MUSICALLY ENCHANTING SESSION 21ST FEB 2010

ADABRAFI FRIENDS,


Amidst the din and troubled times in Hyderabad, when we had asked our members to assemble for this evening's musical session, we had known that the attendance would be rather thin. A few of our members were not in town and some more were apprehensive of how the day would unfold - after the sad demise of the young boy who immolated himself for a political cause. Nevertheless (albatta in Urdu ?) those of us who assembled made the most of it as we all could get to sing more and more number of songs.

Nitin had sent me a message yesterday itself that he would be going out of town and that Mrs Nirmala Dhepe is not having backlog of Office work to cope up with even on Saturdays (their weekly off) and Sundays and that the situation will continue until the end of the current financial year. Nitin would however join us from the next musical session.

Raghavendra Rao has not been attending many of our musical sessions for the last few months, but he is on long deputation outside Hyderabad. He spoke to me just yesterday and was already on his way to some place on official duty.

Mrs Anita Agarwal must be busy with her upcoming Exhibition on 22nd and 23rd at Taj Krishna about she had told me sometime back. In fact, this exhibition had to be postponed from January due to the present agitation going on. We hope this time around, her efforts bore fruit and that her venture was successful.

Mrs Padmaja spoke to me this morning and informed that if the situation was fully peaceful she will try to come. Not knowing when and what will happen at the Osmania University campus, which is very close to her house, I too advised her to take precautions and only then decide on attending the musical session.

R Padmanabhan had left for Chennai suddenly yesterday and he has now missed two musical sessions in a row - very unlikely of him, but then his absence on both occasions was unavoidable.

Today Mr Kanta Rao and Mr Madhusudan (Madhu-rafi) were also to come but they had informed that they would have to leave after spending only as much as one hour with us as they had to attend another programme. Perhaps, they thought that they would miss the latter programme if they attended our Musical Session and hence they too could not come.

Ten of us, therefore, were taking the utmost advantage of the sparse crowd today and sang so many songs that I had to request all of them to jot down the songs for my detailed listing. In recent times, I had discontinued with writing down these details, but the selection of the songs and excellent renditions today (the effort by Sivaram in providing the sound system and N R Padmanabhan in bringing a very smart laptop with internet connection were the main contributors for the fantastic singing) forced me to revive the listing of songs, just as Sachin Deshpande had been insisting on the list being made. Towards the end of the musical session, I had once again requested the few friends to create a new Rafi-email id and Venkatesh Sharma did it the moment he reached home. I have included his new email id in the above list and moved the general email id in "my other contacts" group. Please use the latest email ids from my last messages always, as they will be up to date. So friends, besides myself, others who were at today's musical session are as follows :
1. K SIVARAM,
2. Mrs Prema Sivaram
3. Shanti
4. N R Padmanabhan
5. K Venkatesh Sharma
6. S K Elias,
7. Sanjay Deshpande
8. Mrs Radha Chandar
9. S Chandar.

Here is the list of all songs rendered at this very enthralling musical session.
A S MURTY :
1. MAIN TOOTI HUYI EK NAIYYA HUN - AADMI
2. MEHFIL SE UTH JAANE WALON - DOOJ KA CHAND
3. JAANE WALE ZARA HOSHIYAR - RAJKUMAR
4. JANE KAHAN MERA JIGA GAYA JI - duet with Shanti
5.MAIN TOOTI HUYI EK NAIYYA HUN - repeated on request.

Ms. SHANTI :
1. BABUJI DHEERE CHALNA - AAR PAAR
2. PYAR KARNE WALE - SHAAN
3. JANE KAHAN MERA JIGAR GAYA - duet with ASM
4. THANDI HAWA KAALI GHATA - MR & MRS 55

K VENKATESH SHARMA:
1. ZINDAGI KA SAFAR - SAFAR
2. RANG AUR NOOR KI - GHAZAL
3. DIL AAJ SHAYAR HAI - GAMBLER
4. One more sing not listed by us.
S K ELIAS :
1. MAIN NIGAHEN TERE CHEHERE - AAP KI PARCHHAIYAAN
2. KAL RAAT ZINDAGI SE - PALKI
3. SHIRDI WALE SAI BABA - AMAR AKBAR ANTHONY
4. SAAZ HO TUM AWAZ HUN : SAAZ AUR AWAZ
5. SHANAKARA - SHANKARABHARANAM
K SIVARAM :
1. JAANEWALON ZARA - DOSTI
2. ZINDAGI KE SAFAR MEIN - AAP KI KASAM
3. YE KYA HUA - AMAR PREM
4.CHALA JATA HUN - MERE JEEVAN SAATHI

Mrs Radha Chandar :
1.AA AA BHI JA RAAT DHALNE LAGI - Teesri Kasam
2. Jaane Kyon Log Mohobbat - Mehboob Ki Mehendi
3. Muhabbat Cheez Kya Hai - Yeh Raat Phir Na Ayegi
4. Ek Tu Hai Piya Jispe Dil Aagaya - Pran Jaye Par Vachan Na Jaaye

DUETS S CHANDAR & MRS RADHA CHANDAR

1.Jab Deep Jale Aana - Chitchor
2. Roka Kai Baar Maine - Mere Sanam
3. Brindavan Ka Krishan Kanhaiya - Miss Mary

S CHANDAR :
1. GORI TERA GAON BADA - Chitchor
2.CHHOTI SI YEH DUNIYA - Rangoli
3. JO UNKI TAMANNA HAI - INTEQAAM
4.CHANDI SE DEEWAR NA TODI - VISHWAS

N R PADMANABHAN :
1. AB KYA MISAAL DUN - AARTI
2. ZARA SI AHAT - HAQEEQAT -
3. RANJISH HI SAHI - GHAZAL BY MEHDI HASAN
4. HUM PYAR MEN JALNE WALON - JAILOR
6. WOH SHAM KUCH AJEEB THI - KHAMOSHI

From the above listing, one can observe that the selection of the songs was very interesting and classy. So also, as the music and sound system was excellent, the renditions too came out very well. For me, in some of the songs, I felt as though I was attending a live concert. Two songs from the entire above list are my all time favourites and they were rendered so well that I have to repeat their listing once again.

1. KAL RAAT ZINDAGI SE MULAQAAT HO GAYI (Palki) by S K Elias.

Less than 20 days back, when Sreesha had come to Hyderabad, the three of us = Sreesha, self and Elias = were sitting in the former's hotel room and listening to various songs. Elias had never paid much attention to this gem of a song before that day. Repeated hearing of this song had an everlasting impact on Elias who heard it separately and wrote down its lyrics and rehearsed the song. This is one song that cannot be learnt in less than 20 days time. The variations in the antaras, the various ragas, the diction that certain words require, are of such high standards that many good singers have kept away from singing this great song. But not Elias. For me, it was a gift from this young singer who puts in so much effort in learning and perfecting the art of singing. More about this song and Elias' singing in a separate email again.

2. IK TU HAI PIYA JISPE DIL AA GAYA (Pran Jaaye Par Vachan Na Jaaye) by Mrs Radha Chandar.

This is one exceptional song from an otherwise forgettable movie and has remained my favourite song for decades. Not much heard either on TV Channels or with collectors of songs, the song has perfect balance between the lyrics and the tune composition. Asha Bhonsle has put in some very subtle variations in the song which I was keenly observing when Mrs Radha Chandar presented the song. They were all intact. The beats in the song also change frequently within the mukhda, in antaras and it is a great composition. It was a treat to hear it yesterday once again and we are very happy that such lovely songs are brought to the fore by our members.

Many other songs from the above listing too were very good, for e.g. AA AA BHI JAA RAAT DHALNE LAGI; GORI TERA GAON BADA PYARA (Chitchor), ZARA SI AHAT HOTI HAI (Haqeeqat) and my own rare song - MAIN TOOTI HUYI IK NAIYYA (Aadmi).

Some of these songs are generally not rendered in most mehfils and that makes our Musical Session an exceptional one. Kudos to all our members.

A S MURTY

Dil ne ek int se taamir kiya Tajmahal

Tu ne ek baat kahi, lakh fasaane nikle

Mirza Ghalib :

Ghalib

Mirza Asadullah Khan (the pseudonym Ghalib means superior) was court poet to the Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar, and also the last great classical and the first modern poet of India. Urdu literature enjoyed a great flowering after Aurangzeb's death, but the Muslim conquest was undone by foreign invasion, religious intolerance, British imperialism, ineffective Mughal rulers and the 1857 Mutiny.

Ghalib was born in 1797 at Agra, son a high-ranking army officer and descendent of the ancient Seljuq kings. At 13 he married a daughter of a Mughal nobleman and moved to Delhi. He enjoyed titles and annuities from the Moghul court, but was never far from poverty. On personal matters, Ghalib maintained an aristocratic reserve, and his life is not well known. Though now a household name on the subcontinent, he died in Delhi in 1869, stone-deaf and with achievements largely unrecognized.

Ghalib's poetry is full of intense grief and yearning — for an earlier love affair, death of an adopted son, for the disappearance of court life and a world of beauty and reflection. His period was one of political, religious and intellectual controversy, when oriental concepts were invaded by western rationalism, and the poetry is not primarily one of feeling but of sensuous expression of an uniquely perceptive, original and synthesizing mind. In this sense, Ghalib is a contemporary, and he employed many of the techniques of western modernism. In their different ways, Mir, Nazir and Ghalib are the masters of Urdu poetry, and if Ghalib's life was not a happy one, the same was largely true of other Urdu poets: Atish, Siraj, Daud, Mir, Insha, Bahadur Shah, and Zauq.

Urdu, a vernacular fusion of Persian and native Indian languages, appeared as poetry in the courts of Bijapur and Golconda in the 16th century and spread to the courts of Lucknow and Delhi in the late 18th century. Poets assigned themselves to a master, and their work was generally not written down but promulgated through musha'irahs or formal readings. The poetry is quantitative and formal, the common forms including qasida (panegyric), haju (satire) masnavi (reflective narrative) and ghazal (love, erotic or metaphysical). Ghalib was a master of the qasida and ghazal. Ghazals are written in she'rs or hemistiches, which rhyme in a simple but unvarying way. Imagery can be original but tends to the conventional, drawing from Asian history, religion and mysticism. The loved one addressed is male, and the conception is always sublime. To these difficulties facing a western reader, Ghalib adds unusual use of words, a more persianized diction, fractured syntax and lacunae of argument. Not a easy poet, therefore, and not as accomplished as Mir or Nazir, but probing and individual.

Useful books on Ghalib and Urdu poetry include A. Ali's An Anthology of Urdu Poetry (1992), the Ghazal of Ghalib entry in A. Ahad's Encyclopedia of Islam (1971), D. Matthew and C. Shackle's An Anthology of Classical Urdu Love Lyrics (1972) and M. Memon's Studies in the Urdu Ghazal and Prose Fiction (1979)


हज़ारों ख्वाहिशें ऐसी की हर ख्वाहिश पे दम निकले,

बहुत निकले मेरे अरमान लेकिन फिर भी कम निकले ।


निकलना खुल्द से आदम का सुनते आये हैं लेकिन,

बहुत बेआबरू हो कर तेरे कूचे से हम निकले ।


मुहब्बत में नही है फर्क जीने और मरने का,

उसी को देख कर जीते हैं जिस काफिर पे दम निकले ।


ख़ुदा के वास्ते पर्दा ना काबे से उठा ज़ालिम,

कहीं ऐसा ना हो यां भी वही काफिर सनम निकले ।


क़हाँ मैखाने का दरवाज़ा 'ग़ालिब' और कहाँ वाइज़,

पर इतना जानते हैं कल वो जाता था के हम निकले।
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aashiqii sabr-talab aur tamannaa betaab
dil kaa kyaa rang karuu.N Khuun-e-jigar hone tak
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DISCOVERING RAFI SAHAB

Discovering Rafi Sahab

Rafi Bhakts present new tales to the unending saga

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Article by A S MURTY, Secretary, Rafi Foundation, Hyderabad Chapter – rafimurty@gmail.com

For the past several years now, I have had a very close interaction with many Rafi Bhakts, from across the globe. Fans of Rafi Sahab, like that of any other legend, come from all walks of life. They have very varied lifestyles and come from different cultural backgrounds. Yet they have many commonalities in them. I have found some very dedicated Rafi Bhakts, who indulge in a wide spectrum of activities that spread the works of Rafi Sahab. All of them do it selflessly and purely out of their own personal passion for Rafi Sahab and his songs. Most of them work ceaselessly, devoting a lot of time and money on their activities – unmindful of any rewards. Their only reward is their personal satisfaction of doing what they like most – spreading the fragrance of Rafi Sahab. There are several communities of Rafi Sahab on social networking sites on the internet. Several groups exist in almost all the major cities. These groups conduct musical shows, musical sessions, get togethers, mehfils and so much more. They inter-act and discuss the movies for which Rafi Sahab has given his impeccable renditions and relive the magic of these immortal songs.

Rafi Sahab was a singer par excellence – he surpassed all the known playback singers with his outstanding ability to go into the soul of the song. Writers before me have commented that he actually enacted the songs and nothing could have been truer. This quality alone makes him unique in the large galaxy of some of the finest playback singers that our country has produced. But beyond these extra-ordinary armory that Rafi Sahab possessed, he was a very down-to-earth person. Very modest in disposition and humble in nature. He lived a fairly simple life and had no vices. Foremost, he believed he had to spend quality time with his family. He played games with his children, sang songs for them all to hear and did his riyaz unfailingly. He was a very large hearted person and helped the needy, several times even without the needy seeking alms from him. He encouraged everyone in the industry – from musicians to film-makers to the co-singers. Although Rafi Sahab was at the pinnacle of glory, his attitude was that of a commoner. He won the hearts of everyone in the film industry with his unimpeachable character and was therefore respected by the big and small alike. He was always addressed as Rafi Sahab by not only his contemporaries and juniors, but by seniors and veterans. Rafi Sahab learnt early in his life that respect begets respect and love. His endearing charm lay in his smile as otherwise he was a man of few words.

I have discovered that, listening piously to Rafi Sahab songs for several decades now, his fan following not only has become countless – running into millions I presume. But more than this, his fans who often would like to call themselves as Rafi Bhakts – have themselves imbibed several qualities of their virtuous idol. Many are often seen doing charity services. Rafi Bhakts are trying to become role-models for future generations by their unstinted and selfless acts. Many names crop up, but it would not be proper to name some and forget many and hence individual names are not being lined up. But the picture is very brightly lit before us. Rafi Bhakts are not only earning a good reputation and name, but also enhancing the name of Rafi Sahab in whatever they do. Pages after pages have been written on legendary idols by their fans, including on Rafi Sahab by the Rafi Bhakts. Rich tributes have been paid to some of the very great Rafi Bhakts earlier too in various fora. I have seen youngsters, some of them still in their teens, who worship Rafi Sahab as though they have grown up listening to his songs. Most of these youngsters have been born several years after Rafi Sahab himself bid goodbye to this world. How then this YOUNG RAFI BRIGADE came to be such staunch followers of a playback singer whose songs were recorded several decades earlier. Awestruck, I tried to find answers to these perplexing questions. Men would easily prefer male playback singers and often co-relate their own voices (and singing abilities sometimes) to the well known male playback singers. Their being Rafi Bhakts therefore is understandable. But we do have a very large distaff music lovers who besides being good music lovers and liking the songs of Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhonsle, Geeta Dutt, Suman Kalyanpur, etc. have a very definite and strong leaning towards Rafi Sahab. Their knowledge of the songs of Rafi Sahab is extra-ordinary again. These female fans of Rafi Sahab show equal passion, sometimes more vocally than their male counterparts.

As I have been in close inter-action with such great Rafi Bhakts over the last several years it set me thinking – how they came to become Rafi Bhakts in the first place. What touched the emotional chord in them to be so vociferous in their piety towards Rafi Sahab ? And I set myself to discover their tryst with the one persona they admire and worship more than anyone else – Rafi Sahab. I threw open a topic “HOW I BECAME A RAFI FAN” and within days, a plethora of short but well crafted true accounts of individual infatuations, emotions, convictions, etc. all started pouring in. Careful analysis of most of them tells me one thing very clearly – these write ups are just as honest as ever there can be and have been narrated from the depth of individual hearts of Rafi Bhakts. Just a week before I had asked friends – all staunch Rafi Bhakts – to narrate their story on what makes them a fan of Rafi Sahab. From among the heaps of write-ups that I have already received, it was very difficult to choose one over the other. However, for various reasons I did find one very exceptional write up which I think all the Rafi Fans across the globe would like to read. Perhaps many would see a piece of their own life in such a great essay which has been sent to me by Dr Vasudha Theeratharam.

Dr. Vasudha Theertharam is an Ayurvedic physician and a Nutritionist.She has her own private clinic at Bangalore.She is a senior faculty member in Information and Research centre where she teaches Health and Nutrition on a part-time basis.

Dr Vasudha has herself essayed a fine article on these pages earlier, partnering Gan Sharma and the link to that article (A wide range of fans for one song!) is

http://www.mohdrafi.com/meri-awaaz-suno/a-wide-range-of-fans-for-one-song.html

Friends I would like you to analyse the following write up of Dr Vasudha on “HOW I BECAME A RAFI FAN” and co-relate the same with your own corresponding thoughts.

QUOTE

I am narrating a tale of untold bliss.

Beneath the layers of my heart lay a cache of images which sheltered millions of emotions.Here friends, take a peek into my heart.

My tryst with Rafi began when I was blossoming into a teenager.

Papa had a ear for good music and he played Baiju Bawra, Chori Chori, Barsaat among various other filmy, instrumental and classical numbers. As a kid I listened to these divine musical delights. Though unable to comprehend the meaning of the songs, the melody, the range, the cadence and the nuances of Man tarpat, Oh duniya ke rakhwaale, Jhoolen pavan ki aayee bahaar, Tu ganga ki mauj mein, Khuli palak mein jhoota gussa, Chupne waale saamne aa etc. touched my heart and Rafi left that indelible mark which till date no other singer has succeeded in erasing. Every note was ingrained in my gray matter.

I was on the threshold of teenage. I was a plain Jane whom nobody would want to give a second glance.

One day a cousin of mine came to stay with us. She had this ‘mane’ mania and the looks of my silky, brown hair caught her eye (That lux and lux alone was the secret of my brown hair is something I would like to share with you all). She loved my hair and made me aware of my asset, the beauty of which used to be camouflaged in a meandering plait or a bouncing pony until then.

She and I often listened to old Hindi songs, crooned and dreamt; though I did not have the necessary qualifications of a teenage dreamer.

It was one of those day dream sessions which was interrupted by Teri zulphonse judaai to nahin maangi thi - I was mesmerized by the melody of the song.

My dream boy was singing for me.

Every mind is fickle and carefree. It has the liberty to date Dev Anand, gaze at the full moon with Dharmendra and reach for the stars with the man of one’s choice. This unbridled exhilaration cannot be snatched from any mind.

But –

I took a tour of the universe with the man of my dreams-Mohommad Rafi.

Rafi’s voice held my mane, entangled it with his hands, lifted my drooping chin and pacified me with Maine kya zulm kiya aap khafa ho baite…

And in the breezy twilight sang Tumhaari zulf ki saayen mein shaam kar loonga… Wow! I had fallen in love with the voice. I did not care to see the face. I exulted in the tantalizingly ‘teenful’ years.

I did have few admirers for my eyes which were pronounced against the backdrop of my prominent cheekbones. I imagined Rafi looking into my eyes and singing Yeh aankhen uff yumma pyaar kyun na hoga and I looked into his eyes with the same level of intensity singing Yeh mausam uff yumma and thus began the journey of ishq, pyar, mohobbat- so exciting, so intoxicating.

Mujhe tumse mohobbat ho gayee hai mujhe palkonki chaao mein rehne do – reverberated in every cell of my body.

On one of my daily trips to school – I remember having told one of my friends – I want to marry Rafi – It was of course told in a lighter vein.

“Rafi? Have you seen him?” she shot back.

As a teenager pining from love, Rafi’s Choo lene do naazuk hotonko, Jaane chaman shola badan pehlu mein aa jao, Chalkaaye jam aayiye aapki, Tum kamsin ho naadan ho were some of the songs which served as an ambrosia and aroused the ‘Mohobbat’ in me.

It didn’t matter how old Rafi was or how he looked I was his ‘Radha’, Prem diwaani. ‘Everything is fair in love’, I told my friend.

I had no Rafi obsessions whatsoever. I loved his singing, that’s all and his songs took me to another land – Phiroo tujhe sang leke, naye naye rang leke sapnonki mehfil mein.

My teens were coming to an end. During my five and a half years of dissecting bodies, learning plant and human anatomy my emotional physiology took a backseat. During the cultural fest in my college I unconsciously sang Rafi songs for music competitions. Bahoaaro phool barsao, Woh jab yaad aaye and mitwa mere meet re. I won the first prize for Bahaaro, and 3^rd for Mitwa; somehow woh jab yaad aaye didn’t make the necessary impact.

While practicing Mitwa mere meet re my better half ‘Chinnu’ as I lovingly call him had listened to the song and then said.- ‘You sang very well’. Little had I realized then that ‘Mere mitwa’ was complimenting me.

Today I am happily married and have two sons.

When my elder son who is a Downs baby listens to Oh duniya ke rakhwaale. Man tarpat hari darshan and many other songs in an absorbed manner I feel I have succeeded in transferring my music gene to my progeny.

Was it ‘that’ extra gene that made him a Downs baby? If the answer is in the affirmative I would somewhere, amidst all my sorrow of begetting such a child, feel happy too that an extra pair of genes that was the causative factor for the syndrome, has music in it.

My Papa and Amma are very fond of my son. He grew up listening to his Grandpa singing, among various other songs Raadhike tune bansari churaayi as well. It is sheer pleasure even now to listen to papa singing Bansari churaayi, and my son unfalteringly saying ‘KYA’ and the music session going on for hours.

Now in the transition period of my life I fly with the same gusto carrying lovely memories of my association with songs like Dil bekaraar saa hai, Raat suhaani jaag rahi hai, Aise toh na dekho, Yeh parbatonke daayre, Jaag dil e deewaana, Rhim jhim ke geet saawan gaaye, Yaad mein teri jag jag ke hum –the list is endless.

Rafi the sculptor, the man who kindled the flame of first love in me has succeeded in carrying it to this day with the same brightness making me live every moment, naughtily whispering into my ears—

Tumse kahoon ek baat paron se halki halki halki halki halki–

Vasudha

UNQUOTE

Many more of Rafi Bhakts have already sent in their write ups and many would do so for several months more. The aim was to discover Rafi Sahab through the Rafi Bhakts and if write ups like the one above keep pouring in from all quarters, the dream of understanding Rafi Sahab better would become a reality for all of us. Activities of these nature are not common and it is in this context that I have always felt that the Rafi Bhakts are just as unique as the master himself. The saga of Rafi Sahab continues therefore in the form of outpouring from the Rafi Bhakts themselves. Some of the experiences and thoughts of these Rafi Bhakts are so out of this world that they resemble fairly tales. But true they are and therein surfaces several aspects of Rafi Sahab that perhaps are yet to be discovered. Go on Rafi Bhakts, narrate your own tryst with Rafi Sahab. Those of you who wish to write about your own personal experiences and thoughts on this subject, may please send me their essays to my personal email id given above, or else follow up this article by posting in your thoughts.

Discover Rafi Sahab, therefore, in the only way his true followers can – as unique and gifted as the master himself.

A S MURTY