ICMS II

The details: Kushal Das on sitar accompanied by Abhijeet Banerjee on tabalaa; May 08, 2005; Emory White Hall.

The best ICMS venue hosted a wonderful improvement and a return to form (at least the form I cherished as a member) for the ICMS concerts (after what I -- as part of a minority of one, probably -- considered an unsatisfying opening this year). Abhijeet Banerjee is a familiar face now (and he continues, like all great tabalaa players, to make the most complicated improvisation look so effortless), but Kushal Das was a welcome surprise. With mii.nDs that would give blues guitarists nightmares he presented some wonderful vilambit explorations and offered some cherishable melodic fragments in the madhya and drut sections of his performance. And then there was the interplay between his offerings and Abhijeet Bannerjee's masterful fluent tabalaa improvisation.

The first half was comprised of a performance of raag maarawaa with the alaap followed by explorations in jhap taal and tiin taal. After the break ensued a lamentably short session beginning with a short alaap and a tiin taal (madhya lay) performance of raag baageshrii before the concluding dhuun in mishra pahaa.Dii (keharawaa taal). When it became evident that there was going to be no bhairavii (ASIDE: "Music from India" on WRFG 89.3 FM opened its classical section with a performance by Kushal Das of raag bhairavii, so I could take consolation in that!), I just hoped that the pahaa.Dii would make up for it. It almost did (Seriously, how can you make up for a bhairavii?) with some wonderful mixing in of other raags (too fleeting to make a guess -- unless you were a raag monster). All in all, a great antidote for that mainstream do last month. Next up is Padma Talwalkar who was responsible for the only morning concert I have attended in Atlanta (and that was in August 2003!). I could almost wager a fortune on a good time.

me the radio star

well not so dramatic. but I merited a mention on Music from India on WRFG 89.3 FM yesterday [more on my association with the show and the station]. I had made a strong claim to the host of the show that Asha Bhosle and Lata Mangeshkar, although talented singers, were not foolproof in the pronunciation department. While she strongly contested this, a song on her playlist yesterday gave her proof (at least for Asha) and that's when I merited mention. 5 seconds of fame. And now, back to reality.

music, another indian restaurant, and a movie

(reverse chronological order)

sunday, december 01, 2002
Began the new month recovering from a surprisingly welcome Yesudas song on WRFG -- haven't heard them play him in over a year. And then there was another ... and another ... Still reeling from the great playlist they had for the old segment (instead of songs from the 40s that absolutely no one in the small listener group they have has heard of), we inaugurated the month with lunch at Haandi, another Indian restaurant on Indian Trail. Modestly priced sumptuous food -- I'd recommend the Hyderabadi biryani. And the paper plates seem to be a vestige of a legacy of take outs, but that's a minor annoyance.

Minor annoyance in a CD exchange ...

We also took the opportunity to pay our respects to the Mars Music store on Pleasant Hill Road -- they're going bankrupt and consumers had promptly stripped the store bare ... it was both interesting and unsettling to walk past empty display racks, which once supported guitars from leading brands (yes, I'm partial to guitars .. the other sections were equally barren). Next door was Universal Groceries {last time} and I promptly picked up some more Hindi film CDs:

* Swami Dada/Hum Naujawan

* Godmother

* Bemisal/Jurmana

* Arth/Saath Saath

* Umrao Jaan/Bazaar

The rest of the evening was a quick trip through the commentary track of Rashomon and then my second attempt with audio books: Dashiel Hammett's Red Harvest.

saturday, november 30, 2002
Grocery shopping was the chore du jour. The Asian Variety Show concluded their mini-series dedicated to hyping Deepa Mehta's latest directorial venture Bollywood Hollywood, a North-Indian love story played out as an affectionate spoof of Bollywood film conventions and set in Canada. They also featured audience reactions to the shot-completely-in-New-York desi take on Meet The Parents.

A marlowe marathon, another indian restaurant and some terrible DVD commentary

I dedicated Saturday night to indulge in the pleasurable pastime of watching old flicks on the boob tube. TCM was running a weekend special on Philip Marlowe movies and I caught three of them at a stretch on Saturday.

* I started off with Murder, My Sweet, the adaptation of Farewell, My Lovely. Dick Powell played Philip Marlowe, with a vulnerability that Bogart's popular interpretation lacked, but with a lot less cynicism and a tad more humanity. Dick Powell was famous as a star of the musicals (he starred in 42nd Street, which I caught last month. He was working on a change of image, and believed that the original title would give the audience the incorrect impression that this was another Dick Powell musical. The film was renamed only his insistence. That apart, the film is entertaining, noirish and adequately tongue-in-cheek.

* Next up was Lady in the Lake, starring Robert Montgomery who also directed it. This would be my favourite for the evening. In addition to presenting the dark cynicism of the genre the film also provides us with an interesting perspective on the events: that of Marlowe himself. Just like the popular games like Doom and Quake, we share Marlowe's point of view for a majority of the film. Fans of Duke Nukem 3D will relish the nice moments when we see ourselves/Marlowe every time he looks at a mirror. The film is narrated in flashback, and the narrative is broken only when Marlowe steps back to talk to the audience.

* Last in line we have the 1945 pre-release version (as opposed to the official radically changed 1946 release) of The Big Sleep followed by a documentary tracking the differences between the two versions. Bogart rocks as Marlowe.

Sunday, September 08, 2002

The hosts of Music from India on WRFG 89.3 FM tossed a challenge to the listeners. A guest in the studio had a few fragments from a Lata song of yore that she wanted information about. Being the Hindi film geek that I am, I called up my friend who lives most of his life connected to the Internet via DSL and coordinated a search on Google. Needless to say, we found the song. The lyrics may be found (in Devnagri) here. Strike one for Google. {more on me and WRFG}

The Indian restaurant du jour was Heera of India. The only thing that hampered an otherwise decent lunch buffet was a power failure. This is the first time I have seen this in the United States, and boy did it bring back memories:). Needless to say, Chris was rather ticked off. It would have been interesting to see the consequences of a long power failure on commerce, but the power came back on as soon as we were done with our buffet (a coincidence?).

We devoted our evening to the commentary on The 400 Blows by Brian Stonehill. In one word, terrible. He clearly had nothing much to say and failed to address the basic question of why the film was so influential. All he kept saying was that it turned the world of filmmaking upside down (which as you may gather is not a very profound statement). All we gathered was that this film (along with Godard's Breathless) marked the advent of the French New Wave in cinema. He also kept repeating facts about Truffaut's age when he made this film, how Truffaut died at an unfortunately young age, how old Antoine is in the film ad nauseum. When he found nothing to say about what was happening on screen, he resorted to bios of the different players in the film. It is rather unfortunate that the only good DVD commentary I have heard this year was Roger Ebert's commentary accompanying Citizen Kane.

Himalayan lunch, Indian music and a film trip to Vienna

I was denied the pleasure of listening to Music from India on WRFG 89.3 FM. All I got was static ... Wonder what went amiss. This meant we could drive out for lunch earlier. Our choice was the lunch buffet at Himalayas. The last time I came here was about a year ago. A decent selection, with a satisfying beef curry. The rest of the stuff passed muster, but lacked something to make it a complete winner (the cholé palak was a tad bitter and the vegetable makhani seemed a little less makhani). Still, I'd recommend it as a better restaurant, because if I remember right, the buffet menu changes as well (as opposed to some places that rarely vary their selections).

Next stop: Sona Imports, after a long long time. Apart from stocking a great music and VHS collection, the place is also DVD rental and pruchase heaven. We decided to rent Ankur (The Seedling). This 1974 critique of the caste system in India, was Shyam Benegal's directorial début and also launched Shabana Azmi as an actress. {more}. The film is generally regarded as the catalyst for the parallel cinema movement (although this issue is up for debate). I also got two more CDs:

* The golden voice of Asha Bhosle {CDF 029/MIL}

* Premnagar/Ajanabee {CDF 120217/EMI}

A visit to the Decatur branch of the Dekalb County Public Library and I had more items on my hands (as if The Mike Hammer Collection volumes I and II that I picked up on Friday weren't enough):

• Books
  
  • Vertigo: The Making of a Hitchcock classic
  • Play it Again, Sam: Retakes and Remakes
  • The Beatles Reader
  
  
• CDs
  
  • Classic Mancini: The Film scores
  • Chicago/The Blues/Today! Vol II
  • The seven letters from Tibet/Tangerine Dream
  
  

A typical 70s Bollywood product, Oscar-winning visual pornography, and a weekend of darkness

I began my movie spree on Friday night with Trimurti (which I got last weekend). The film had all the ingredients of a typical Bollywood entertainer: lost-and-found children, the rich/poor divide, devious relatives, a touch of mystery, mandatory (yet unwanted) comic relief, songs of love, hope, innocent fun and platitude, thodi si maara-maari (aka clichéd fight sequences) and the ever-late-for-everything Indian police force. That in a nutshell was Trimurti. A longer review is in the works and is the latest addition to the unfortunately growing pile of things to do.

I finally got an AC/DC adaptor for my Sony walkman on Saturday from Radioshack. Have been meaning to do that for over two years -- talk about taking procrastination to new heights!

Got two more DVDs from the India store trip this time: the B Subhash howler Tarzan and another Dev Anand exercise in hogging footage, Des Pardes (which is more objective circles is regarded as his most coherent work -- NOTE: the word coherent is not to be used lightly when one discusses the corpus of Mr. Anand as a director). An interesting sideline: The title of the film is set in a red font (evidently Mr. Anand's favourite colour -- perhaps for the hidden message it holds for unwary viewers) styled so that the letters appear to drip blood! Since the film is ostensibly about traditional family values and the pull of the west, I guess one must interpret this as another subtle cautionary signal to viewers who should have known better than to have ventured into this.

The movie for Saturday evening was the winner of 7 Academy Awards: Out of Africa, using the life of Karen Blixen (played wonderfully by Meryl Streep) to unfold yet another tale of the triumph of the human spirit, the film is a terrible exercise in visual pornography -- on display here are different visages of Africa put together to create breathtaking visual after breathtaking visual connecting often empty scenes of now clichéd vignettes in the life of Ms. Blixen. I offer my most humble apologies to everyone (including the Academy that never awarded the only deserving Oscar for this film -- Best Actress for Ms. Streep) who liked this film when it was made, but I am sick of travelogue tripe that seems almost packaged to appeal to the committee: schmaltzy epigrams about life, love and the whole yada-yada, sweeping irritating pompous orchestral music by John Barry (who perhaps deserves plaudits only for the Bond theme) and Robert Redford looking like the suave sexy Robert Redford and spouting Redfordisms (watch him revisit his role with added pizazz in the equistrian disaster The Horse Whisperer. Sidney Pollack has an interesting body of work as a director (and even as an actor: Husbands and Wives, Eyes Wide Shut and Random Hearts), but I have nothing to say in his favour for this one. Perhaps I've become too cynical for my own good, unable to appreciate the candy-floss Enid Blyton-ish happy world movies anymore.

I made up for that environmental disaster with The Brides of Dracula, kindly furnished by AMC. The second Hammer Dracula film, this doesn't have Christopher Lee playing the Count, since he died in the last one. Good fun, nevertheless.

I tuned in to Music from India on WRFG 89.3 FM, and the only uplifting aspect this time was the sole R. D. Burman song featured in the oldies section: Hum dono do premi from Ajnabee. I was happy enough to forgive them for citing the reason for playing this 1974 song as "we have to play some eighties"!!

In the evening, Chris and I attended the final double-bill of the Weekend of Darkness at the Rialto. The movies on show were Sweet Smell of Success and Kiss Me Deadly.

Sweet Smell of Success was a very tight film with great dialogue (reminding me of Laura) and great performances by Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis.

Related

Roger Ebert's Greatest Films

Filmsite


Kiss Me Deadly, which I have read about in several articles on film noir was anything but expected!! While firmly drenched in the conventions of the genre, the film is a campy tongue-in-cheek adaptation of Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer novel of the same name. With moments of sheer scientific inaccuracy and jaw-droppingly funny random violence this irreverent film deservedly got resounding applause from the audience once it was over. Starting off with creepy credits proceeding top-down as opposed to bottom-up (something modern filmgoers will remember from Se7en), the film has great lines, funny moments (intentional and unintentional) and an ending that presages modern cult favourites like Pulp Fiction. Highly recommended.

Related

Film Monthly
Filmsite
Other what's in the box movies {NOTE: potential spoilers}

Greasy lunch and a ton of music

So yesterday I woke up late and only managed to catch the last 45 minutes of Music from India on WRFG 89.3 FM. As the oldies segment began, they threw a quiz to the listeners: Name the movies produced by Raj Kapoor that did not have Shankar-Jaikishen as music directors. I called in, of course, only to get a clarification on the question: they were looking for collaborations with other music directors while Shankar and Jaikishen were still alive and kicking (oops composing). That ruled out the RK-LP and RK-RD films. I could think of only two films: Aag (his début as director and producer, which had Ram Ganguly churning out the music) and Jagte Raho (which he produced, but was helmed by Shambu Mitra and Amit Mitra, with music by Salil Chowdhury). As it turns out these aren't the only ones: Ab Dili Door Nahin produced by RK but helmed by Amar Kumar had music by Dattaram. When Jaikishen passed on in 1971 (after Shailendra in 1970), RK had no choice but to turn to LP for Bobby.

Our choice for South Asian lunch place for the day was Sabri Kabab House in Norcross, GA. The lunch buffet would give you cause for concern about the name of the place. Another cause for concern for health-conscious people is the high oil content! The food wasn't bad, but nothing to scream to the roof tops about: beef curry, lamb, cholé, naan, roti, rice. The overhead TV sets broadcast the Zee Gold Bollywood Awards 2002 (with grating unfunny compere Ruby Bhatia and endless lip synching performers) to add counterpoint to the lunch. As an aside: Why don't they get someone who can speak Hindi to host these shows? The English adds a surreal touch to the already dismally staged proceedings (Indian film award shows in general) and it becomes more painfully obvious that the actors and actresses of today are not comfortable conversing in the language of their profession. Sigh!

Our next stop was Discover Mills on Sugarloaf Parkway in Lawrenceville, GA. Be warned: this is not an outlet mall. And it's a painful ode to the credit card company with a large chalice adorning a junction somewhere inside. Disappointed, we headed to a Borders outlet housed in the Gwinnett Place Mall in Gwinnett County. The ambient album playing at the music section was Led Zeppelin's untitled album. A good sign, that. It's also the first time I've heard LZ in a Borders branch. After some interesting reading and music sampling sessions, I walked out with a handful of jazz CDs off the bargain bins and a couple of books. The young lady at the counter also tactfully asked us if we would like to make a book contribution to the Atlanta Primary school children. Not that I'm averse to charity, especially for a good cause, but asking people point questions like this puts them in a no-win uncomfortable situation where there is clearly no choice (yes, yes, we can argue that I could have said "No, thanks"). Here's what I got:

* Miles Ahead/Miles Davis and Gil Evans

* Milestones/Miles Davis

* Sketches of Spain/Miles Davis

* Jazz: Red, Hot and Cool/Dave Brubeck Quartet

* Ken Burns Jazz: Herbie Hancock/Herbie Hancock

* Blues Guitar Heaven {a 2-CD compilation}

* Ebert's Bigger Little Movie Glossary: A Greatly Expanded and Much Improved Compendium of Movie Cliches, Stereotypes, Obligatory Scenes, Hackneyed formulas, Shopworn conventions, and outdated archetypes/Roger Ebert

* Introduction to Postmodernism {a humorous look at this abstract bag of worms}

WRFG, a pleasant culinary surprise and hot sun beating down

I was back with Mrs. Pandit on the radio show {last post: two weeks ago} today and things were much better. The new section was, as always, nothing to sing home about (read all the puns you want) but the old section finally included a couple of good RD Burman songs: one from me Yeh Vaada Raha from the film of the same name (a song that has gained notoriety thanks to a remix accompanied by a very explicit video to match it!) and one from Mrs. Pandit, as a surprise for me, in the ghazal/bhajan section, Ae Sakhi Raadhikey from Jurmana. We also aired Chalo Ek Baar Phir Se from Gumraah, a Sahir/Ravi composition rendered by Mahendra Kapoor. This song was a favourite of Dad's and in fact the only thing I remember from this film is Sunil Dutt sitting at the piano (with Ashok Kumar and Mala Sinha looking on), as Dad tuned in to oldies shows on different cable channels. Interestingly, we got yet another RD Burman request: the ethereal Kya Yahi Pyaar Hai from Rocky. What makes it more interesting is that the new section included a song from the unbearable Na Tum Jaano Na Hum, which has the story revolving around this very song.

This was followed by an ambitious drive to a restaurant in Alpharetta called Ruchi. Why ambitious? Well the drive was about 45 minutes long, coupled with the fact that complete directions were not at our disposal. We got there sans mishap and just in time too (Sunday brunch buffets, as they called them, ended at 3pm and we got there at 2:30pm). The place was worth every mile of road we drove (not to mention the aggravating heat!). The owner of the place greeted us cordially. His countenance, the ambient music (which comprised songs from A. R. Rahman's Pudhiya Mugham) and Thiruda Thiruda and the buffet (which we opted for) confirmed the restaurant's claim to be a provider of South Indian cuisine. From memory here's what we had: sambhar, rasam, pakoras, rice, biryani rice, crisp fresh parathas, mixed vegetables, chana masala (cooked South-Indian-style), cabbage kootu, chicken 65 (this brings back memories of eating places back home that had numerical suffixes to dishes:), chicken curry, lamb curry. The accoutrements included pickle and pappadam (this alone got the buffet and the place bonus points. I have never seen a more authentic homely buffet). The salad section comprised the usual greens but there was also my favourite kind of salad: onions, tomatoes and green chillies in curd. Fruit salad and ice cream made up the dessert section. What more can one say but BURP. The service continued to be nice, polite and unobtrusive. We followed lunch with a little chat with the owner and got some more information about the place. It's just 3 months old (or young if you may) and although it could be a drive for a lot of people living in Atlanta, I'd strongly recommend this place. It's worth the drive.

An evening of sudden thunder claps and light rain brought down the temperature a bit, but it's still very much a Georgia summer.

WRFG, lunch and a capella

After a good night's sleep I lumbered off to the radio station again today morning {ref: last week}. No Pancham gems this time on the show thanks to some generally bad time management and long boring new songs ... The only time I even got on the air this time was for a plug for Chalo Ek Baar from Gumraah, one of Dad's favourite songs --- I remember Sunil Dutt on the piano lipsynching to Mahendra Kapoor's voice, but that's about it.

Chris and I hadn't seen each other for over a week and so we had lunch at the Euclid Avenue Yacht Club {review by Wai Gen Yee, a fellow labmate} in Little Five Points. The sandwich with generous chunks of beek seeped in mesquite with sides of baked beans and homemade BBQ sauce was over-filling. We followed this up with some shopping at A Cappella Books across the street (this store abounds in a lot of beat literature and out-of-print books). I gave in to two purchases: Stairway to Heaven: Led Zeppelin Uncensored by Richard Cole (although what I have is not the updated 2002 edition) and The Worst Rock-n-Roll Records of All Time by Jimmy Guterman and Owen O'Donnell. The latter is really howlarious. We followed this up with a trip to school to check email. I even got Chris to listen to two of my recent acqusitions, thanks to Renu. then some time at Starbucks discussing music theory, notable trends in Hindi film music, postmodernism and magic realism.

I spent the latter part of the evening working on some SQL before returning home to surrender to music and reading. I had a miscellaneous compilation of 80s music (mostly Bappi Lahiri) thanks to Mrs. Pandit and the compilation I got last Thursday: Asli Naqli (Laxmikant-Pyarelal)/Itihaas (R. D. Burman).

WRFG and a jam session

Mrs. Pandit suddenly remembered that Anand Bakshi was no longer with us. This had dire consequences for the R. D. Burman tribute I had hoped to have on the show. I still managed to mention his 63rd birth anniversary on the air with a few more facts, especially in the context of Anand Bakshi. I also got in two RDB/Anand Bakshi songs, both from the 1971 film Amar Prem (for which both R.D. Burman and Bakshi deserved awards, but got nothing!). Each track was preceded by a sound byte: Ustad Amjad Ali Khan introduced Chingari koi bhadke (arguably the best words to emerge from Bakshi's pen) and Pancham himself introduced Raina beeti jaaye. I also managed to squeeze in the Dil Padosi Hai take on Shaam se aankh mein nami si hai (which Gulzar got Jagjit to redo in Marasim). That was all the RDB you got on Sunday. Maybe July will be a lucky month. {last week}

The stinking weather didn't help matters and the only consoling thing about the rest of the day was the first jam session I've had: with Vinay and Vijay. An acoustic guitar and an electric Epiphone with an effects pedal and amp and a passable synth. The hightlight of the evening would be our funk/blues/jazz-laden take on the Anand-Milind ditty from QSQT, Papa kehte hain.

The evening was devoted to more listens to Rama O Rama and Dil ka Darwaza Khol De/Asha sings for R. D. Burman (Tape/T-series).

WRFG

Yet another day on Music from India {last visit}. This time around, I met the other group that hosts the programme: Jagan Bhargave (incidentally a Tech graduate from the 60s and another person with a connection to Pune), his wife Suman Bhargave, their frequent guest Radhika (who happens to be from UGA Athens), their guest for the day Reena Ronvellvala, and Salim (who hosted the opening classical music segment). I was on the air for the first time today -- as a guest on the show. The section I contributed to was, as always, "Down memory lane". The relevant RD Burman selections were:

* Rasta Dekhe Tera from Humshakal, complete with trivia on the resemblance to the opening guitar notes of In My Life by The Beatles

* Aise Na Mujhe Tum Dekho from Darling Darling

Since yesterday, I have been taking time out with origami. So far, I have a chicken, a fish, a rabbit and a turtle (today's addition). It's a very calming exercise. The evening was devoted to the regular evening mass. Dinner was a buffet at Mirch Masala after running into bad luck on two previous choices: the former Madras Café in its new avatar as a non-vegetarian-also Indian restaurant and Moti Mahal/Aangan which had now become Gokul Sweets (and was closed as well).

Music for the evening reading was tape 3 on the Asha Sings for R D Burman Golden Collection compilation which includes such rarities as Sharabi Aankhen, from Madhosh and Kisne Dekha Hai Kal from Heeralal Pannalal, both duets with RD Burman.

Another day at WRFG, lunch and a haul at Sona Imports

So I was back today on the Radio Show. I got a chance to meet Mrs. Pandit's regular co-host Dr. Asha Bhomkar. Again, my avid fans and friends (titter titter) couldn't hear me online, but statements from Mrs. Pandit and gobs of trivia confirmed my presence in the studio. Needless to say, more R. D. Burman goodies made it onto the air:

* Hum Bewafa/Shalimar (this was actually her pick, from a randomly augmented copy of Kashish (why randomly augmented? well, because Shalimar is a Polygram/MIL property and Kashish is an HMV release)

* Samay Tu Dheere Dheere Chal/Karm

* Pyar Ke Mod Pe/Parinda

* Tum Bin/Pyar Ka Mausam (The selection came off the Legends compilation, which has the Kishore and Rafi versions spliced together for aural comparison)

Lunch (Mrs. Pandit's treat) was at Indian Delights, a vegetarian restaurant in the same block as Sona Imports, our next stop. Sure enough, I went nuts and got some more (a LOT more) music than my previous visits {first visit, second visit}.

CDs

* Chhote Nawab/Bhoot Bungla (HMV/CDF 120206)

* Mere Jeevan Saathi/Apna Desh (Saregama/CDF 120083)

* Chhupa Rustam/Shareef Budmaash/Warrant (EMI/CD PMLP 5805)

* Dharam Karam/Biwi O Biwi (EMI/CDF 120239)

* Amit Kumar sings for R D Burman (T-series/ SFCD 1/594)

* Hare Rama Hare Krishna/Heera Panna (Saregama/CDF 120098)

* Aa Gale Lag Jaa/Tere Mere Sapne (MIL/CDF 157)

* Pyar Ka Mousum/Baharon Ke Sapne (EMI/CDF 120167)

* The Burning Train/Alibaba aur 40 Chor (EMI/CDF 120242)

* Do Chor/Samadhi/Krodhi (EMI/CDF 120230)

* Mela/Lakhon Me Ek (EMI/CDF 120317)

* Raampur Ka Lakshman/Kal Aaj Aur Kal (EMI/CDF 120251)

* Parwana/Bandhe Haath (EMI/CDF 120262)

Tapes

* Tezaab/Rama O Rama

* Songs from Anokha Rishta/Ek Naya Rishta

* Be-Lagaam/Jwala

* Professor ki Padosan

* Songs from Alag Alag and Jhooti

A spot on WRFG with Pancham

So at 0900 today morning I get a phone call from Mrs. Manorama Pandit, host of the Music from India show on WRFG 89.3 FM {more background: Radio Pancham}. She was going to be helming the show at 11 am all alone and wondered if I could help. We were both aware of the key hindrance to all this: I didn't have a car. Still, this was an opportunity I couldn't pass over. I got ready in a jiffy (well, it was a jiffy, compared to the average time I consume on a daily basis) and headed out to school to get to a computer so I could check the MARTA train and bus schedules (frequency was another concern since it was a Sunday). After figuring out the train and bus timings (yes, I could make it there, although a bit late), I called Vijay to confirm the extra fingerstyle guitar class we had (to make up for one where our instructor couldn't make it) and he offered to drive me over to the radio station. Talk about luck!

Housed inside an old school building (Moreland School) near Little Five Points, the rather modest broadcasting room was full of music: shelves to my right as I walked in and in the two shopping bags (courtesy, Mrs. Pandit) near the console. The show had already moved into the first section and the introductions happened over strains of Hindustani classical music.

The best part of the show would have been three choices of mine that got aired (including the bits of trivia I was only too glad to provide). Needless to say, they were R D Burman compositions.

* Aye Zindagi, a forgotten dirge about life by Kishore Kumar for the long-in-the-cans Hrishikesh Mukherjee-helmed murder mystery Na Mumkin

* Neend Churake Raaton Mein, a Lata-Kishore duet from the Dev Anand starrer Shareef Budmash

* Ghar Aaja Ghir Aaye, the lovely Lata song in Raag Maalgunji from R. D. Burman's début as composer, Chote Nawab.

So much for my début on public radio -- and I wasn't even on the spot even once, although trivia buffs could hear me in the background, correcting her when she cited Amar Prem and Bahaaron Ke Sapne as being scored by S. D. Burman.

Collectors over the phone, a triple thick shake and a great compilation of rarities

So I had an hour-long conversation on Friday over the phone with Mrs. Manorama Pandit, who has been hosting the 2-hour long "Music from India" radio show on Sundays from 11am to 1pm on WRFG 89.3 FM {see: Radio Pancham}. Turns out we are collectors of the obscure, except that her time frame begins from the 1940s, while mine would start from 1961 (Chote Nawab). Besides, I have an R D Burman focus, while she has a more general palette. Still, there seems to be a possibility of exploring and exchanging collections.

Skipped dinner and settled for a triple-thick milkshake (from the MacDhaba, desi lingo for MacDonald) thanks to Harish, who wanted the fudge sundae and (as always) they were out of it! Back home it was time to open up another of my RDB purchases, and I chose Anokha Pancham. Didn't regret it a bit. A great compilation of RDB rarities from the 70s, it included the title song of Dheeraj Kumar's 1970 film debut Raaton Ka Raja (yes, I remember the film too!). The compilation betrays RDB's soft corner for the bossa nova, which he introduced into Hindi film music with "Maar Dalega Dard-e-Jigar" from Pati Patni (1966). I followed that up with another combo of RDB scores: Anamika(1973)/Paraya Dhan(1971).

Radio Pancham

aka What a small world we live in

I'm sure each one of us has had some little experience that testified for the almost-trite adage "it's a small world". Well, I just had my own personal favourite today.

Some background first: WRFG 89.3 FM is a non-profit community-sponsored radio station that runs, among other interesting shows, a 2 hour 'Music from India' show every Sunday from 11 am to 1 pm EST. The show comprises selections of indian classical music, new Hindi film and Indipop releases, a 'down memory lane' segment featuring old Hindi film releases, and a tail segment that features bhajans and ghazals.

May 24, 2002: A little more about this (source: WRFG):

Hosts: Manorama Pandit,Jagan Bhargave

Co-host:Asha Bhoomkar

Perhaps the longest-running non-commercial and listener-supported radio program of South Asian music in the United States. Music From India offers a complete range of musical variety, from the classical to pop.

The first segment offers the best in classical music, both vocal and instrumental. The second segment features modern popular music from movies and other pop artists. The third segment goes back to more traditional forms of popular and semi-classical music including music from films, ghazals, geets, and devotional songs.

Community news and events, as well as live artists and interviews, are also featured.

Today, out of the random blue, in the old releases section, they played a song called 'chor tera naam' (kishore, lata). Yes,
obscure isn't it? Well, if like me you were as seeped as I was in RD Burman music, you could at least recognize the composer's touch. Sure enough, when they announced the credits, it was an RDB composition. from the film JAGIR. I must admit, it isn't one of his popular albums. But then, I'm a collector. Turns out one of the hosts on the show had purchased a CD titled "Evergreen Hits of RD Burman" and just played one of the tracks. She even wondered why they were called 'hits' (obviously she wasn't a collector, and yes, the song wasn't exactly popular material). So I called in with the information about the film. Incidentally, it's a 1984 film starring dharmendra, mithun chakraborty, zeenat aman with lyrics by anand bakshi (which was the information they were missing). For trivia buffs: It was the first hindi film soundtrack that T-series released . Being the chronic collector I am, I even got details about the CD and filled in some more credit blanks for them. Soon, I merited a mention on the program, but (the horror! the horror!) as a 'non-indian' who seemed to know a lot about Hindi films (especially la obscura JAGIR). Of course, I had to call in again to rectify their faux pas. This time the lady who actually bought the CD came over to the phone and began chatting with me, finding out more about where I came from and so on. Of course, I waxed eloquent about my being a fan of R. D. Burman (was it justification for the guilt of having known about so obscure an album?). As it turned out, she graduated from the same University back home as I did (The University of Pune). This doesn't say too much, since the U of P is an umbrella for a large number of different discrete architectural structures called colleges scattered all across the city that you could graduate from without even having seen the blessed structure (which is far-fetched, because everyone ends up taking a lot at this rather stellar structure/institution of the city). Turns out her daughter is a housewife in Pune right now and lives in close proximity of my residence back home. How's that for a small world? Now I have another contact in this foreign land.