The Jam of 29th Dec--- Good Byee 2008

The jam of 29th Dec--- GOODBYEE 2008

I am back and so was the jam ---WITH A BANG-- we do that usually right hehe ,
The jam was there although i had to vanish for a lil while..apologies please.... and yes i was late as my usual (see friends i confess here publicly)but i take here to fill in the space which i was missing for so long....

Well for all curious or not so curious of where i vanished leaving my MFM, let me share a piece of my Bon Voyage coz it represented one big world community to me like MFM... its the place called Auroville near Pondicherry--where some zesty people had taken up to convert a barren land into a forest in some 30 years ,;where humanity thinks of living in harmony, not only with the people but with nature;truly an ideal city in the making -- yeah if all of them you just think work selflessly towards the goal; where you can just serve on in any restaurant or coffee bar, where you can build building with your own hands, where the mornings start with the chirping of the birds and the night dawns across the Bay of Bengal---- sounds picturesque right,, its a heavenly experience-- you can go biking on muddy roads and return to watch a community movie at the town hall, you can go to a place called Sadhana forest and sit down with 1000 other people who come from not only different cities but countries , where people play music without understanding the language , but in solace with one language of world and thats music...... where i conclude that our language , cast , creed ,religion , or country are no barriers to understand Humanity but its just the space and respect we must give to each other and to the ecosystem we live in , to be thankful to everything so beautiful that is around us ... i miss Auroville but as for how some of our MFM participants are taking the spirit ahead , far and wide, i return back to MFM ,carrying all the good spirits with me and preaching the goodwill that auroville taught me........

Back to "Aamchi Mumbai and Hamra MFM"-----
Gearing up to the end of yet another year and am not repeating how the jam went this sunday -- It was the usual Big Bang with smiles and cheers of audiences, well lets not say the audience but the participants, its one community where everyone wants to speak, sing and be there.. it feels good and satisfying when people tell us we come here every sunday to listen to you, or when they stand up , let go their fears and tell us" i dont know to sing but could you all sing this song" .... yeah might be they don realize sometimes we ,especially me ,turn out to be the bad singers too ... but the whole point lies in to let your voice , to raise yourself to do what you had like to... it feels good and satisfying when people wanna sing a vande mataram or dedicate a song to their loved ones, it feels good when people from all quarters want to sit down at one common platform to appreciate humanity ,it feels good when people just want to relax and forget all differences and sing along in one voice,, it really feels good to see Music savoured with Meaning.....

so our hearts bind strong to the movement, to the meaning of it, so every sunday binds us all to come there from all walks of Life and let our spirits free, ........

no matter how many jams some of us may miss, no matter how many blogs don reach to you ,, no matter if you have been with us just for one small moment,, but my people i am sure MFM is just one Big Bang Movement now , the spirit of which every soul touched by it takes along...

With the Dawn of 2008 where we stand united again as one community , one people, one Humanity , Let almighty bless us alone to spread cheers and smiles ,not just across nations but across the globe.......

From all of us here on MFM-- all those present,-Pulin, Gauri, Kailash,Gajendra,Bharti,Ishant, Akshay,Rohit, Ashwini,Vrinda,absentees thats Tarun( we really really miss his djembe)Suraj, Vinay,Chintan, late comers(like me ofcourse), all in the family and the lovely people who just join us every sundays ......- A LOVELY GOODBYE TO 2008 AND WE ALL WELCOME 2009 WITH NEW HOPES , NEW DREAMS BUT SAME GOODWILL FOR ALL........

MONIKA VANISHING HERE AGAIN WITH A BANG -- HOLD ON ONLY FROM THE BLOG OR U SHALL BE READING THIS PAGE FOR THE WHOLE DAY...

Snapping down the pictures of the jam that i simply dint describe, but you read it on the faces of evryone involved... right..

our lovely and lively audience yet to get energized by the tunes...

in a row , our girl power has been increasing with Ashwini, Vrinda , Bharti and our krishna just playing the right tones with guitar hehe

Gajendra aka gajjju (stress the j's ) and ishant at their best, while kailash plays his usual silent these days and me thats monika and gauri are just impressed hmmm

our guitarists, Gajju, Pulin and Ishant in sync as Akshay is all smiles.......see we do spread cheers haha

finally our lovely Toddler, sorry dont know the name , but just becoz she requested us the song "aditi" ,yeah in her not so refined language we called her aditi...

hmm lets say MFM is growing from toddlers to kids ,, well he reminded me of harry potter and he just wantd to " rock on" tana nanana

and so is MFM lapped amongst families, cute aditi is all ears to us ;)

after a long break i had a lot to share with the audience.....

since we dint have the group picture, this one is the one with maximum members ,so lets end with it...

no am not gloomy , am just lost , well for a change am serious, appreciate that... hehe

The Jam of the 7th December!

The Jam of the 7th of december, 08


In this jam I had left at the last moment and I had waited for Amar and he obliged by coming, listening to my pleading voice. Si we have a participant returning to the jam after almost and year!!! we both sat in the auto and then are on our way, Gauri is already there and is making panic calls that she is all alone at the jam location. So we rush it. Then when we get there Gauri is nowhere to be found! While Amar calls and I take the guitar out and start to warm up with the guitar to look forward to boring people in the session that shall follow. Then we are pleeeeased to find Gajju and Kailash coming in! what a pleasant surprise! So Gajju starts with the song "Tum ho tau Gaata hai Dil" and I fele that maybe everyone is singing for me, but soon my heart breaks when I find out it is not so!

Amar waits patiently in the time being, holding the leashes of the horses of his crazy energy! soon I sing the old and rusty number "write about it " by lynyrd skynyrd and feel satisfied having sung it! Then Amar starts and we warm up to pacing up the whole Jam in our usual manner, taking each "meaningful" song and then pacing it up so that everyone is clapping and cheering and in tears of madness! Everyone feels great having let out all the excess energy that we carry with us, negative thoughts etc. etc.

so the jam proceeds on, There is a lady whose Birthday is there and Amar becomes the Master pf ceremonies and gets everyone to cheer on the 'auspicious' occasion of her birthday! he sings a nice song on the occasion and we follow.

we also sing some real meaningful songs, Wande mataram, Dil se, Kar chale hum fida jaano tan, which make everyone feel and connect to the sad events which are going on these days. Then I, as usual unable to hold myself, go out and announce that music for meaning is our one and a half hear old platform for us unpracticed, unorganized musicians to get together and say out what we want to say about all that we feel is there in the society as there should not be, through the old and trusty and entertaining medium of music to the people, creating a little platform where we can express ourselves, the inner voices of our souls and let others also do so, where none judges no one and we all welcome any sort of thought and input to the platform. The I also took the opportunity to speak about all the terrorism that is going on these days, and that, fighting and all are just not solutions to wrongs done to one. The answer lies in each one of reflecting on how we lead our lives, and finding peace within. I also took the opportunity to speak about the terrorism that the smart politicians do , without any weapons, by playing games of brainwashing simple people into believing that they must hate the other religion, so on and so forth.

Also Notable is when Amar gets everyone to stand up and say prayers for the souls which lost their lives in defending us against the terrorist attacks, so that we can peacefully stand here and play. That is a moment of great realization and touches me deeply, and Im sure each one us as well!

There are many song requests, some out of line from the theme of peace and unity etc, but we entertain then as well, not making the whole jam too focused on one single issue. so around nine thirty , Amar and I pack up to leave, While Gajju, Gauri and the other guys continue to play on for a while. Gajju's guitaring is great.

All in all, the jam is good. Although personally I feel somewhere we loose our focus on on vision and mission of creating and articulating peace and harmony and unity on this platform, it still is good in these ways:

It gets us out of homes, together at a place where we express ourselves, both artistically and spiritually and make happiness for ourselves and well as for others, at no expense of any resource other than our hoarse (After the jam) voices and a broken string or two, and it gets us to meet people who have similar intentions and thoughts and creates a sense of purpose for all of us. It surely does creates happiness for the people who come there, many come week after week and become 'regulars'! This is how all of us got together!

Although, I reflect and it is apparent to me that before MFM, could turn into a movement, it was and is really much less than that. From my experiences now, it becomes apparent to me that movement, to be really a movement, gets people, involves them activities and such which makes a significant , increasing and positive change in each individuals lives. Ill share more later, but these thoughts for now.

Pulin, Tarun, Kailash, Gauri, Gajendra, Amar and me are among the jam makers, Chintan and Monika are missed! Where's Vinay? He is in Allahabad!

So that was that for this jam! The first jam I get to attend after coming from Vrindavana!

Cheers and A Merry Christmas and a Happy New coming year!