Memoirs of the RMIM Bangalore Meet 2011 - Gajendra (Hildebrand)

             As I was to discover later, the meet was also instrumental in the real world meeting of many long-time virtual friends!  As last minute preparations were in full swing, there was lots of excitement among attendees and non-attendees online and offline. The co-hosts were making arrangements and not a day passed by without happy updates.  Girdharilal Vishwakarma ji was probably the first guest to arrive in Bangalore on 15th Night. This non-assuming gentleman who has shared hundreds of songs with us via Prof Surjit Singh ji's website was an enigma for many of us and this was the first time I met him in the flesh. It was a real honour having him at the meet and am thankful that he agreed to stay at my “gareebkhana” (it actually is, if you've visited it!).  I was also extremely looking forward to meeting Suresh Chandvankar ji in person. I had been having discussions with him for a number of days regarding his sessions at the meet and his enthusiasm was extremely infectious. Most of us are familiar with his valuable work at the Society of Indian Record Collectors (SIRC). He had mentioned that he would be retiring soon and would be devoting himself full time to musical activities! I pray that he goes from strength to strength in all his endeavours. 

             Guests came from all over India and US. It was heartening to see how the love of music can bring together people. One such person was Chari ji who came from Chennai. This elderly gentleman at the age of 77, was probably the oldest participants (in age. His smile and enthusiasm is decades younger!). He had not ventured out of Chennai for the past two years but he undertook this adventure of traveling alone to Bangalore specially due to his love for the RMIM community and vintage music! We are really thankful to him for making the extra effort to attend the meet. Priya Pakanati also travelled alone for the first time ever to attend the meet. I am sure there are many more such stories and I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all who took time out of their busy schedules to attend the meet.

              The next day, 16th was the day the fun was to begin. Priya Pakanati arrived from Hyderabad early in the morning and came immediately to the guest house. Our revered guest, Naqsh Lyallpuri sahab also arrived with his grandson Rishi from Mumbai in the morning. He was received by Anup at the Airport. The two representatives of Jaipur at the meet, Pavan Jha and Arun Mudgal ji had also arrived by then. Many of you would have seen the pictures of that which Pavan immediately uploaded to the Facebook RMIM page! I was just thinking that the plane would have arrived and the picture was up!! Such is the speed with which updates happen in today's cyber age. Slowly all were arriving one by one. We were all looking forward to meeting everyone at the pre-meet dinner which was to be so graciously hosted by Shailendra Diwan and his wife Gauri Diwan. They are really good hosts. In fact, they had volunteered to be hosts for the pre-meet dinner when we had not even fixed the date! 

                At noon, Girdharilal ji and I went to invite one of his friends formally for the meet. Chandrashekhar ji, who is in the 70s and retired as Special Deputy Commissioner from Govt service, was extremely enthusiastic and agreed to come the following day. He discussed many things with us animatedly and shared his tastes with us. He also recalled that when he was posted in Bijapur (in early 1980s, If I recall correctly), he had gone to see the house of Ameerbai Karnataki and met her daughter with family. When he met them they were happy but mentioned that they didn't have any of her songs. He had promised them that time he'd try to help them. Over next  two years, he says, he collected songs of Ameerbai from friends and acquaintances to finally collect some casettes of her songs which he presented to them. Even to this day, most of his collection is in casettes although now he has some CDs which he listens on his player with the help of his grandchildren! He also promised to get some of his like-minded friends to the event the following day. 

                After a quick lunch, Marwari style, we both went to the IAS Officers' Association guest house at infantry road where everyone was staying (after getting confused with the notorious one ways in the area a couple of times!). Came to know from the reception that Priya was in Room No 1 while Pavan & Arun Mudgal ji were in No 2. We thought of going unannounced up for a surprise and meet everyone. As sometimes happens, we were the ones to get surprised! Everyone had gone for a late lunch with Kalyan and Anup!! After a delay, they all got back and soon huge smiles were all around. Other than meeting my virtual friends Priya, Pavan and Arun Mudgal ji, I also met Vibhendu for the first time here. Time flew by in the chatting and back slapping. Vibhendu and Priya agreed to be the meet reporters as well on Kalyan's request. You've probably read their lovely reports by now.  News had come in of the arrival of Suresh Chandvankar ji, Harmandir ji and Nita as well. Guri would be joining it later at night. It was about time that we all started moving to  Shailendra's place. Yes, the meet had begun! 

                After traversing through Bangalore traffic we reached Shailendra's house which was already bustling with energy! Many guests had arrived and could be seen talking to each other. Priya had told me about her apprehensions about not knowing anybody, yet like many others, made instant friends as there were so many like minded people under the same roof. Shailendra and his wife were excellent hosts for this evening which many of us will remember for a long time. 

                 Naqsh sahab joined in a bit later which formally got the ball rolling. We welcomed him and It was thought appropriate to initiate the mandatory introductions.  The onus of introducing the group for those not familiar with the group fell on one of the oldest RMIMers (not in age ;)) Chetan Vinchhi (quite a few attendees were from other groups like SKS and some were families/invitees). Chetan recalled how the idea of floating the newsgroup was done (very nicely told. For some in the audience that's a google group today!) and how it's name came about. He also laughed about how the newsgroup has done so less of what it was supposed to do.    We're supposed to discuss Miscellaneous Indian Music but most of the time we just discuss Hindi Film Music! He also talked about how everyone felt the need for meeting face-to-face later and that's how the first RMIM meet happened. The tradition has of course happily continued. 

                  The introductions followed thereafter. These have been discussed already by Vibhendu and Priya so I won't delve much into
them. The introductions as always were a good way for everyone to know everybody else. There were some amusing introductions too.  Priya's introduction had some funny points as. When asked what was the first thing she noticed at the meet, She said, “I noticed that Nita doesn't have a nose ring!” (many of us must have seen her Facebook “picture”!) and that “Pavan is not as scary in real life” (many who maybe intimidating virtually aren't face-to-face!).  Shailendra had got a radio program on Naqsh Lyallpuri ji which was played for the audience. Naqsh sahab addressed us all and It was quite appreciated by everybody. He is such a humble person whose poetry has delighted generations. Dinner also started sometime between discussions and everyone enjoyed it thoroughly.

                  He also said that Manto had made a statement that “Jab koi punjabi urdu bolta hai to yun lagta hai jaise jhooth bol raha ho”. (when a Punjabi speaks urdu it feels like someone is swearing) He said, “Iska Mere Dil-o-dimaag par bahot asar hua aur maine apni urdu par bahot mehnat ki aur ek waqt aisa aaya ki log mumbai mein mujhe punjabi maanne ke liye taiyaar nahi the!” (This statement affected me a lot and I worked hard on my urdu. A day came in Mumbai when people were not ready to accept that I was a Punjabi). 

                   He also recalled that the times during partition were very difficult. Once He was returning home walking in the streets when a group of young men stopped him. He was worried that this maybe his last day. Finally, he told them who he was and luckily the group turned out to be of Hindus. They reprimanded him on roaming around alone in this manner in those times and left him home. The effect of the environment prevailing made the family to leave Lahore and come to Lucknow post-partition.

                   He wanted to do something and didn't want to be there.  He came to Mumbai without any money or ticket one day and was forced to take refuge in a Gurudwara for some days. He later took up a job in Department of Post & Telegraph to take care of expenses. His friend circle started increasing slowly and love towards poetry became even deeper. The routine nature of the job didn't appeal to him and he was to leave it later.            

                  I asked him about how he got his first opportunity for Jagga(1952). He told me that the producer had taken seven lyricists as apprentices for the movie and asked them to write for it. Finally work of four lyricists was taken for the movie. I inquired about his first song. As per  HFGK a song sung by Asha (Agar Teri Aankhon Se Aankhen Mila Doon) is supposed to be his first but he himself told about a cabaret number picturised on Kuldip Kaur, Main Teri Hoon Tu Mera Hai sung by Madhubala Zaveri as his first song. He told me, that we had all worked hard together and producer himself allocated individual song in the booklet to the four lyricists (the others being Bharat Vyas, Verma Malik and Asad Bhopali). The error in booklet is reason for the incorrect attribution. 

                  I asked him which of his songs is his favourite. He said that they are all his own children and are equal for him. Popularity of a song depends on many factors, how it was composed, what's the situation in the song, how publicity of the movie happened, how much it got noticed. Its also important that it be picturised on a beautiful face. Many times a very good song doesn't get its due or is affected by other factors. Some good songs got canned also for various reasons. 

                 Composer Vinod's daughter Veena ji had also come by then with her son Rakesh and I introduced them. He was very happy
to meet them and told that he loved his songs. He said his song, Galiyaanch Khedade Ne Nikke Balaan from Chaman(1948, Punjabi) is one of his favourites. He told that another song of which he's very fond of is Noorjehan's rendition of Diya Jalakar from Badi Maa(1944). 

                 Not many know that Naqsh Sahab is a very popular lyricist in Punjabi films. Being a Punjabi myself, obviously I was keen to ask about that. He said that he dabbled in Urdu poetry only. Sapan-Jagmohan whom he knew well had got offer for composing for a punjabi movie. The three lyricists popular at that time were Aziz Kashmiri, Sehraayi and Verma Malik. The composer duo however said that they wanted a lyricist whom they were comfortable with and proposed his name. Producer was surprised to hear his name  (In fact, a producer had refused to believe he was punjabi knowing his urdu skills, said he'd asked him eight punjabi questions to which he replied but still he refused to believe saying anyone could answer). Sapan-Jagmohan said they won't do the movie if producer doesn't agree to their choice of lyricist. They got him an advance of Rs 101 which was a big thing in those days for the songs.

                Naqsh sahab was low on confidence then and was having financial difficulties. He gave the advance to his wife and instructed her not to spend it, incase the money has to be returned. He was up all night and kept writing and re-writing. He wrote many mukhdas. Till the twelfth one he felt he was betraying his urdu sensibilities and felt only with the thirteenth that had the amount of Punjabiyat to satisfy him. Finally,He wrote mukhdas of 16 songs to Sapan-Jagmohan in the morning who were very happy with them. That's how he did this first movie, Jeejaji(1953) which became a superhit in Punjabi. He recalled that there used to be this weekly qawwali program on Radio Ceylon. His Qawwali written for Jeejaji was such a big hit, that in the otherwise Urdu program, this song was played for 12 straight weeks. After this, he got lots of movies in Punjabi and wrote for nearly 40 punjabi movies. 

              I talked of the punjabi movie Sapni(1963) for which he had written with Prem Dhawan and Verma Malik for composers Husanlal-Bhagatram. He remembered it clearly and told me that he had written two songs for it, Sun Sapni ae vish di and bin khamba de maardi udaari. I recalled that the former was the climax song with the heroine dancing around the nagin and he said, that was the one. I asked him how it was working with other lyricists, for example he seemed to have worked with verma malik on this one and others (including jagga). He said It was a comfortable relationship and he had co-written songs of nearly fifteen punjabi movies with Verma Malik!

            I asked him if he had any regrets in his career. He replied, “Jab main Mumbai aaya tha to maine rab se do hi cheezein maangi theen. Pehli, ki mujhe kisi ke darwaaze par paise ke liye khaDa mat karna aur doosra, meri kisi bhi jaayaz zuroorat ko rokna mat. Ooparwaale ne meri yeh donon maangen hamesha poori kareen aur mujhe kisi cheez ka gila-shikwa nahin hai.” (When I had come to Mumbai I had asked God for only two things. The first that I should not be made to stand at anyone's door for help or money and second, that all my legitimate needs be met. Both of these have been granted to me and I have no regrets in life).   He however did miss a more serious pursuit in literature due to his preoccupation with being a lyricist. 

           Chiranjeev Singh ji brought a nice treat for all of us as well. He had brought an audio cd containing Sajjad's mandolin recital which had been recorded by Pandit Bhimsen Joshi himself. Singh ji had got it from Pt Joshi's son in Pune. (It was recorded in 1969 at the Sawai Gandharv festival). When it was played many appreciated the mastery Sajjad had over the instrument. (will upload the full recording on Anmol Fankaar soon!). Singh ji recalled that they had called Sajjad twice to Bangalore for his recitals but unfortunately they were not recorded.
            Guri started the informal session beginning with “Yaad-e-mehbood iddhar aa” bringing all together in his usual style and half-terrorising
some of those unfamiliar with him! It led to a very nice session. Veena ji also sang some of her father's songs during this. Pavan also made
the session live with his singing.  Naqsh sahab was leaving for his hotel in between and some of us went to leave him. Although he was a bit tired but his mind was still active. He said, yaad ae mehboob song was by Raja Mehdi Ali Khan. He also told Shailendra Diwan, that he remembered lyricist Shailendra on hearing his name. Shailendra was a true lyricist who gave wonderful songs and was one of his personal favourites.
          The session continued till around 01:30 when almost everybody left. I sat with Shailendra to cut a couple of meet DVDs and it was nearly four am when I and Girdharilal ji left his place and five when we slept!

           When everyone was in, we started with the intros. Guri was the MC for this and told everyone to mention their favourite lyricist and why too along with the introductions. Quite a few people weren't there at the dinner and it was nice to meet them. Got to see Harmandir ji, Shri Surendra Madani (who runs websites on K.L. Saigal, Pankaj Mullick and K.C. Dey) and many others. It was nice to be introduced to some people of my age like Vikram Sampath (author of recently awarded book, My Name is Gauhar Jaan), Ajith Raman (a young record collector from Hyderabad), Mohit and Harshit Gupta. Most of all was happy to know that there are so many others affected by the same virus called Music! The meet reporters have talked in detail about the session and I won't delve into it.

            Naqsh sahab had come by then and we were ready to begin the much awaited session with him. I had prepared a presentation on him and his work (hindi and punjabi) which was presented to start the session. It included discussion on him, his life, his work for hindi, punjabi films and songs for serials. Naqsh sahab was also listening attentively. At end, he told me some corrections to it too! He also asked that Husanlal Bhagatram's name as his composers was not there. When I reminded about mentioning it when talking about Sapni he was happy. Overall, he was happy with it and we were ready to begin the interaction with him. The interaction with him was very lively and informative. He shared a lot of his experiences with us. Some of these were same as in my interaction above or are covered by the other reports. Naqsh sahab was very patient and answered all queries.
             He recounted how he was typecast as a punjabi film lyricist early in his career due to his success there and was not getting that much work in Hindi films. He was getting offers from small budget stunt films which he had been refusing. His wife told him that on one hand there were
people who were not getting work and on other hand he was getting work but he was refusing it. He saw the merit in the argument and then started
taking up small stunt film offers. Big films only started coming after the success of “Main to Har Mod Par Tujhko Doonga Sada” for the movie Chetna sung by Mukesh. He got an opportunity to work with many of the A-list composers after that. Earlier this was not happening due
to many reasons. Many composer-lyricists were signed as pairs by producers due to trend set by their popular songs. Some production houses
always worked with same lyricists as they had a rapport with them.

            He recalled that once he had complained to Roshan that he had forgotten him after working with him. Roshan immediately sang a Naqsh sahab song composed by him and said,”Its not as if I have forgotten you. I'd love to work with you but I am getting films with condition of Sahir as lyricist. I promise you that if you can get a producer who'll give us an opportunity to work together, I'll do it for half my current market price.” He remembered another incident related to Roshan. One of his unused Ghazals he wrote for Roshan went on to inspire a Kaifi Azmi song. Roshan was keen on Naqsh sahab but the producer wanted Kaifi. Roshan challenge Kaifi to better Naqsh sahab's effort. Kaifi retained the zameen of Naqsh sahab's effort to come up with 'Jhuki Jhuki Si Nazar Beqaraar Hai Ki Nahin'. Unfortunately due to Roshan's death it couldn't be recorded and was used in Arth years later.
            On being asked who were his favourite composers to work with, Naqsh sahab replied that He found working with those composers most conducive who had an understanding of languages and gave freedom. Its very important that the song be composed according to the meter of the song for it to sound good for example.Songs like Rasm-e-ulfat and Yeh Mulaqaat Ek Bahaana Hai could be recorded easily as they were already as per meter. Asha Bhosle once told him that she could tell whether the music was composed as per the meter by counting the beats in the song.  Films are a commercial medium with producers at the center of it. Many producers do not have an understanding of language and make all sorts of demands.

              One producer heard my love song, “Man Ke Darpan mein chehra Khila” and complained that the starting words “Man Ke Darpan” was more appropriate for a bhajan. I told him that I understood the choice of words better and this was suitable in the situation.  Another producer gave me a request to write a song similar to “Pardesiyon Se Na Ankhiyaan Milaana” which had been a big hit recently. He also told that every night he used to listen to it many times after his drinks post-dinner. Naqsh sahab told him that If you are asking me to copy a song atleast ask me to copy a good song. He also told him to listen to the song the same day as per regular practice, write it on a paper and try to read it in the morning. The
next day when we met for the recording the producer couldn't meet my eye. 

              Once a producer asked me to change the word chheenta in a song who's line was “qatl bhi kare, daaman pe chheenta bhi na aaye, mere qaatil ke andaaz niraale.” I told him to get a better word of similar wazan (weight) and fitting the situation, and then I would change it. 

           He remembered an interaction with Arzoo Lakhnavi in early 1950s and discussing about how Nakshab Jarachavi had lifted his writing in the qawwali “Aahen Na Bhareen Shikwe Na Kiye” for movie Zeenat(1945). Arzoo sahab had told him he didn't mind that his work was copied but minded that some lines were added/modified in an incorrect manner. He was particularly miffed with the line, “Is Dil Ko Pakad Kar Baith Gaye, Haathon Se Kaleja Tham Liya”. Arzoo sahab  commented. “jab dil ko pakad kar baithe hain to kaleja kis cheez se thaam liya?” (If the hands are holding the heart, with what is the liver held!”

            He also told that during recording of songs for Taj Mahal with Naushad, he had written Mumtaz Tujhe Dekha where the producer (Akbar Khan) wanted the fifth paragraph and first paragraph to be interchanged as the fifth one was really good. Naqsh sahab told him that it is not possible. The song has been written as a story. Initially the story is built and the climax comes in the fifth paragraph. How can it simply be exchanged as it will spoil things. Finally, he had to leave the movie after doing just two songs. 

            Everybody wanted to ask him about his association with Jaidev. Naqsh sahab said that Jaidev was a fakir who lived for music and would get lost in it. He had an ear for poetry and had composed English songs as well as poems from Hindi literature. He took up whatever work came his way. Once he had met Dev Anand somewhere and Dev commented that he had had great plans for him but he had gone for slower films. Jaidev told him that he had to take up what work came to him and Dev was not there when he needed him most. Jaidev always worked for his art.

            He also always insisted on being paid in white (unlike some other composers) and never took a single paisa in black money. Many times producers would not pay him for the work also. Jaidev was dropped from serial Ramayana after recording the title song. He used to go all the way from Churchgate to Juhu scheme for Ramayana's sessions in a taxi and was not paid a single paisa for the work.

           Jaidev had recorded all four songs of Gaman for Muzaffar Ali in one day and had not been paid for it. When he asked him, Muzaffar Ali asked him to compose Umrao Jaan for him. Seeing the budget constraints it was decided to give chance to an upcoming singer (ghazal singer Madhurani). Jaidev heard her singing and composed tunes keeping her voice in mind. He had made a total of eight tunes for it. The producer then started saying that he wanted one song to be sung by Asha Bhosle. Jaidev told him that if they contacted Asha, she would naturally ask for which character the song was for. We can't tell that only one song is for you and other songs of the character are by another singer. Besides I have made the compositions keeping Madhurani in mind and it wouldn't be fair to her. The argument escalated to an extent that Jaidev had to leave the movie. No songs were recorded although the tunes were ready and Jaidev lost money for that work also.

         Jaidev had sent twenty tunes to Raj Kapoor for consideration also and nothing was heard of those as well. There were many such cases.  Naqsh sahab recalled that many of his own songs had got canned because the films got shelved. Sometimes it also happened that the producers ran away. He remembered that once Rafi sahab had sung two song for a producer who had run away without paying anybody! Not even the lab where the recording was done was paid. The recordist had those two songs for a long time and he passed away recently. He know many such producers who had recorded such songs but it would be difficult to get them now. He said he was very happy when a madan mohan composed unreleased song had come out recently.

          He said the rights of lyricists were not very respected earlier. Lots of work went to waste due to various reasons. The producer had the rights to all the songs whether they were released or not. No royalty also came to them. Only the producer used to get it (and some composers, Sahir and Lata could demand a share for themselves) while we just got the fee for the song. He has been president of IPRS (Indian Performing Rights Association) and now the rule is that if a producer does not release a song for a year, the rights will come back to the lyricist. More needs to be done to give more rights to the lyricists. Naqsh sahab has worked extensively with Indian Performing Rights Society(IPRS) which is working to correct the situation. They are demanding compensation for use of music being played in live events, hotels, fashion shows etc and part of the proceeds go to the creators. I get an annual cheque of one to two lakh rupees from IPRS. A more prolific lyricist like Anand Bakshi's heirs would be getting much more. He said that producer is also deserving since he takes financial risk with the film which is ultimately a commercial venture.         

          Many things that happen are due to nature of the industry.  He remembered that once Bappi Lahiri had called him for a song. The onus of called Rafi sahab for the song fell on Naqsh sahab as Bappi and Rafi sahab were not on talking terms. Bappi had got a song recorded by Kishore for a Sippi film to be picturised on Dharmendra who had refused to shoot it. Rafi sahab was then called to re-record the song. The incident had snowballed into a situation where Rafi sahab was wary of recording for Bappi. On Naqsh ji's insistence Rafi sahab came for the song which had come out well. The film was a small producer.  A bigger producer (Tahir Hussain) wanted to get that song and offered a bigger price which was tempting for Bappi. He came to Naqsh sahab for the proposal. Naqsh sahab told him that it would not be fair to the producer because of whom the song had happened and to decline the offer. 

           Remembering Jaidev further he said that he often used to go and meet him at his Churchgate house. In some of these meetings songs came out. He remembered that Tumhen Ho Na Ho Mujhko To Itna Yakeen Hai for Gharonda had come out in one such visit. Runa Laila
was in Mumbai that time and she loved the song too. That's how it got recorded. A Parveen Sultana non-film song had also happened similarly. He
had challenged me to write a ghazal with sabab as a qafiya. He never shied from challenges like some composers. Parveen sultana liked the song
a lot and it got recorded. Since he didn't have an appropriate film for the song it got released as a private song.

          Inspite of working with limited budget, Jaidev always tried to give the best music. Slots in recording studios were often limited. He remembered that Jaidev had recorded Yeh Dil Aur Unki Nigaahon Ke Saaye in a single take for movie Prem Parbat. The number of Musicians for the song were only five. The musicians were all masters of their art and included Hari Prasad Chaurasiya and Shiv Sharma who had no chance of forgetting their parts helped a lot.
          He also mentioned that at Jaidev's funeral, he had met Tushar Bhatia who was a fan of Jaidev. Tushar had helped Naqsh sahab get some song CDs with Jaidev's music. Many people have been nice to me in the industry. I have worked with 140+ composers in Hindi and Punjabi. I still remember that Rafi and Asha had sung songs of Jeejaji for a paltry hundred rupees per song for my sake. I have done 74 songs with Khaiyyam, second only to Sapan-Jagmohan. Sapan Jagmohan were great composers but didn't have good business sense. They also had their families to run. Usha Khanna and Sonik Omi who were their contemporaries made several attempts to make me work with them but I knew they wanted to break our team and it would have hurt Sapan-Jagmohan. Hence, I turned down their offers. 

          On being asked about recording for Sapni he recalled that Pandit Husanlal had come from Delhi for it. Husanlal-Bhagatram had recorded all the songs within a week. He remembered that Pandit Husanlal had enthused them with his singing (he was a wonderful singer) and also played the violin for all present there.    

          He was also asked about the practice of writing tunes to lyrics and writing lyrics according to the tune. Naqsh sahab said that both are prevalent. In his opinion lyricist should have some freedom to choose the lyrics. In the case of dance numbers it makes sense to have a tune first and then the lyrics as foot tapping is what it aims for. In other cases, where something has to be conveyed it is better to go for lyrics being made first. Sometimes it is unavoidable and tunes have to be made first. For example once Dattaram had been given a Punjabi movie to compose. He mentioned his total ignorance of the language and its nuances. He suggested that he would compose the tunes and then lyrics be written for them (which was what was done and the movie's songs were quite successful). 

           He was also asked if he would recommend someone to leave job to pursue passions. Naqsh sahab he said he wouldn't recommend it as family responsibilities are also important and it can be quite risky. He recalled case of a Bank Manager friend from Hisaar who had come to Mumbai to be a lyricist with the same dilemma. He had written two songs for a film which had been appreciated a lot by the producers. He was ontemplating leaving his job in a bank and come full time to Mumbai. He used to take my advice on poetry and consulted me about this too. Naqsh sahab convinced him to do otherwise. Later his friend was very greatful for the advice because the movie for which the two songs were written got canned. If his friend had not followed his advice, he would have been in a soup! In his words, “Shauq zindagi pe qurbaan kiya ja sakta hai, zindagi shauq par qurbaan karna akalmandi nahin.”

          He lamented that sometimes commercial reasons have affected popularity of some of the songs. He remembered that music of Dil Ki Raahen was quite popular. Actor Sachin had taken my copy (autographed by Madan Mohan himself) but never returned it. I contacted Rhythm House but they said that the records of it were not available. When he contacted HMV they curtly told him that the record had been cancelled. I had a big argument with them that they had no business cancelling the record without informing the producer. Producer was losing money and the public also was not happy. He called up Lata Mangeshkar and apprised her of the situation. She said that it was Saturday and HMV office would be closed tomorrow. She would take up the case on Monday. He doesn't know what they discussed but within a week he had got a call from HMV office that the records were ready and he could have as many as he wanted. Rhythm House had told him that often the records available for many hit movies were just 25-30% of the demand. This happened regularly for the smaller producers who did not have much influence. We were all sorry to hear about the manner in which the music business is managed by some managers who don't understand music. 

           He was asked about the current trend of music. He said that there had always been good songs and bad songs. Even in the so called golden period there were substandard and inappropriate lyrics taking name of “Ek Raat Ko Pakde Gaye Donon” from Nazraana as an example. He however felt that the number of bad songs these days is much higher for which something needs to be done. Some good work comes now and then which makes him hope that this is a passing phase.

          There are many new lyricists who don't have much understanding of the language, write something (often under western influence). The lyrics maybe sub-standard yet the songs become hit and the vicious cycle continues. He said he was apalled to see a lyricist once write a song in the recording studio when song was to be recorded. In their time a lyricist gave time to the song to improve it, changing words etc. In today's fast food mentality obviously the quality has taken a solid beating. It is partly due to blind aping of western culture which has made our traditional melody a casualty. Sadly most of the good lyricists of the past are no longer around. Sadly some of the older ones still there due to perhaps commercial reasons or requests from producers or reasons best known to them have also succumbed to that. It feels sad to hear stuff like Beedi Jalaile from them.

         Sometimes we see mistakes from established lyricists too. For example, “O Basanti Pawan Pagal” has two adjectives qualifying pawan and by thenext line the pawan is forgotten and “Na Ja Re Na Ja Roko Koi” is addressed to the world at large. They should try to help things. The technology available has also caused its own set of problems. Singing has been reduced to shouting and screaming with over-emphasis on technical wizardry rather than perfecting art. He remembered a recordist telling a singer, “Expression poora dena. Thodi besuri bhi ho jaao to koi baat nahi. Main software mein sudhaar loonga” (Sing the song with expression. If you go out of tune a bit also don't worry. I can fix that in software.). Such a thought would have been blasphemous in our time. We all used to work hard on every aspect of the song, do umpteen number of rehearsals and then only go for recordings. The quality of work showed in the songs. He said those wanting to listen to good songs are still there. Sometime back he had been invited to Nagpur for a program on Madan Mohan's songs (perhaps because I am probably the only lyricist alive to have worked with him). Twenty eight songs of his were played over several hours and the audience sat glued throughout. He said demand for good songs is still there and he hoped things would improve for the better.
                   On a query about his literary works he said that he had written two books. The first one is called “Teri Gali Ki Or” (which is bilingual
hindi-urdu) and the second is “Angan Angan Wasde Geet” (which is in Urdu). He had brought a few copies which he shared with those present. Getting autographed books from him was nice and am sure nobody would like to share their treasured copies!  Naqsh sahab continues to
work today also. He told us that one album is coming up soon and some more films are in the pipeline.  We had a small singing session with Naqsh sahab. First, Sushmita Kolachala (Kalyan's wife) sang Aap Ki Baaten Kahen Ya Aapka Afsana Kahen. Mrs Gauri Diwan sang Tumhen Ho Na Ho Mujhko To Itna Yakeen Hai from Gharonda. He heard them attentively, appreciated their singing (which was really sweet and lovely)and also gently told some corrections!

                 We had a felicitation for him and by then it was time for him to catch his flight. We all wished him the best for the future and thanked him profusely for the fabulous interaction with him. Am really thankful to his family for making it possible and especially to his grandson Rishi for accompanying him here. The interaction will be a cherished memory for long. 

                 On the sidelines, during lunch I talked to Harmandir ji and told him I wanted to have a series, “Geet Kosh Ki Raah Par” on anmolfankaar.com in which he can share his experiences during making of the Geet Kosh. He agreed immediately. I hope to start that soon. He said its a work in progress with lots of corrections which will be put in the digitisation effort. He is currently working on his book on composers. He had recalled during the introductions that in late 1980s he had received a register from composer V Balsara containing song listings singer wise. Balsara told him that this was one job he wanted to do before he died. I am sure we'll get to read many such anecdotes once the series begins.        

                 Next event on the agenda was the telecon with singer Meena Kapoor ji. Due to her schedule we had limited time with her. Chiranjeev ji called her for us. He conveyed our regards to her and initiated conversation with her. He told her about how she had sung with all the major composers. She said that She started singing at an early age and worked with almost everybody. Unfortunately after marriage with Anilda her work reduced as Dada was very possessive about her and other composers knew this. So her marriage affected her singing career which was doing very well till then. Chiranjeev ji questioned why wouldn't he be possessive when he had such a diamond at home!  He also asked about her singing only the film versions of Anokha Pyar(1948). She told that It is true that at the time of recording of the record versions she was away on her annual holiday in Assam. Also, Dada wanted to help Lata monetarily and that's why he got the songs on records recorded by her. 

               Time was less and we had a connection issue. When we re-connected Chiranjeev ji gave the phone to me. I asked her about which was her first song. It is widely believed that it was for Eight Days(1946) but I had read an interview of hers referring to Pul(1947) being the first recorded one (Both film records have nearby numbers also!). She told that She was very young at the time and her father was surprised to get the offers. They were all for young heroines and both offers had come at the same time. The recordings were also done within days and Pul happened to be recorded first. 

             I asked her about working for Ninu Mazumdar. She has done a number of movies with him like Pul(1947), Jail Yatra(1947), Gopinath(1948), Kuchh Naya(1948) and Raaj Ratan(1953). She has also done a couple of non-film Gujrati songs for him. She said yes, she has worked extensively with him and enjoyed it. I asked her to confirm if she sang for him in Gudiya(1948). Geet Kosh doesn't have the singer credits for it and she confirmed that she sang for it (probably two songs).
              I reminded her about being the only singer of her generation to have sung for and with K.C. Dey in Door Chalen(1946). She said she had sung two duets with him and sung a solo for him in that movie. She was very young at the time and was really in awe of the great singer at the time.
              I told her that we've heard she sang for Ustad Allah Rakha in Gaibi Talwar(1949) (again no singer details available). She confirmed that She had sung for that movie and it was a good experience. 

              I asked her to confirm if she has sung a song for the punjabi movie Lara Lappa(1953) for Dhaniram (along with Shamshad ji and others). She said She has not sung for it or any song in Punjabi for that matter. 

              I was then reminded that She has sung most of her Gujrati songs for composer Ajit Merchant who passed away recently. She said yes, most of the gujrati film songs were with Ajit Merchant. She recalled that those movies were Kariyavaar(1948) (for which she also sang duets with him), Diwadandi(1950) and Lagna Mandap(1950). On being asked if she ever sang for him in Hindi, She said that She had not.    There were many other questions which we wished to ask her but we had to end here as She had to leave. It was really nice to talk to her inspite of the technical difficulties and short time. Chetan also observed that her voice continues to be quite youthful even at this age. Hamraaz ji mentioned that it was the case with many of the yesteryear singers. For example, Lata's voice. He also noted that her voice in real life sounds even more thinner than as heard in her songs. 

              Shankar Iyer introduced everyone to work of Swar Alaap and also showcased the book recently released by his groups. Many appreciated the work and Shankar got more requests than the copies of the book with him! 

             Another treat for the music lovers was awaiting in the form of an absolutely wonderful collection sent as gift by Jyoti Prakas Guha ji all the way from Kolkata. He had sent as many as 14 copies of a compendium of Kanan Devi's songs which was recently released by the Megaphone company. It has four DVDs with all her songs in wonderful quality. As per request of Guha ji, It was given away to music lovers who were interested in her songs. Its a really wonderful collection for those interested in Vintage Music and is a treasure of value much beyond its nominal cost (Rs 650). We are all thankful to Guha ji for this extremely kind gesture. Those who haven't got a copy, do please get one from a distributor of Megaphone or through a music store. It is really nice that companies are coming out with collections like these. Hope they'll come out with such collections of many such great artists more often. I could really use good quality collector's editions of Rajkumari, Ameerbai, G.M. Durrani or K.L. Saigal! 

            The next event was the much awaited interaction with composer Vinod's family. His daughter Veena Solomon was accompanied by her son Rakesh, his wife Sujata and their two daughters (Vinod's great-granddaughters!). Suresh Chandvankar ji had made a lovely presentation on Vinod which he started. He expressed delight to have seen the Young India records of his punjabi non-films which had been shared by the family recently. He said he had seen many records of the company and this was the first time he came across a Punjabi record released by the company. This record was not even heard of till now with no mention in any indexes. He also pointed out that the record was credited to E.R. Vinod (Eric Roberts being his real name which was given tribute here. All  records of his movies do not have these initials of Vinod). I pointed out that Naseem Akhtar has sung a number of songs in the period and the male singer Bhushan's name finds mention on various version records in the 40s and 50s although he doesn't seem to have got any major film songs for some reason inspite of having been in the field for a long time. Suresh ji talked about the composer's background (probably the only Punjabi Christian composer as compared to the more common Goanese ones at the time), his family and films. He talked about his breakthrough punjabi movie Chaman and played a song sung by Pushpa Chopra ji for the same. Clip of Vinod directing the orchestra in Dilli Se Aaya Bhai Tingu delighted the audience as did the video of Lara Lappa from the same movie Ek Thi Ladki. 

            To showcase some of his lesser heard but beautiful songs I took over the session to play some. The song played first was the very rare song “Navik Yeh Tera” sung by Vinod himself and supposed to be his first song. Veena ji confirmed that this was his first record and mentioned that he was merely 17 at the time of its recording. He was not only the singer but also the composer for this song. Going by her information this would have been early 40s.

          Veena ji also shared that Vinod was actually from Delhi where he used to go to learn from some Ustaads. Later Vinod moved to Lahore in pursuit of music where he came under the tutelage of Pandit Amarnath after which Vinod never looked back. 

          The second song played was “Hello Hello Pyar Karna Ho To Yaaron Karlo” from Taara(1949) sung so lovingly by Rajkumari ji with Satish Batra. Mention was made about the innocence and warmth in the song with special attention to the tenderness shared in it. It was also pointed out about Satish Batra trying to make it in Mumbai at that time and how the various fellow Lahoris helped each other. Veena ji was very happy to talk about various aspects. She mentioned that it was producer Roop K Sheory who had named him Vinod after his witty (“Vinodi”) nature. She also recalled that he had pairing with lyricist Aziz Kashmiri who was also part of the same team.    

          Next song was from his punjabi movie Bhaiyyaji sung by Rafi called “Mainu Mereya Dukhan Ne Ghereya” whose tune is eerily similar to the famous O.P. Nayyar song, Uden Jab Jab Zulfen Teri from Naya Daur also sung by Rafi. I said it was a good inspiration. Guri and I agreed that there maybe some boli which may have been the common source. I however felt that, till we come across one we can assume that O.P. Nayyar was inspired by the same. I also recalled the song, Barkha Ki Raat Mein Hey Ho Ha from movie Sardar (1955), composed by Jagmohan Sursagar is similar to a punjabi duet Waheed Dehwar once played for me on HF radio called Nikka Mota Bajra Hey Ho Ha. (waheed or others can you please share details and the song please?). This discussion went on for a while and I announced next song “Hum to Love Kar Ke Pachhtaya” many times before it actually happened after Guri felt I had probably had enough “pachhtawa”. This song Hum To Love Kar Ke Pachhtaya from movie Titli is a really beautiful one sung by singer Minal Wagh (which I had first heard when Jayaraman ji shared on Diwali in 2008). I pointed out the huge number of english words in the song and how Vinod loved mixing languages. He had even done a hindi song in Punjabi and punjabi song in Hindi! Veena ji recalls seeing Meenal ji and remembers her as a very pretty fair Maharashtrian lady. Unfortunately, a picture of Meenal ji and other details doesn't seem to be available with anyone. Hope it'll surface some day like some other rare treasures too! 

         The final song was Tujhe Dil De Diya Hai Seene Se Nikaal Ke, a real fun duet of Shamshad ji and Tirlok Kapoor for movie Saloni. I pointed out that it was the only song of Vinod in this movie which had other songs by Basant Prakash. I also mentioned that Shamshad ji and Vinod's combination is really nice which should be discussed more. Shailendra mentioned that Gandhar credits three lata songs of the movie Lahore (Toote Hue Armaanon Ki Ek Duniya Basaayen ... Baithi Hoon Teri Yaad Ko Seene Se Lagaaye, Ek Aas Bandhaaye Jaati Hai ... Ummeed Ki Range Jhoole Mein and Us Dil Ki Kismat Kya Kahiye Jis Dil Ka Sahara Koi Nahi) to Vinod. Geet Kosh doesn't have this detail. Hamraaz ji said that he had got the HMV catalogue with recording details after release of Geet Kosh (which he shall use to update the next volume) may give this detail about who had recorded the song (Vinod or Shyam Sunder). He said he will refer it and confirm. (Later found that all but two are mentioned in the catalogue as recorded by Vinod. However, the lyricist Rajendra Krishan has said that all songs were by Shyam Sundar in an interview. Probably, Vinod was helping out a sick Shyam Sundar, who was a friend of his with the recording). Veena ji said that the song Us Dil Ki Kismat Kya Kahiye is a favourite of her daughter Jacqueline and She'll be very happy to know if its confirmed to be her grandfather's! 

          The discussion with the Vinod family was in full flow and we got to know lots of rare information from them. Veena ji said Shyam Sunder was a good friend of her father. She remembers going to meet him when he was really ill with her father. She mentioned that Vinod had died of Septicemia caused by removing his nose hair while shaving. He had died on Christmas day. She still remembers that he had insisted they visit him that fateful day in morning in their Christmas finery. He looked at them silently and just drifted away. Veena ji was merely 12 at the time while her sister Veera was nearly 9. She said that some articles mistakenly mention that they were poor when he died. She says they had their own house and although they weren't rich but they had a comfortable lifestyle. In fact, Vinod had atleast two movies in hand when he passed away. The family faced lots of financial difficulty later and Veena ji got married to her Husband Newton Solomon at a very young age. He also unfortunately passed away at the young age of 30 leaving her with four kids who by God's grace are all well settled today. It was extremely heart wrenching to hear her talk about the extreme struggles the family went through. I'm glad the bad days are far behind and pray that they'll remain just there. 

          She remembered the recording of Meri Ulfat Soyi Hai Yahaan for movie Oot Pataang. She said Lata ji had difficulty singing the complex tune the first time and the recording was then done the following day after some rest. She said that her father used to make her sing some of his tunes when they were in preparation and make her sing them to producers once they were finalised. However he was a  traditional man who would send her away after the rendition. As a result, rest of the family was kept shielded from the film world. This was the reason why, after his passing away, many didn't know the whereabouts of the family for long. She remembers however that Vinod's respect among his colleagues was immense which continued after his passing away also. The Composers association had helped them get his pending fees from producers. She remembers monthly installments of Rs 25 used to come for some time.

          She also recalls that Mohd Rafi sahab who was close to Vinod used to stop his car for her mother and give her a lift when he saw her. She also recalled once her sister Veera meeting Asha Bhosle in a clinic who was very happy to meet her, asked her about the family and even sang a Lata song from Anmol Rattan for them. (Many may recall Asha was his main singer for many of his movies). She also remembers Sudha Malhotra, Sahir Ludhianvi, Aziz Kashmiri, Roop K Sheory, Asha Bhosle, D.N. Madhok and and many others coming to their house. She also mentioned that her mother Sheela was a superb cook whose cooking was famous in the film fraternity. Many times Vinod's dibba when sent to the studio would get finished before it reached him thanks to friends of Vinod's at the studio like P.L. Santoshi! 

         Veena ji recalled how She and her sister Veera had acted in the movie Makheechoos, one of the movies composed by Vinod. She remembers a song in the movie Le Lo Le Lo where she begs for alms and no one gives her any. When she returns home her father in the movie hits her. During the shooting, the artist who was playing her father accidentally hit her too hard and She started crying. Her father when he heard of it was extremely angry and severely reprimanded the actor who was shivering! She sang some of his songs and everyone commended that she had a lovely voice. She said She had sung in some chorus songs for Bappi Lahiri but never really tried to get into playback as She had a full family to support. 

          Her son, Rakesh (Vinod ji's grandson) told us that the family still retains the Baaja of Vinod. They said its in need for repair and a specialist manual tuner is required for it. It is a big winding type of instrument. He also told us that Vinod was a smoker but one who'd often get lost in his work. He'd be playing the harmonium while smoking and sometimes get lost in it forgetting about the cigarette burning his hand. His hand had become black permanently in one spot as this used to happen frequently! Rakesh also has a good voice and sang his grandfather's sung non-film Ghazal Saamne Aa Gaya Koi for us.
         In fact, it seems the whole family has singing voices! Towards the end of the session, Rakesh's two daughters (Vinod's great-grand-daughters!) sang brilliantly Lara Lappa for all of us. Everyone enthusiastically joined in, such is that magic of Vinod that more than five decades after their recording, they still continue to charm us.

         Next day's programme was in the same building on the first floor. The first session was a presentation by Suresh Chandvankar ji titled “Fate and Future of of Private Collections of Gramophone Records.” He started with the mention of Gramophone Records and early recordings, highlighting cover of an old dadra record, “Humse Na Bolo” by Peara Saheb which was of British Make. He then showed some lovely pictures relating to records. The first one showed the classic HMV picture of a dog and the gramophone. He told this was the situation in the beginning of the century. The second picture from the New Yorker magazine showed some dogs in a boardroom listening to a record and probably deciding what to do with them. The third and final picture showed a dog sleigh with gramophone records, a gramophone and an old radio being towed away. He said that with time gramophones and their records were no longer ubiquitous.

        Work of many old artists was in the form of records and are part of our heritage. Technology has changed and music has gone from audio tapes to CDs and the net now. Many maybe lost and many others lie in private collections.  He asked us to estimate how many records may have been issued? He told us that there have been nearly 35000 Indian films (Hindi and regional). If we assume an estimate of 8 or 10 songs we would have 350000 songs. There maybe approximately 50000 non-film music songs. These were originally stored on 78 rpm records or EP/LP records. Some have been reissued on audio tapes/compact disks. The total number of records must be atleast one lakh. He made us wonder what is left today and who cares?  He then showed pictures of V.A.K. Ranga Rao with his records, another collection and a picture of a record shop from the Chor Bazaar of Mumbai! He then showed pictures of some record collectors like Narayan Mulani, Prabhakar Datar and himself with their records. He said the worries of a typical record collector at the end of his life are:-
1. What worth is my collection? 

2. What will happen to my collection?    

3. What should I do with my collection? 

He showed some Broadcast Record covers with extremely rare pictures of artists who sang for them on their covers like Jaddanbai, Kashibai and Kesarbai Kerkar.  He said that there were many record celebrities like Gauhar Jan and Gandhari (Gangubai) Hangal too. He told us that there have been books exclusively on records like The 78 rpm Records of India by Michael Kinnear and his biography of Khan Abdul Karim Khan. He also showed covers of some record catalogues also dating circa 1935. He also highlighted some nice calender art.
He then told us about the Record News magazine and how it began. He also showed us the video on SIRC which was telecast in the 1990s on the
famous Surbhi program on DD and another done by the E TV Marathi channel! He expressed happiness that LP culture was being revived in 2011 with LP of Dil to Pagal Hai and Pakeezah Rang Birang which have become collector's items. He showed an interesting record electronic equipment to keep six records which he found on the net sometime back! 

He then said he had brought some surprises for us and they certainly were! He showed pictures of two test records which had been handwritten with a mention of being from Guru Dutt films! Chandvankar ji told us that the company's manager had sent a box of records in early 1990s from their godown as they had heard about SIRC work. He opened it to find many like those of Kagaz Ke Phool. He found a white test record in it whose content also he had brought for us. When everyone saw that the record cover scan had “Gouri (Bengali)” written on it they were overjoyed. We all know that this shelved movie had Geeta ji as the lead actress.    Suresh ji asked us to listen and guess who the singers were. The first song Jaani Bhromora Keno and everyone got lost into the amazing voice of Geeta Dutt. We were amazed to hear the original which inspired the Burmanda non-film and the Lata version of the tune later. Many bright eyes were seen with many saying this was the best version! Not surprisingly, the title of the slide was “Gems from thrown away Test Records”! 

The second song from the film was played which was Ustadi Taar Kilona. Suresh ji asked to guess if it was one male voice or two? Kishore was heard definitely and some wondered if it was kishore doing two voices. I had a feeling that a young Pancham was also heard. Later it was confirmed that it was indeed a duet of Kishore and Pancham!  Everyone was enthralled to hear these two rarest of rare songs and thanked Suresh ji for sharing these with us at the meet!  Suresh ji said that he had another surprise, a song whose lyricist was Gandhiji himself! He then told us the story behind it. Sardar Patel's daughter Maniben had once written a postcard to Bapu with a few questions on God.

They were:-
1. ईश्वर  का निवास कहाँ है? 

2. ईश्वर कैसे दिखते हैं? 

3. ईश्वर को किधर खोजें? 

4. ईश्वर से क्या पूछें?    

5. ईश्वर से क्या माँगें?
Gandhi ji had then replied very lovingly in the form of a prayer to God. His reply is as follows:-

हे नम्रता के सम्राट,
दीन भंगी की हीन कुटिया के निवासी गंगा यमुना और गोदावरी
के जलों से सिंचित इस सुंदर देश में तुझे सब जगह खोजने में
हमें मदद दें हमें ग्रहणशीलता और खुला दिल दे तेरी नम्रता दे
भारत की जनता से एकरूप होने की शक्ति और उत्कंठा दे हे भगवन तू
तभी मदद के लिए आता है जब मनुष्य शून्य बनकर तेरी शरण लेता है
हमें वरदान दें कि सेवक और मित्र के नाते इस जनता की हम सेवा
करना चाहते हैं उससे कभी अलग ना पड़ जाएँ हमें त्याग भक्ति
और नम्रता की मूर्ती बना ताकि इस देश को हम ज़्यादा समझे और
ज़्यादा चाहें हमें वरदान दें हे भगवन
This beautiful postcard had been with Maniben for a long time. When in 1969, the Maharashtra government wanted to take out a special record on Gandhi ji's birth centenary, this letter was chosen to be recorded as a song! The onus of composing this song fell on Vasant Desai who was working with this company at that time. He chose Manna Dey to sing the song and that's how a historic record of a song whose lyricist was Gandhi ji was made! The limited edition record must have been issued and given to people on the occasion. Many probably ended up in the corner of some godown.    

Many years later, once, when Suresh ji was visiting Chor Bazaar his eyes fell on this stack of white covered records. He was surprised to see these lying there and he asked the vendor how much they'd cost? He said they would cost Rs 10 if he bought one, but he'd charge just 50 paise if he bought all of them. They were nearly 150 of them and Suresh ji promptly bought them immediately! Its sad that treasures like these end up at the raddiwala but Suresh ji rescued them to share with friends. (He told us that one of his friend's wife called him a Recordiya since he collected huge quantity of Records!). He also got in touch with the Manna Dey foundation about the rare finding. When Manna Dey was made to hear the record over the phone, his eyes filled with tears of joy. He hadn't heard the song since it was recorded and ecstatic to have heard it after all this time!    

As expected,  Suresh ji got a standing ovation for the brilliant presentation and the rarest of rare gems shared. They ended up on Anmol Fankaar of course, within half an hour here! 

Nita enquired about the fee for becoming a member of the SIRC and was told it was Rs 10000 (lifetime). 

This lovely session was followed by a panel discussion on records. The panel consisted of Suresh ji, Girdharilal Vishwakarma ji and Harmandir Singh 'Hamraaz'.  He told us about an upcoming conference on copyright in 2012 (whose details are available here) which will discuss many important issues. He asked all to give suggestions for the same. He said, Its important that the general public should get some right to old works so that better archival can be done. Suresh ji lamented that archiving was not done in India as much as America. He said that private collections need to be consolidated together by an institution, a university, music department or perhaps a National Sound Archive. He said that private collections are not archives and collectors are not archivists. Collectors and archivists together can play an important role in presentation, documentation, dissemination of the music and the information inscribed in the grooves of old gramophone records. 

Next, Harmandir ji talked about work on the Geet Kosh and the book on composers which is on the way. He said he had been asked by some people for the Volume 6 and 7 of the Geet Kosh too. He said he was retiring from his bank job and would be able to devote more time to his documentation effort (which he called dead documentation as compared to live documentation by Girdharilal ji's digitisation efforts. Everyone of course objected to his calling his own work as dead documentation!). Everyone urged him to give high priority to digitising the existing volumes of Geet Kosh before going for newer volumes. He said he had received lots of updated information to them and would include it when it got digitised. Guri volunteered to finance the digitisation effort. The discussion expanded and a debate on what should be the framework which should be used for it started. Many including Nita, Chetan, me and Pavan volunteered to help in the task. It was decided that further discussions on how to go about the framework should be carried out in the group (which we should do now. The earlier we come up with the framework, faster will be the digitisation. All will benefit once its digitised as updating will be easier and better). Nita felt that it may take about a year to make a framework.
Lunch followed this panel discussion. Some who had to catch flights left.

Lunch was followed by a presentation by Suresh Chandvankar ji on composer Roshan.This presentation is a part of his series called Kimayagar. Suresh ji explained that a Kimayagar is one who converts metal into gold. There are no known kimayagars who can actually do that but composers would definitely qualify as kimayagars since they have made lots of gold of a different kind!  He told us that there have been 20000+ hindi films produced till date and over 150000 songs composed by over 1700 composers. Of these only 40 have composed for more than 50 movies. Some names out of these are Lakshmikant Pyarelal (500), R.D. Burman(292), Shankar Jaikishan(173). Vasant Desai and A.R. Rehman have done 49 movies as per his statistic. There are of course others but he was of course giving examples. Others mentioned other composers in the discussion that ensued.
He then took up the kimayagar under discussion, Roshanlal Nagrath. He said that not many in today's generation are familiar with him though they
are with his sons and grandson. He recalled a function in which Hrithik Roshan where the compere asked the audience what was the significance of
the surname “Nagrath”. The audience was wondering when Hrithik enthusiastically got up and said it was their family surname! The surname has
come from the name of Roshan of course. Suresh ji mentioned that it is probably the only case of a composer's family taking up his name. There
are of course examples for lyricists and singer's family taking up their names (like in case of Mukesh) or their pen names (in case of Gulzar and
Naqsh Lyallpuri ji).  He told us that Roshan was born on 14 July 1917 in Gujranwala (now in Pakistan). He passed away on 6th November 1967 after
having composed for 53 movies.

His career which had begun with Neki Aur Badi in 1949 had its last film in the form of movie Anokhi Raat(1968). He told that the number of songs composed by Roshan is approximately 425. He then showed a number of pictures of Roshan in different moods including one with his wife Ira Nagrath (whom he told was a bengali Roshan met in Lucknow and married). He told us that in initial days when both came to Mumbai they even had to stay in a garage and times were tough.  He then discussed the filmography of Roshan. He divided his work in two phases. The first phase was from 1949-1959 in which he did 32 movies out of which only 6 were popular (Bawre Nain, Malhar, Anhonee, Naubahaar, Raag Rang and Aji Bas Shukriya). He did some movies like CID Girl, Warrant, Commercial Pilot Officer and Coffee House which are not that well known. The second phase from 1960 to 1967 had lesser number of movies (21) but more (13) were popular (Barsaat Ki Raat, Aarti, Vallah Kya Baat Hai, Dil Hi To Hai, Taj Mahal, Chitralekha, Bheegi Raat, Nai Umar Ki Nayi Fasal, Dadi Ma, Devar, Mamta, Bahu Begum, Noorjehan and of course, Anokhi Raat). 

              During his career, he had given important breaks to Indeevar and Anand Bakshi. He had worked with many other lyricists including Kidar Sharma, Sahir Ludhianvi, Kaifi Azmi, Shailendra, Shakeel Badayuni, Neeraj, Majrooh Sultanpuri, Prem Dhawan and Naqsh Lyallpuri. He also mentioned that he won his only Filmfare for Taj Mahal in competition with Naushad for Mere Mehboob. He recalled how Roshan had suddenly passed away in 1967 at a function where he was laughing with everyone over something. Suddenly people realised that his mouth was still open but the laughter had disappeared. He had sadly passed away due to cardiac arrest. Everyone was shocked to hear of it. Mukesh had recorded the song, Oh Re Taal Mile Nadi Ke Jal mein just days back. They had never thought this would become the last song to be recorded by Roshan. Roshan had infact been planning to record another song with Lata Mangeshkar for which the composition was ready. A tear-stricken Ira, said that Roshan had already taught her the tune and she would arrange the recording in his memory. This last song was Mahalon Ka Raja Mila. 

          Suresh ji then went on to tell us about his education at Morris College, Lucknow. He also told that Roshan had received tutelage from many Gurus like Manahar Barve, S.N. Ratanjankar, Allauddin Khan and Bundu Khan. He also talked about Roshan working for All India Radio from 1940-1948. He mentioned how the family surname became Roshan with his 1950 born son Rakesh going on to become an actor and the younger 1955 born Rajesh becoming a composer like his father. Ira ji always encouraged them to do what they wanted to do. She passed away in 2005 after having seen her grandson Hrithik Roshan become a big actor.  Suresh ji played a number of his songs. He talked about how all the major singers like Geeta, Rajkumari, Lata, Rafi, Mukesh and showed various singer and song statistics with him. Everyone appreciated the song clips played by him. He also recalled how Roshan had taken S.D. Burman's permission to reuse tune of Thandi Hawayen from Naujawan, mixed it with “Music for An Arabian Night” by Ron Goodwin in Lebanon to come up with the wonderful Rahen Na Rahen Hum for Mamta. A slide questioned us about which solo version of Dil Jo Na Keh Saka from Bheegee Raat was better!  He also gave song examples to show how fond Roshan was of Raags Yaman and Yaman Kalyan. He also showcased pictures of various Roshan memorabilia like casette covers, booklets, CD covers etc. Everyone really appreciated the lovely audio-visual presentation by Suresh ji. Suresh ji and some others left after this. 

           A video of a DD interview of C. Ramchandra was played for everyone. This had also been brought by Suresh ji.  Next on agenda was Guri's quiz which is already available on Anmol Fankaar(with answers) here.
It had a series of visuals with one having to tell the theme, number of songs and of course guess them (either in order of audio and video). The theme being letter 'A' was cracked and most of the songs were got right by Pavan ji's team. It was a really tough quiz particularly with the time limit at hand. The team comprising Shailendra Diwan, Satyashekar, Chaari saab, Arun Mudgal, Maloy, Vijay Kumar eventually won beating the Team having Vibhendu, Kalyan, Chetan, Anup, Shankar, Mohit, Harshit!

         Pavan wanted to do a quiz called Badalte Saathi on various singer-combos but due to paucity of time it couldn't be taken up as he and Arun ji
had to take a flight.  The meet was winding up now and we had a photo session. There was already talk about where to have the next meet. Jaipur,
Mumbai, Pune, Lonavala, ... All sorts of names. Lets see which one it is in the Future!

        At the end, I'd like to thank everyone for making the meet so much fun and enjoyable. Thanks a lot to Naqsh Lyallpuri sahab and the Lyallpuri family for letting him spare his valuable time with us giving valuable insights. Thanks a lot to Veena ji, Rakesh and their family for spending time with us talking about Vinod ji. Thanks also to Meena Kapoor ji for spending some time with us inspite of her schedule. These interactions will be cherished by us for a long time. Thanks a lot to Suresh ji for bringing so much food for thought for all of us at the meet. Am really glad that Harmandir Singh “Hamraaz” (who clarified his surname as Sachdev on the first day) and record Collector Girdharilal Vishwakarma ji for making it. For quite a few of us, it was a dream come true to meet you. Your humility is really inspiring and we pray for more successes in your endeavours. All friends who made it (online and offline) really made it special. We hope to have you and many others at the next meet whenever it happens. Thanks to all attendees of the meet. Pavan and Arun Mudgal ji were no less than hosts. Pavan has also shared various pictures, Vibhendu's report for those interested here.  Priya Pakanati's report is available here. Anup's album of the meet photos can be seen here. Photos from Shailendra's camera can be seen here.  All the co-hosts Chiranjeev ji, Kalyan, Shailendra, Anup Pandey, Ashok Dhareshwar, Chetan Vinchhi and Molloy have all made lots of important contributions to making the meet such a success over the last few months. Thanks a lot for the infectious enthusiasm and your tireless efforts inspite of having full schedules. Lots of treasures were shared. Many online friends met each other for the first time there and new acquaintances made. Lots of interesting sessions. Wish we have many more such meets regularly!

Memoirs of the RMIM Bangalore Meet 2011
- Gajendra (Hildebrand)
    The last RMIM Bangalore Meet was in 2009. It had been a while and everyone felt that it was about time we had another one. The first discussions
    I can recall of us talking about the meet in a group was towards end of 2010 when we all had met at Chetan's house. Srinivas Ganti was also
    visiting Bangalore that weekend and Ashok was in Bangalore too. Others there that evening were
Chiranjeev ji, Kalyan, Anup, Molloy with Kaanchan, Shailendra, Arunabha, Vineesh Vedsen among others. Having another meet in 2011 was an idea received
with lots of enthusiasm by the motley group and It was decided that we'll have it when the Emperor is still around. Initial proposal was to have it in
April which due to various reasons couldn't happen.
    Online discussions gained steam after some who attended the Cupertino meet mentioned that they would be in India around Christmas. If I remember
    correctly it was Sajeev Anand who mentioned it first and some others also agreed to that.
    We had a meeting at Kalyan's office sometime later when Arup Roy was visiting and It was debated whether to have it in the 24-25 Dec weekend or
the previous one. It appeared that more of our US based RMIMers maybe visiting the Dec 17-18 weekend and we settled for that.
    Various names were discussed for the celebrity guests. The top three names that came out were singers Meena Kapoor, Manna Dey and P.B. Srinivas. When
    Chiranjeev ji got in touch with Meena ji she immediately consented to the meet up. Due to health issues at home Manna Dey ji was ruled out
    later and P.B. Srinivas was out of town at the proposed time. It was proposed to have a commemorative for Meena ji's songs and I was given
    the responsibility for it, as everyone knew I'm a fan of hers. We received lots of interest on Facebook when the meet was announced and many
    expressed their willingness to come to Bangalore for the meet. This set the ball rolling and all things started falling in place.
    Everyone was keeping busy during the period but Chetan's teleconference idea was a great help. We had a number of such teleconferences which
    crystallised all the details for the meet. The service from sabsebolo.in was really useful. We all also met at Chiranjeev ji's daughter's wedding
    too for a small discussion. During the period Rashmi Mehta's well prepared list of Meena ji's songs was being discussed online with Girdharilal
    ji with additions made for film version songs and others. We were of course missing out some of her songs (we still are!) and gave out a call
    for help with the songs. We are thankful to all those who helped us collect 151 songs of Meena Kapoor ji. The
compilation of these songs will reach everyone through the meet DVD and hope that It'll introduce more than the handful of songs of hers known to all.
    Traditionally at our meets celebrity guests have usually been singers or composers. Its an undeniable fact that some of the most memorable songs
    are so due their lyrics and in a first, we invited veteran lyricist Naqsh Lyallpuri ji to be our celebrity guest at the meet. The humble Naqsh
    ji agreed almost immediately raising our morale. Due to personal reasons Meena Kapoor ji couldn't make attend unfortunately later which gave
    us a lot of time with Naqsh ji who had lots of things to regale us with. We are really thankful to Naqsh sahab and his family for making it possible.
    On my request, composer Vinod's daughter Veena ji and her family consented to be at the meet too for which I'm eternally greatful. We had been
    discussing meeting for sometime and the meet was going to crystallise it!
    The invites started going out in full force in last few weeks and to our delight many acceptances started coming in. Famous record collector
    Girdharilal Vishwakarma ji and Suresh Chandvankar ji of SIRC were one of the first ones who responded very warmly and positively to my
    requests. Harmandir Singh Hamraaz ji also confirmed quite early to our delight. Many of us use the Hindi Film Geet Kosh on a regular basis
    (Girdharilal ji and I often discuss songs by the serial numbers in the film index!) and were eager to meet him at the meet. As I was to discover
    later, the meet was also instrumental in the real world meeting of many long-time virtual friends!
    As last minute preparations were in full swing, there was lots of excitement among attendees and non-attendees online and offline. The co-hosts
    were making arrangements and not a day passed by without happy updates.
    Girdharilal Vishwakarma ji was probably the first guest to arrive in Bangalore on 15th Night. This non-assuming gentleman who has shared hundreds
    of songs with us via Prof Surjit Singh ji's website was an enigma for many of us and this was the first time I met him in the flesh. It was a
    real honour having him at the meet and am thankful that he agreed to stay at my “gareebkhana” (it actually is, if you've visited it!).
    I was also extremely looking forward to meeting Suresh Chandvankar ji in person. I had been having discussions with him for a number of days
    regarding his sessions at the meet and his enthusiasm was extremely infectious. Most of us are familiar with his valuable work at the Society of
    Indian Record Collectors (SIRC). He had mentioned that he would be retiring soon and would be devoting himself full time to musical activities! I
    pray that he goes from strength to strength in all his endeavours.
    The next day, 16th was the day the fun was to begin. Priya Pakanati arrived from Hyderabad early in the morning and came immediately to the
    guest house. Our revered guest, Naqsh Lyallpuri sahab also arrived with his grandson Rishi from Mumbai in the morning. He was received by Anup
    at the Airport. The two representatives of Jaipur at the meet, Pavan Jha and Arun Mudgal ji had also arrived by then. Many of you would have
    seen the pictures of that which Pavan immediately uploaded to the Facebook RMIM page! I was just thinking that the plane would have arrived and
    the picture was up!! Such is the speed with which updates happen in today's cyber age. Slowly all were arriving one by one. We were all looking
    forward to meeting everyone at the pre-meet dinner which was to be so graciously hosted by Shailendra Diwan and his wife Gauri Diwan. They are
    really good hosts. In fact, they had volunteered to be hosts for the pre-meet dinner when we had not even fixed the date!
    At noon, Girdharilal ji and I went to invite one of his friends formally for the meet. Chandrashekhar ji, who is in the 70s and retired as
    Special Deputy Commissioner from Govt service, was extremely enthusiastic and agreed to come the following day. He discussed many things with us
    animatedly and shared his tastes with us. He also recalled that when he was posted in Bijapur (in early 1980s, If I recall correctly), he had
    gone to see the house of Ameerbai Karnataki and met her daughter with family. When he met them they were happy but mentioned that they didn't
    have any of her songs. He had promised them that time he'd try to help them. Over next    two years, he says, he collected songs of Ameerbai from
    friends and acquaintances to finally collect some casettes of her songs which he presented to them. Even to this day, most of his collection
    is in casettes although now he has some CDs which he listens on his player with the help of his grandchildren! He also promised to get some of
    his like-minded friends to the event the following day.
    After a quick lunch, Marwari style, we both went to the IAS Officers' Association guest house at infantry road where everyone was staying
    (after getting confused with the notorious one ways in the area a couple of times!). Came to know from the reception that Priya was in Room No
    1 while Pavan & Arun Mudgal ji were in No 2. We thought of going unannounced up for a surprise and meet everyone. As sometimes happens, we were
    the ones to get surprised! Everyone had gone for a late lunch with Kalyan and Anup!! After a delay, they all got back and soon huge smiles were
    all around. Other than meeting my virtual friends Priya, Pavan and Arun Mudgal ji, I also met Vibhendu for the first time here. Time flew by
    in the chatting and back slapping. Vibhendu and Priya agreed to be the meet reporters as well on Kalyan's request. You've probably read their
    lovely reports by now.    News had come in of the arrival of Suresh Chandvankar ji, Harmandir ji and Nita as well. Guri would be joining it later
    at night. It was about time that we all started moving to Shailendra's place. Yes, the meet had begun!
    After traversing through Bangalore traffic we reached Shailendra's house which was already bustling with energy! Many guests had arrived and
    could be seen talking to each other. Priya had told me about her apprehensions about not knowing anybody, yet like many others, made instant
    friends as there were so many like minded people under the same roof. Shailendra and his wife were excellent hosts for this evening which many
    of us will remember for a long time.  Naqsh sahab joined in a bit later which formally got the ball rolling. We welcomed him and It was thought
    appropriate to initiate the mandatory introductions.
    The onus of introducing the group for those not familiar with the group fell on one of the oldest RMIMers (not in age ;)) Chetan Vinchhi (quite
    a few attendees were from other groups like SKS and some were families/invitees). Chetan recalled how the idea of floating the newsgroup was
    done (very nicely told. For some in the audience that's a google group today!) and how it's name came about. He also laughed about how the
    newsgroup has done so less of what it was supposed to do.  We're supposed to discuss Miscellaneous Indian Music but most of the time we just
    discuss Hindi Film Music! He also talked about how everyone felt the need for meeting face-to-face later and that's how the first RMIM meet
    happened. The tradition has of course happily continued.
    The introductions followed thereafter. These have been discussed already by Vibhendu and Priya so I won't delve much into them. The introductions
    as always were a good way for everyone to know everybody else. There were some amusing introductions too. For example, Molloy introducing himself
    as the husband of Kaanchan. Priya's introduction had some funny points as well. When asked what was the first thing she noticed at the meet,
    She said, “I noticed that Nita doesn't have a nose ring!” (many of us must have seen her Facebook “picture”!) and that “Pavan is not
    as scary in real life” (many who maybe intimidating virtually aren't face-to-face!).
    Shailendra had got a radio program on Naqsh Lyallpuri ji which was played for the audience. Naqsh sahab addressed us all and It was quite
    appreciated by everybody. He is such a humble person whose poetry has delighted generations. Dinner also started sometime between discussions
    and everyone enjoyed it thoroughly.
    I got an opportunity to have discussions with Naqsh sahab on various topics. I am simply amazed by his enthusiasm to share his experiences
    and his phenomenal memory. My initial discussion with him started about Lyallpur and Lahore where he spent his initial years. It was at Lahore
    where he had worked before partition and where his inclination towards poetry became firm.
    He told me that there used to be a Majlis (forum) in Lahore where 3-4 Ustads used to sit and listen to aspiring poets recite their shayari. They
    used to tell them their strengths and weaknesses. This helped him and others a lot in improving their poetry. They were told what features of
    their poetry to accentuate and where to correct. Those were good times and he said, these days nobody will take out time to help others like this.
    He also said that Manto had made a statement that “Jab koi punjabi urdu bolta hai to yun lagta hai jaise jhooth bol raha ho”. (when a
    Punjabi speaks urdu it feels like someone is swearing) He said, “Iska Mere Dil-o-dimaag par bahot asar hua aur maine apni urdu par bahot
    mehnat ki aur ek waqt aisa aaya ki log mumbai mein mujhe punjabi maanne ke liye taiyaar nahi the!” (This statement affected me a lot and I
    worked hard on my urdu. A day came in Mumbai when people were not ready to accept that I was a Punjabi).
    He also recalled that the times during partition were very difficult. Once He was returning home walking in the streets when a group of young
    men stopped him. He was worried that this maybe his last day. Finally, he told them who he was and luckily the group turned out to be of
    Hindus. They reprimanded him on roaming around alone in this manner in those times and left him home. The effect of the environment prevailing
    made the family to leave Lahore and come to Lucknow post-partition. He wanted to do something and didn't want to be there.
    He came to Mumbai without any money or ticket one day and was forced to take refuge in a Gurudwara for some days. He later took up a job
    in Department of Post & Telegraph to take care of expenses. His friend circle started increasing slowly and love towards poetry became even
    deeper. The routine nature of the job didn't appeal to him and he was to leave it later. I asked him about how he got his first opportunity for
    Jagga(1952). He told me that the producer had taken seven lyricists as apprentices for the movie and asked them to write for it. Finally work
    of four lyricists was taken for the movie. I inquired about his first song. As per  HFGK a song sung by Asha (01 as per listing) is supposed to
    be his first but he himself told about a cabaret number picturised on Kuldip Kaur, Main Teri Hoon as his first song. He told me, that we had
    all worked hard together and producer himself allocated individual song in the booklet to the four lyricists (the others being Bharat Vyas,
    Verma Malik and Asad Bhopali). The error in booklet is reason for the incorrect attribution.
    I asked him which of his songs is his favourite. He said that they are all his own children and are equal for him. Popularity of a song depends
    on many factors, how it was composed, what's the situation in the song, how publicity of the movie happened, how much it got noticed. Its also
    important that it be picturised on a beautiful face. Many times a very good song doesn't get its due or is affected by other factors. Some good
    songs got canned also for various reasons.
    Composer Vinod's daughter Veena ji had also come by then with her son Rakesh and I introduced them. He was very happy to meet them and told
    that he loved his songs. He said his song, Galiyaanch Khedade Ne Nikke Balaan from Chaman(1948, Punjabi) is one of his favourites. He told that
    another song of which he's very fond of is Noorjehan's rendition of Diya Jalakar from Dost(1944).
    Not many know that Naqsh Sahab is a very popular lyricist in Punjabi films. Being a Punjabi myself, obviously I was keen to ask about that. He said
    that he dabbled in Urdu poetry only. Sapan-Jagmohan whom he knew well had got offer for composing for a punjabi movie. The three lyricists popular
    at that time were Aziz Kashmiri, Sehraayi and ??. The composer duo however said that they wanted a lyricist whom they were comfortable with and
    proposed his name. Producer was surprised to hear his name  (In fact, the producer had refused to believe he was punjabi knowing his urdu skills,
    said he'd asked him eight punjabi questions to which he replied but still he refused to believe saying anyone could answer). Sapan-Jagmohan said
    they won't do the movie if producer doesn't agree to their choice of lyricist. They got him an advance of Rs 101 which was a big thing in those
    days for the songs. Naqsh sahab was low on confidence but was having financial difficulties. He gave the advance to his wife and instructed
    her not to spend it, incase they have to be returned. He was up all night and kept writing and re-writing. He wrote many mukhdas. Till the
    twelfth one he felt he was betraying his urdu sensibilities and felt only with the thirteenth that had the amount of Punjabiyat to satisfy
    him. Finally,He wrote mukhdas of 16 songs to Sapan-Jagmohan in the morning who were very happy with them. That's how he did this first movie,
    Jeejaji(1953) which became a superhit in Punjabi. He recalled that there used to be this weekly qawwali program on Radio Ceylon. His Qawwali
    written for Jeejaji was such a big hit, that in the otherwise Urdu program, this song was played for 12 straight weeks. After this, he got lots
    of movies in Punjabi and wrote for nearly 40 punjabi movies.
    I talked of the punjabi movie Sapni(1963) for which he had written with Prem Dhawan and Verma Malik for composers Husanlal-Bhagatram. He
    remembered it clearly and told me that he had written two songs for it, Sun Sapni ae vish di and bin khamba de maardi udaari. I recalled that
    the former was the climax song with the heroine dancing around the nagin and he said, that was the one. I asked him how it was working with
    other lyricists, for example he seemed to have worked with verma malik on this one and others (including jagga). He said It was a comfortable
    relationship and he had co-written songs of nearly fifteen punjabi movies with Verma Malik!
    I asked him if he had any regrets in his career. He replied, “Jab main Mumbai aaya tha to maine rab se do hi cheezein maangi theen. Pehli,
    ki mujhe kisi ke darwaaze par paise ke liye khaDa mat karna aur doosra, meri kisi bhi jaayaz zuroorat ko rokna mat. Ooparwaale ne meri yeh
    donon maangen hamesha poori kareen aur mujhe kisi cheez ka gila-shikwa nahin hai.” (When I had come to Mumbai I had asked God for only two
    things. The first that I should not be made to stand at anyone's door for help or money and second, that all my legitimate needs be met. Both of
    these have been granted to me and I have no regrets in life). He however did miss a more serious pursuit in literature due to his preoccupation
    with being a lyricist.
    Chiranjeev Singh ji brought a nice treat for all of us as well. He had brought an audio cd containing Sajjad's mandolin recital which had been
    recorded by Pandit Bhimsen Joshi himself. Singh ji had got it from Pt Joshi's son in Pune. (It was recorded in 1969 at the Sawai Gandharv
    festival). When it was played many appreciated the mastery Sajjad had over the instrument. (will upload the full recording on Anmol Fankaar
    soon!). Singh ji recalled that they had called Sajjad twice to Bangalore for his recitals but unfortunately they were not recorded.
    Guri started the informal session beginning with “Yaad-e-mehbood iddhar aa” bringing all together in his usual style and half-terrorising
    some of those unfamiliar with him! It led to a very nice session. Veena ji also sang some of her father's songs during this. Pavan also made
    the session live with his singing.
    Naqsh sahab was leaving for his hotel in between and some of us went to leave him. Although he was a bit tired but his mind was still active. He
    said, yaad ae mehboob song was by Raja Mehdi Ali Khan. He also told Shailendra Diwan, that he remembered lyricist Shailendra on hearing his
    name. Shailendra was a true lyricist who gave wonderful songs and was one of his personal favourites.
      The session continued till around 01:30 when almost everybody left. I sat with Shailendra to cut a couple of meet DVDs and it was nearly four
      am when I and Girdharilal ji left his place and five when we slept!
    The first day's event was supposed to begin at ten. That was almost the time when I and Girdharilal ji woke up!. We really rushed for the
    venue. By the time we reached it was almost 11. Only a few people were at the venue and other co-hosts were nowhere to be seen! We took a bit
    of time to settle. While waiting I got to meet others. I met Ms Bhave who is grand-daughter of famous marathi theatre proponent who runs a
    dance school in Bangalore. It was also an honour to meet Shashwat, the grandson of Pandit Husanlal who works in Bangalore.
    When everyone was in, we started with the intros. Guri was the MC for this and told everyone to mention their favourite lyricist and why too
    along with the introductions. Quite a few people weren't there at the dinner and it was nice to meet them. Got to see Harmandir ji, Shri Surendra
    Madani (who runs websites on K.L. Saigal, Pankaj Mullick and K.C. Dey) and many others. It was nice to be introduced to some people of my age
    like Vikram Sampath (author of recently released book, My Name is Gauhar Jaan), Ajith Raman (a young record collector from Hyderabad), Mohit and
    Harshit Gupta. Most of all was happy to know that there are so many others affected by the same virus called Music! The meet reporters have talked
    in detail about the session and I won't delve into it. Naqsh sahab had come by then and we were ready to begin the much awaited session with him.
    I had prepared a presentation on him and his work (hindi and punjabi) which was presented to start the session. It included discussion on
    him, his life, his work for hindi, punjabi films and songs for serials. Naqsh sahab was also listening attentively. At end, he told me some
    corrections to it too! He also asked that Husanlal Bhagatram's name as his composers was not there. When I reminded about mentioning it when
    talking about Sapni he was happy. Overall, he was happy with it and we were ready to begin the interaction with him. The interaction with him
    was very lively and informative. He shared a lot of his experiences with us. Some of these were same as in my interaction above or are covered
    by the other reports. Naqsh sahab was very patient and answered all queries.
     He recounted how he was typecast as a punjabi film lyricist early in his career due to his success there and was not getting that much work
     in Hindi films. He was getting offers from small budget stunt films which he had been refusing. His wife told him that on one hand there were
     people who were not getting work and on other hand he was getting work but he was refusing it. He saw the merit in the argument and then started
     taking up small stunt film offers. Big films only started coming after the success of “Main to Har Mod Par Tujhko Doonga Sada” for the
     movie Chetna sung by Mukesh. He got an opportunity to work with many of the A-list composers after that. Earlier this was not happening due
     to many reasons. Many composer-lyricists were signed as pairs by producers due to trend set by their popular songs. Some production houses
     always worked with same lyricists as they had a rapport with them. He recalled that once he had complained to Roshan that he had forgotten
     him after working with him. Roshan immediately sang a Naqsh sahab song composed by him and said,”Its not as if I have forgotten you. I'd
     love to work with you but I am getting films with condition of Sahir as lyricist. I promise you that if you can get a producer who'll give us
     an opportunity to work together, I'll do it for half my current market price.” He remembered another incident related to Roshan. One of his
     unused Ghazals he wrote for Roshan went on to inspire a Kaifi Azmi song. Roshan was keen on Naqsh sahab but the producer wanted Kaifi. Roshan
     challenge Kaifi to better Naqsh sahab's effort. Kaifi retained the zameen of Naqsh sahab's effort to come up with 'Jhuki Jhuki Si Nazar Beqaraar
     Hai Ki Nahin'. Unfortunately due to Roshan's death it couldn't be recorded and was used in Arth years later.
    On being asked who were his favourite composers to work with, Naqsh sahab replied that He found working with those composers most conducive who
    had an understanding of languages and gave freedom. Its very important that the song be composed according to the meter of the song for it to
    sound good for example.Songs like Rasm-e-ulfat and Yeh Mulaqaat Ek Bahaana Hai could be recorded easily as they were already as per meter. Asha
    Bhosle once told him that she could tell whether the music was composed as per the meter by counting the beats in the song.
    Films are a commercial medium with producers at the center of it. Many producers do not have an understanding of language and make all sorts
    of demands. One producer heard my love song, “Man Ke Darpan mein chehra Khila” and complained that the starting words “Man Ke Darpan”
    was more appropriate for a bhajan. I told him that I understood the choice of words better and this was suitable in the situation.
    Another producer gave me a request to write a song similar to “Pardesiyon Se Na Ankhiyaan Milaana” which had been a big hit recently. He
    also told that every night he used to listen to it many times after his drinks post-dinner. Naqsh sahab told him that If you are asking me
    to copy a song atleast ask me to copy a good song. He also told him to listen to the song the same day as per regular practice, write it on a
    paper and try to read it in the morning. The next day when we met for the recording the producer couldn't meet my eye.
    Once a producer asked me to change the word chheenta in a song who's line was “qatl bhi kare, daaman pe chheenta bhi na aaye, mere qaatil ke
    andaaz niraale.” I told him to get a better word of similar wazan (weight) and fitting the situation, and then I would change it.
    He remembered an interaction with Arzoo Lakhnavi in early 1950s and discussing about how Nakshab Jarachavi had lifted his writing in the
    qawwali “Aahen Na Bhareen Shikwe Na Kiye” for movie Zeenat(1945). Arzoo sahab had told him he didn't mind that his work was copied but
    minded that some lines were modified in an incorrect manner. The original had been modified with the line, “Is Dil Ko Pakad Kar Baith Gaye,
    Haathon Se Kaleja Tham Liya”. Arzoo sahab  commented. “jab dil ko pakad kar baithe hain to kaleja kis cheez se thaam liya?” (If the hands
    are holding the heart, with what is the liver held!”
    He also told that during recording of songs for Taj Mahal with Naushad, he had written Mumtaz Tujhe Dekha where the producer (Akbar Khan) wanted
    the fifth paragraph and first paragraph to be interchanged as the fifth one was really good. Naqsh sahab told him that it is not possible. The
    song has been written as a story. Initially the story is built and the climax comes in the fifth paragraph. How can it simply be exchanged as
    it will spoil things. Finally, he had to leave the movie after doing just two songs.
    Everybody wanted to ask him about his association with Jaidev. Naqsh sahab said that Jaidev was a fakir who lived for music and would get lost in
    it. He had an ear for poetry and had composed English songs as well as poems from Hindi literature. He took up whatever work came his way. Once
    he had met Dev Anand somewhere and Dev commented that he had had great plans for him but he had gone for slower films. Jaidev told him that he
    had to take up what work came to him and Dev was not there when he needed him most. Jaidev always worked for his art. He also always insisted
    on being paid in white (unlike some producers) and never took a single paisa in black money. He was a faqir. Many times producers would not pay
    him for the work also. Jaidev was dropped from serial Ramayana after recording the title song. He used to go all the way from Churchgate to Juhu
    scheme for Ramayana's sessions in a taxi and was not paid a single paisa for the work. Jaidev had recorded all four songs of Gaman for Muzaffar Ali
    in one day and had not been paid for it. When he asked him, Muzaffar Ali asked him to compose Umrao Jaan for him. Seeing the budget constraints
    it was decided to give chance to an upcoming singer (ghazal singer Madhurani). Jaidev heard her singing and composed tunes keeping her voice in
    mind. He had made a total of eight tunes for it. The producer then started saying that he wanted one song to be sung by Asha Bhosle. Jaidev told
    him that if they contacted Asha, she would naturally ask for which character the song was for. We can't tell that only one song is for you and
    other songs of the character are by others. Besides I have made the compositions keeping Madhurani in mind and it wouldn't be fair to her. The
    argument escalated to an extent that Jaidev had to leave the movie. No songs were recorded although the tunes were ready and Jaidev lost money
    for that work also. Jaidev had sent some tunes to Raj Kapoor for consideration also and nothing was heard of those as well. There were many such cases.
    Naqsh sahab recalled that many of his own songs had got canned because the films got shelved. Sometimes it also happened that the producers
    ran away. He remembered that once Rafi sahab had sung two song for a producer who had run away without paying anybody! Not even the lab where
    the recording was done was paid. The recordist had those two songs for a long time and he passed away recently. He know many such producers
    who had recorded such songs but it would be difficult to get them now. He said he was very happy when a madan mohan composed unreleased song
    had come out recently. He said the rights of lyricists were not very respected earlier. Lots of work went to waste due to various reasons. The
    producer had the rights to all the songs whether they were released or not. No royalty also came to them. Only the producer used to get it
    (and some composers, Sahir and Lata could demand a share for themselves) while we just got the fee for the song. He has been president of IPRS
    (Indian Performing Rights Association) and now the rule is that if a producer does not release a song for a year, the rights will come back
    to the lyricist. More needs to be done to give more rights to the lyricists. Naqsh sahab has worked extensively with Indian Performing Rights
    Society(IPRS) which is working to correct the situation. They are demanding compensation for use of music being played in live events, hotels,
    fashion shows etc and part of the proceeds go to the creators. I get an annual cheque of one to two lakh rupees from IPRS. A more prolific
    lyricist like Anand Bakshi's heirs would be getting much more. He said that producer is also deserving since he takes risk with the film which
    is ultimately a commercial venture. Many things that happen are due to nature of the industry.
    He remembered that once Bappi Lahiri had called him for a song. The onus of called Rafi sahab for the song fell on Naqsh sahab as Bappi and Rafi
    sahab were not on talking terms. Bappi had got a song recorded by Kishore for a Sippi film to be picturised on Dharmendra who had refused to
    shoot it. Rafi sahab was then called to re-record the song. The incident had snowballed into a situation where Rafi sahab was wary of recording
    for Bappi. On Naqsh ji's insistence Rafi sahab came for the song which had come out well. The film was a small producer.  A bigger producer
    (Tahir Hussain) wanted to get that song and offered a bigger price which was tempting for Bappi. He came to Naqsh sahab for the proposal. Naqsh
    sahab told him that it would not be fair to the producer because of whom the song had happened and to decline the offer.
    Remembering Jaidev further he said that he often used to go and meet him at his Churchgate house. In some of these meetings songs came out. He
    remembered that Tumhen Ho Na Ho Mujhko To Itna Yakeen Hai for Gharonda had come out in one such visit. Runa Laila was in Mumbai that time
    and she loved the song too. That's how it got recorded. A Parveen Sultana non-film song had also happened similarly. He had challenged me to
    write a ghazal with sabab as a qafiya. He never shied from challenges like some composers. Parveen sultana liked the song a lot and it got
    recorded. Since he didn't have an appropriate film for the song it got released as a private song. Inspite of working with limited budget,
    Jaidev always tried to give the best music. Slots in recording studios were often limited. He remembered that Jaidev had recorded Yeh Dil Aur
    Unki Nigaahon Ke Saaye in a single take for movie Prem Parbat. The number of Musicians for the song were only five. The musicians were all
    masters of their art and included Hari Prasad Chaurasiya and Shiv Sharma who had no chance of forgetting their parts helped a lot.
    He also mentioned that at Jaidev's funeral, he had met Tushar Bhatia who was a fan of Jaidev. Tushar had helped Naqsh sahab get some song Cds
    with Jaidev's music. Many people have been nice to me in the industry. I have worked with 140+ composers in Hindi and Punjabi. I still remember
    that Rafi and Asha had sung songs of Jeejaji for a paltry hundred rupees per song for my sake. I have done 74 songs with Khaiyyam, second only
    to Sapan-Jagmohan. Sapan Jagmohan were great composers but didn't have good business sense. They also had their families to run. Usha Khanna
    and Sonik Omi who were their contemporaries made several attempts to make me work with them but I knew they wanted to break our team and it
    would have hurt Sapan-Jagmohan. Hence, I turned down their offers.
    On being asked about recording for Sapni he recalled that Pandit Husanlal had come from Delhi for it. Husanlal-Bhagatram had recorded all the
    songs within a week. He remembered that Pandit Husanlal had enthused them with his singing (he was a wonderful singer) and also played the
    violin for all present there.
    He was also asked about the practice of writing tunes to lyrics and writing lyrics according to the tune. Naqsh sahab said that both are
    prevalent. In his opinion lyricist should have some freedom to choose the lyrics. In the case of dance numbers it makes sense to have a tune first
    and then the lyrics as foot tapping is what it aims for. In other cases, where something has to be conveyed it is better to go for lyrics being
    made first. Sometimes it is unavoidable and tunes have to be made first. For example once Dattaram had been given a Punjabi movie to compose. He
    mentioned his total ignorance of the language and its nuances. He suggested that he would compose the tunes and then lyrics be written for them
    (which was what was done and the movie's songs were quite successful).
    He was also asked if he would recommend someone to leave job to pursue passions. Naqsh sahab he said he wouldn't recommend it as family
    responsibilities are also important and it can be quite risky. He recalled case of a Bank Manager friend from Hisaar who had come to Mumbai to be
    a lyricist with the same dilemma. He had written two songs for a film which had been appreciated a lot by the producers. He was contemplating
    leaving his job in a bank and come full time to Mumbai. He used to take my advice on poetry and consulted me about this too. Naqsh sahab
    convined him to do otherwise. Later his friend was very greatful for the advice because the movie for which the two songs were written got
    canned. If his friend had not followed his advice, he would have been in a soup! In his words, “Shauq zindagi pe qurbaan kiya ja sakta hai,
    zindagi shauq par qurbaan karna akalmandi nahin.”
    He lamented that sometimes commercial reasons have affected popularity of some of the songs. He remembered that music of Dil Ki Raahen was
    quite popular. Actor Sachin had taken my copy (autographed by Madan Mohan himself) but never returned it. I contacted Rhythm House but they said
    that the records of it were not available. When he contacted HMV they curtly told him that the record had been cancelled. I had a big argument
    with them that they had no business cancelling the record without informing the producer. Producer was losing money and the public also was not
    happy. He called up Lata Mangeshkar and apprised her of the situation. She said that it was Saturday and HMV office would be closed tomorrow. She
    would take up the case on Monday. He doesn't know what they discussed but within a week he had got a call from HMV office that the records were
    ready and he could have as many as he wanted. Rhythm House had told him that often the records available for many hit movies were just 25-30%
    of the demand. This happened regularly for the smaller producers who did not have much influence. We were all sorry to hear about the manner
    in which the music business is managed by some managers who don't understand music.
    He was asked about the current trend of music. He said that there had always been good songs and bad songs. Even in the so called golden period
    there were substandard and inappropriate lyrics taking name of “Ek Raat Ko Pakde Gaye Donon” from Nazraana as an example. He however felt
    that the number of bad songs these days is much higher for which something needs to be done. Some good work comes now and then which makes him
    hope that this is a passing phase. There are many new lyricists who don't have much understanding of the language, write something (often under
    western influence). The lyrics maybe sub-standard yet the songs become hit and the vicious cycle continues. He said he was apalled to see a
    lyricist once write a song in the recording studio when song was to be recorded. In their time a lyricist gave time to the song to improve it,
    changing words etc. In today's fast food mentality obviously the quality has taken a solid beating. It is partly due to blind aping of western
    culture which has made our traditional melody a casualty. Sadly most of the good lyricists of the past are no longer around. Sadly some of
    the older ones still there due to perhaps commercial reasons or requests from producers or reasons best known to them have also succumbed to
    that. It feels sad to hear stuff like Beedi Jalaile from them.
Sometimes we see mistakes from established lyricists too. For example, “O Basanti Pawan Pagal” has two adjectives qualifying pawan and by the
next line the pawan is forgotten and “Na Ja Re Na Ja Roko Koi” is addressed to the world at large. They should try to help things. The technology
available has also caused its own set of problems. Singing has been reduced to shouting and screaming with over-emphasis on technical wizardry rather
than perfecting art. He remembered a recordist telling a singer, “Expression poora dena. Thodi besuri bhi ho jaao to koi baat nahi. Main software
mein sudhaar loonga” (Sing the song with expression. If you go out of tune a bit also don't worry. I can fix that in software.). Such a thought
would have been blasphemous in our time. We all used to work hard on every aspect of the song, do umpteen number of rehearsals and then only go for
recordings. The work showed in the songs. He said those wanting to listen to good songs are still there. Sometime back he had been invited to Nagpur
for a program on Madan Mohan's songs (perhaps because I am probably the only lyricist alive to have worked with him). Twenty eight songs of his were
played over several hours and the audience sat glued throughout. He said demand for good songs is still there and he hoped things would improve for the better.
    On a query about his literary works he said that he had written two books. The first one is called “Teri Gali Ki Or” (which is bilingual
    hindi-urdu) and the second is “Angan Angan Wasde Geet” (which is in Urdu). He had brought a few copies which he shared with those
    present. Getting autographed books from him was nice and am sure nobody would like to share their treasured copies!
    Naqsh sahab continues to work today also. He told us that one album is coming up soon and some more films are in the pipeline.
    We had a small singing session with Naqsh sahab. First, Sushmita Kolachala (Kalyan's wife) sang Aap Ki Baaten Kahen Ya Aapka Afsana Kahen. Mrs
    Gauri Diwan sang Tumhen Ho Na Ho Mujhko To Itna Yakeen Hai from Gharonda. He heard them attentively, appreciated their singing (which was really
    sweet and lovely)and also gently told some corrections! We had a felicitation for him and by then it was time for him to catch his flight. We
    all wished him the best for the future and thanked him profusely for the fabulous interaction with him. Am really thankful to his family for
    making it possible and especially to his grandson Rishi for accompanying him here. The interaction will be a cherished memory for long.
    On the sidelines, during lunch I talked to Harmandir ji and told him I wanted to have a series, “Geet Kosh Ki Raah Par” on anmolfankaar.com
    in which he can share his experiences during making of the Geet Kosh. He agreed immediately. I hope to start that soon. He said its a work in
    progress with lots of corrections which will be put in the digitisation effort. He is currently working on his book on composers. He had recalled
    during the introductions that in late 1980s he had received a register from composer V Balsara containing song listings singer wise. Balsara
    told him that this was one job he wanted to do before he died. I am sure we'll get to read many such anecdotes once the series begins.
    Next event on the agenda was the telecon with singer Meena Kapoor ji. Due to her schedule we had limited time with her. Chiranjeev ji called her
    for us. He conveyed our regards to her and initiated conversation with her. He told her about how she had sung with all the major composers. She
    said that She started singing at an early age and worked with almost everybody. Unfortunately after marriage with Anilda her work reduced as
    Dada was very possessive about her and other composers knew this. So her marriage affected her singing career which was doing very well till
    then. Chiranjeev ji questioned why wouldn't he be possessive when he had such a diamond at home!
    He also asked about her singing only the film versions of Anokha Pyar(1948). She told that It is true that at the time of recording of the
    record versions she was away on her annual holiday in Assam. Also, Dada wanted to help Lata monetarily and that's why he got the songs on
    records recorded by her.
    Time was less and we had a connection issue. When we re-connected Chiranjeev ji gave the phone to me. I asked her about which was her first
    song. It is widely believed that it was for Eight Days(1946) but I had read an interview of hers referring to Pul(1947) being the first recorded one
    (Both film records have nearby numbers also!). She told that She was very young at the time and her father was surprised to get the offers. They
    were all for young heroines and both offers had come at the same time. The recordings were also done within days and Pul happened to be recorded first.
    I asked her about working for Ninu Mazumdar. She has done a number of movies with him like Pul(1947), Jail Yatra(1947), Gopinath(1948), Kuchh
    Naya(1948) and Raaj Ratan(1953). She has also done a couple of non-film Gujrati songs for him. She said yes, she has worked extensively with him
    and enjoyed it. I asked her to confirm if she sang for him in Gudiya(1948). Geet Kosh doesn't have the singer credits for it and she confirmed
    that she sang for it (probably two songs).
    I reminded her about being the only singer of her generation to have sung for and with K.C. Dey in Door Chalen(1946). She and said she had sung
    two duets with him and sung a solo for him in that movie. She was very young at the time and was really in awe of the great singer at the time.
    I told her that we've heard she sang for Ustad Allah Rakha in Gaibi Talwar(1949) (again no singer details available). She confirmed that She
    had sung for that movie and it was a good experience.
    I asked her to confirm if she has sung a song for the punjabi movie Lara Lappa(1953) for Dhaniram. She said She has not sung for it or any song
    in Punjabi for that matter.
    I was then reminded that She has sung most of her Gujrati songs for composer Ajit Merchant who passed away recently. She said yes, most of
    the gujrati film songs were with Ajit Merchant. She recalled that those movies were Kariyavaar(1948) (for which she also sang duets with him),
    Diwadandi(1950) and Lagna Mandap(1950). On being asked if she ever sang for him in Hindi, She said that She had not.
    There were many other questions which we wished to ask her but we had to end here as She had to leave. It was really nice to talk to her inspite
    of the technical difficulties and short time. Chetan also observed that her voice continues to be quite youthful even at this age. Hamraaz ji
    mentioned that it was the case with many of the yesteryear singers. For example, Lata's voice. He also noted that her voice in real life sounds
    even more thinner than as heard in her songs.
    Shankar Iyer introduced everyone to work of Swar Alaap and also showcased the book recently released by his groups. Many appreciated the work
    and Shankar got more requests than the copies of the book with him!
    Another treat for the music lovers was awaiting in the form of an absolutely wonderful collection sent as gift by Jyoti Prakas Guha ji all the
    way from Kolkata. He had sent as many as 14 copies of a compendium of Kanan Devi's songs which was recently released by the Megaphone company. It
    has four DVDs with all her songs in wonderful quality. As per request of Guha ji, It was given away to music lovers who were interested in her
    songs. Its a really wonderful collection for those interested in Vintage Music and is a treasure of value much beyond its nominal cost (Rs 650). We
    are all thankful to Guha ji for this extremely kind gesture. Those who haven't got a copy, do please get one from a distributor of Megaphone or
    through a music store. It is really nice that companies are coming out with collections like these. Hope they'll come out with such collections
    of many such great artists more often. I could really use good quality collector's editions of Rajkumari, Ameerbai, G.M. Durrani or K.L. Saigal!
    The next event was the much awaited interaction with composer Vinod's family. His daughter Veena Solomon was accompanied by her son Rakesh,
    his wife Sujata and their two daughters (Vinod's great-granddaughters!). Suresh Chandvankar ji had made a lovely presentation on Vinod which he
    started. He expressed delight to have seen the Young India records of his punjabi non-films which had been shared by the family recently. He
    said he had seen many records of the company and this was the first time he came across a Punjabi record released by the company. This record
    was not even heard of till now with no mention in any indexes. He also pointed out that the record was credited to E.R. Vinod (Eric Roberts
    being his real name which was given tribute here. All  records of his movies do not have these initials of Vinod). I pointed out that Naseem
    Akhtar has sung a number of songs in the period and the male singer Bhushan's name finds mention on various version records in the 40s and
    50s although he doesn't seem to have got any major film songs for some reason inspite of having been in the field for a long time. Suresh ji
    talked about the composer's background (probably the only Punjabi Christian composer as compared to the more common Goanese ones at the time),
    his family and films. He talked about his breakthrough punjabi movie Chaman and played a song sung by Pushpa Chopra ji for the same. Clip of
    Vinod directing the orchestra in Dilli Se Aaya Bhai Tingu delighted the audience as did the video of Lara Lappa from the same movie Ek Thi Ladki.
    To showcase some of his lesser heard but beautiful songs I took over the session to play some. The song played first was the very rare song
    “Navik Yeh Tera” sung by Vinod himself and supposed to be his first song. Veena ji confirmed that this was his first record and mentioned
    that he was merely 17 at the time of its recording. He was not only the singer but also the composer for this song. Going by her information
    this would have been early 40s. Veena ji also shared that Vinod was actually from Delhi where he used to go to learn from some Ustaads. These
    ustaads used to teach very miserly. The students would help around in the Ustaad's house and after a hard day's work they would teach one raag
    or murki. Later Vinod moved to Lahore in pursuit of music where he came under the tutelage of Pandit Amarnath after which Vinod never looked back.
    The second song played was “Hello Hello Pyar Karna Ho To Yaaron Karlo” from Taara(1949) sung so lovingly by Rajkumari ji with Satish
    Batra. Mention was made about the innocence and warmth in the song with special attention to the tenderness shared in it. It was also pointed
    out about Satish Batra trying to make it in Mumbai at that time and how the various fellow Lahoris helped each other. Veena ji was very happy to
    talk about various aspects. She mentioned that it was producer Roop K Sheory who had named him Vinod after his witty (“Vinodi”) nature. She
    also recalled that he had pairing with lyricist Aziz Kashmiri who was also part of the same team.
    Next song was from his punjabi movie Bhaiyyaji sung by Rafi called “Mainu Mereya Dukhan Ne Ghereya” whose tune is eerily similar to the
    famous O.P. Nayyar song, Uden Jab Jab Zulfen Teri from Naya Daur also sung by Rafi. I said it was a good inspiration. Guri and I agreed that
    there maybe some boli which may have been the common source. I however felt that, till we come across one we can assume that O.P. Nayyar was
    inspired by the same. I also recalled the song, Barkha Ki Raat Mein Hey Ho Ha from movie Sardar (1955), composed by Jagmohan Sursagar is similar
    to a punjabi duet Waheed Dehwar once played for me on HF radio called Nikka Mota Bajra Hey Ho Ha. (waheed or others can you please share details
    and the song please?). This discussion went on for a while and I announced next song “Hum to Love Kar Ke Pachhtaya” many times before it
    actually happened after Guri felt I had probably had enough “pachhtawa”.
    This song Hum To Love Kar Ke Pachhtaya from movie Titli is a really beautiful one sung by singer Minal Wagh. I pointed out the huge number of
    english words in the song and how Vinod loved mixing languages. He had even done a hindi song in Punjabi and punjabi song in Hindi! Veena ji
    recalls seeing Meenal ji and remembers her as a very pretty fair Maharashtrian lady. Unfortunately, a picture of Meenal ji and other details
    doesn't seem to be available with anyone. Hope it'll surface some day like some other rare treasures too!
    The final song was Tujhe Dil De Diya Hai Seene Se Nikaal Ke, a real fun duet of Shamshad ji and Tirlok Kapoor for movie Saloni. I pointed
    out that it was the only song of Vinod in this movie which had other songs by Basant Prakash. I also mentioned that Shamshad ji and Vinod's
    combination is really nice which should be discussed more. Shailendra mentioned that Gandhar credits three lata songs of the movie Lahore (Toote
    Hue Armaanon Ki Ek Duniya Basaayen ... Baitihi Hoon Teri Yaad Ko Seene Se Lagaaye, Ek Aas Bandhaaye Jaati Hai ... Ummeed Ki Range Jhoole Mein
    and Us Dil Ki Kismat Kya Kahiye Jis Dil Ka Sahara Koi Nahi) to Vinod. Geet Kosh doesn't have this detail. Hamraaz ji said that he had got the
    HMV catalogue with recording details after release of Geet Kosh (which he shall use to update the next volume) may give this detail about who
    had recorded the song (Vinod or Shyam Sunder). He said he will refer it and confirm. Veena ji said that the song Us Dil Ki Kismat Kya Kahiye
    is a favourite of her daughter Jacqueline and She'll be very happy to know if its confirmed to be her grandfather's!
    The discussion with the Vinod family was in full flow and we got to know lots of rare information from them. Veena ji said Shyam Sunder was
    a good friend of her father. She remembers going to meet him when he was really ill with her father. She mentioned that Vinod had died of
    Septicemia caused by removing his nose hair while shaving. He had died on Christmas day. She still remembers that he had insisted they visit
    him that fateful day in morning in their Christmas finery. He looked at them silently and just drifted away. Veena ji was merely 12 at the time
    while her sister Veera was nearly 9. She said that some articles mistakenly mention that they were poor when he died. She says they had their own
    house and although they weren't rich but they had a comfortable lifestyle. In fact, Vinod had atleast two movies in hand when he passed away. The
    family faced lots of financial difficulty later and Veena ji got married to her Husband Newton Solomon at a very young age. He also unfortunately
    passed away at the young age of 30 leaving her with four kids who by God's grace are all well settled today. It was extremely heart wrenching
    to hear her talk about the extreme struggles the family went through. I'm glad the bad days are far behind and pray that they'll remain jus there.
    She remembered the recording of Meri Ulfat Soyi Hai Yahaan for movie Oot Pataang. She said Lata ji had difficulty singing the complex tune the
    first time and the recording was then done the following day after some rest. She said that her father used to make her sing some of his tunes
    when they were in preparation and make her sing them to producers once they were finalised. However he was a  traditional man who would send
    her away after the rendition. As a result, rest of the family was kept shielded from the film world. This was the reason, after his passing
    away, many didn't know the whereabouts of the family for long. She remembers however that Vinod's respect among his colleagues was immense
    which continued after his passing away also. The Composers association had helped them get his pending fees from producers. She remembers its
    installments of Rs 25 used to come for some time. She also recalls that Mohd Rafi sahab who was close to Vinod used to stop his car for her
    mother and give her a lift when he saw her. She also recalled once her sister Veera meeting Asha Bhosle in a clinic who was very happy to meet
    her, asked her about the family and even sang a Lata song from Anmol Rattan for them. (Many may recall Asha was his main singer for many of his
    movies). She also remembers Sudha Malhotra, Sahir Ludhianvi, Aziz Kashmiri, Roop K Sheory, Asha Bhosle, D.N. Madhok and and many others coming
    to their house. She also mentioned that her mother Sheela was a superb cook whose cooking was famous in the film fraternity. Many times Vinod's
    dibba when sent to the studio would get finished before it reached him thanks to friends of Vinod's at the studio like P.L. Santoshi!
    Veena ji recalled how She and her sister Veera had acted in the movie Makheechoos, one of the movies composed by Vinod. She remembers a song
    in the movie Le Lo Le Lo where she begs for alms and no one gives her any. When she returns home her father in the movie hits her. During
    the shooting, the artist who was playing her father accidentally hit her too hard and She started crying. Her father when he heard of it was
    extremely angry and severely reprimanded the actor who was shivering! She sang some of his songs and everyone commended that she had a lovely
    voice. She said She had sung in some chorus songs for Bappi Lahiri but never really tried to get into playback as She was an employee of the
    railways and had a full family to support.
    Her song, Rakesh (Vinod ji's grandson) told us that the family still retains the Baaja of Vinod. They said its in need for repair and a specialist
    manual tuner is required for it. It is a big winding type of instrument. He also told us that Vinod was a chain smoker but one who'd often get
    lost in his work. He'd be playing the harmonium while smoking and sometimes get lost in it forgetting about the cigarette burning his hand. His
    hand had become black permanently in one spot as this used to happen frequently! Rakesh also has a good voice and sang his grandfather's sung
    non-film Ghazal Saamne Aa Gaya Koi for us.
     In fact, it seems the whole family has singing voices! Towards the end of the session, Rakesh's two daughters (Vinod's great-grand-daughters!) sang
     brilliantly Lara Lappa for all of us. Everyone enthusiastically joined in, such is that magic of Vinod that more than five decades after their
     recording, they still continue to charm us.
    After dinner an informal session of singing started in the hall. Priya Pakanati said she was a big fan of artists who didn't get their due and
    talked about Baleshwari Devi and the Rao brothers who composed in 50s. She sang a Baleswari song very well. It led to requests by Chiranjiv
    Singh ji for some telugu songs of his choice and Priya willingly obliged! We all loved her singing (as have so many others who have seen it
    on FB after Pavan shared it). Pavan also sang.    A number of nice Saigal songs were sung by Surender Madani ji. There was some talk whether his
    best was early or in the middle phase of his career. At some stage no one was ready to sing and I proposed singing in Raag Gardabh. I said I'll
    “sing” a relatively new song of the 90s (Chetan looked aghast, a 90s song :P) and asked everyone to identify it. It was of course the Chhaya
    Ganguli sung title of Thoda Sa Roomani Ho Jaayen. Chari ji said my recitation was pretty good :P. In fear of me doing an encore others started
    singing! Mrs Jyothi Madani sang a few lovely Geeta songs including Meri Jaan Mujhe Jaan Na Kaho. Pavan entrhralled everyone with his rendition
    of a lovely medley of Rajasthani songs.  Anup Pandey started a nice parody talking about Baankelal calling many singers in 50s for dinner with
    condition that all talk and requests be done by singing only. He showcased parodies of many singers including Shamshad Begum, Talat and Lata
    to the delight of the audience. It was getting late by then. Girdharilal ji and I returned after this.
    Next day's programme was in the same building on the first floor. The first  session was a presentation by Suresh Chandvankar ji titled
    “Fate and Future of of Private Collections of Gramophone Records.” He started with the mention of Gramophone Records and early recordings,
    highlighting cover of an old dadra record, “Humse Na Bolo” by Peara Saheb which was of British Make. He then showed some lovely pictures
    relating to records. The first one showed the classic HMV picture of a dog and the gramophone. He told this was the situation in the beginning
    of the century. The second picture from the New Yorker magazine showed some dogs in a boardroom listening to a record and probably deciding what
    to do with them. The third and final picture showed a dog sleigh with gramophone records, a gramophone and an old radio being towed away. He
    said that with time gramophones and their records were no longer ubiquitous. Work of many old artists was in the form of records and are part
    of our heritage. Technology has changed and music has gone from audio tapes to CDs and the net now. Many maybe lost and many others lie in
    private collections.
    He asked us to estimate how many records may have been issued? He told us that their have been nearly 35000 Indian films (Hindi and regional). If
    we assume an estimate of 8 or 10 songs we would have 350000 songs. There maybe approximately 50000 non-film music songs. These were originally
    stored on 78 rpm records or EP/LP records. Some have been reissued on audio tapes/compact disks. The total number of records must be atleast
    one lakh. He made us wonder what is left today and who cares?
    He then showed pictures of V.A.K. Ranga Rao with his records, another collection and a picture of a record shop from the Chor Bazaar of Mumbai! He
    then showed pictures of some record collectors like Narayan Mulani, Prabhakar Datar and himself with their records. He said the worries of a
    typical record collector at the end of his life are:-
1. What worth is my collection?
2. What will happen to my collection?
3. What should I do with my collection?
4. Is anybody out there like me?
    He says it were these sentiments which led to the foundation of the Society of Indian Record Collectors in 1990, a Mumbai based organisation
    with more than 150 members today. It also has units at Pune, Solapur, Tuljapur, Nanded, Aurangabad, Amravati and Baroda. Its activities include
    having listening sessions, lectures and hold exhibitions.  The organisation also publishes a magazine called “The Record News.”
    He said that there are many private and institutional collections. Two large private record collections for instance are of Mr V.A.K. Rangarao,
    Chennai (30000+) and the Late Mr Sarjalal Mukherjee, Kolkata (20000+ which is now a private center). There are many other such record collectors. He
    also mentioned that NCPA, Mumbai and ABGMM, Miraj are two of the institutional collections. He said if all the efforts could be collected it
    would be a service to our heritage in the form of records.
    He showed some Broadcast Record covers with extremely rare pictures of artists who sang for them on their covers like Jaddanbai, Kashibai and
    Kesarbai Kerkar.  He said that there were many record celebrities like Gauhar Jan and Gandhari (Gangubai) Hangal too. He told us that there
    have been books exclusively on records like The 78 rpm Records of India by Michael Kinnear and his biography of Khan Abdul Karim Khan. He also
    showed covers of some record catalogues also dating circa 1935. He also highlighted some nice calender art.
    He then told us about the Record News magazine and how it began. He also showed us the video on SIRC which was telecast in the 1990s on the
    famous Surbhi program on DD and another done by the E TV Marathi channel! He expressed happiness that LP culture was being revived in 2011 with
    LP of Dil to Pagal Hai and Pakeezah Rang Birang which have become collector's items. He showed an interesting record electronic equipment to
    keep six records which he found on the net sometime back!
    He then said he had brought some surprises for us and they certainly were! He showed pictures of two test records which had been handwritten
    with a mention of being from Guru Dutt films! Chandvankar ji told us that the company's manager had sent a box of records in early 1990s from
    their godown as they had heard about SIRC work. He opened it to find many like those of Kagaz Ke Phool. He found a white test record in it whose
    content also he had brought for us. When everyone saw that the record cover scan had “Gouri (Bengali)” written on it they were overjoyed. We
    all know that this shelved movie had Geeta ji as the lead actress.
    Suresh ji asked us to listen and guess who the singers were. The first song Jaani Bhromora Keno and everyone got lost into the amazing voice
    of Geeta Dutt. We were amazed to hear the original which inspired the Burmanda non-film and the Lata version of the tune later. Many bright
    eyes were seen with many saying this was the best version! Not surprisingly, the title of the slide was “Gems from thrown away Test Records”!
    The second song from the film was played which was Ustadi Taar Kilona. Suresh ji asked to guess if it was one male voice or two? Kishore
    was heard definitely and some wondered if it was kishore doing two voices. I had a feeling that a young Pancham was also heard. Later it was
    confirmed that it was indeed a duet of Kishore and Pancham!
    Everyone was enthralled to hear these two rarest of rare songs and thanked Suresh ji for sharing these with us at the meet!
    Suresh ji said that he had another surprise, a song whose lyricist was Gandhiji himself! He then told us the story behind it. Sardar Patel's
    daughter Maniben had once written a postcard to Bapu with a few questions on God. They were:-
1. ईश्वर  का निवास कहाँ है?
2. ईश्वर कैसे दिखते हैं?
3. ईश्वर को किधर खोजें?
4. ईश्वर से क्या पूछें?
5. ईश्वर से क्या माँगें?
Gandhi ji had then replied very lovingly in the form of a prayer to God. His reply is as follows:-
हे नम्रता के सम्राट, दीन भंगी की हीन कुटिया के निवासी
गंगा यमुना और गोदावरी के जलों से सिंचित इस सुंदर देश में
तुझे सब जगह खोजने में हमें मदद दें
हमें ग्रहणशीलता और खुला दिल दे तेरी नम्रता दे
भारत की जनता से एकरूप होने की शक्ति और उत्कंठा दे
हे भगवन
तू तभी मदद के लिए आता है जब मनुष्य शून्य बनकर तेरी शरण लेता है
हमें वरदान दें कि सेवक और मित्र के नाते इस जनता की हम सेवा
करना चाहते हैं
उससे कभी अलग ना पड़ जाएँ हमें त्याग भक्ति और नम्रता की
मूर्ती बना
ताकि इस देश को हम ज़्यादा समझे और ज़्यादा चाहें हमें वरदान
दें
हे भगवन

This beautiful postcard had been with Maniben for a long time. When in 1969, the Maharashtra government wanted to take out a special record on Gandhi
ji's birth centenary, this letter was chosen to be recorded as a song! The onus of composing this song fell on Vasant Desai who was working with this
company at that time. He chose Manna Dey to sing the song and that's how a historic record of a song whose lyricist was Gandhi ji was made! The limited
edition record must have been issued and given to people on the occasion. Many probably ended up in the corner of some godown.
Many years later, once, when Suresh ji was visiting Chor Bazaar his eyes fell on this stack of white coloured records. He was surprised to see these
lying there and he asked the vendor how much they'd cost? He said they would cost Rs 10 if he bought one, but he'd charge just 50 paise if he bought
all of them. They were nearly 150 of them and Suresh ji promptly bought them immediately! Its sad that treasures like these end up at the raddiwala
but Suresh ji rescued them to share with friends. (He told us that one of his friend's wife called him a Recordiya since he collected huge quantity
of Records!). He also got in touch with the Manna Dey foundation about the rare finding. When Manna Dey was made to hear the record over the phone,
his eyes filled with tears of joy. He hadn't heard the song since it was recorded and ecstatic to have heard it after all this time!
As expected,  Suresh ji got a standing ovation for the brilliant presentation and the rarest of rare gems shared. They ended up on Anmol Fankaar of
course, within half an hour!
Suresh ji lamented that archiving was not done in India as much as America. He said that private collections need to be consolidated together by an
institution, a university, music department or perhaps a National Sound Archive. He said that private collections are not archives and collectors
are not archivists. Collectors and archivists together can play an important role in presentation, documentation, dissemination of the music and the
information inscribed in the grooves of old gramophone records.
Nita enquired about the fee for becoming a member of the SIRC and was told it was Rs 10000 (lifetime).
This lovely session was followed by a panel discussion on records. The panel consisted of Suresh ji, Girdharilal Vishwakarma ji and Harmandir Singh
'Hamraaz'.  He told us about an upcoming conference on copyright in 2012 (whose detail is already shared on RMIM) which will discuss many important
issues. He asked all to give suggestions for the same. He said, Its important that the general public should get some right to old works so that better
archival can be done.
    Girdharilal ji next told about his collection effort. He said he has been collecting records since many years. He is a professional artist who
    focusses on collecting records from 30s-60s from all over India including Mumbai and also Pakistan. He told us about how he is digitising all
    his collection yearwise and plans to share it with all as it gets ready. We have already seen his 1954 and 1955 collection on Prof Surjit Singh
    ji's website and more are on the way! He told us that since he came from a humble background, this was an expensive hobby for him. His family
    members were not very supportive of it due to this reason. He told us that often he used to lie to them that they were gifts from friends
    so that they wouldn't chide him for “wasting” money on them. He often used to keep his records at friends and other places so that they
    wouldn't know about them. Even today most of his records are not at his home. He told us that due to limited finances, he had later started
    copying the records to casettes and then selling the records so that he could buy more records. Looking back, he says he wished he had more
    money at that time because he had digitised many rarest of the rare records (like those of film Bolti Bulbul) and sold them (never to be seen
    again) as he had no money for more records. He said most of his casettes are now in process of digitising and his life's aim was to provide a
    digital library for all. As many on Facebook know, he regularly shares rarest of rare songs on various groups.
    Next, Harmandir ji talked about work on the Geet Kosh and the book on composers which is on the way. He said he had been asked by some people
    for the Volume 6 and 7 of the Geet Kosh too. He said he was retiring from his bank job and would be able to devote more time to his documentation
    effort (which he called dead documentation as compared to live documentation by Girdharilal ji's digitisation efforts. Everyone of course objected
    to his calling his own work as dead documentation!). Everyone urged him to give high priority to digitising the existing volumes of Geet Kosh
    before going for newer volumes. He said he had received lots of updated information to them and would include it when it got digitised. Guri
    volunteered to finance the digitisation effort. The discussion expanded and a debate on what should be the framework which should be used for
    it started. Many including Nita, Chetan, me and Pavan volunteered to help in the task. It was decided that further discussions on how to go
    about the framework should be carried out in the group (which we should do now. The earlier we come up with the framework, faster will be the
    digitisation. All will benefit once its digitised as updating will be easier and better). Nita felt that it may take about a year to make a framework.
Lunch followed this panel discussion. Some who had to catch flights left.
    Lunch was followed by a presentation by Suresh Chandvankar ji on composer Roshan.This presentation is a part of his series called Kimayagar. Suresh
    ji explained that a Kimayagar is one who converts metal into gold. There are no known kimayagars who can actually do that but composers would
    definitely qualify as kimayagars since they have made lots of gold of a different kind!
    He told us that there have been 20000+ hindi films produced till date and over 150000 songs composed by over 1700 composers. Of these only 40
    have composed for more than 50 movies. Some names out of these are Lakshmikant Pyarelal (500), R.D. Burman(292), Shankar Jaikishan(173). Vasant
    Desai and A.R. Rehman have done 49 movies as per his statistic. There are of course others but he was of course giving examples. Others mentioned
    other composers in the discussion that ensued.
    He then took up the kimayagar under discussion, Roshanlal Nagrath. He said that not many in today's generation are familiar with him though they
    are with his sons and grandson. He recalled a function in which Hrithik Roshan where the compere asked the audience what was the significance of
    the surname “Nagrath”. The audience was wondering when Hrithik enthusiastically got up and said it was their family surname! The surname has
    come from the name of Roshan of course. Suresh ji mentioned that it is probably the only case of a composer's family taking up his name. There
    are of course examples for lyricists and singer's family taking up their names (like in case of Mukesh) or their pen names (in case of Gulzar
    and Naqsh Lyallpuri ji).
    He told us that Roshan was born on 14 July 1917 in Gujranwala (now in Pakistan). He passed away on 6th November 1967 after having composed for
    53 movies. His career which had begun with Neki Aur Badi in 1949 had its last film in the form of movie Anokhi Raat(1968). He told that the
    number of songs composed by Roshan is approximately 425. He then showed a number of pictures of Roshan in different moods including one with
    his wife Ira Nagrath (whom he told was a bengali Roshan met in Lucknow and married). He told us that in initial days when both came to Mumbai
    they even had to stay in a garage and times were tough.
    He then discussed the filmography of Roshan. He divided his work in two phases. The first phase was from 1949-1959 in which he did 32 movies
    out of which only 6 were popular (Bawre Nain, Malhar, Anhonee, Naubahaar, Raag Rang and Aji Bas Shukriya). He did some movies like CID Girl,
    Warrant, Commercial Pilot Officer and Coffee House which are not that well known. The second phase from 1960 to 1967 had lesser number of movies
    (21) but more (13) were popular (Barsaat Ki Raat, Aarti, Vallah Kya Baat Hai, Dil Hi To Hai, Taj Mahal, Chitralekha, Bheegi Raat, Nai Umar Ki
    Nayi Fasal, Dadi Ma, Devar, Mamta, Bahu Begum, Noorjehan and of course, Anokhi Raat).
    During his career, he had given important breaks to Indeevar and Anand Bakshi. He had worked with many other lyricists including Kidar Sharma,
    Sahir Ludhianvi, Kaifi Azmi, Shailendra, Shakeel Badayuni, Neeraj, Majrooh Sultanpuri, Prem Dhawan and Naqsh Lyallpuri. He also mentioned that
    he won his only Filmfare for Taj Mahal in competition with Naushad for Mere Mehboob. He recalled how Roshan had suddenly passed away in 1967
    at a function where he was laughing with everyone over something. Suddenly people realised that his mouth was still open but the laughter
    had disappeared. He had sadly passed away due to cardiac rest. Everyone was shocked to hear of it. Mukesh had recorded the song, Oh Re Taal
    Mile Nadi Ke Jal mein just days back. They had never thought this would become the last song to be recorded by Roshan. Roshan had infact been
    planning to record another song with Lata Mangeshkar for which the composition was ready. A tear-stricken Ira, said that Roshan had already
    taught her the tune and she would arrange the recording in his memory. This last song was Mahalon Ka Raja Mila.
    Suresh ji then went on to tell us about his education at Morris College, Lucknow. He also told that Roshan had received tutelage from many Gurus
    like Manahar Barve, S.N. Ratanjankar, Allauddin Khan and Bundu Khan. He also talked about Roshan working for All India Radio from 1940-1948. He
    mentioned how the family surname became Roshan with his 1950 born son Rakesh going on to become an actor and the younger 1955 born Rajesh
    becoming a composer like his father. Ira ji always encouraged them to do what they wanted to do. She passed away in 2005 after having seen her
    grandson Hrithik Roshan become a big actor.
    Suresh ji played a number of his songs. He talked about how all the major singers like Geeta, Rajkumari, Lata, Rafi, Mukesh and showed various
    singer and song statistics with him. Everyone appreciated the song clips played by him. He also recalled how Roshan had taken S.D. Burman's
    permission to reuse tune of Thandi Hawayen from Naujawan, mixed it with “Music for An Arabian Night” by Ron Goodwin in Lebanon to come up
    with the wonderful Rahen Na Rahen Hum for Mamta. A slide questioned us about which solo version of Dil Jo Na Keh Saka from Bheegee Raat was better!
    He also gave song examples to show how fond Roshan was of Raags Yaman and Yaman Kalyan. He also showcased pictures of various Roshan memorabilia
    like casette covers, booklets, CD covers etc. Everyone really appreciated the lovely audio-visual presentation by Suresh ji. Suresh ji and some
    others left after this.
    A video of a DD interview of C. Ramchandra was played for everyone. This had also been brought by Suresh ji.
    Next on agenda was Guri's quiz which is already available on Anmol Fankaar(with answers).
It had a series of visuals with one having to tell the theme, number of songs and of course guess them (either in order of audio and video). The theme
being letter 'A' was cracked and most of the songs were got right by Pavan ji's team. It was a really tough quiz particularly with the time limit at hand.
    Pavan wanted to do a quiz called Badalte Saathi on various singer-combos but due to paucity of time it couldn't be taken up as he and Arun ji
    had to take a flight.
    The meet was winding up now and we had a photo session. There was already talk about where to have the next meet. Jaipur, Mumbai, Pune, Lonavala,
    ... All sorts of names. Lets see which one it is in the Future!
    At the end, I'd like to thank everyone for making the meet so much fun and enjoyable. Thanks a lot to Naqsh Lyallpuri sahab and the Lyallpuri
    family for letting him spare his valuable time with us giving valuable insights. Thanks a lot to Veena ji, Rakesh and their family for spending
    time with us talking about Vinod ji. Thanks also to Meena Kapoor ji for spending some time with us inspite of her schedule. These interactions
    will be cherished by us for a long time. Thanks a lot to Suresh ji for bringing so much food for thought for all of us at the meet. Am really
    glad that Harmandir Singh “Hamraaz” (who clarified his surname as Sachdev on the first day) and record Collector Girdharilal Vishwakarma ji
    for making it. For quite a few of us, it was a dream come true to meet you. Your humility is really inspiring and we pray for more successes
    in your endeavours. All friends who made it (online and offline) really made it special. We hope to have you and many others at the next meet
    whenever it happens. All the co-hosts Chiranjeev ji, Kalyan, Shailendra, Anup Pandey, Ashok Dhareshwar, Chetan Vinchhi and Molloy have all made
    lots of important contributions to making the meet such a success over the last few months. Thanks a lot for the infectious enthusiasm and your
    tireless efforts inspite of having full schedules. Lots of treasures were shared. Many online friends met each other for the first time there
    and new acquaintances made. Lots of interesting sessions. Wish we have many more such meets regularly!