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From: cvinchhi@telogy.com (Chetan)
Newsgroups: rec.music.indian.misc
Subject: RMIMeet bayaa.n by Ajay Divekar (long)
Date: Tue, 09 Jul 96 15:00:42 GMT
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namaste,
I am posting Ajay Divekar's writeup of his impressions of
RMIMeet Washington DC, June 29 1996.
C

ps - Comments to DIVEKAR@SMTP0.ASTR.COM

==============================================================================

Hi fellow netters,
After a lot of 'pehle aap, pehle aap' to write a synopsis of the meet, thought
I shall make a valiant effort, to jot down the proceedings of the day. Partial
motivation for this mail, came from all those who had particularly asked for 
it,
and from all those 'thank yous' we recieved from the attendees.

The birth of this meet can be traced to our (hereafter implying Ashok, Chetan 
and myself) talk with Ketan Dholakia during the last RMIMeet. Ketan had almost
made us promise that the next meet should be in Washington DC. So about three 
months back when Chetan broached upon this idea once again, I agreed at once. 
Ashok was in India then. When asked about the venue and the date, he 
generously
offered his house. As those of you who were able to make it will agree, there 
wouldn't have been a better choice for a venue, because of its central 
location,
and most importantly its music 'archives' (word, as coined by Ajay Nerurkar). 

The meet had started for us already a couple of weeks before the actual date. 
Timely help from Neha and Sunita with the food, was also an influential 
factor.
Both volunteered to cook something, a day or two before the meet. Infact, Neha
was at Chetan's place the Thursday (27th) for the same. 

On Friday, as Chetan and I were putting up the banners on the house, to help 
highlight the place, in came Ketan. It was just past midnight, and he had 
driven down from NJ. Coming from Orlando, he was probably our farthermost 
attendee. But quite rightfully, he was the first, as he was one of the 
motivations behind this meet. We were sitting down discussing some cool 
Marathi
songs composed by Hridaynath Mangeshkar. Ketan was pointing out to us some 
songs from the movie 'Janaki'. He was wondering what the songs were, when we 
were reminded of the 'archives', and moments later we were hearing those songs
("Zoolatoa Bai Raaszula..." and "Visaroo Nako Shrirama...").

We showed Ketan the RMIM-talent-show table. This was a small coffee table, on
which Ashok had put music cassettes and a book which were contributions of 
fellow RMIMers. Figuring there was a CD by Guri Bagga/Amit Kelkar, another 
called 'Legacy', with harmonium accompaniment by Rajan Parrikar, a book by 
Shashikant Joshi, with his picture in it (now we know how the 'diwana' looks 
!).
Also included was a 'bhaktigeet' CD featuring Kavita Krishnamurthy and Sanjeev
Ramabhadran ! Warren Senders also featured in a 'fusion' tape. This collection 
was another thoughtful contribution from Ashok. 'Three cheers' for that Ashok. 

As Ketan was scanning through the LP collection, lying in the living room of 
the house, he would fish out one for the ear. Interestingly, we ended up 
hearing Roshan's 'Mamta' and 'Aarti' and....in came Ramesh (Hariharan). Came
with him another 'awe' of surprise , for the 'archival' collection. Ketan 
and Ramesh's surprise knew no bounds when they discovered that the other half
of the collection was upstairs on the top floor of the house ! Amongst the
interesting comments passed during this time was Ashok's comment on a LP 
titled
'Innovations by Naushad' as being oxymoronic! Time was spend hearing more LPs 
and reminiscing the previous RMIMeet in NJ, and commenting on Salil's 
orchestration. 

The next instant as I remember it, was Chetan's white Saturn and we attempting
'sargams' of 'Laga Chunari ...' and the sada 'kohinoor'- 'Madhuban Mera ...'. 
We (minus Ashok) were on the way to Chetan's house to catch up on some sleep.
Slept promptly since it was already 0400 hrs. When I was up at 0730 hrs, Ketan
was busy complaining of Ramesh's snores, and his rudely interrupted short 
sleep. Amidst 'Utsav' and 'Rudaali' songs, tea was made. In the meanwhile 
Ramesh who had gone jogging, had banged on the wrong door, and thankfully had
returned in a single piece. Ketan washed the tea vessels after tea, for a 
second time now (happy, Ketan ?;-)). Chetan's white Saturn, was our return
vehicle again. This time RDBurman and BappiL songs and their comparison 
(SACRILAGE !), were yodelled and discussed. Details of this, shall be skipped
as I am in no agreement with the 'comparison'. 

When we reached Ashok's place at around 0915 hrs, Ajay Nerurkar had already
arrived after a marathon Greyhound trip from Buffalo. We heard some Malayalam 
songs by Yesudas, as composed by Johnson and Raveendran (sp?), and were awed 
by the vocal skills of the singer. I would definitely recommend these for all 
RMIMers. Ramesh do send the details.

Himanshu Gupta and Mohan Rathore were the next to come. Ashish Banerjee 
followed immediately. He had driven down from Baltimore. As we were busy 
sticking our name labels, we noticed that there were 6 out of 9 of us from 
IIT - M (mumbai). The figure was later not to exceed 7, but it was rather
unusual for me to have so many of us, from various places under one roof. 
Himanshu and Mohan had driven down from New Jersey. It is interesting to note
that Himanshu is actually currently at Stanford. So we really had the farthest 
guys coming in first! 

Vinod Arekar came down from Delaware. His presence was marked by a series of
PJs and more PJs as the meet unfolded. He was also amongst the last few left
at the end of the day. Some minor discussion on our favourite MDs was started,
and right from the Naushads and Khayyams to RDBurman and Jatin-Lalit figured
prominently. I was assured that this was indeed a mixed non-partisan group, 
which would mean equal old and new music discussions. Very soon, Helen joined 
us with her promised 'greek' collection. 

Her contribution to this meet was quite invaluable. Right from instant one, 
she was at the tape deck, and we were listening to those greek adaptations 
or should I call, the 'inspirations' from Hindi films! Along with all those 
recordings, she had a greek book on Nargis with some awesome photographs. We
were busy identifying old Naushad and SJ tunes since she had taped the hindi 
and greek counterpart songs in tandem. This turned out to be an informal quiz
for us. Later we also were trying to decipher songs she suspected had a hindi
filmi background, but which she could not place. 

In the meanwhile, Chetan, Ramesh and Ketan had left to pick up Neha and her 
friend from their house. Surendra came in with a 'Camryfull' truckload of 
music equipment. This included amongst others some pre-programmed songs on a 
PC, and a key-board. Tunes from these, lingered for the rest of the day. 
Ravindra and Sunit were the next to come, followed by Sunita Donepudi. Besides 
being amidst all the activities during the day, including setting food, and 
actively lending hand with the organizing, she had brought in the most 
delicious mango-pudding as we were to later discover! Udit joined in the group 
that was awestruck by Surendra's equipment, which had been set up by now. 
Anurag came in next with his guitar, as he had in the previous meet. Pradeep 
and his family and Anand Kuppuswamy and his parents followed. Pleasantries 
were
exchanged, and faces were registered for names quite actively circulated on 
the RMIM network. This was one unforgettable experience for me in the past 
meet,
so I can imagine how it would have been for many newcomers to this meet.

Pradeep's kids Ankit 'superman', and Niharika were the center of attention of 
one more group including myself. Any amount said of them will be less here, 
since the 4 year old, and the 3 month old, were as patient and mature, as any
of us present there. Arup and Faez came down next from the neighbouring Univ.
of Maryland. They were also amongst the guys who were to remain till the very
end of the meet.   

By now we were joined back by Chetan, Ketan and Ramesh along with Neha and her
friend Jayashree. Their absence over one and a half hours had made us feel of 
their presence now ! When they came in there were two distinct groups, one
jamming their way with 'Mere Sapnon Ki Rani...' around Surendra's equipment, 
and another circling Helen avidly trying to 'crack' the tunes. By this time 
Sami
had made his appearence.

Ramesh's 'Mere Sapnoan Ki Rani..' was followed by Sunit's 'Kehna Hain ....', 
Ramesh's 'Chalte-chalte..', Surendra's keyboard piece 'Jago Mohan Pyare....',
Pradeep's 'Chota Sa Ghar...' and couple of more Salil C. songs, UVRavindra's
'Shame Gham....' and another Talat number, and so on and on. As Ajay Nerurkar
has mentioned, there were quite a lot of singing enthusiasts, so much so that
my call for the audio quiz and food was postponed by the sheer enthusiam to 
hear these songs, and by many others to sing them. Anand Kuppuswamy 
contributed
'Aye Meri Zoharajabeen...', before we started on Ketan's 'audio quiz'. Teams 
were made based on weather people had written their name labels in 'red' or in
'black'. Pradeep led the 'black's, while Ravindra led the 'red's. Ketan had 
taken efforts to make this quiz harder than in the last RMIMeet, by giving 
shorter clues. However he was generous in repeating them. Some 21 of the 50 
clues were identified, with Sami and Anand on the 'blacks' and Surendra on the 
'red's contributing, prolifically to the scores. Himanshu, Neha, Sunit and 
Pradeep, of course, added to the livliness. The quiz was equally participated 
by all. The 'black's won 27 points to 20 points. The former team was always  
leading, till a late surge by the 'red's narrowed the gap to 4 points. 
However, 
as Sami put it, later for the 'red's it was like hitting 12 runs in the
last ball, with Vinod's 'Ketan Sharma' as the bowler !! As before, Ketan had
taken extreme care in recording the 50 songs without being partisan to any
MD. (Remember the 51% of SDB and RDB in the last quiz ?). From RDB's "Doli 
Mein"
to SDB's "Dil Pukare", a lot of fun was generated.

The quiz interval was  lunch-time. This scrumptious meal had major 
contributions
by Ashok himself, Chetan, Neha, Sunita and Helen. Ashok's backyard/patio was 
used and the food well appreciated by one and all. It was nice to see both 
RMIMers and their kin socialize on as well as outside the net. 

Next in line was the 'video quiz'. Chetan and myself, had conjured up 20 bits
of song recordings, under the title 'Badalte Sathi'. The title (credits to 
Ashok and Chetan), meant that any two consecutive songs had a common male
performer, and a common female performer alternating. Part of the clue was
played  muted, and paused, and the two teams (scrambled 'red's and 
'black's by now), had to figure the song with the Pstats. 18 of the 20 clues
were cracked, showing the prowess of our RMIMers, much to our surprise. 
In this quiz Ketan on one side showed his razor-sharp memory in remembering
picturizations, while Sami and Neha on the other side were equally quick to
match. The uncracked clues were a 'Rangoli' ("ek nazar kisi ne dekha..") song 
and an extra tough Chetan-favourite title song of 'Sanam' ("mein tujhe pukaroo
sanam sanam..") with Dev and Suraiya in the lead. All the songs from Sadhana's
"abhi na jao..."to Ashok Kumar's 'bequarare dil...' were appreciated by the 
RMIM music connoisseurs. The only 'Badalta Sathi' which seemed a sore-eye in 
the list was Shyama !  

During this quiz, Roopa and Sanjay came as the last active members for the
RMIMeet. Infact as soon as Roopa came in she cracked a couple of clues for
Ketan's side, to keep them in reckoning. The competition ended in a tie with
18 points for each team, and no pass-over questions.  

Anand K and his parents had to leave by this time, since they had another 
journey to cover. The RMIMeet surprise as a result, had to be announced, 
before their departure. As the dessert was served to all those present, an
announcement from Ashok brought in the silence. Ashok announced the surprise
and moments later, Chetan was distributing the 'cassette' titled 'Rare 
Classical Songs from films'. I would like to take this opportunity to 
acknowledge Chetan's efforts in conjuring up this collection of rarely 
available filmi 'gems' from various sources. Also commendable was his effort
in designing the cassette cover and its recording. Three cheers for him and
Ashok, for the selection and for coming up with this fine gesture. And so came
the 'three cheers' from all those present. 

Amidst the 'thank yous', 'good', 'great' and some more exclamations, some more
songs were rendered and jammed on Surendra's equipment. Incidentally, Pradeep
had also brought karaoke equipment which proved to be useful in all those
informal singing sessions. For those who remember the songs rendered, I would
ask for some details, as memory fails me here. During this hour, the first 
major exodus started, with Ramesh leading. Some light discussions ensued, 
including Sahir's lyrics. Unlike the last meet the Gulzar fans were 
keeping low key, including Pradeep ! Also discussed was AR Rahman. 

I promptly put the responsibility of tea making onto Neha and Jayashree. Tea
was served and an informal photo-session was conducted. Lots of hula-baloo 
was made about holding the RMIM sign and posing for the pictures from various 
angles. Ashok's backyard provided the right light and the ambience for all
of us models ! Next came a discussion session titled 'Desert Island Films'. 
Ashok, who came up with the idea, split the remaining of us in 3 groups of
7 each, and we were given a situation. We (each group) were supposed to be
trapped on a desert island (with lot of food to last a life time), with some
audio equipment. The idea was to choose 10 films (the constraint - reason 
for having such a thing, best known to Ashok ;-)) for their music-tracks, to
be taken to the island. Chetan and Ashok had taken the liberty to form these
groups which, were supposed to debate between themselves and come up with the
best list. I happened to be in a group with Sami, Pradeep and his wife 
Madhuri, Sunita, Sanjay and Sunit. We decided to choose one favourite each 
with a different MD preferably, and then fight for the remaining three !
Sami started with 'Amar' (no prizes for guessing the MD), Pradeep with 
'Madhumati', myself with 'Chitralekha', Sanjay with 'Sahib Bibi aur Ghulam',
Sunit with a lot of RDB films, before he settled onto 'Amar Prem' (or was
it 'Kati Patang' ?), 'Aradhana' from Madhuri', and another Sunita's MD (think 
it was MM Kohlisahab). For the next three films, an active lobbying for RDB 
and
Gulzar was done (independently), till Pradeep ended up signing a deal with
Sami for an SDB for a Naushad trade, and 'Chalti Ka Naam..' made it to our 
top ten. Since I did not get the fun involved in the other groups, I would
invite the participants to share their discussions. Non-partisan comments
from our group (;-)) are also welcome !

Some more left by now, like Himanshu, Mohan Rathore, Udit, and Sunit. 
Ravindra,
who had disappeared in the meanwhile had come back to say a final bye. Helen 
in 
the meanwhile had started once again sharing her 'greek songs' with all of
us. Ajay Nerurkar and Vinod Arekar were centered there once again. Sami was to
leave too, and Ashok (who really didn't seem to run out of ideas), came up 
with 'Jury Trial'. The idea was , he had versions of popular songs, and
their possible predecessors. With us as non-biased jury, we were supposed 
to hear the songs and discuss the possible extent of 'pilferage'. Details skip
me here too, so again an unabashed invitation for 'detailed posts'.

Things had seem to be dying down by now, with maybe a dozen of us left. It 
was around 1930 hours, and I was beginning to fear that our enthusiasm might
have dwindled. My previous day's 3 hour sleep was fuelling this growing 
silence.
However, in the true RMIM spirit, an 'antakshari' was kindled. Not really 
an 'antakshari' but more like songs to be sung in tandem by two teams, having
a 'common word', chosen before. This turned out to be real fun. Roopa, Neha,
Chetan, Sunita, Arup formed a team, and Vinod, Ajay Nerurkar, myself, Sanjay
and Faez formed the other group. Ashok sat on the fence, and inspired songs
from both sides! Many words were chosen, including 'deewana', 'nain', 
'parwana',
'beqaraar', 'zindagi' and vinod and roopa/neha's classics 'tirchhi' and 
'kurta' respectively. The latter gives an impression that our esteemed 
opponents may have a 'Gulzar' influence ! 'Tirchhi' form our side was a total
foot-down by Vinod, with no support from any of us others. So please do not 
mistake us to be 'A Bakshi' fans or something !! Who could have thought of
more than a couple of songs with these two words, at that time. Actually it
may be an interesting compilation to have a list of words for such an event
in the future, keeping in mind that the sequence should go on for a 
considerable time to have fun.

But here even these short-lived word generated a lot of fun and laughter. 
Unbelievably, this tandem-song theme-word (TSTW,- like a Nazir Hussain 
production name ;-)) went on for 5 hours! I must be humble here and admit, 
that
our earstwhile opponents came up with 4-5 songs on many an occassion, when we
could come up with none. So they won this in all fairness. Songs were sung
with all the enthusiasm reflective of our RMIM group and from all kinds of
films reflective of our varied interests. It was 0100 hours, when I remembered
that we had some samosas. So a late dinner snack was the samosa-dish. By this
time I was yearning for the arms of morpheus (sorry for the 'pilferage' 
Chetan!
). As I bid a good-bye to Ashok, Neha and Jayashree came up with this nice 
'gift' for each of us- a live potted plant. For me it was the most wonderful 
end for a truely fanta-fabulous meet. The 'plant' would be metaphorical for 
all our 'RMIM-ties'to grow! (Think I should stop on these comparisons.)

I am told that Roopa and Ashok went on with some music-discussions till the 
early morning hours of the day. All this after Sanjay and Roopa were almost
ready to leave before the TSTW. I wished some more of you would have waited 
to join us in the fun. Udit and Himanshu had come up with the idea of a 
lyrics-quiz (just like TSTW), before they left. Unfortunately, it did not 
materialise during their presence at the meet. Sorry about that folks.

Finally, I am glad for all those who came for the meet, and had so much of 
unadultrated fun. I would also like to thank Ashok for his role as a very
nice 'host' and to Chetan for initiating it all. It was unfortunate that 
people like Azra Bano and Pawan Kumar Desiken, couldn't make it, due to some 
reason or the other. RMIMeets in the past have been so successful, without an 
exception that it may be fun, if all you dudes and dudettes who can make it, 
make it in the future. A BIG THANKS for all those who came despite their tight 
schedules to make this meet a success, on behalf of Chetan and Ashok as well.


till later

-Ajay Divekar