Music for Meaning Independence Jam-15th August @Mahindra Chloris, Faridabad

On the Sunday of 11th Aug 2013, Pragati Singla (Suraj's sister) Came over to the jam, observed, enjoyed, played the tambourine and lent her vocals as well!! She liked what she saw and it gave her the idea of organizing a participative jam at the society she lives in, the Mahindra Chloris in Sector 19 near DPS Faridabad. Quickly She coordinated with Suraj (Your's truly!!) and the jam was on at the community hall in her society. It was decided that the jam would be a plugged (Amplified) one. The 15th being the independence day, we decided to do a medley of patriotic songs and soon the whole society was told the sequence of the songs (the setlist) and were asked to prepare to participate in the jam. We (Suraj, Pragati, Pukhraj Joneja and Ravish Bharti) prepared the setlist and reached the venue at around 8AM. After the flag hoisting at the society the jam began at 9:45AM. We started with 'Aey mere watan ke logon' which Pragati sang and slowly most of the audience started cheering. A lot of people left there seats to join in the singing to take the open mic. We proceeded with 'Vande Mataram' by AR Rahman, 'Aey watan tere liye' from Karma and many old patriotic songs. The jam was a great success and later we were invited by one of the family for tea. We and everyone enjoyed and brought a spirit of Independence day celebration to the day. Here are the pics:

 The audience

  Ravish, Suraj and the participants

  Suraj, Sangeet (a participant), Pragati and the audience

 The energetic audience participated in large numbers!

Pragati sings 'Ae mere watan ke logon'

 One of the participants performed a song

The 'family' jam of 11th august 2013 @SRS Mall Faridabad

This Sunday's Jam was great! In terms of audience, we had the greatest of them in numbers. We missed Sulabh Ahuja and Yogesh Mali but Suraj Joneja, Pukhraj Joneja, Ravish Bharti and Joy Mishra were present as the musicians, Our resident Photo pro Chetan Saini was present there before us and we had a lot of guests-Suraj came with his family, Anterjeet Singh came with his wife Smiley Bedi and Rohan Monga came with his family as well and some friends of his. We had some female vocal accompaniment thanks to Pragati Singla. We rendered various numbers both meaningful ones and otherwise and the towards the end of the jam Joy Arrived and we played various English rock numbers! A person from Bengaluru (I lost his name) came and requested various rock songs, including Hotel California, The wall among others. Now the jams have become a regular affair and everyone's excited and waits for Sunday to come! Here are the pics of the jam: (For the videos, do a search for "Suraj Joneja" on Youtube and bang you will have all of them) (I am lazy to embed them here!!) 

L to R: Ravish, Pukhraj, Suraj (Standing), Mrs. Joneja, Pragati Singla

Pukhraj strikes a chord!!

Suraj Plays some riffs!

L to R: Ravish, Pukhraj, Suraj and Pragati

Look who's our new lead guitarist!! Rohan Monga's Son with his 'electric guitar'!!!

The Windup Pic:

L to R: Pragati Singla, Smarth Singla (Holding the guitar, Anterjeet Singh (tallest of all), Smiley Bedi Singh, Pukhraj Joneja, Diva Singla, Joy Mishra, Suraj Joneja, Ravish Bharti, Mrs. Joneja.

MFM Still lives on: the Jam of 4th August 2013 @Faridabad

The co-ordination for the jam had started almost 4 days before when I created an event on facebook for the MFM jam and invited all the local faridabad friends. Sulabh, the talented guitarist, vocalist and drummer came over with his wife a little earlier to my place in Faridabad, sec-14 (He lives in Gurgaon, about 35 KM away!!). He had initiated the MFM spark here in faridabad almost 5 years ago when he used to jam regularly here with his friends (See mfmfaridabad.blogspot.com). We prepared some songs as we had met after a long time.

At around 6:50 PM we(Suraj, Pukhraj and Sulabh) left in cars for the SRS mall, carrying our guitars. We reached in time and Chetan Saini, the great Photo pro just arrived. Rohan Monga, an old school friend came with his very cute son. We took our positions and started the jam with 'Allah ke Bandeh' which 3 of us rendered in collective accord. Later on Anterjeet singh (old school friend) came with his wife, Smiley, my Bhabhi-Kratika and Sulabh's wife-Megha and his your brother japjeet. We sang various songs, ranging from Rubaroo, Aadat by Atif aslam, Bandeh by Indian ocean, Maa Rewa by Indian ocean, Dama Dam mast kalandar, Tuu Aashiqui hai and others. Gurujeet, a budding guitarist from the crowd joined us to sing 'Tere Bin' by Rabbi Shergil and later gave vocal assistance to our singing (and shouting!!).


Meanwhile a great guitar player and singer, Ravish, who was college junior of Sulabh  joined us and we sang many songs..Yaar Bina, Gulabi AAnkhein etc.
I had printed some cards and I shared with many people who were interested to know about the concept of MFM.

Rohan's Son requested a song and sang with us, it was good to see him happy!!

Later on the Vermas-family friends of Suraj came and requested Teri Diwani, Tum hi Ho which were beautifully rendered by Pukhraj and there was clapping and cheers all round. Sulabh Sang Dosti by Junoon to wrap up the jam and then we left for our homes..cheers and look forward for the next jam!!

Here are the pics and videos of the jam (There are many more to come so stay tuned):

 Suraj, Pukhraj and Sulabh play Allah ke Bande

 Pukhraj Joneja caught in a unique pose.

 Sulabh!!

 Pukhraj in the backround!

 Suraj Caught in unique pose by the photo pro Chetan Saini.

 We sing Rohan's Son's request!

 Ravish, Sulabh and me sing and play while Chetan snaps a pic!

 Sulabh and me jam!

Here are the videos:

Rubaroo

Aadat

Yaar Bina