The Harmonica Club of Gujarat had the privilege of playing host to veteran mouth organ player from Hyderabad, Ramakrishna Sabnavees recently. Sabnavees has been in contact with several of the club members ever since the formation of the HCG more than two years ago. A self-taught man, Sabnavees is a great fan of Mohammed Rafi whose many lilting songs he plays on the harmonica.
When we informed Sabnavees about HCG's latest initiative of coming out with an audio CD of songs played by the members, he was thrilled and expressed his desire to visit us while we recorded the songs in a studio. "Sabnavees sahab, would you mind playing a few songs for the CD of HCG?" asked club secretary Tapan Bhatt. "Of course not, in fact, I shall be more than happy to be a part of the team effort of the HCG. I consider myself a member of the HCG," he said.
Sabnavees took leave from his office and came to Ahmedabad. During his two-day stay, he not only recorded a couple of songs for the CD but also played his favourite numbers to the accompaniment of congos by master musician Paresh Bhatia at an evening gathering at Bansi Gajjar's bungalow.
This photographs were taken during my visit to the crocodile breeding centre, Chennai.
I have used a harmonica tune played by ShriAshokBhandari. Both the tune and the baby that I am holding fascinate me. I wanted to ckeck the pressure of baby crocodile by putting my hand in its mouth, of course covered with a thick jute cloth. Unfortunately, i was not allowed to do that.
Master Kavit played ' Ye Dosti ' on a Diatonic Easy Rider. Kavit is basically from Nadiad, 60kms from Ahmedabad, He was inspired by the Harmonica Club of Gujarat. Today he owns a Hering special 48, and a few diatonic harmonicas. He is now focusing mainly on how to get the maximum out of Diatonic harmonicas. He has performed in his school and old age homes also.
He has promised to play Indian Ragas on his Easy Rider for us..............
The other day, we had a guest Mr. Salim malik, also known as Voice of Mukesh. Businessman Mr. Malik used to sing in his college days, and thereafter due to very heavy business load, left singing for many years. Satisfied with the achievement in business, he decided to develop his forgotten hobby again after almost 20 years. He started with a professional training under Mr. Bhuprndra and now is a well known singer again. He is invited by many business and corporate houses, private meetings etc. Aditya and ManoharVaidya accompanied Malik on their harmonicas. That was a Funday !!!!
On 7th March. 2010, Mr Sandeep Patankar a member of HCG accompanied with him his 2 aunts(father’s sister) at the Sunday practice session. Mrs. Kamal Thakar, an accomplished classical singer who performs occasionally as radio artist and stage shows, sang some old filmi compositions accompanied by her younger sister Mrs Asha Damle with harmonica being played by our maestro Vaidyaji. Mrs Kamal Thakar has graduated in music in 1962 from Khairagarh University -the only music university during those days with B.Music(Honours). She is married to Mr Srikant Thakar –himself a claasical singer belonging to a family of musicians, who was working with All India Radio and retired as Chief Producer. Mrs Asha Damle also sings as a hobby but has excelled as educationist- herlast assignment as the Principal of Dr Radhakrishna School –a renowned school at Borivali-Mumbai .Mr R G Patankar their –father was also a accomplished tabla and harmonium player who worked with Blind School for music and a Litho artist by profession.
He is a photographer by profession and a mouth organ player by passion. When on a short visit to Ahmedabad, Rajesh Goswami, the official photographer of the Indian Army based in Agra, heard about the Harmonica Club, he dropped out of the sight-seeing tour his host had arranged. Instead, he came to meet the members of the club at music teacher Paresh Bhatia's office-cum-residence.
The music session, which began at 11 in the morning continued well past 3 in the afternoon. Rajesh regaled us with some old melodies. "I want to first listen to you," he said before agreeing to play the mouth organ. Club secretary Tapan Bhatt obliged and played his favourite number, "Yaad kiya dil ne kaha ho tum."
While waiting for Tapan, who postponed his scheduled visit to an industrial estate to grab the opportunity of meeting the visitor, I asked the usual 'where, when and how' Rajesh picked up the harmonica. "About 30 years ago, mouth organ was quite popular among the young people and widely used by music directors in the Bollywood films. I was in the school when I first heard our neighbor Shivanand Mishra play mouth organ," Rajesh said.
He pleaded with Mishra to teach him how to play the instrument. "First, you need to have a mouth organ only then can I teach you," said Mishra. With Rs. 35, Rajesh bought his first harmonica, a made in Germany instrument without a scale changer. "Mishraji too had a plain mouth organ, without a scale-changer."
Agra being a hot tourist destination, many foreigners visited the city of the Taj Mahal. Rajesh befriended a foreign tourist and managed to get his first scale-changer harmonica from Germany. Since then, there has been no looking back. Rajesh became a star harmonica player in Agra, having won several cups and medals at various music competitions.
He had bought a Chrometta 8 mouth organ with him. It was amazing to watch him play half a dozen popular numbers on that single octave instrument. Here are a couple of them.
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.
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.
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.
