The Jam of 25th May : "In the words of a visitor"

"In the words of a visitor" here has two implications: one that i was almost a visitor to this jam, and the other -Aditya , who's now in Mumbai, was amazingly blazingly nice to make a writeup of his experience of the jam(all by the great arrangement of Vinay!). And amazingly encouraging words are they! But before I let those precious words be seen, I will obviously do my customary ranting!

The Sunday I had gone to ISKCON Temple's Youth Forum to be part of their activities, attended a great lecture, did some dancing(They have a 'Kirtan' which is just like our jams) over beats of the Mridanga and Kartaals and had the hounour of doing some 'Seva': Serving food to the people who came to the lecture. Then I left rushingly to get some sleep and then head for the Jam, But back home I felt rather low and undecided about the jam-Tarun was in Gujarat and I had not brought my guitar back from Bhopal, so I thought maybe the stars are not aligned for the jam and since I had arrived unnannounced (I guess nobody knew I was in Mumbai), it was a chance to see how the jam was being coordinated..err..mmm..

I liked the idea that everyone had decided regarding the coordination: "everyone is coming by default-but people who are not coming phone in"

And great to have Sada Vinay Jee in the jam!

Before I go ahead, some news is that when I was in Bhopal, with the enthusiasm and drive of Naveen (our self appointed band manager!) we jammed by the Shahpura lake- and with great results, a lot of people came over and joined in, although with my earlier memory of jamming in another city, chandigarh that is, I was not really expecting such a great turnout! People just loved it! lots of people wanting to know if the jam will go on the next sunday as well!

Now, in the great words of the " second visitor" (Aditya that is) (no one remains a visitor in the jam for long! we're all soon part of the jam family, like it or not!)

I was standing outside the Andheri station at 6:15to visit a friend there, waiting for him to come and pick me up last sunday when it suddenly stuck me that visiting the MFM Jam is a huge possibility!Boy! how on earth could that slip off my mind? SO immediately i scrolled through my phonebook and dialled Vinay's number, finding much to my surprise, our Dear Dharmendra Pa Ji answering the call!! Whoa! Vinay was too much in a cinematic mode so th best thing to do was to ask him for aapka Suraj's number and call him up to know the JAM's whereabouts.The phone rang and Suraj picked up, a bit confused when I tell him my name but relieved and happy when I remind him which Aditya this is ( ;) )I'm surprised when Suraj says he was skeptical about the JAM happening but now that even I'm coming, said the JAM should go on and that he'll make it to our favorite spot opposite Camp Juice Corner in a short while as soon as he's bought a guitar, without which the JAM is quite impossible. Now this is Suraj an this is what we talk about when we talk about his enthusuasm for this initiative.When he says 'The Jam must go on', he truly & deeply means it!So we hang up on the mutual promise of meeting up at the same place in about a hour.It's 7:45 and i suddenly realize that it's a bit too late and that I should start for the JAM and so i say the byes and leave for the JAM in an auto who promises to take me there in not more than half an hour irrespective of the evil traffic that engulfs Mumbai on a busy Sunday evening.I was growing impatient by the patient. Impatient due to 2 reasons:reason a :: The last (and only) time i jammed was more than a month ago!reason b :: It was an electrifying day!So here i was sitting in the auto waiting to meet the legends of MFM rock with the clock now showing 8:50.Oh yes, my dear friend and Classmate from NIFT, Anshuman Srivastava was also intrigued by this idea and my descriptions of the JAM that he too was excited and eager to join in, was already there before me and sitting there with Vinay (Dharam Pa Ji) and Aapka Suraj.So finally I reached only to find the Jam in full swing with the numbers ( I don't remember but i guess it was some song by strings). The stage was set.The mood was there.Everybody was seated.. and those standing, on their feet and hands in the air.The Hellos happened and as soon as this song finished, Suraj and party requested me to wail out Toota Toota ek Parinda. So Suraj plays and Aditya Sings and so does everybody else and this is where u realise that its not your voice or his voice.. It's our voice. Its Unison. Period.The Jam proceeds and suddenly there's a new instrument in my hand. The Bongo!It's painful if u have'nt played this Beat Instrument in a long time and for my delicate fingers.. ouch!!But with Suraj and the other cheerful and Energetic lads backing u up.. the pain does'nt feel and every good song ended up with a Guitar-Bongo combo JAM which was amazing fun (though i got a swollen index finger for three days)!!

P.S.: I did not buy the guitar, just the belt and we mamanged to strap it over kailash's guitar, which was the lone guitar of the jam! "Kailash Meri belt wapas kar! hahaha!" and I DID bring a Bongo to the jam, which I was playing alone, with Ali watching in despair, (before anyone turned up) and got a a very nice and sweet "please could you stop playing this for a while" from an aunty (while she might have wanted to say "could you please stop banging on those 2 cylinders which make noise of the most exquisite nature like a madman?" haha!)

P.S. 2: And thanks Aditya for Christening our crazy guitaring as "energy"! We often compromise nmusical presentation for the sake of the engulfing energy and that has become a habit!