW Ramesh, the
restlessness caused by this finally subsided when we hit I-78 from 287. I
recalled the song from Gumraah/Humraaz "... nazar ki guftagu samjhe na jazbon
ka bayaan samjhe..." (Kisi pathhar ki moorat se ...." ) Atleast, chaen ki
neend to aaee...

Talking about "nazar" here's another funny incident... Pradeep clapped
instantaneously for the word "nazar", and with a confident smile on his face
started singing "Nazrana, bheja kisine pyaar ka..." !! :-) The Klan then
unsuccessfully tried to argue that nazar and nazraana are one and the same..
we RAFIans then bagged the competition with "Oh my love.. nazar na lag
jaae..."

>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'.

Oooooh, I got to tell u all about this one... Pradeep and Ketan started their
version of how Rafi would sing the yodeling part of "Chala jaata hun..." They
set it to a semi-classical tune.. I can't explain it... u just had to listen
to it! But, while "composing" KK's version of "O duniya ke rakhwaale..." I
discovered how truly great Anand Milind are! It really takes a genius to pick a
tune from one song and use it for another... Bhaio aur Baheno! Here's KK's
version of "O duniya ke rakhwaale..." Sing it to the tune of the stanza of
"Chala jaata hun.." shown in the brackets:

O duniya ke eeeeee (Woh aalam he eeeeee)
O rakhwaale eeeeee (Ajab hogaaaaaaaaaa) :-)

Both Ketan and Pradeep agreed that I can yodel as good as KK... well,
Pradeep's now on his way to India and Ketan doesn't have posting previleges
(atleast for some time).. so, I guess my claim is pretty safe :-)

>Sandeep presented a Rafi-for-Shammi song with his son who inspite of
>being a kid demonstrated good control on the synthesizer. Also he

He sure did... a bit of advice for  Sandeep here.. If u really care about your
son, keep him away from those wierd tunes (wonder who composed/copied them :-) )
 such as "Kaun hai jo sapnon me aaya..." But, he did play them very well!

>On the request of Nritya he also cooed the title song from the movie
>'Roja' (Tamil version).

This was, IMHO, the best song presented by Sandeep... I felt that the Tamil
version sounds much better than the Hindi one... This was followed later by a
short yet beautiful semi-classical number by Seema.

>Only a few of the various discussions we had jump out in my mind.

Let me add the ones which u missed... Preetham will be glad to learn that some
kind words were spoken regarding good old Bappida! Some of his good songs such
as "Chalte chalte...", "Chanda dekhe chanda..." (which I haven't heard yet :-(
), and "Kisi nazar ko tera intezaar aaj bhi hai..." (my fav.) were discussed..
Usha Khanna was also mentioned and Pradeep led the singing of the Rafi gem
from Aap to Aise na Thhe "Tu is tarah se meri zindagi me shaamil hai..."

Ramesh "interviewed" :-) every attendee reg. his/her opinion about Rehman's
music. This somehow reminded me of the Godrej commercial of the 80's in which
the guys asks "Sir, which shaving cream do u use ?" and then follows it up
with "But why??" :-) Anyway, my comment to the Rehman Q was that it's like
modern art to me... if I'm able to understand it, I appreciate it :-) Nahin to
apne golden oldies ki baat nahin aati...


>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
                                 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Of course, I started shouting "SAHIR SAHIR SAHIR" like a parrot the moment I
heard the word lyricist :-)

>equally split between Sahir and Gulzar although Pradeep pitched in for
>Yogesh (who had several gems with Salil). On the lighter side, we wondered

Pradeep had allegedly heard a rumour that it was actually Salil who wrote
under the nom-de-plume Yogesh and thought that he would support his idol :-)

>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

I think this was Ramesh's classic contribution to the lively conversation over
lunch... haaaaaaaaai kya samose aur rasgolle thhe!! :-)

>butt end of all the criticism was the great :-) Kumar Shanu... there was

Guys, I can truthfully say that this was the FIRST time Kumar Sanu entertained
us so much!! :-) (No offence meant, KS fans)... everyone took a dig at KS and
the first prize went to:

>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"

Pradeep Dubey!! The timing of the comment and the manner in which he said it
added to the hilarity!

>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.

Surendra was absolutely fantastic on the keyboard... I too wish that he had
played more solos...
he fitted a lap-top to his synth and played a previously recorded midi of
"Lagja gale ki phir ye hasin raat ho na ho..." to which we all sang in
chorus... he fitted another device to the synth to play desi instruments such
as the tabla and Santoor.

Speaking of the santoor, we forced Ketan to bring out his newly-acquired
santoor, although the poor chap kept on insisting that it was out of tune...
and out of tune it was! It was so much out of tune that it reminded me of the
Wheatstone bridge we had in our Physics labs of Osmania :-) But, Ketan's such
an energetic guy... I'm sure he'll master it soon. There was a discussion on
the use of Sanoor in film songs... I mentioned that Rajesh Roshan used it
pretty well in Doosra Aadmi (Kya mausam hai...) Mohan Rathore made the keen
observation that Ravi often uses it in his tunes... The prelude of
"Chhulenedo naazuk honTon ko..." is an example.

>Kedar joined us again late in the afternoon and demonstrated his facile
>touch on the keyboard.

I had heard Kedar before at Lehigh... It's amazing how fast his fingers move...
 u just name a song, and he's ready with the preludes *and* the interludes...
Among the many songs he played, "Ye chandsa roshan chehra..." got the crowd
swinging the most...

>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 !

Well, here's Nuts' answer to this question which I recd. t'day:

"On the phone it felt like a bunch of
adolescents smoking their first cigarette, that's how high y'all sounded!"

Trust Nuts to come up with the most lucid description !! :-)

>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

This quiz was diff. from Kedar's in that one had to guess the song from the
interludes and not the preludes... I started off with tunes of 3 grandmasters
among MD's. Anil Biswas' "Seene me sulagte hain armaan.." and Khemchand
Prakash's "Aaega aanewaala..." were cracked immediately, but I was
disappointed that nobody cud get Sajjad Hussain's "Dil me sama gae sajan..."
Anyway, I then moved on to my ranking of MD's starting of course with Naushad
(O door ke musafir...) and ended it with yet another Naushad gem "Ho chandan
ka palna, resham ki dori..." Almost all clues were cracked except Iqbal
Qureshi's "Ek chameli ke mandwe tale..."

>five), although we were pleasantly surprised to find SJ at #7... maybe

"JhooTHa kahinka mujhe aisa mila..."!! :-) SJ were at #11, 'cause I included
MD's with relatively few movies (like Salil C and Khaiyyam) as well!

>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

Yup, time really flew... I was really looking forward to the lightning
antakshri session with the gurus... phir kabhi sahi...


>The get-together ended with a circle-high-five among us right outside
>Bombino (local cassette ka dukan).

Kumar Sanu again entertained us at Bombino :-) Pradeep was tickled pink by
his poster at the entrance.... Bombino par we wondered what "Pankha road se
Pintu Diwana" means. I said that it was a regular farmaaish on Vividh Bharati.
I wasn't sure, but I tried to sound convincing. I hope the guys bought it! :-)
Is that what it really is ??

Aur kya ? That's about it I guess... Haan, another feature of the meeting was
my "Soni ka Dabba" which I had taken along as an exhibit :-)

A couple of awards ought to have been given:

RMIM-enthu award to Surendra for coming from the farthest place - 3.5+ hrs
drive.

Most talented RMIMer-to-be: Sandeep's son

Desi punctuality award: Ramesh Hariharan... stays closest to Ketan's place and
was the last to arrive! :-) But, the tall and handsome soon to be Dr.
Hariharan had a valid excuse.. he had just led Princeton to a medal in the
Taekwando (sp?) tourney at Yale.

PR skills: Ketan Dholakia for making this get-together a success.

>case, the meeting exemplified friendship, love and camaraderie that our
>news group symbolizes.

It sure did... aur jaate waqt, dil bas yehi keh raha thha:

Phir miloge kabhi is baat ka waada karlo
Humse ek aur mulaquaat ka waada karlo

ok, here's something for the Klan as well:

Chalte chalte, mere ye geet yaad rakhna
Kabhi alwida na kehna, kabhi alwida na kehna...


One final comment... after Ramesh guided us (Satish, Mohan and me) to the
Garden State Parkway, Mohan (being the local lad) was our navigator... He and
I were so immersed in hard-core RAFIan talk that we missed the 287 exit :-)
Satish (who was driving) was kind enough to suppress his reaction! :-)


DID ANYONE REALLY READ ALL THE WAY TILL HERE ??? If yes, I take it that u
really wanted to be there... TOO BAD, u weren't there when we had the time of
our lives!!! :-)


God! It's Saturday, already. That's all folks!

CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP !!


Sami Mohammed (A Naushad fan)... a "taali" specialist :-)

*******************************************************************************
Lines for the day:

Log ro ro ke bhi is duniya me jee lete hain
Ek hum hai ke hanse bhi to guzaara na hua

Rajendra Krishan in "Is bhari duniya me koi bhi humaara na hua..."
*******************************************************************************