ABADRAFI & MUBARAK BEGUMJI

Friends,

The countdown has indeed begun. Our programme in connection with the visit of Mubarak Begumji is taking shape. We had a meeting of our members to discuss and finalize most of the agenda and the ground work has taken off. We must all now spread the word around among all our music-loving relatives, friends, associates, etc so that more and more of them enjoy the evening.

Each one of us should make a note of the friends/relatives/associates, etc. from their side who will be attending the programme and also collect the donations from such invitees. The lists and the amount so collected should be handed over to S. Ramakrishna or R. Padmanabhan. As far as our members go, the collection has already started. Our members are requested to contribute Rs.200/- per family as a minimum. Those of us who can contribute more than this are most welcome to do that as every penny would help in organizing the show in a grand manner. Some of the arrangements have already been attended and towards this our members and other friends have all helped in a big way. Hall booking has been arranged by the Surenders (M V Surender and Mrs. Jyothi Surender) through their good offices. They are also arranging for a specific harmonium that Mubarak Begumji had desired and the same will also be arranged shortly. Orchestra and Photography/Videography has been also arranged.

I am enclosing an invitation to each one of you and those of us who are inviting many more of our friends etc can download the attached invitation and take out copies to be distributed.

Let it be our endeavour to bring in atleast five families per member so that we have around 50 such families comprising of atleast two per family. That way, apart from our own group members, we have an audience of around 100 more guests. We can all make the most of this weekend to invite our own contacts and relatives, etc. The hall has a capacity to accomodate roughly 300 guests and hence we should strive to bring in more number of families.

Our personal requests to Mrs. Meenakshi Padmanabhan, Mr. M.V. Surender and Mrs. Jyothi Surender to bring in as many families as possible. This is because of the wide contacts that they possess. Others among us also will certainly try as hard as the above named to rope in many more families. One can use personal visits, telephone calls, emails etc. to reach out to all known music lovers in the next two/three days. This will help us know how many are finally going to turn up for the programme.

This is once-a-life-time-event for each of us and its importance is being felt by all of us. We are sure the enthusiasm and zeal shown by all our members towards this mega-show of our times will yeild the best results and we will have "a day to remember for the rest of our lives" for a long time to come.

Open the attachment, save it and also print as many copies as you deem fit. Let us get started and devote the entire next week to this upcoming event.

A BIG THANKS IN ADVANCE.
हैदराबाद शहर के संगीत प्रेमियों के लिए एक विशेष सूचना. चंद दिनों में मुबारक बेगम साहिबा हमारे बीच उपस्थित होंगी. मुझसे संपर्क करने हेतु मुझे टेलीफोन ९३९१२ ६७२७२ (93912 67272) कर बाकी की जानकारी हासिल करें.


ABADRAFI – the Hyderabad Chapter of the Rafi Foundation
is pleased to invite you for a musical evening with
MUBARAK BEGUM SAHIBA
on 5th July, 2008
at A.V.College Auditorium, Gagan Mahal Road, Domalguda, Hyderabad from 6.00 p.m. onwards.

Programme :

Welcoming Mubarak Begum Sahiba on the dias -

Felicitations to follow

Profile of Mubarak Begum Sahiba –

Songs by Mubarak Begum Sahiba

Songs by ABADRAFI group members

Songs by Superstar Orchestra

Hyderabad pays tribute to the great musicians and singers of the yesteryears -

Vote of Thanks.

A L L A R E W E L C O M E (सभी संगीत प्रेमियों का इस कार्यक्रम में हार्दिक स्वागत है.)

MR & MRS RATHOD - Great Hosts

Hello friends,

22nd June 2008 (Sunday) once again was a musical day for all of us. We all assembled first at the house of Padmanabhan from where we shifted to that of our hosts - Mr and Mrs Rathod. You will recall Mrs Sandhya Rathod had invited all of us for this musical gathering on the 14th itself when we had our last session at Padmanabhan's house. The occasion now was the "marriage anniversary" of the Rathods. Many Happy Returns of the Day to the Rathods echoed all those assembled there.

Chandar rang me up that morning to inform that he will not be in a position to join as his relatives had landed in Hyderabad only the day before. We missed them badly for sure. So also we missed many more - Sunder Rajan, Hasan Ali, Sanjay Kulkarni and Mrs. Kshama Kulkarni and Dhirendranathji and his wife. Mahmood Hafeez, a close friend of Sanjay Kulkarni made a surprise entry which was pleasant too. He is endowed with hordes of knowledge of all the yesteryears music. He is however better known and more endowed for his 'finger-nail sketches' and also drawing etc. While listening to the songs, he was too pre-occupied with sketching figures and names etc. with his finger nails. All such 'creations' on that day were neatly collected by Sweetie (spelled correctly?) a.k.a. Deepika Rathod (the talented singer daughter of the Rathods). This girl Sweety (may be this time spelled correctly) sat through the entire day not leaving the musical hall at all. She sang too. Subramaniam sang some very melodious songs of Talat Mahmood and Rafi Sahab. True to his style, he sings from his heart - totally immersed. NAGMA WOHI HAI NAGMA KE JISE, ROOH SUNE AUR ROOH SUNAYE fits in perfectly on Subramaniam.

NR Padmanabhan, Srinivasan, Padmanabhan, self, Mahmood, Mrs. Seshu, Deepika all sang to one's heart's content. Every now and then Mrs. Sandhya Rathod was serving us soft drinks or tea with snacks and sweets. She was however with us throughout since she did not have any left over work in the kitchen. She had the lunch ready even before we had all reached their house. Sanjay Deshpande, Mrs. Subhada Deshpande and Sachin Deshpande joined us too, though very late. They joined us when most of us had already had our lunch. Soon after the lunch break got over, we had prepared the ANTAKSHRI teams once again. Padmanabhan led one team and was richer in musical might what with all the ladies being in his team. However Deepika saved it all for Sanjay Deshpande who led the other team by joining the 'younger lot' group. Srinivasan, N.R. Padmanabhan were with Sanjay Deshpande. Crossing several bottle-necks in the form of the ever-dreaded MUKHADA-ANTARA round, finally Padmanabhan's team scraped through, but just barely. Actually we could not decide who the ultimate winner was as it was time for me to leave (around 4 pm then). I had thought earlier that my train timing was of 4 p.m. but that morning when I checked up my tickets, I found the train would leave at 5.15 p.m. Hence we could extend the session right upto 4.00 p.m. Subramaniam however had left early as there were guests coming to his house for lunch. Mahmoodbhai also sang two songs. There was a sudden demand for the RAFI SAHAB's song books. I am happy to inform you all that some books promised to some of you have reached Hyderabad and I will be collecting them in a day or two. Samarjit could not come and we missed discussing the visit of Mubarak Begumji. I will give a separate mail on that subject which is the 'on-going' programme.

Mrs. Meenakshi and Padmanabhan brought a lovely gift for the RATHODS on this happy occasion - on behalf of all of us.

The next programme is however a bigger one - that of MUBARAK BEGUMJI's visit. I talked to Chandar and he has agreed for us all to have a deep discussion on this topic this Friday at his Office at 5.30 p.m. Let us all meet there to finalise this once-a-lifetime programme. I am sending by a separate mail later tonight the 'tentative programme' as chalked out so far, for information of all our members.

So long till then, keep the 'musical sessions' going on. We will have the next one soon after the programme of Mubarak Begumji. I will speak to most of you in the course of the next two days also.

Ok then, bye bye.

TERE PYAR NE MUJHE GHAM DIYA...

HELLO FRIENDS,

Yesterday, 14th June 2008 was again a very memorable day for all of us. We had our group's session at the house of R. Padmanabhan. Both he and Mrs. Meenakshi Padmanabhan and their two sons Kaushik and Raghu played perfect hosts and our initial thanks to them for organizing the session so well.

Being a Saturday, a working day for some of us, the attendance from our members was only half. Sunder Rajan had informed us beforehand that he is away to Vizag for a week and will not be attending. On checking, we found Raghavendra Rao too was at Adoni and would be back only on the 25th. Others were too occupied with their work that they could not make it. But for those who attended, the session was a very enjoyable. Besides the hosts and myself, A.V.Srinivasan, D. Subramaniam, S. Chandar and Mrs. Radha Chandar from our regular group were there. There were however many more invitees, some very eminent in the field of music and who sat through the entire session to make our time a very pleasant and musical one.
Dr. M. Chittaranjan (a house-hold name as far as Telugu people are concerned) a scholar in music for the last 50 years having closely worked with all the well known play back singers, music directors, film personalities of Telugu/Tamil cinema and who has known all of them from close quarters - Dr. Chittarajan has worked for over 35 years as Director (Music) of All India Radio in Hyderabad and continues to teach and inspire thousands till date. Dr Chittarajan sang a few songs and also explained the uniqueness of Rafi Sahab in conveying his "expressions" through his songs. Dr Chittaranjan who has done considerable research on Music in India, Hindustani, Hindi Films, Shastriya Sangee, Light Carnatic and also the classical Carnatic Music, knows his music. He rates Mohd. Rafi Sahab as the only singer who could give a "still" on the highest of pitch for a brief second or two and then continue with the other notes. He claims that many more better qualified singers lacked certain abilities of Rafi Sahab and told all of us that Rafi Sahab was the Numero Uno as long as he was there. He also told us that Ghantasala held Rafi Sahab in the highest of esteem when Rafi Sahab visited the former's house before recording some songs for Telugu movies.

Mrs. Shobha Raju - eminent and trained singer herself having worked and recorded some songs in the 'bollywood" of yesteryears and has even sung in a 'chorus' song with Rafi Sahab. She has seen Rafi Sahab sing and record songs. Presently she stays in Hyderabad and was one of our eminent guests yesterday. She too sang some three or four songs, all beautifully.

Dr. Anita Rani Muralidhar (eminent social and cultural organizer) heading several religious and cultural organizations in Hyderabad. Very active in musical sessions and one who will be on our side whenever we organize bigger events in Hyderabad.

Mrs. Manjula Kalyan (Director - Swayam Krishi - an organization to help mentally challenged children). The lady did not sing but sat through most of our programme yesterday.

Teachers from Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan :
Mrs. Seshu Rao (a Hindi Teacher) sang some lovely melodies of Ashaji, Kishore Kumar and Rafi Sahab. Very interested in music of yesteryears.
Mrs. Sandhya Rathod (participated in Antakshri) but sat through the entire programme. She is hosting our next programme in her house on the following Sunday i.e. 22nd June 2008.

Miss Deepika Rathod (daughter of Mrs. Sandhya) sang just one song but is a keen music lover and is an aspirant for Indian Idol. Best of wishes to her from all of us. Her father Mr. Rathod also joined us briefly.

Mrs. Lakshmi Devi Rana also sat through the entire programme relishing the songs sung by all of us.

Our programme began at almost 6.00 p.m. Subramaniam was at Padmanabhan's house well before the appointed hour of 5.00 p.m., as is his usual practice. I came a little later at 5.20 and were soon joined in by Chandar and his wife Mrs. Radha Chandar. A.V. Srinivasan followed thereafter. We all sang the choicest of songs before breaking for a lovely dinner arranged by Mrs. Meenakshi. Soon after the dinner got over, while our guests took leave, we continued for the next hour or so with the Antakshri. We had made three teams and the Team B led by Chandar won the competition. We had given 5 "Rafi" for each correct answer (song/singing) and the Team B walked away with 70 "Rafis". Team A led by Padmanabhan was with exact half this score. Team C led by A.V.Srinivasan was placed "second runner-up" with 30 "Rafis". But the mood of all the participants was exuberant and the entire session went on superbly. Mrs. Meenakshi was found mostly in her kitchen and could not listen to all the songs or sing the songs herself. But she did sing one last song signalling the end of the session at almost 10.45 p.m.

Friends, our next session date is also finalised. Then and there, Mrs. Sandhya Rathod extended their family's invitation to all of us to hold the next such session in their house on Sunday 22nd June 2008 from 10.00 onwards. Lunch is being arranged by the Rathods. I will be leaving for Chennai on the same day by 4.00 p.m. train and hence I can be with all of you only upto 2.00 p.m. But since the information is given so well in advance, I am sure all of us will certainly participate on the coming Sunday. The Rathods stay in Venkatapuram colony and we can all be in touch with Mrs. Meenakshi Padmanabhan at 27965673 and reach the venue. 22nd June being a Sunday, let us reach the house of the Rathods well at the appointed time of 10.00 a.m. and have the best of time the entire day. A surprise element is in store for 22nd June 2008 for all of us, this time from the hosts themselves.
I shall again talk individually to each one of you towards the middle of this week to confirm the number of participants which I have to convey to the Rathods. But those of you who have already decided to be there 100%, can simply mail to me also.

Ok then, see you all, goodbye.

Meantime, enjoy this song ::
http://www.esnips.com/doc/dbdc4b0c-d16f-4d3b-842c-1e56aab1979b/Tere-Pyar-ne-mujeh-gham-diya