The Shire!

Violin...Flute...Bass Guitar...little drums...all in harmony....that's the the background score of the epic movie 'The Lord of the Rings'........in particular the background score for 'The Shire' ....the small village of hobbits is awesome!  I simply love this background score...amazing....beautifully composed.....the beautiful green village of Shire comes in front...and that sweet smile of the protagonist 'Frodo'...small huts..narrow clean roads..all the greenery around (Beautifully shot in New Zealand)... these small creatures -'Hobbits' living there a peaceful life...with their share of occasional thrills. It all starts with 'Gandalf the Grey' visiting the Shire...as he's been invited for the birthday celebrations of an old hobbit 'Bilbo Baggins'...an adventurist traveler....and the story goes on.. I love this movie...though I have not read the actual epic written by J.R.R. Tolkein....but after watching the movie...I feel pretty sure don't know why that the director has done full justice to the epic...I am sure Peter Jackson hasn't missed anything! Great dialogues..and the English...so beautiful...I love speaking out loud..the dialogues from this movie..! :-) ....it was not the usual slang and ungrammatical usage as we see in Hollywood....but it was like the 'Sanskirtized' dialogues in our old DD-1 epic Mahabharata!  Some good ones to quote:


Frodo: You're late.
Gandalf: A wizard is never late, Frodo Baggins. Nor is he early; he arrives precisely when he means to.

Frodo: I wish the Ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.

Gandalf: So do all who live to see such times; but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. There are other forces at work in this world, Frodo, besides the will of evil. Bilbo was meant to find the Ring. In which case, you were also meant to have it. And that is an encouraging thought...isn't that?

Gollum: We wants the precious...!  ( The only character in the movie.. who had no regards for grammar! :-) ). Some gems from Gollum: We wants it...we needs it...they stole it from us! Sneaky little hobbitses. Wicked, tricksy, false! 

They do not see what lies ahead, when Sun has faded and Moon is dead. 

Sam: What we need is a few good taters. 

Gollum: What's taters, precious? What's taters, eh? 

Sam: Po-tay-toes! Boil them, mash them, stick them in a stew... Lovely big golden chips with a nice piece of fried fish. Even you couldn't say no to that. 

Gollum: Oh yes we could. Spoilin' nice fish. Give it to us raw and w-r-r-riggling; you keep nasty chips. 

Sam: You're hopeless. 

The background score is excellent....and as I have mentioned before...music is the ink with which my memory logs are written in my mind...so this 'Shire' piece takes me down the memory lane...I still remember watching all the three parts of this movie with my good old friend 'Adi' in the sleepy town of Morley, UK...during the Good Friday-Easter long weekend of April 2006 at King street TCS hostel (Now plz don't think that TCS provided us a hostel in UK..but we called it so....as all the three back to back flats were occupied by TCS guys in that old Victorian age building)! The flats were at the first floor, and the entrance to the building was into a narrow lane with iron stairs...I often used to say that this entrance looks like those narrow & dirty HongKong streets which they show in those Kung-fu movies!


Later on in the next long weekend during May....we visited Scotland for the first time....and some places there in the countryside reminded us of some of the 'Lord of the rings' stuff....mountains...some misty..some icy....large pieces of land..some barren...some full of grass...beautiful lochs (Gaelic word for Lakes)...it was 'middle earth' indeed! 

Some good time spent!...Some memories to cherish!  Now when I look at my writing...I started with the movie...the music...and ended up in Scotland!

Hindustani Classical Concert

A Masters degree in microbiology, a doctorate in biochemistry, a beautiful and sweet voice able to move across the three octaves effortlessly...all in one named Dr. Ashwini Bhide Deshpande! She is one of the leading vocalists of 'Jaipur-Atrauli Gharana', of Hindustani Classical music.


I got a chance to go to this concert the other day at Karnataka Sangh hall in Matunga...where Ashwini Tai performed in front of a very small audience. The hall is comparatively smaller than other auditoriums in Mumbai I have been to and it was a free entry...yet there were very few people and most of the seats were vacant...for me the good thing was that I was able to see all the artists quite clearly from such short distance. I could see her face...sometimes smiling....concentrating at other times... She was looking so graceful, in a silk sari sitting with a tanpura in her one hand, eyes closed as if in meditation..!  The swaras (notes) were coming out with such ease yet with utmost purity and with perfect emotional quotient.


She started with Raag - Tilak Kamod...what sweet, pleasant and peaceful raag (Reminded me of a concert recording of Mehdi Hassan, wherein he mentioned about this raag, that 'Tilak Kamod' and 'Desh' are quite close in their structure..and it needs skills and caution so as to not to mix the two while singing).  A relaxed and gradual unfolding of the raag with emphasis on emotions was the trademark of Ashwiniji's style. Since I am a novice in the classical music field and have had no classical training, my limited understanding and knowledge has come solely from listening to the maestros through such concerts and recordings..especially in the last few years, ever since I joined my job in Mumbai. So mostly I am not able to follow much on the rhythmical patterns and other technicalities of a typical classical composition...but I think I do have some patience to wait and listen...and more often than not, the patience pays off..I am more for the emotional appeal of the composition...and if the intricate 'taans', 'harkat' or 'murki' are all for bringing out the emotions and the 'rasa' of the raag...then that's what I am looking for! And precisely that's what I got in Ashwiniji's all renditions last night...sweet singing...well prepared and cultured voice...and a graceful and joyous stage presence.


Her second composition was in a raag, the name of which I could not hear exactly...probably some form of 'Kanada'. It was a quite unique composition..with many short and lightening fast taans. I was able to grasp that some note or the other, is oscillating between two adjacent notes..which was giving a mystic yet soft touch to the song...and when I tried to play out the notes today on my keyboard (Thankfully I had recorded some part of the song in my mobile!)...it turned out to be two such notes - G (Gandhar) and Ni (Nishad) which were 'Andolan'. Again, my knowledge about andolan was purely based on the great Mehdi Hassan's old gazal recording, wherein he talked about the raag in which he composed his gazal 'Ek bus tu hi nahi, mujhse khafa ho baitha'..he explained then, about 'andolan' swara or note...that it can not be played on a Harmonium as it is oscillating between 2 notes...it's neither one note nor the other...it's something in between. Just found out about it on internet today that a note is called 'andolit swara' when a note oscillates between 2 adjacent notes.


She was going to end it there, but due to audience insisting, she ended the evening with an 'Abhang' (A devotional form of marathi poetry in praise of Lord Vitthala - an incarnation of Lord Krishna) in raag 'Bhairavi' (I am told that, that's the custom - usually Bhairavi is sung/played at the end of a concert!). I think I have never ever heard a devotional piece with so much sweetness...when I looked around...the audience was literally swaying sideways in a pure devotional atmosphere...the feeling was of being at the peak of the bliss!


The average age of audience must be atleast 50-55 years...that too..very few people arrived! You can guess the situation..me encircled by handful of elderly gentlemen and ladies with hardly 1 or 2 youngsters! It's indeed demotivating to see very few souls around you in a concert hall. For most of the performers that's not a very encouraging sight either. Well...I was least bothered about it once Ashwiniji started singing.....and I suppose she herself was hardly bothered at all...being totally immersed in her music.


At the end, I must mention that all the accompanists were playing for the first time (Tabla - Prasad Padhye and Harmonium - Sidhhesh Bicholkar), with Ashwiniji, but it never appeared so. At the back were two girls with tanpuras, I think probably were the 2 disciples of Ashwiniji and they added their voices from time to time at Ashwiniji's nod. Ashwiniji was encouraging and appreciating all her accompanists with smile on her face..and I am sure they were all enjoying to accompany her. Few days back I had mentioned humility is endangered in today's world...but I stand corrected today..it isn't....as long as true artists like Ashwiniji are there!


For the first time I was disappointed for not having a high-tech mobile with bigger screen, higher resolution camera etc...when I was trying to record whatever I could with my poor samsung mobile 3 mp camera! :-)


I have become a fan of her singing now...I need to collect her recordings now to quench my thirst...as I checked in my music folder and found none of hers.

Rafi, the versatile..!

Wadiyan mera daaman...raste meri bahein...
Jao mere siva....tum kahan jaoge...


Jab churaoge tan....tum kisi baat se...
Shakh-a-gul chhed degi mere hath se...
apni hi zulf ko...aur uljhaoge....


Jab se milne lagi...tumse rahein meri...
Chand sooraj bani...do nigaahein meri...
Tum kahin bhi raho....tum nazar aaoge...


Mohammad Rafi...a voice immortal...the emotions speak through his voice...as I promised myself to write about my affection for Rafi saheb's singing..here I go!


I don't remember when did I fall in love with Rafi saheb's voice...it just happened..I think it was the musical show 'Saregama' with Sonu Nigam as host....some participant sang a Rafi song 'Tere mere sapne ab ek rang hain'..and probably it hit some chord within me... and then Sonu being himself a fan of Rafi..used to sing a lot of his songs..once he sang  'Do sitaro ka zameen par hai milan aaj ki raat'...wow I thought if it sounds so well in Sonu's voice..then the original song must be wonders. One of the participants sang ' Aanchal me saja lena kaliyan..zulfo me sitare bhar lena...' and the other 'Man tarpat hari darsan ko' and yet other one 'Aaiyaiya karoon mai kya suku suku.. and I thought all of these songs of different moods have been sung by the same Rafi..I was amazed by his versatility...


It wasn't like I had never heard him before...as a child and a fan of 'Chitrahar & Rangoli' of the good old DD-1 (That was the only TV channel available those days), I must have listened to many Black & white and eastmen colour era songs...but as I have mentioned before, it was only in the age of  the musical show 'Saregama',  I started to take notice of the melodies of old, and the maestros who composed and sang them!


Mohammad Rafi belongs to the golden era of Hindi Film music....and his contribution to make it 'Golden' is really immense. His was a classically trained voice of Punjab, with so much sweetness and continuity..that many times his voice seems to be effortlessly dissolving into the infinite sea of swaras..! Am I making any sense here...?  He has sung for numerous bollywood actors and his one specialty was to be able to mold his voice according to the characters played by those actors in the movie.


When you listen to 'huyi shaam unka khayal aa gaya' .... just see how he caresses each word like a silk touching past your skin..! All the sweetness of the world in voice..while he sang this beautiful gazal...bringing out the pain & unsuccessful attempts of a separated lover to forget his beloved!


Another song with somber mood..'Din dhal jaye raat na jaye' ...is a trademark Rafi song...delicate pronunciation of words and small vibrations in voice..that's called 'Expressions'....an intoxicated & dejected Devanand comes in front of our eyes while listening to this song!


When you listen to 'Man tarpat hari darshan ko' ...you can see the God thirsty devotee in front of you...can't you? A divine journey...is what his voice takes us through...!


He has also sung numerous peppy and fast numbers like 'Aja aja..mai hu pyar tera', 'yahoo chahe koi mujhe jungli kahe'...and you are awestruck with the range and versatility of his singing.


Just few days back, I came across a documentary on a TV channel about Rafi...wherein his son quoted an incident when once Rafi saheb came back home in an exited and a child like joyous mood and told his sons that today the superstar Amitabh Bachhan came to meet him in the recording studio or something like that...he was really exited that he was singing for a superstar like Amitabh, and Amitabh himself came to see him!!  Such a humble and innocent man he was.....that he didn't even know that he was a superstar himself!


I am not sure if the same can be said about today's singers and composers whom we often see fighting with each other in the musical reality shows on TV! But alas...that's the scene in each and every field today...not only music. Humility is indeed an endangered species today!