--------------------------------------------------------------------- RMIM Meet -6 Report Washington DC --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Hemlata Subject: Report, finally! Date: Thu, 03 Jul 1997 16:18:53 -0700 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Yeh Aakashvani (or cybervani?) hai. Ab aap Hemlata Khemani se samachar suniye. Before I start my official (believe me, nothing unofficial about it) report, I would like to appreciate the organizers for doing a great job. They were well-planned, efficient, and on the roll. Because of their efforts, the event was possible. Also appreciable is the spirit and enthu of the participants, because of which the event was successful. The credit for posting the report on time goes to Ketan who constantly kept bugging me to rush. Caution: This report has turned out to be very long, so read at your own time risk. The intent was to keep the report simple and short, at the same time including as much as possible in order to give the unattendees a flavor of what they missed. Those unfortunate earthlings who missed it, are advised to read on and are fully permitted to turn green with envy as much as they can. Those who were fortunate enough to attend can read too and re-live the experience. Sadsacks, Inc. organised a two-day training course, including various topics and tests of knowledge and skills, on june 27 and 28, 1997. This was announced to be a once-in-a-year grand opportunity, so I decided to enroll ASAP. I cannot say if all the students over there learned all the advertised skills or not. The course was more like a preschool class where “bacha log” come reluctantly (I don’t know how many candies did Sadsacks offer to the students as a bribe for coming to the class because I did not get any. Sob..Sob..Sniff..Sniff..) and don’t want to learn anything but sing nursery rhymes. That’s what happened and believe me the students loved it for a change. They were not active in learning terrorism and combat strategies that culminate in the now famous wars. There were some brand new students like me and there were some failures who are repeating it and some fortunate ones who have graduated and become profs. What follows is an unbiased (I hope) account of the two-day fun-filled (or music-filled) course. So, finally the D-day (Friday) arrived and the clock struck 12 (noon). I thanked my boss for giving me half day off, bid him adieu and left for the class. Surendra was supposed to pick me up at the airport, and was supposed to identify me by my T-shirt with something written on it. Later, he told me that they were thinking of code words like “Asman mein kitne tare hain” which reminded me of Shammi’s (Prof. Samri)code word in Dil Deke Dekho “teri ankhen nahin yeh to teer hain”. Anyway my flight got late and this ‘bhala manus’ was all embarrased and red-faced eyeing and reading the females’ T-shirts and hoping that the print was on the back. He was really relieved when I finally arrived. Sorry Surendraji, but I could not resist the temptation of including this. We started off to Ashok’s place, picking up drinks from Surendra’s place and Pushpa Agnihotri from her place. Pushpaji, BTW is a friend of Surendra and works for Voice of America. Her fine singing was one of the highlights of the class. We reached Ashok’s place around 9 pm. A lot of Junta was already there. I was overwhelmed to see his music collection. It was later discovered that Chetan was the only one besides Ashok who could operate his mysterious music system. Ashok was all set for the ragging. First, I was asked to repeat the names of all the students I’d been introduced to and then he handed me a pen and paper and asked me to write this report. Well, very courageously I beared it all, but he hit the final nail in the coffin(who else could do that!) when he assigned Pankaj, the kid as my boss for this project. Moloy kumar Banerjee, Ashok’s buddy from Bangalore was the guest of honor. Ashok told me that when he was here last year, he met the local RMIMers and got to know about RMIM. He visited him again a week ago. When he found out about the Meet, he rearranged his itenerary and made it back from Boston. Although he is a non-RMIMer, he has thoughtfully brought a small marble statue of "Vaagdevi" as a gift to RMIM. It is going to be kept in the house of the host (Surendra currently) and then take it to the next Meet and keep on like that. In the meantime, Moloy is sufficiently influenced by the enthusiasm at the Meet that he is going to start a small club in Bangalore to collect rare tracks! Mr. Banerjee seemed to be allergic to Dev Anand. His condition was that no one talk to him about the legendary actor. Did somebody find out whether he liked or disliked The Dev to such an extent? Surajit, Chetan, Anup and I had a trivial discussion about who was better between Asha and lata. Soon Guri and Neeta arrived. AFAIR, Guri started to sing as soon as he entered and had to be persuaded to stop finally in the wee hours of Sunday. The guy had “gazab ka enthu”. The singing session began with Pushpa singing, “Aayega aanewala”. She also sang “Sanware kahe mose karo”, “kahan le chale ho”, and “jago mohan pyare” with Surendra and Guri. Surendra proved his efficiency at the keyboard. The latter BTW was the most “pela gaya” song, IMO. Helen sang “Dheere se aaja” and “mohabbat hi na jo samjhe”. At this point there was a brief discussion about the vocabularic difference between mohabbat and pyar. My boss then grabbed the opportunity and the mike to sing “Jyoti kalash chhalke”. The kid has a solid voice! Surajit did a very cute thing when he "came to the mike". He introduced the song he is going to sing as "the one we associate Ashok with" and started with “jhilamil vo taare” and carried the song (haaye re vo din kyoN na aaye re) through from that point on. One will have to do some archival digging to find out the significance! References are Clue Number 31 of RJGK 28, of RGGK 29 (special version), of RJGK 34, and of RJGK 35. Then came a wave of enthu and engulfed Pushpa, Surendra, Satish and Saroj Kalra, Guri, Helen, Nita, Anup, Kalyan, and myself and we chorussed songs like “kajra mohabbat wala”, “saiyan dil mein ana re”, “uden jab jab zulfen”, raat akeli hai”, “aayee huzoor”, “pyar hua ikara hua”, “ichak dana”, etc. Anup got swifted by the wave and started thumping (dancing) on the floor. I’m pretty sure Ashok’s neighbors witnessed the pointer on the Richter Scale quivering off range. All this time, Veena, Purvi and Suneeta were busy cooking. These ‘Annadatas’ deserve hajaar appreciations for the efforts they put into cooking all day that resulted in delectable food for rumbling stomachs. After dinner, Surendra advised everyone to go to bed soon in order to make it for the meeting with Pt. HPC at his place the next morning. So the first day of the class ended peacefully after singing about 25-30 songs. There were no fights witnessed between the student gangs. The next morning we piled up in Ketan’s car off to Surendra’s classroom. At this point, I would like to quote Kalyan that “the term ‘solah-shringar’ was invented for Anup”. The ‘bathing-beauty’ takes more time to get ready than women do. BTW, even though there was no Rafian in the car, the KKKlaners Anup and Ketan indulged in the supreme delight of singing Rafi songs from kashmir ki kali with great exuberance. Ironically, minutes before Anup was shamelessly trying to convince me to join KKKlan. Something is fundamentally wrong with that guy. We reached Surendra’s place around 11:00 or so. His house is in an obscure place and the sign posted on the road was just big enough to be seen without binoculars. When we eneterd, Pt. HPC was already there answering questions from pradeep and Anand. He was stating hoe technology has killed both manpower and brainpower. Since calculators are available at their finger tips, people have stoppedusing their brains to figure out what 2+2-1 is. When asked why he used hariharan and sridevi to sing, even though Sridevi for sure cannot sing for nuts, he answered that they have topamper the stars. Its no big deal for them since a song is only about five minutes. For hariharan he said that they like to give a break to the new singers. How hariharan was new is beyond me. I think he has been around for quite a while, though not much heard of. He left soon after that. Sinec I missed a large part of his visit, someone else, probably Surendra, would be the best person to come up with the details. Thereafter, the junta assembled in Surendra’s basement. Some new faces appeared by noon, including Anurag, UVR, PKD, Anil, Pradeep, Nitin, etc. The session began with intros. Many declared that KK/Salil rule the world. Are bhai, rule karna kya bachon ka khel hai? Indian govt samajh rakha hai kya?! Rafians were in minority I guess. Pradeep got smirks about Gulzar and Pankaj, the kid got bashed and bruised badly about his Rahmanism. Anup remarked, “dhol bajane se koi MD nahin ban jata”. Anup I can see Rahmanians coming towards you with all their “bhari dhols and metals”. Anyway the consensus was to begin with a singing session. Pankaj started with a Tamil song which even he did not understand!! The song was very good though. Probably UVR can tell what it was since he was the one who seemed to make sense and enjoy it most. Surendra’s daughter Mugdha (I was impressed by his daughters’ names and also to see that they could speak Hindi so well) sang “dil hai chhota sa”. Good job, Mugdha, keep it up. On public demand Pankaj sang “Ek Chaturnar”. Ketan grabbed the opportunity and a dholak and sang the KK part with him. Together they did a great job. The ‘fanatic’evcn indulged in Rafi bashing. Ashokji, when will these piddy kids mature? By now the session was in full swing. Pradeep faithfully sang 2 beautiful gulzar songs on the guitar, “roz roz ankhon tale” and “guzar jaye din”. UVR, although a staunch rafian, sang four consecutive talat songs, much to Kalyan’s delight, I guess. “Ansoon samajh ke kyon”, “sham-e-gham ki”, “jalte hain jiske”, “zindagi dene wale”. He was simply too good. After the break, Preadeep sang “dil hoom hoom kare” and Pankaj repeated “jyoti kalash chhalke”. He also sang “jack and Jill” in various styles which was hillarious. Anup sang a parody of songs where different singers were to speak musically. Kalyan had been trying to prove since Fri evening that he was a very bad singer, but finally was convinced to sing “dil ka haal sune” and requested all the bacha log (he really believed that he was the oldest until Ramesh and Ketan disclosed their ages!) to pitch in their two cents worth. Then was the time for Guri’s video quiz. Two teams were made-Bimal and Hrishikesh captained by Nita and your official reporter respectively. The clues were the mute video clippings of a song and you had to guess it. Additional points were given if someone could identify it promptly and sing along with it in sync. Guri apparently had a hard time trying to pacify the junta raving over his quiz-masterial discretions. Then we had an audio quiz compiled by me and conducted by Ketan. It consisted of four preludes and interludes each of some famous songs. The quiz was short and simple and easy although junta had to think hard too for atleast a couple of them. So I guess I complied with the RMIM quiz rule. I did get hajaar dirty looks from all quarters because I had included a KS song. I sure owe a million apologies to the bacha party. But can the gustakhi be forgiven this time please? After my quiz was over, Ketan commenced his which was on the same lines. The teams were Sachin and Salil ofcourse since the quizmaster was the fanatic. After about 10-11 clues, kalyan directed the bachas to the lunch table and Ketan’s quiz was left in the lurch. The period between lunch and Suneeta’s quiz was dominated by Ramesh and his newly-wed wife. Ramesh was coerced by the bacha log to sing “Mere sapnon ki rani kab”on Ketan’s behalf. Why did they not ask Ketan himself to sing it is beyond me. Radhika sang “lag ja gale, “chura liya hai” with hubby and “pehla nasha” with pankaj. She sings well and we hope to hear from her more. This BTW was her first trip out of home in US. Hope she enjoyed it. Poor ramesh was in a very odd situation. He wanted to show her the White House the next morning but could not even resist the temptation to sit in the class till the very last moment. He kept saying “is gaane ke baad chalenege, subah jaldi uthna hai”. I guess, finally RMIM won over the White House. Guri and Surendra sang “aa ab laut chalen” and Helen sang “mera joota hai japani”. Then was the quiz by Suneeta. It was a dialogue quiz where junta had to guess the song by listening to the dialogue preceeding the song. The two teams were Gullu and Shailendra(Shalu), headed by Guri and Pradeep. This, I guess, was the greatest punishment for Pradeep-being made the captain of Gullu’s opposing team. He tried unsuccessfully his dal-badlu techniques but was discouraged by this reporter’s dhamki of taking his act to print. Moreover, his team lost 24-32. During the trail, their team’s name was bashed very badly from Shalu to Kallu to Chullu-bhar. Around this time, the lingering dispute was settled and it was announced that the kid, Pankaj was indeed the youngest. Happy... kid? Now go sleep in peace, warna Gabbar aa jayega. Then was the turn of the historic quiz by Ashok. Historic because it will stand out in the annals of RMIM for time immemorial. I am at a loss of words to describe it so I will quote others. Anand Tiwari-”Diabolic quiz” and Ketan-”He made us look like fools”. The quiz was a mere matching up of ten songs with ten lyricists. At first it seemed a very easy task, but Ashok is not someone who would give you everything on a silver platter. Three groups were made and a lot of time was spent in cracking the quiz, intelligent (?) and dumb to weird assumptions were made. All this while, Ashok kept very calm; it was the calm before the storm. Finally the teams were required to answer with explanations. This was the most fun part. Pradeep came up with the dumbest explanations(:-)) but alas, his team won. Our leader Guri came up with the most innovative explanations. My memory beats me and my fingers refuse to co-operate on the keyboard, so we may wait for Ashok to come up with ‘The Satanic Version’. We all kept making a fool out of ourselves and there stood Ashok with the devilish smile on his face. One by one he dismissed almost all the answers in an aristocratic manner. On top of that he did an act of “jale par namak chhidakna” by posting that statistical question. Ashokji, you should be exempted from conducting any quiz in the future or atleast till our wounds get healed. Right after the quiz, the dinner was served. Very bad timing. Because after all that “bhookh pyas to mar hi gayi thi”. But the bhel prepared by Surendra’s wife and Radhika was scrumptious enough to revive us. Helen came forth with her presentation about the impact of Hindi songs on the greek culture. As she said, India's culture by far transcends its borders and the old movies have left a lasting impression as far away as Tunisia and the Comoros islands. The time that the Hindi-style "heavy" pop songs flourished in Greece is now commonly called the Indian period of Greek music. She played some Greek songs which were composed along trhe lines of some very popular Hindi songs of 50s. It was really amazing to know how far had the roots of Hindi music spread. I’m sure there might be more nations that revelled Hindi music. We just need to expand our horizons and explore. She gave an audio cassette to everyone with the Hindi-based Greek songs, which sure is worth collection. Thanks helen. After this Satish played some farmaishi songs . His intent was to thus include indirectly those students who bunked the class. Satishji, could you please post the list of songs played, separately? A Tidbit- I was sitting by a vacant chair and Satish came and grabbed the seat. He gave me a million dollar “gurumantra”-”Kursi ko kabhi nahin chhodna”. And I thought Pradeep was the only politician (dal-badlu) around! The singing session was resumed. Ajay sang a very tenderly Rafi-ish “zindagi bhar nahin bhoolegi” much to the trauma of KKKlan. Do I hear a moan? Pavan, a rafian, on the other hand sang a KK song. A lot of songs were sung after that for more than three hours. Songs like “kajra mohabbat wala” , “chhota sa ghar hoga”, etc. were chorrussed with major zest. gradually the clouds of sleep started to cover the students’ eyes and they began to disperse. The kid, although sleepy refused to leave and eventually crashed on the sofa while others sang away to glory. The highly spirited souls who retired the very last were Guri (ofcourse. he even remarked that people who look at the time are fools when I was trying to inform them that it was well past 2:00 in the morning), Pradeep, Surendra, Ramesh, UVR, Pavan, Nita, nitin, Anup, Kalyan and this reporter who is currently tired of typing and would hate the sight of a keyboard for the next few hours. I wanted to include the names of the participants but don’t have the courage to type anymore. I would really appreciate if Ketan can post it, since he has the list . If I have missed anything, any kind soul may fill that in. (in a separate post). Finally, here are the results of the course. The Prof. Ashok gave an F grade to all the students, including the TAs and alumni. Hard luck junta, will have to repeat the course. :-( -Hema. P.S. If people want to send me any feedback on the report, please use my email. I won't have access to the newsgroup after this weekend. Also, my report is a 'white paper', so the comments will get reflected back (at my discretion). ---------------------------------------------------------------------