For the fourth consecutive year, the Harmonica Club of Gujarat has been invited by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation to perform at the annual Kankaria Carnival today evening for two hours. Watch out for the videos on this blog in coming days. 

Generation Next Picks Up the Baton

When Harmonica Club of Gujarat was formed two years ago, all the six founding members were in their late 40s and 50s. They had seen the popularity of mouth organ in their youth. They had also seen the gradual decline of the use of this tiny musical instrument with the advent of electronic keyboard and digital music.

The founding members made a conscious decision to perform in public parks, unmindful of the ridicule they might face from the public at displaying their enthusiasm openly. They thought this was an effective way to communicate with the masses and enthuse the young people to take up playing harmonica.

They proved right. Soon enough, several parents approached the club members with the desire to make their children learn harmonica. Founder member Paresh Bhatia, a music teacher, came to their help. He started training school children. The result is here for all to see. Aditya and Devansh, not even in their teens, have become good mouth organ players in less than a year's time. While they received their initial training from Paresh Bhatia, they achieved finesse under the able guidance of the veteran guru Manohar Vaidya, who has been playing mouth organ for more than 50 years.

Here is a popular number 'Kisi Ki Muskuraahaton Pe Ho Nissar' played by Devansh and Aditya under the tutelage of the Guruji at the Kankaria Carnival in Ahmedabad on December 29, 2009.

Kankaria Carnival

(L-R) Alex Lobo, Chandramohan Bahadkar, Bakul Avrani, Bansi Gajjar, Manohar Majithia, Manohar Vaidya, Naresh Khandwala, Aditya Chalishazar, Devansh Shah, Pratham and Ayush Solanki, Yogesh Bhatt, Kumar Pal Shah, Sandeep Patankar.

The Harmonica Club of Gujarat was invited by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation to perform at the Kankaria Carnival for the second successive year on December 29. The club members played 12 popular old Hindi film numbers. The programme was held on the bank of the Kankaria Lake before an audience of an estimated 2,000 people.

It was a team effort with all the songs being played by more than two members. We are presenting here the video of the opening number performed by all the members together. The star performers were the youngest members - Aditya, Devansh, Pratham and Ayush - all not even in their teens.

Kankaria Carnival............

A......N.......D.......we are there !!!!
yes !! once again The HCG will perform on 29th December between 6 to 7 pm on stage 2.
This time the members have decided to play with karaoke tracks.
15 states, 15 districts, 5000 performers to entertain 15 lac visitors in 7 days.... full of fun !!!
What are you waiting for ????
come on join us !!!!

mere sapno ki raani kab aayegi tu ????

Sunday the Funday, once again we were invited by the authoroties of Kankaria Lake. Nachiketa played a very famous song 'Mere sapno ki raani kab aayegi tu...'
It was a real fun and all the players went there with their family members.
The train which we see is the Bajpai Express imported from U.K.
Many queens wanted to get down but the train did not stop...!!
Anyway !!! next time...

Maang ke saath tumhara maine: 18th song

Manohar Vaidya

Savare salonee aaye din bahar ke: 16th song

Dr. Naresh Khandwala and Manohar Vaidya.

15th song : Aaj kal tere mere pyar ke charche

Paresh Bhatia also known as Yuvaraj sinh of Harmonica Club of Gujarat, can hit sixers with any harmonica. He is playing the SWAN 12 hole professional harmonica. Recently he imported a few harmonicas of the same make for the beginners.

13th Song : kankaria karnival

Bansi Gujjar and Manohar Vaidya : Chhod do aanchal zamana kya kahega....
Who cares !!!

11th song : Thandi hawa ye...

Piyush Pandya and Manohar Vaidya.

10th Song : The Group Song

Yaad kiya dil ne kaha ho tum.

9th song : Chakke pe chakka

Kumarpal Shah and Manohar Vaidya.

7th song : Ajib Dasta hai ye

Yogesh Bhatt and Manohar Vaidya.

6th song : Pal Pal Pal

Alex Lobo and Manohar Vaidya.

Ichak dana The 5th song

Kiran Shah and Manohar Vaidya..

4th song Uthe sab ke kadam

More and more young boys are joining the club. Thanks to Paresh Bhatia for training them for The Kankaria Carnival in a very short time.
From L to R Amit Bhatia, Het Shah, Rushin Patel, Aditya Chalishazar, Devansh Shah, Amay Banker.
All of them promised for their solo performance in the next programme.

The 3rd one Ye Dil na Hota Bechara : Nachiketa Desai

We call him ND, some call him Muneer Ahmed !!! He has a special skill to dominate the stage and capture the crowd.

2nd song : Hai apna Dil

As rightly said by the friends at Harmonica club in Banglore, this is a Harmonica Anthem. Not only the harmonica Players but listeners also want this song to be played.

1st song of Kankaria Carnival : Jaha dal dal par

Apoorva Bhatt, Rupesh Parmar and Amjad Khan started the programme with this melodious song.

Kankaria Carnival

Ahmedabad: The state Government and the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation organised a weeklong gala carnival to celebrate the opening of the renovated Kankaria Lake on December 25.
Chief Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the carnival on Thursday. The event saw many renowned artists of Gujarat participate. We were invited by the AMC and the standing committee to perform for one hour on 30th at 8 pm on stage 5. Almost 1.5 lac people visited the carnival everyday.
History says that Built in 1451 by Sultan Qutub-ud-din, the lake has internal sluice gates and an island garden which is also known as the Nagina Wadi. This is an Urdu word for beautiful garden. Also, the lake has a fairly large number of birds who visit every year. Mughal Emperor Jahangir and Empress Noorjehan were particularly fond of this lake.