My tribute to a genius called Jagjit Singh

Last year on September 24 I heard on the television that Jagjit Singh was hospitalised after suffering brain haemmorage, and in the next few days the news only got gloomier. On October 10 he passed away. He created a void in the music world, especially in the ghazal singing fraternity; he also created a void in my life. I haven't had the privilege of knowing him, nor even meeting him, yet I felt a huge loss in my heart. I guess that's what the 'greats' do. Through their works they become a part of your life, your world!

I was introduced to Jagjit Singh's music at home. I was about 7, when there used be endless small, informal parties at my place. There was always good food and drinks, and a lot of music. In most of those sessions Jagjit and Chitra Singh's music was played as their music was everyone's favourite! This was life for me and my family and friends and it went on. One day we heard about the death of Jagjit and Chitra Singh's son, and soon we realised that Chitra Singh would no longer sing. Like typical Bengalis, who like to discuss everything (almost), they discussed the tragic death, Chitra Singh's absence from singing etc. 

Many years passed and I had moved on to listening to more western music than Indian. It was just by chance that  I met a few people while I lived in Hyderabad, who quite unknowingly and unintentionally got me back into the world of Jagjit Singh's ghazals; and, this time I guess I became a more intense fan.

I've had the privilege of attending two of his concerts in Hyderabad, and what musical treats they were! The man was a genius! I remember the second concert that I went for, he was not well, but one couldn't tell! He was at his best throughout! We refer to him as a singer, a ghazal maestro, but what is hardly spoken about him is that of his performance style. It is rare that a singer from a serious genre of music entertaining the crowd while performing at the highest level. Most Indian classical and semi classical artists sit with a tanpura or a harmonium and sing and talk about the songs or the ragas only. Jagjit Singh would crack a joke and get back to singing some of the most difficult notes without any effort, leaving the audience spellbound!

Today, on his first death anniversary, I pray to the almighty that He keeps our dear Jagjit Singhji safe and happy. His genius is irreplaceable, but I do hope that there will be enough talent to keep his legacy going.

These 2 tickets are a part of my most treasured possessions! In fact, I went to Viceroy (now Marriott) in Hyderabad all by myself to watch this concert! It was a bit awkward to sit all alone amidst so many people around, but as the evening progressed with one gem after another I became one with the music around me. "Badi nashili raat thi..."

The grind begins - school admissions!

I picked up Anushka's 1st school admission form today... I said 1st as I'll have to pick up many more so that she gets a seat in one of the good schools! It is not easy to get your child in one of the top schools in the city unless you are quite rich or famous or both! Joy and I are none! But, we will do our best to get Anushka in one among the 4 schools I have shortlisted. They are counted among the best in the whole of Mumbai and the most preferred and sought after in the Western suburbs of Mumbai. I don't know who needs more luck, Anushka or me? But in all of these tense moments, it is such a wonderful feeling that my baby is soon going to go to school! :)

Anushka turns 2!

I have been planning this day for a few months. There have been nights when I was awake, and thinking of all the things that we'd do on our little one's birthday. I believe in doing things myself, and that becomes quite a challenge often, like putting streamers, balloons etc. I had no idea that putting streamers along the edges of the ceiling can be such a task! I spent many hours planning how to put them, and imagined for a few more hours as to how will they look like, but my planning failed completely because of the shape of the room, the fans etc! Thank God, Joy was such a sport and my mother-in-law was around to help!

I wanted the birthday to be a simple one, but it had to have all the fun elements. Visiting Sneha Sadan is no plan, it has become a part of our lives. Even before I conceived Anushka, Joy and I had decided that we will visit either an orphanage or an old age home for her birthday, and also have a regular get together with family and friends. It was just by chance we got to know about Sneha Sadan right before Anushka's 1st birthday and we visited there. We didn't have to think or plan anything after meeting everyone; without saying anything Joy and I knew that it is this lovely home that we will visit whenever we want to! In the 1 year we have built a bond with the children and the sisters, and they will always be a part of our lives.

We went to Sneha Sadan in the afternoon as we organised lunch for them. The children decided what they wanted to eat and accordingly, food was ordered. I'm not too keen that Anushka cuts a cake at Sneha Sadan as I don't want to remind the children another time that they don't have parents to take care of them. I know their pain and hurt and regret can never be reduced, but I don't want too add to what's already there. So, the plan was to have another 2 children whose birhdays were in August too to cut the cake along with Anushka... everyone cheered and sang , and it was such a beautiful moment! I hope my Anushka grows up to cherish these extra ordinary moments.

There was an early evening get together with family, and some of my students who Anushka just loves! Anushka loves ducks, her bath time mates! So, Joy suggested that we have a duck shaped cake. After a lot of research we decided on  a Donald Duck cake from Birdy's (our favourite cake shop). It goes without saying that the cake was heavenly to taste!

I always wanted to play the piano while singing the birthday song for my family, but that never happened, and another 1st time experience in my life happened with Anushka!

Here's the video!

Anushka participated during a game of passing-the-parcel by moving her hands and legs, as if she was dancing, while the music played! I think she loves gifting people; that was one thing she thoroughly enjoyed... giving away the return gifts!

Four years of blogging and the Olympics!

I started blogging 4 years ago the day Abhinav Bindra won the first individual gold medal at the Beijing Olympics. I was so happy that my country got a place at the medals tally with a gold medal that I wanted to do something, and I dared to step into blogging! The past 4 years I have blogged about a variety of things that touched my heart, and today I am writing this post as many Indian athletes have touched my heart and their achievements make me happy.

To start with, what a lovely way to mark the last day of Olympics 2012... wrestler Sushil Kumar scripted history in Indian sports by winning medals in 2 consecutive Olympics! My favourites, Saina Nehwal and Mary Kom created history too! I am sure these 2 women will continue to play exceedingly well and make us all proud for a long time to come! Parupalli Kashyap was such a surprise at the Olympics this time! If he continues to play like this then the day isn't far when he too will bag an Olympic medal too! Vijay Kumar, another unsung hero, got a sliver medal - how many of us knew him before he won the medal? Through the 2 weeks there were so many highs, many really disheartening moments, some really disappointing moments, but on the whole, India has done a pretty good job this time at the Olympics. 6 individual medals in 1 Olympics is definitely a fairly encouraging thought. Who knows we may double it up at Rio in 2016! 

A new beginning!

One of my new students in one of the schools (not mentioning the name) is autistic. I know a little about autism, but this was the first time I met anyone with the condition. Though it was difficult to get his attention at the start, and make him play the piano; however, towards the end of the session he showed me the middle C on the piano and responded when I called his name. I felt it was a good start!

This school has quite a few children with various difficulties, and weak motor skills is the most common. Some of these children come to the music class, and respond quite well. And, when they are given a little extra attention they play correct notes on the piano! But this autistic boy's condition is a little bad, though he is good at math!

I always wanted to work with differently abled children, but I did not have the courage to do so mainly because of lack of training and experience.  Life, however, has presented me with this wonderful opportunity to prove to myself whether I can really do something to make a difference to those children who are a little different from most of us! 

London Olympics 2012

Olympics 2012  is just 10 days away, and how much do the Indians know about the Indian contingent who are going to paricipate at the London games? There has been bits and pieces in the newspapers about some of the participants for some time now, and suddenly, there are write-ups about quite a few of the participants in the past week or so. There is a little on television as well, thanks to the sponsors! But, the excitement that gets built during the IPL matches or the regular cricket matches or the European football tournaments, there's almost nothing for the Olympics, sad isn't it?

The tiff between Lee and Hesh made headlines for many days; hoping it is kinda sorted now! Wonder how will Sania Mirza perform at the Olympics! She is more of a star than a real player!

Last Olympics, at Beijing, some Indians made us hugely proud. Abhinav Bindra brought home the 1st individual gold medal!  Sushil Kumar and Vijender Singh's bronze medals did encourage many to take up boxing and wrestling! 

Over the 4 years I have come to know a little about a few sports people, like, Mary Kom, Krishna Poonia, Ngangbam Soniya Chanu and a few others.

India is particpating in 13 categories. I know about all the 6 badminton players and most of the boxers... wow! I can be quizzed on them; I completely admire Mary Kom! Some of the shooters, besides Abhinav Bindra and Gagan Narang, have become famous like Ronjan Singh and Sodhi Rahi Sarnobat. Among the ace archers brother-sister duo Rahul and Dola Banerjee, Dola will be missed! Do we know Garima Choudhary will represent Indian as only Indian judoka to qualify for the upcoming London Olympics. I didn't know what judoka was till a couple of weeks ago!

The Indian sports fraternity needs more support. There isn't much difference from the last Olympics till now. The Indian Government is so deeply immersed in scams and mismanagement  that there is no time left to concentrate on sports (other than cricket of course!). It is only because of some sports enthusiasts that there is a significant improvement in quality and facility in the past 4 years.

Through this post I am wishing Team India all the very best! My favourites are Saina Nehwal, Abhinav Bindra and Mary Kom, but I am going to cheer for everyone in the team. May the medals shower on the Indians at the London Olympics!

Recycling audio cassettes

Audio cassettes are obsolete and are never going to make a comeback, I think. But, there are so many memories attached to those cassettes. Most of us have grown up listening to music on cassettes. Since recording music from one cassette to another was easy, many of us had our own personalised music albums.

With the newer technology for listening to music there is just no use of cassettes in our lives anymore, but to throw away such memories really hurts. I still have some of the cassettes that contain the compilations I had made several years ago. In fact, I threw away a few just a few months ago, and my heart broke! 

Just yesterday I was reading something on the Goonj site and while going through their recycles products catalogue I found that purses and folders that are made out of audio cassettes. What a lovely idea! 

This is how a folder made from audio cassettes looks like! There are other products, such as, pouches, wallets available as well. Find them at:

http://www.unwrapindia.com/shop/goonj

The few cassettes that I still have will go to a great place to get recycled, and I am not going to be upset anymore!

I googled a little to find out about products made by recycling audio cassettes and I found this video quite interesting. Here it is :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5ePKiCYd4o

Anushka at 21 months!

My Anushka completed 21 months today! 18 months to now have been such a lovely journey, so many 1st times to add to the baby book! She started walking rather late, and while we were still worrying if there was some problem in her muscle development or anything else she almost started running the day she turned 18 months. And from that day on, I am running after her! She dances every time she listens to her favourite melodies; hums along with me when she is in a  mood; but most importantly, she always identifies any video or ad film she likes on tv or the computer!

Her (vocal) vocabulary improved quite a bit, but her gestures improved drastically! With about 16-17 words she can utter she explains almost everything to us with her hand gestures! She has a very strong mind of her own already! Her naw (no) can be heard quite distinctly every time she doesn't want to do something! Her yes is usually an 'uh' or a 'haan'. Her 'didu', Bengali for maternal grand mom is 'dzoo', and my mother just doesn't have a choice but respond to that!

I am trying to remember all that happened through these 3 months, but it's so difficult to list so many things. Oh yes, she can solve jigsaw puzzles that are recommended for children who are 2+. She can't completely insert the puzzle pieces inside the slot, but she never puts any wrong piece in any slot. If I am sounding a little proud I must be excused; I am just too excited... mothers with young children will understand me for sure! 

She ate her first pasta in tomato base, half moon-shaped chicken cutlets, fish-shaped fish cutlets; her favourite was a fish cutlet that looked like a face that had eyes made with peas and the nose and mouth were made using tomato slices! Well, I cooked all these especially for her. I never took much interest in cooking before! 

Though there are many new developments some of the old habits still exist. She very strongly dislikes her pediatrician, though he is one of the nicest doctors I have met; she still takes several hours to have her dinner, the sleep time is as bad as ever no matter how hard I try. But in spite of all the crazy things she does that makes me sometimes want to just give up and cry 'cause my body and mind just can't take the stress, she still keeps me going. Becoming a mother at 35 is not always an easy thing if one is not physically fit, and I am not. I have quite a few health problems, body ache being the worst of them all. But after becoming Anushka's mother I think I can run a marathon someday!

P.S. Anushka's father got her a book and a set of puzzles for her 21st 'monthly' birthday! :)


Here's the video where she works on her puzzles!

It was a lovely evening of music, dance and poetry at the Lokhandwala Garden to celebrate Poila Baishakh and Rabindra Jayanti; two very special days for Bengalis. Many Bengalis from Andheri to Kandivali gathered here to be a part of this 'Bonghomie'!

It's been 16 years since I last performed Rabindrasangeet on stage, and I thoroughly enjoyed singing. Also, I wore a Dhakai saree, a first-time ever! This evening was special as I have missed not singing all these years, plus I performed with my father  for the first time! 

My father, Ranjan Mitra, was the first Bengali, if not the first Indian, to have cut western music albums (in 33 rpm) with HMV back in the early 70's. He was a regular performer back in the day, and sang with many prominent musicians including Louiz Banks! Besides singing he loves playing the harmonica. It was wonderful accompanying him on stage today!

Another high this evening - my daughter Anushka sang 'tata-tata' the moment she heard 'Mamo Chitte Niti Nritte'! We were pleasantly surprised as to how she instantly recognised the song that she occasionally heard at home, and she is only 20 months! 

 One of the youngest in the audience!

It'll be great if all 3 of us perform together one day. It's not very common to see 3 generations performing together!

Anushka singing?!

Anushka may still be too small to sing, but she looks as though she is! By the way, these days she hums along with me , of course, when she is in the mood for it!