We all met at the residence of Chandar and were witness to one of the finest days of musical sessions for a full six hours ( a half hour or so Lunch break forgiven). As told earlier, I came alongwith Mir Hasan Ali, Sanjay Deshpande, Sachin Deshpande and Mrs. Sanjay Deshpande. Padmanabhan came with M.V. Surender and Mrs. Jyothi Surender. N.R.Padmanabhan and wife came on their own. Sanjay Kulkarni, Mrs. Kshama Kulkarni and Mr. and Mrs. Dhirendranath Varma came in one lot. Raghavendra Rao came on his own. A 17 member musically minded persons assembled at the sprawling house of Chandar and what a distance it was. None seem to have minded it though.
The day simply belonged to the ladies. Mrs. Kshama Kulkarni and Mrs. Radha stole the show, sweeping us all off the ground. What a mesmerizing renditions by the two great musically gifted ladies. I remain spell bounded even now. I felt as though listening to the good old "radio" and listened mostly with closed eyes, immersed in the melody and spirit of the heavens. I hope I am not sounding too childish, but this is my feeling. Song after song, the singers brought the best in them. Chandar as usual was very adept singing with the Karaoke tunes. Dhirendranath Vermaji played the harmonium when Mrs. Kshama was not singing (she played the 'sur' herself when she sang). Sanjay Kulkarni was at his best on the tabla. Surenderji brought out the essence of KL Saigal. Mrs. Jyothi sang her heart out with Geeta Dutt numbers. Mrs. Dhirendranath Varma (I did not gather her first name) laid out a very finely composed classical song. We lost count of the songs. Padmanabhan, myself, N.R. Padmanabhan, Raghavendra Rao also sang few of our choicest songs. At one point of time, when Mrs. Jyothi was singing "Mera Naam CHUN CHUN CHUN", Mrs. Deshpande could not control herself and was trying to bring Sanjay Deshpande to dance with her. Every one present in the hall was deeply involved and each one of us enjoyed to the core.
Chandar and Mrs. Radha played the perfect host. Mrs. Radha served us a fine lunch. They were in no hurry even at around 5.00 p.m. and would have loved to see us all stay back a few more hours, but then since we all had come from far off distances and had to get back, we finally would up at that hour.
The impact of the "musical day" was so high that the very next day, I got an offer from one of us to have the "next such musical session" at their residence. A.V. Srinivasan called me up to enquire about the programme and I gave him almost the same briefing as above. He left for Chennai and would be back by the end of the month. He was keen to know if our next sitting is on 1st June (Sunday), but I told him that we will have at a little later date. Subramaniam also called me up yesterday to enquire about our session. When told that I respect him as an elder brother, Subramaniam asked me to think of him as a younger lot only and hence I am not using the usual "Ji" that I normally would attach to all elders. He is young at heart and would be with us from the next session onwards.
So friends, what I have narrated above is not an article. It is a presentation of my own feelings of such a good time that we all had spent last Sunday. I would like others to write similarly about how they felt being a part of the musical session. I am sure such writings will be a collector's item.
I must simply say thanks to all those who were present on that day and we did miss A.V.Srinivasan, S.Ramakrishna, Sunder Rajan, Samarjit Acharjee and Subramaniam.
Yesterday, a young boy (another Rafi-bhakt) was in touch with me and when told about out group sessions etc., he wanted to join us all from next time. Hopefully he will. He is Imran Mirza and I will be meeting him personally in a day or two and get all the details. I will forward his details etc. to Chandar who is painstakingly compiling the data of all our members (Sachin Deshpande will be completing the "Excel" sheet in a day or two and will forward to you Chandar).
Rest on the following Sunday i.e. 1st June, for we will surely be meeting on the next i.e. on 8th June 2008. Place and time will be decided shortly and I will keep you all posted.
