Tribute to Mother

Tapan Bhatt, founder of the Harmonica Club, went through a trying times after his mother suffered a heart attack. She was kept in the intensive care unit of a hospital for more than a week before she underwent a bypass surgery.

A practitioner of hypno-therapy, Tapan diverted his attention to playing music and when among the youngest members of the Harmonica Club, Devansh Shah told him about the song 'Meri Maa' from the film 'Taare Zameen Par', Tapan started practicing the song at home.

On February 14, 2010, the Valentine Day, Tapan attended the Sunday Morning session of the Club at Parimal Garden. I had heard from Devansh and others about Tapan playing this very melodious and sentimental song. So, I persuaded him to play the song for the HCG blog. I took him to a corner of the park besides the lake and made him sit under a tree. He played on the harmonica along with the original song in the background.

For Old Times Sake

Nilesh Amin had promised me he would send me his video recording on his return to the US. But, I caught him off guard before he left the Indian shores. He was on his way to the US and stopped over at my place for a few hours. I literally caught him by his neck and forced him to play a song. I offered him one of my several harmonicas of different scales. He was at a loss what to choose. I gave him one at random. He was game and played whatever song came to him at that particular moment. I was dumb founded when he played a song, which I had never tried so far. I was his guru, once upon a time, I tried to solace myself and tried to pick some holes in his playing.

We then decided to play a song together. Please don't judge us by the quality of our playing. Catch the spirit.

Nilesh plays harmonica whenever he feels lonely

I met Nilesh Amin after 30 years. We used to play harmonica when in college. "Remember, you taught me how to play the song, 'Main Shayar to Nahi' from the film 'Bobby', which was a rage among the youth then?" he recalled during our brief meeting in Vadodara, his home town today.

I used to often spend days on end at Nilesh's place. He was studying for his engineering degree from the M S University of Baroda and I was a youth activist. Our common passion was harmonica and we used to spend long hours trying out the latest Hindi film songs.

Nilesh had come down to Vadodara to perform the last rites of his father Vishnubhai Amin, a freedom fighter and an alumni of the Gujarat Vidyapith founded by Mahatma Gandhi. Nilesh's mother, Kusumben Amin too was a student of Vidyapith and a freedom fighter.

Nilesh is the sole survivor of the Amin family today, having lost both his parents and his two younger siblings - a sister and a brother.

He had migrated to the USA in the late 1970s after his graduation. He lives in Sunny Vale, near San Jose, California. Both his sons were born there.

When I told him that I picked up harmonica after almost 30 years in 2006 when I was living alone in Bangalore, Nilesh told me, "Mouth Organ is the best companion to overcome loneliness." He said whenever he feels sad and lonely, he plays mouth organ.

Nilesh has promised to send me the video recordings of his mouth organ numbers after he returns to Sunny Vale.

Harmonica lover from London comes calling

Hello Mr. Desai

Thank you for your email. I am pleased to provide my profile as seen below.

I am a Guajarati born in Sabarmati, Ahmedabad. After schooling in Nadiad I did inter science in Ahmedabad. When completed my Mechanical & Electrical Engineering Diplomas in Vallabh Vidyanagar I went to Tanzania. After working as Electrical Engineer for 5 years I came back to India and introduced a new concept of Electrical services centre in Naroda Industrial Estate, Ahmedabad and worked there for 5 years. Then I moved back to Tanzania and worked there as Electrical contractor for 7 years. Finally I moved to UK in 1985 where I worked as R&D Engineer with Nordson UV Ltd until retired from work in 2007. I live in UK and visit my brother in Ahmedabad every 2 years.

I used to play Harmonica in my college days in 67/68 but lost the touch with harmonica during my working years. In January 2008 when I had some free time I picked up Harmonica after a big break and uploaded some tunes on YouTube for fun and my personal pleasure (http://www.youtube.com/user/Sadashiv45#) The very old harmonica I had is packed up and not repairable (Hohner 64 Chromonica 16 Holes). 4 moths ago I bought 12 Holes Seydel Chromatic Deluxe in “C”.

These days I am improvising on some Bollywood songs based on Bhairavi and gradually move to other Ragas. I have no formal training in music and harmonica playing. I do self study for learning music and improvise on Harmonica.

I am pleased to know that there are so many Harmonica players in Ahmedabad. During my next visit I would like to see you and others.

Best regards

Shirish Swami

Here is a number played by him:

Krishna connects from Nagpur

The Members Connect feature on the Harmonica Blog has begun to give excellent results. Music lovers visiting the blog are now able to connect with one another. It was a pleasant surprise to get a message from Krishna from Nagpur who sent me a lovely photograph of a squirrel. Here it is:

From Kathmandu with Love

I was online one day about two weeks ago when someone buzzed me through the google chat window embedded on the Harmonica Blog. He was Bhakta Magar from Kathmandu, a graphic designer working for a MNC IT company. He wanted my help in getting the tune of the song 'Yaad Kiya Dil Ne Kahan Ho Tum' played on harmonica. "I can't download this song from the Blog,Sir. Please help me get the song, I want to make it into the ringtone of my mobile," he said.

I emailed him the song. Next day, Bhakta came on the chat again and asked me to send my photograph to him. He wanted to give me a surprise. I didn't oblige him.

Today, I got this surprise gift from Kathmandu - my grandson, Maitreya's photo embellished by Bhakta. Incidentally, Maitreya completed 5th month today. Thank you Bhakta Dada, says Maitreya.

My grandson's toy

My five-month-old grandson, Maitreya, loves to listen to music, specially that produced by mouth organ. He invariably stops crying whenever I start playing mouth organ. In fact, this gives me an excuse to play mouth organ, defying the scornful look of my wife who has suffered my music for over 35 years.

I gave my 'Puck' and 'Chrometta 10' to Maitreya to play with. To my pleasant surprise, he held the harmonica just the way I hold it while playing.

Love all Serve all

Makar Sankranti - Festival of Kite flying

HCG has been flying the kites of LOVE to SERVE the under privileged people in the society with the unbreakable threads of UNITY.

HARMONICA our PASSION.

They are more than Harmonica Players

The HaLoH team

During my visit to Bengaluru, I happened to meet Avi and Chandrasekhar for some time. My intention of getting a few karaoke tracks from Mr. Mohammad Azam Fiaz, the one who is very much known on esnips for his Karaoke tracks, was discussed with Avi in CCD. We decided to bargain with Mr. Azam and share the amount between two clubs so that we would have many tracks at almost no prize. When we met Mr. Azam in his office, learning about both the clubs he streight away gave the cd containing all the tracks that he had developed by very hard work. He also promosed to make any karaoke we wanted.

I also went to Hyderabad where I met Mr. Sabnaveesji, a very close friend of HCG. Sabnaveesji came from very far to a place where I had some official work, waited till I finished my job and then took me to his residence for lovely dinner. We had lovely time at his residence. He also promised to come to Ahmedabad during a harmonica workshop.
Ramana, one of the HaLoH members also came to meet me on the same day I arrived in Hyderabad. We had a nice musical session at Mr. Mahendra Gala's residence followed by very heavy snacks. Despite his busy schedule Ramana spent almost two days with me. Ramana also promised to come to ahmedabad to meet all the members.

These people are not just Harmonica players or lovers, they are more than that.........!

Many thanks to all of them.

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.