Mumbai- Bandra Bandstand Jam - 24/11/2013

Yo People, This week we have bribed a new blog writer (suffering from short and long term memory loss)  to write this post. And he has this short essay of how a massive crowd --- never seen for a long time enjoyed the overwhelming music and the fantastic evening at Bandstand.
It goes on like this:

"The Long awaited Sunday was here and MFMers and regulars hastened their feet towards the Bandstand arena. As everybody wanted a shot of a wonderful evening and soothing music with mild breeze across the beach, people gathered slowly but in numbers. Lukesh came in and found a friend already there. Chintz was already enjoying the evening and breeze. Then Gauri (she is neither a khan nor a terrorist  ) came hasting in. Danesh (The rioter) followed in with his strings bow and there was a change of vibe in the arena.

Few newbies in town hustling their way to glory formed "Zikr" and wanted to be a part of street jam session. They were welcomed and asked to join in. Then followed in a burst of requests for songs and melodies with people ushering in from all walks of life.Kids, couples, age-olds --- anyone and everyone grooved to the beats of a young aspiring musician and singer - Nitin who played fantastic rhythms on Bongo with Danesh and his friend and few others on guitars.
Gauri, high on energy, injected enthusiasm in the onlookers right till the end. Lukesh and all others sang in merry melodies with zest. Slowly and steadily the numbers increased and people came pouring in. People connected to the vibe and enjoyed it to the core.A jolly good fellow had his share of limelight and entertained the crowd till the sides burst.

Among st the new visitors, we had a happy bunch of friends (can't recall all their names - sorry ) who were introduced to MFM movement by Danesh and were really enjoying every single moment.
The MFM regulars can be seen among st the crowd as well. An avid regular (can't recall his name) said he loves to be a part of musical evenings with MFM even though if it means travelling up and down from Virar.
The word was spread about MFM by Chintz and Danesh among all and the evening lasted till late.
The evening came to an end and the everyone parted and promised to be seen there the next Sunday evening.
Chintz signing off for now. Will be back with another exuberant jam post. Meanwhile catch some moments of the Jam.

Yo yo Honey Singh Fan pitching in the first request of the evening. 

The Smiling Guitarist - Danesh and an accompanying friend on the string bow. :D :D 

One of the youngest starlets of  the MFM evening.

Smiles all the way :) :) 

Gauri (in attention) and Danesh singing along.

Photo Courtesy: Danesh ke friends and miscellaneous.

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

The Jams are on a vacation

Well,

Its been a long time since the jams have happened (I'm in Faridabad and don't know if they have happened recently).

I have been a little down and out. Sad to say it like that, but life sometimes sends all your plans crashing in your face. A lot of things are beyond our control, that's God's way of telling who's the boss, I guess.

Have not been in touch with most of the group, was not possible for me. Have just recently 'surfaced' and become active in some little ways here.

I contribute to a firm called JIVA (www.jiva.com), which I have philosophical alignments with, it does some great work for the Indian education system, for spreading Ayurveda in the world and suchlike.

Another 'venture' of sorts is a small VOIP (Voice over IP) firm which I have just begun. It is mostly commercial (No do-good) but is a nice service all the same (http://www.indiacall.tk) .

Had the opportunity of talking to Vijeeth (shetty), though, he said some of the group were planning a Jam.

Does anybody have any news of Kekoo Gandhi?

Apologies in the New year!!

.......
the 14th Feb is fast approaching and here is again half of what the second month is in the NEW YEAR!!While some might be making purchases for the loved day , we already know some others may be thinking of ways to take away small joys by demeaning society in rage of violence,sanskriti, parampara..
if we think hard what actually does it take to express Love .. its Courage and i realize that is what we miss in Todays world.. Love and Courage...

Whoeva is reading me here, We are the same MFM, with the same spirit, but just got a lil hasseled with issues ,so had to stop performing in our own amphitheatre. Like every movement has faced oppositions, we too faced it some months back..so we had to silent our tunes and tones to give way to the larger egos..

But then its a PEOPLES BAND - made by people like U and me , playing for the people like u and me , and to the people like U and me .. so how long can anething stop a free spirit..the participants , the musicians and also the chorus singers like me have been missing the movement called MFM.. they want it back as what people have wrote to me for.. its just that we have to reschedule ourselves and take out a lil time for the movement which unselfishly binds all humanity there in the amphitheatre precinct atleast with the spirit of Music..

its ur band ,, its MUSIC FOR MEANING.. Let us bring back the Music and so the Meaning to our lives back again and work towards a better society giving it lotsa smiles and cheers in the lil ways we all can.

Aplologies for no updates for so long.. its just that our members are a lil lazy..good at music but bad with the pen.. But Lets get back again........
Tarun, Gajju, Kailash, Pulin, Vrinda, Vivekji, Suraj, Vinay ,Vineet, Shadab,Kingshuk,Mr. Gandhi , Pradip,Gauri, Chintan,Ishaan and all new who have been joining lately and all those whose names arent called out still ... Come on... head on ..

Monika calling....................
will atleast keep u people updated with the blog..
hey someone please sponsor a camera.. my friends are just being lazy with everything ...
and all VALENTINES GIFTS ARE WELCOME IN THE SPIRIT OF LOVE AT MFM!!cheers

22nd Feb updates ----

for all those who have been regular on reading the MFM blog, here is a heartfelt sorry from Monika for updating it again so late.. altho the inputs had already been put by Tarun... I was just so late in publishing in here.Nah .. i have run short of excuses now and U already know that my NEW YEAR RESOLution is getting resolved time and again---- but still for all those lovely people in spirits -here is Mfm updated-------no the shutterbugs werent there this time... i know by now u are tired of my " sorries"...
The jam - 22/02/2009
Even though we are were contemplating to have the jam or not, people asking one another we if catching up for the days jam or not and some a couple of them not turning up (for reasons obviously...) there were many of us who were there. So the first to land up at the ADDA were Kailash and me, watching the beautiful sun set. As the sun made its way through to light up another part of the world, Eeshan made an entry with with a cool a chick. Monica walked in after doing some TP at Hill Road (thinking no one would be there), all the four of us got into the mood. The guitars came out first as usual and then started the tuning session, you know the usuakl guitarists thing :) Eeshan and Kailash started singing along starting on a low note though. A few songs like, Dooba Dooba, O Sanam went along and then Monika with all her enthusiasm introduced the MFM to the crowd. A number of requests from people came along and we like always mudered a few songs we didnt know. Me couldnt sit quite then, had to give a message to the people, so me jumped into the crowd, introduced the band once again and started off to give the message. My message this time was "BAN THE USE OF PLASTICS" All those reading the blog sure are educated and sensible enough to know how hazardous PLASTICS are, to the environment, to the living and things also the fruits and vegetables we eat, which we preserve in them. A guy from the crowd came up a few minutes later and sang the song from the movie KARMA (the title track), as we all know it s a patriotic song and we only show our patriotism for the nation twice a year for a few minutes. No ellaborating people, 18 people walked off when the song was being sung by most of the people there. We all now the case of 26/11/08.. we all abused the terrorists, we all showed our anger, we all spoke a lot of things, we all visited the Gateway of India on Dec 6 to show that you care, many of us organised peace meetings, prayer meetings, collected funds, donated funds and may other things. But I would really like to ask, 3 months down the line how many of us have bothered to stand up and question as to what is the state, why is there no action being taken as yet, why is it taking so long." There were a number of banner prepared and displayed during the peace rally against the netas, others and one of them pointed to the common man saying "Gandhigiri gave us 1947, now its time to carry AK47" How many of us have done that? Everyone salutes the spirit of Mumbai and the people of Mumbai, that come what may, next day Mumbai is back on tracks, back on feet. WHY? Whats the reason? How Come? Coz Mumbai is selfish, Mumbai is mean and Mumbai doesnt care. Every middle class person has to earn. If he's not on feet the next day, he looses a days pay and as we all know how important Rs. 100 is today and a common man does not want to loose that, as thats a meal for him and his family for that day. If Mumbai is not on its feet the next day, there is a loss of BILLIONS of Rupees. Thats the reason Mumbai is BACK ON ITS FEET. Theres no spirit of fighting or questioning or showing anger, rage or anything. As long as we and our near and dear ones are safe and sound, who the hell is bothered. Theres a line from the movie RANG DE BASANTI - am sure everyones watched it, "Aise hi chalta raha hai, aise hi chalta rahega." "Hum aise hi jam karte rahenge aur message dete rahenge"
JAI HO
Regards,
Tarun Punjabi
Music For Meaning Bandstand, Bandra .

and Monika would end up here saying that---Arise , AWAKE AND Stop not untill You Lend yourself voice.. let us question ourselves if we wanna just again forge into the slavery of our survival again or we want to raise our heads high againt the wrongs and choose even to die gracefully.......
jai ho