11th July : MFM springs in HINDUSTAN TIMES

Finally, there we are,MFM gets coverage in a news paper daily called HINDUSTAN TIMES.-(Mumbai edition) on 11th july 2008. This article is written by Mauli Buch and photographed by Pradip Guha. It has inputs from Suraj, Monika, Gauri, and Chintan and 'mentions' about the motto of MFM.

The photograph of the jam in the article has its location at Bandra Bandstand...Suraj with all core members like Gauri, Bharti, Tarun, Monika, Pulin, Chintan and Gajendra as well can be seen.
This jam happened to be the most adventurous jam with its highs and lows. But finally things turned out well with supporters joining in the mutiny against the MUMBAI POLICE (hey no offenses please) .

29th June, The dream goes on and i see an angel in it

We were eagerly waiting for sunday, 29th june after the great start of the sunday jams last sunday, 22nd june. This jam was vital as we had to keep the fire, that was sparked last sunday, alive.
The guitar threesome of Manav, Vipul and Tarun seem to be totally junoon-struck now and they're very keen on carrying on the torch of MFM jams as far as possible. And the threesome along with Vikas, G.G., and yours truly were ready to carry the dream forward. We practised for a little while and then left for SRS mall and started jamming at around 7:45 p.m.
There Akhil(a drum student) alongwith his two friends who also are music lovers(sorry guys forgot your names) and Bharat(another drums student) were waiting for us. It was there first time in the jam and i hope they join it as regulars in future. And this time we even had a 15 year old guitar maestro, Gautam playing in the jam as well. Gautam and i composed the song "Give peace a chance" written by Suraj bhaiya. I felt really nice for this boy. The concept will help him a lot in this tender age as he is very receptive to the idea and is very humble and down to earth despite being a real genius on the guitar. I hope he too becomes as regular as this jam can feed the hunger of music and people can utilise this common platform to express the divine power of music that comprises their thoughts and views as well. Chanakya joined the jam again and so did Vipul who brought his bhaiya along too.
And it was so nice to see Arvind again for the jam and he was not alone, his friends Ravi, Sanjay and James too were along. All these guys are music lovers and are very keen on joining the jams regularly.
I addressed the little gathering of friends around about the idea and the purpose of the jams as well as about the power of music and then we started with a nice, sweet song, "dil haarey pukare" by "jal". Then we sang my favourite "dosti" followed by "tu hi meri shab hai", "yaaron", "pal" and many others. Another keen guitar student, Deepak alongwith his friend, Varsha too joined in. Many people from the crowd joined and sung along enjoying every bit of the action.
Sanjay sang a great self composition which goes like "Chhod de apne aap pe bharosa, kar Masih pe bharosa" which had beautiful words and sweet music and he sang it so well "direct dil se". Sanjay composes christian songs and plays them alongwith his group in a church in Dabua Colony in community music events that are very similar to the concept of Music for Meaning. The song he sang for us was one of those beautiful songs and according to my interpretation it says that we should let go of the materialism in our lives and live the way God has sent here for. We should believe in God as he already has plans for us and we should lead our lives free from all worries of future enjoying every bit of the present of the beautiful life created by the Almighty.
Nidhi alongwith a friend too joined in. She is so effervescent and energetic, really raises the energy levels around. She'll be a regular i'm sure.
And G.G. and Vikas were all into the jam as usual cheering the people, singing and dancing with van unmatched vigour. These two guys have been the pillars of the foundation of MFM in Faridabad. And its greta to see them enjoying music so much.
The cloud cover had started pouring. So we went inside and then found a staircase on the first floor of the mall apt for the jam. We started singing again and we had a stupendous response from the crowd there. the crowd built up while we were playing and the place was all jam packed.
A little baby girl, she was an angel, joined the party and enjoyed with us all. Kids, I feel are the closest to God. Because as we grow up in age we get more and more spoiled by the materialism and the false divides and differences in our society that are all but creations of the corrupt human himself. The kids are the ones who are least hesitant and least indifferent towards the outside world. They dont know the definition of "WRONG", which is definitely not the one that has been fed into our minds while growing up, drifting us away from our fellow beings and above all from ourselves. The sight of that kid living every moment of her world unabashedly moved me.
The response to the jam was more than we expected. People came and enjoyed a lot and several promised to join the jam every sunday.
In the end Arvind gave some valuable inputs for the jam. It was very nice to see him participating whole-heartedly in the movement. He alongwith his friends took it so naturally, infact they are all very involved into such community events in church. And James had come despite being very ill, I was overwhelmed with this commitment towards a cause. You rocked guys. Keep on rocking in the free world. God bless all.
Time for some pics.

The Angel

James in green T-shirt(Body bimar hai to kya hua dil to mast hai); myself playing guitar and mere piche photo leta hua Chanakya

The Guitar maestro, Gautam

Strumming In Harmony L to R: Tarun, Sanjay, Vipul, Gautam and dur kone mein Manav
(The world's our stage)

Thats Nidhi in white with her friend besides her
(Miss High Energy)

The Indian Ocean Jam

I was in Gurgaon last week and had the oppurtunity to jam with the guitarist from Indian Ocean - Susmit Sen . It began with Susmit sir playing some of his compositons while all of us sat listening. It was quite a kick! We sang a few random songs and then suddenly one of us started with "Badshah in Jail". Susmit obliged and there was no looking back then. We played and played and played and sang and jumped and screamt and bounced and jumped. What a night! Susmit sir kept playing IO numbers back to back and we sang our lungs hoarse. We closed the night with Kandisa...

MFM Jams in Faridabad! 22nd June-the Dream comes true!

So finally the junoonis have marked the beginning of the routine every sunday jam in Faridabad as well.Here I'll share the first sunday jam which wasnt planneed or organised but just happened, the Almighty had laid out the plans for it.
I practised with three students, Tarun, Manav and Vipul who have begun playing the guitar really well now for sometime and we left for SRS mall along with my roomies and friends G.G. and Vikas (remember the support staff in the previous post) and reached there at around 8:00 p.m.
The very purpose of MFM as well as the MFM music school is taking shape now. I believe it is the dawn of a new era here, where I can imagine the unifying essence of music reaching every heart and spreading harmony and positivity around.
I can feel it now, the musical revolution that was sparked off when we planned to bring MFM to Faridabad and begun with the opening of the music school to start and support the propagation of the concept.
The junoon is rubbing off on all the students and now it'll reach many others with the beginning of the jams now.It was like the first passout batch of the school getting ready to jam who'll soon be joined by others forming the evergrowing MFM jam band.
It was a very satisfying moment for the teacher inside me to see three of my pupils walking the path i wish to see them on.I always believe that the music of a Musician gives him a great power that can heal wounded hearts and mend broken ties in the society.So the concept came very naturally to me and i thanks Suraj Bhaiya for this Enlightenment.
Lets start the action now.We started with my favourite, "Dosti" and then "Khudi" by "Junoon". These songs with their message of friendship, hope and faith really fire me up. Some other students, Vinny, Vipul, Chanakya of our school too joined the jam and Vinny and Vipul did a great job keeping high energy levels really drowned in the junoon. And our manager saab G.G. and Vikas too were doing great singing,dancing and cheering up the crowd. It was great to see them all enjoying the jam so much.
The people came, few stayed and most took notice but left but we were unfazed. I see those dreams where one day this junoon will strike many a hearts. and a few did stay with us and the feeling was very nice, the energies of the people around in harmony. and we just belted out one song after another keeping levels high. One of the guys, Arvind from the crowd sang with us throughout the jam and another one, Rishi too joined the party.I could see smiles all around(cloud no. 9). People fromall castes adn religions who hardly have time for each other stood there together enjoying the song and dance act. SANGEET KE RANG MEIN RANG RAHE THE SAB.
We had a dance performance too from a guy there who spread many cheers around. i could feel an unknown energy surrounding the jam which was radiating and reaching the people out there.
The jam was all masti and music was what people wanted so i could hardly interact with people. Although Vikas and G.G. did manage to interact with a few people. But i felt even this all masti routine served the purpose nicely as it did manage to bring smiles on the many faces around.
And what can be better than the joys that we managed to scatter over there. There must have been many people bogged down with troubles, many with pains in their heart and we could bring joy to them for a few moments at least.
Time for some pics.

Vikas and Tarun(taking requests)

The foursome on guitars L to R: Manav, Vipul, Myself and Tarun

Yeh Vipul (mast chora) guitar ki khair nahi is drummer ke hath mein

Rishi and Arvind, the two guys who sang till the last note from the guitars

MFM @ Faridabad: The Jam Spawns

Two great pieces of news! Sulabh , who connects to the concept of the movement really well, just made a post on the MFM Faridabad (http://mfmfaridabad.blogspot.com) chronicle about the little concert we did back in march in the women's Polytechnic, thanks to Ms. Poonam, a highly spiritual individual and who really appreciated the concept of MFM, of voicing 'simple sense' to the youth through participatory musical gatherings, or the 'MFM jam' and allowed us to play in front of a great group of students at the Polytechnic.! Do checkout the post! although this jam was not the open, democratic jam like the jams we do here, it was more of a performance , as we were not allowed to have people participate with us in the singing. we were also on a stage with a mic and all, so that also is not too conducive to have people come and join in.

Moreover, these guys (Sulabh, Gaurav Garg, GG, Vikas, Nidhi and the rest of the gang) have started a jam there from this Sunday as well! and with good response! Sulabh is soon going to make a post of it on the mfmfaridabad chronicle! so lets soon check out how the jam went!! eager eager!!

cheers!

Welcome June! The Grand Jam of 1st June 08

So No more visiting! Come Sunday and I get a "We're Jamming" SMS from Tarun (Great coordination!) and I left Borivali to make a halt at Andheri collect a newly bought Guitar (So the guitar has been bought!) (!) and was at Bandstand in time, venturing into the battlefield alone! Got some heart warming welcoming glances from an elderly couple and I was eager to get on! Suddenly find Deepti (great to see her after a long time) zoom in (with her great bubbly energy!) with her mother and we were ready to go! For a change we started with a bit of 'intrumental' playing; the guitar (new) was sounding great and the sound of guitar over the murmur of the sea and drifting in the sweet moist air as always makes me see the beauty of this whole thing about jamming by the sea! OK!

So after that we sing the by now 'standard' opening : 'Write about it' and 'Simple Man'. Then I make some frantic calls so see why no-one's coming (from the gang I mean) and then we jump in to speak about the concept and start playing, Deepti cheering up everybody and the jam catches momentum! We begin and then Gauri floats in and I say oh great! Plenty of participation and some people saying 'sher-o-shayari'; a notable instance when a girl from the audience, not wanting to come down to the stage, opened up to render a song when given so much encouragement from the crowd, It was a very nice incidence in the jam.

Then we sang 'Bandeh' and spoke about reflecting a bit about our habits and the energy footprint and making a bit of effort about carrying that jute bag to the market instead of gathering all those messy plastic bags.
And then all the ganag poured in gradually (mmm..late attendance register! !) Gajendra took over the guitar duties along with Pulin and a friend (oops cant recall his name).

Kekoo came in with Pradeep as well and he was really glad to see the jam in its glory! He joined in and we continued till it was 10!
All in all a great jam and great to see things happening so well, great coordination, though missed Chintan, Monika (who takes over the 'Jam leadership' often..! ) and Aditya's great playing!

So there's music for meaning for us, with its lively spirit, music for particiaption, music for oneness, music for forgiveness, music for tolerance! The jam goes on with forces

Here are some pics Could shoot towards the end of the jam:

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!