SLIDE SHOW

LET THE SPIRIT OF 61ST INDEPENDENCE DAY TAKE PRECEDENCE OVER ALL OTHER MATTERS TODAY, FOR THIS DAY COMES BUT ONCE A YEAR. LET US SALUTE ALL THE FREEDOM FIGHTERS AND THE MARTYRS WHO GAVE THEIR ALL SO THAT WE CAN BREATHE FREE AIR AND BE THE MASTERS OF OUR OWN DESTINY

स्वतन्त्रता दिवस की हार्दिक बधाई और शुबकामनाएं

स्वतंत्रता दिवस पर किशोर कुमार का गाया हुआ एक बेशकीमती और दुर्लभ गीत !!

सागरजी बोहत शुक्रिया इस गीत को सुनवाने के लिए। मेरा अपना मानना है की इस गीत में रफी साहब और किशोर कुमार और कोई अन्य गायक नज़र आते हैं। अगर आप बड़े ही गौर से इस गीत को सुनें तो रफी साहब की झलक शुरू से ही व्यक्त होती है। पहली दो पंक्तियों को बार बार सुनने के उपरांत मुझे विश्वास हो चला है की इस गीत को तीन गायकों ने गाया है जिसमे रफी साहब और किशोर कुमार की आवाजें साफ़ पहचानी जाती हैं। इस पहेली के सुलझने का इंतज़ार है।

स्वतंत्रता दिवस पर किशोर कुमार का गाया हुआ एक बेशकीमती और दुर्लभ गीत !!

RAFI FOUNDATION - HYDERABAD CHAPTER

RAFI FOUNDATION

HYDERABAD CHAPTER

Hyderabad and the surrounding areas, indeed the entire State of Andhra Pradesh was being pounded, day after day, with continuous downpour for the past one week. The intensity of the rains grew with each passing day and by Saturday, the 9th August 2008, the city recorded the second highest rainfall in the last decade. Normally, a few spells of rains are enough to choke the city, what with overflowing drains, water logging at all intersections, collapse of some buildings, failure of electricity etc. Total disruption of normal life is what comes every monsoon with the civic authorities as always being caught napping. And this past one week saw more rainfall than the entire last year, or so it was felt. There was no respite from the rainfall on Saturday and the newspapers and the Met. Dept. predicted Sunday to be the same. Towards the night I was a bit apprehensive if our musical session on Sunday could be accomplished at all. Our members have to travel from different corners of the city and some have to cover almost 30 Kms for such musical sessions. Will it be possible at all for them ? The battered roads, the pooling cess of water in several localities and the attendant traffic snarls all were hurdles. And then the rains would not allow any of us to venture out. What if ?..

Many of our friends in the recent times have narrated their own similar experiences when a programme of Rafi Sahab was being organized. All of them had mentioned to me that the "show will go on" and that Rafi Sahab will ensure that all hindrances are removed. I sent an email around that time in the night to all our members with that message, not half believing it myself.

Sunday - 10th August 2008 : The first call I got was from Chandar at around 7.15 a.m. who enquired how safe it was to venture out on the roads. Were they motorable enough ? How about water logging as the TV news and the newspapers carried reports of people being evicted in house-boats etc. I knew that such a thing had happened in Toli Chowki area and that the rest of the city was not that badly affected. I came out in the open and lo and behold ! The skies were all clear and no rain at all. I assured Chandar that everything was perfect and that they should not have any difficulty in travelling by their car. I was also to start from my house around 9.00 a.m. and I fondly hoped it would not start raining again. As the day progressed, all signs of even a drizzle went astray and the weather was getting better by the minute. Yes indeed Rafi Sahab 'paved the way' as I had written in my email of the previous night. Chandar and Mrs. Radha Chandar covered all of those 30 Kms. I and my wife Vijaya too covered 24 Kms. None of us had any difficulty in reaching Padmanabhan's house.

Shirish Kulkarni had to cancel some of his engagements, including the reception of a marriage on the 9th (for which he had come specifically), owing to the rampaging rains. No autorickshaw was willing to take him to Narayanguda on the 9th August. But today morning, there was no such problem and having talked to Ramakrishna, Shirish took the auto-rickshaw upto Jubilee Bus Stand in Sec'bad. The others too came easily.

Sunil Sharma, N. R. Padmanabhan, R. Padmanabhan, S. Ramakrishna, S. Chandar, Shirish Kulkarni and myself, all went to the Community Hall at Venkatapuram Colony. The ladies stayed back at Padmanabhan's house. We discussed the agenda that we had set for the day and promptly took some concrete decisions. I am giving the same for the benefit of all our members.

1. The name "ABADRAFI" will be dropped and we will be known as RAFI FOUNDATION - HYDERABAD CHAPTER. This was consequent to the policy of the Rafi Foundation to have a common nomenclature.

2. An Executive Committee consisting of 7 members (including three principal Office-bearers) was formed.

PRESIDENT : S. RAMAKRISHNA
SECRETARY: A.S. MURTY
TREASURER: S. CHANDER

Other Executive Committee Members :
1. Mrs. Radha Chander (representing the ladies)
2. R. Padmanabhan
3. G Sunder Rajan
4. Sunil Sharma.

The other decision was with regard to augmentation of our resources by way of a regular membership fee and after some discussions the following was agreed upon unanimously :

1. FAMILIES (Two or more members) Rs.200.00 per month

2. INDIVIDUALS : Rs. 100.00 per month.

Shrish Kulkarni from Rafi Foundation (national) offered to be a member (a Honorary member) and paid a one time fee of Rs.500.00

All others too instantly contributed their monthly fee and Chander made the collections.

After spending more than two hours at the Community Hall and having made a headway in most of our agenda items, it was time for us all to join the ladies at Padmanabhan's house to continue our musical session.

More members joined there viz Raghavendra Rao, Mrs. Nirmala Dhepe, Sanjay Deshpande, Mrs. Shubada Deshpande and Sachin Deshpande.

The full reporting on the musical session is given in part-II of this reporting.


........... to be continued .........

A S MURTY 10th August 2008, Hyderabad.
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RAFI FOUNDATION

HYDERABAD CHAPTER

PART - II
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Further to my mail on the proceedings of our meeting today we re-assembled at Padmanabhan's house for our musical session. At the outset, we would like to thank Padmanabhan, Mrs. Meenakshi and their son Raghu for once again arranging the Community Hall and their house for our musical session today. The rains were a dampener and we were not fully represented today. But the spirit of those assembled was equally matching. While some of our members could not attend due to personal reasons, those who did enjoyed every minute of it. Mahmood had informed me on the 2nd Aug itself that he will be leaving for Tatanagar and would not be available for the musical session. Sunder Rajan informed me in the morning that he too would not be joining us. We learnt that A V Srinivasan too was tied up with some personal work. Subramaniam, was resting at home after the minor surgery that he had undergone yesterday. Ramakrishna who was with us for the meeting, had to attend a marriage and left after we re-assembled at the house of Padmanabhan.

We had requested our members that some of them could bring in some food items and the ladies took it up in right earnest. Soon after we finished reporting our deliberations earlier at the Community Hall to the others who had joined us a bit late, no further time was lost in the singing session. Chander, Mrs. Radha Chander, Padmanabhan, Sunil Sharma (Sahil for most of us), N. R. Padmanabhan, self and my wife Vijaya, Shirish Kulkarni, Mrs Nirmala Dhepe and Raghavendra Rao, all took turns in holding the mike and singing some of very best of Rafi Sahab's songs. Mrs Shubada Deshpande too was inclined today to sing but gave it up after sometime. Maybe she will sing from the next time onwards.

The break for lunch signalled the end of the singing but we had a new insight from Mrs Meenakshi who introduced us all to Bruno Groening Circle of Friends and Mrs. Gartner from Germany spoke to all of us individually over the phone. Around 4.00 p.m. most of our members left for their respective homes and it was understandable owing to the bad weather.

On the whole, an enjoyable day worth remembering for the songs, the rains and Rafi Sahab's divine intervention.

I and Padmanabhan will be in Bangalore on the 17th and 18th to attend the grand musical show by BAAR BAAR RAFI (Bangalore Chapter of the Rafi Foundation).

The other day, the two of us met Azgar Khan at his house in Begumpet. Azgar Khan, a software professional, is a big time Rafi-fan. His videos of songs of Rafi Sahab are on the youtube and he is also a friend on my Orkut profile. He too had informed that he will attend the musical session today. Perhaps the bad weather kept him at bay and we hope that he will join us from next time onwards.

While the musical session was going on, I talked to Tanvir Beg, whose mobile number stared at me on my missed calls list. When told that we were having our musical session, Beg Sahab wanted me to keep him informed also so that he too could attend from next time onwards. I have added the email ids of both Azgar Khan and Tanvir Beg and request all to note these for future reference. Tanvir Beg Sahab is an ardent music lover, a great musical shows organizer and also a good friend to me and Ramakrishna.

I also found Ms. G Sailaja enquiring yesterday by email about the location of Padmanabhan's house and I gave her a detailed account of the same. However she too could not come, mostly due to the uncertain weather and we hope she too joins us at the earliest. Her email id has been in circulation for sometime now.

We hope more and more new members would start to join us from the next time onwards.

Details of our next musical session will be advised to all, as and when finalized.


A S MURTY 10TH AUGUST 2008