Mumbai Festival 19Jan’06
Another event which was first of its kind! Few of us Daashers went to listen to the Fusion music at Gateway of India organized by Mumbai Festival!! I guess Bisu’s comeback has triggered many a first-of-its-kind events!!
Me, Swapnil & Shey2 came from our workplaces and Sid, Mek, Gau & Bisu from their resp homes. We rendezvous-ed at Gateway. I made a last minute entry and people tried to suppress their frustration on seeing me come in late.
It was an open air performance with the front rows occupied by VIPs and rear ones for the JUNTA(free pass). There was an initial introduction of the artists by a “Page-3” type woman whose Hindi was as bad as her figure. She introduced the maestro- Pandit Habib Khan. Shetu rightly pointed out that Muslims are ‘Ustaad’s and not ‘Pandit’s. We wondered why this cross breed name had been chosen.
Panditji’s team was introduced by the page-3 lady. Of this team, the other musicians (if I may call them so) were NRIs. Also there was Pandit Sopan Chaudhari on the Tabla; a couple of extra-smart looking women were the chorus. They laughed aloud on Panditji’s stupidest jokes. Maybe “the festival” atmosphere got into them.
Somehow I found this predicament very funny and wanted to spill more sarcasm on the prologue of the show. Firstly, I had never shown so much interest in classical music before; and secondly, during any classical music concert I always picture amateurs on stage who screech at the top of their cracked voice and make a mess of the show. Maybe I was in the “Symphony” mood.
Panditji started off with a solo performance on sitar. It was truly enchanting; the sea breeze, the January air and the melodious notes of a vibrating string amplified on some thousand watt speakers – this maybe a form of heaven on earth. At this time, few of the bhaiyyas from the vicinity sat down & witnessed this magical piece. I wonder whether their simple minds enjoyed this form of art; but they needlessly clapped on mundane notes; giggled on some sic jokes and discouraged the performers by leaving the show amidst the performance. In them, I saw myself doing the same a few years back at “Symphony”. Again it was an eye opener to be “-er” and “-ee” .
As the show progressed, Pandit Choudari fingered the tabla. The blend of sitar & tabla is very enthralling to witness.
In the third part, there was addition of another sitar, flute & guitar into the fusion with little intervention of the vocalist couple. The only lyrics till this part were “Ab to aa jaa!” in various hues. Nowhere was this performance boring. On the contrary, I felt better after listening to this spectacular piece of music. A sudden desire to probe and purse this art lingered in my heart. TRUE BLISS!!.(At least monthly I should do this.)
Then came in the compares of the show and announced a Punch-Ratna (or was it a pancha ratna?). This segment was supposed to have a body of Jazz and soul of classical music.(God knows how people demarcate these attributes). Seeing the saxophone, guitar, percussion, dholak, tabla, a band of eleven uniformly dressed (but non-unioformly aged & shaped) singers and extrapolating from the previous performance I anticipated another masterpiece in the coming.
This was however worse than Bappi Lahri’s music. I felt as if someone had offered me a mix of chilly chicken & fruit salad to be eaten with chapatti. The lyrics were extremely commonplace (they were actually the prayers of different religions); the singers’ voice was quivering horribly and the transition from one ratna to the other was an earthquake like experience…. very shaky. Even the musicians & singers showed their lack of synergy. The only relief was the pieces of guitar and sax… beautiful. The chorus groups was extremely energetic & their hand movements (if not their voices) were in perfect synch.
Their theme was supposedly “unity in diversity” and hence the “allah hu akbar” and “jai hari vithal” in adjacent lines. Maybe that is why Habib Khan preferred to call himself “Pandit” rather than “Ustad” (Me and Shetu had an semi-intellectual discussion on this.)
After we had come out of this heavy shock and while we were outside the performance area; I saw the well lit, posh and plush TAJ. The ambience was truly enigmatic. I planned to have at least a 24 hr stay here once in my life.
While exchanging our views on the event, we walked down looking for a good place to dine; and we ended up in “Copper Chimney”. The prices there were extremely high and the food was extremely “3-star”. I thought of initiating a “Copper chimney bandh karo” aandolan. (But maybe that is what brand pricing is all about).
We shared the bill Daashing style (which means we collect cash from everyone on the table and hand it over to the waiter.. a very non - urbane behavior)
While walking back to CST, I felt on the streets, what every Bollywood movie tries to show- the crime in the darkness lurking past you. I saw women accompany men in taxis, two taxiwallas stading at the road corner as if waiting for someone to send an instruction; women walking on street as if they are dance divas dressed for a performance and long-haired, unkempt bearded boys whizzing past on racer bikes. This I guess is the dark night-life of Mumbai (When the white collared close their offices to return to the ‘burbs and the blue collared retire for a round of drink at the local bar)!! Its scary to be a part of this life-on-the-edge.
McDonalds was kind enough to keep his shop open for us because we all had a craving for ice cream. We had a quick bite & got into an Ambernath train.
It felt safe to come back in civilization!!
Me, Swapnil & Shey2 came from our workplaces and Sid, Mek, Gau & Bisu from their resp homes. We rendezvous-ed at Gateway. I made a last minute entry and people tried to suppress their frustration on seeing me come in late.
It was an open air performance with the front rows occupied by VIPs and rear ones for the JUNTA(free pass). There was an initial introduction of the artists by a “Page-3” type woman whose Hindi was as bad as her figure. She introduced the maestro- Pandit Habib Khan. Shetu rightly pointed out that Muslims are ‘Ustaad’s and not ‘Pandit’s. We wondered why this cross breed name had been chosen.
Panditji’s team was introduced by the page-3 lady. Of this team, the other musicians (if I may call them so) were NRIs. Also there was Pandit Sopan Chaudhari on the Tabla; a couple of extra-smart looking women were the chorus. They laughed aloud on Panditji’s stupidest jokes. Maybe “the festival” atmosphere got into them.
Somehow I found this predicament very funny and wanted to spill more sarcasm on the prologue of the show. Firstly, I had never shown so much interest in classical music before; and secondly, during any classical music concert I always picture amateurs on stage who screech at the top of their cracked voice and make a mess of the show. Maybe I was in the “Symphony” mood.
Panditji started off with a solo performance on sitar. It was truly enchanting; the sea breeze, the January air and the melodious notes of a vibrating string amplified on some thousand watt speakers – this maybe a form of heaven on earth. At this time, few of the bhaiyyas from the vicinity sat down & witnessed this magical piece. I wonder whether their simple minds enjoyed this form of art; but they needlessly clapped on mundane notes; giggled on some sic jokes and discouraged the performers by leaving the show amidst the performance. In them, I saw myself doing the same a few years back at “Symphony”. Again it was an eye opener to be “-er” and “-ee” .
As the show progressed, Pandit Choudari fingered the tabla. The blend of sitar & tabla is very enthralling to witness.
In the third part, there was addition of another sitar, flute & guitar into the fusion with little intervention of the vocalist couple. The only lyrics till this part were “Ab to aa jaa!” in various hues. Nowhere was this performance boring. On the contrary, I felt better after listening to this spectacular piece of music. A sudden desire to probe and purse this art lingered in my heart. TRUE BLISS!!.(At least monthly I should do this.)
Then came in the compares of the show and announced a Punch-Ratna (or was it a pancha ratna?). This segment was supposed to have a body of Jazz and soul of classical music.(God knows how people demarcate these attributes). Seeing the saxophone, guitar, percussion, dholak, tabla, a band of eleven uniformly dressed (but non-unioformly aged & shaped) singers and extrapolating from the previous performance I anticipated another masterpiece in the coming.
This was however worse than Bappi Lahri’s music. I felt as if someone had offered me a mix of chilly chicken & fruit salad to be eaten with chapatti. The lyrics were extremely commonplace (they were actually the prayers of different religions); the singers’ voice was quivering horribly and the transition from one ratna to the other was an earthquake like experience…. very shaky. Even the musicians & singers showed their lack of synergy. The only relief was the pieces of guitar and sax… beautiful. The chorus groups was extremely energetic & their hand movements (if not their voices) were in perfect synch.
Their theme was supposedly “unity in diversity” and hence the “allah hu akbar” and “jai hari vithal” in adjacent lines. Maybe that is why Habib Khan preferred to call himself “Pandit” rather than “Ustad” (Me and Shetu had an semi-intellectual discussion on this.)
After we had come out of this heavy shock and while we were outside the performance area; I saw the well lit, posh and plush TAJ. The ambience was truly enigmatic. I planned to have at least a 24 hr stay here once in my life.
While exchanging our views on the event, we walked down looking for a good place to dine; and we ended up in “Copper Chimney”. The prices there were extremely high and the food was extremely “3-star”. I thought of initiating a “Copper chimney bandh karo” aandolan. (But maybe that is what brand pricing is all about).
We shared the bill Daashing style (which means we collect cash from everyone on the table and hand it over to the waiter.. a very non - urbane behavior)
While walking back to CST, I felt on the streets, what every Bollywood movie tries to show- the crime in the darkness lurking past you. I saw women accompany men in taxis, two taxiwallas stading at the road corner as if waiting for someone to send an instruction; women walking on street as if they are dance divas dressed for a performance and long-haired, unkempt bearded boys whizzing past on racer bikes. This I guess is the dark night-life of Mumbai (When the white collared close their offices to return to the ‘burbs and the blue collared retire for a round of drink at the local bar)!! Its scary to be a part of this life-on-the-edge.
McDonalds was kind enough to keep his shop open for us because we all had a craving for ice cream. We had a quick bite & got into an Ambernath train.
It felt safe to come back in civilization!!
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