The 'Chakk De Phatte' Jam of July 22 @ Bandstand

I cant believe this! three consecutive weeks! The rains have been really nice to us, maybe the Gods want to support our cause..! We started a little late, but the energies were high. Continuing to sit in our old position amongst the 'audience' on the stairs, I'm sure it is the better way. This jam for me, marked the 'return of the jam'- the way things used to be, with our energies latching on to others, people showing real participation (at least 8-10 people sung songs for us), none of us wanting to show too much of our individual skill; though we did murder some of the requests, thanks to being a little out of sync, for some new guys had joined. Aman, a real nice guy joined us and it was fun singing with him. Chintan joined the jams after a looong break and he had a real nice dhapli with him! It was a day of 'string breaks', with strings of all three guitars deciding to break! And it was the day of the percussionists, with Chintan and Tarun in real form and sync. It was fun and more than that. I got my mother who's on a trip to Mumbai to come and see the spirit of the jam. She sang us a nice Punjabi Song. Towards the end of the jam, Vinay spoke out passionately about the things the jams stand for: Environment, Humanism, belief in a simple way of life, connecting to each other, in the collective soul and I'm sure his passionate and honest from the heart speaking would have made at least some people reflect...

Cheers! Here's how it went:

A nice happy audience singing along. We could have come earlier to clean up some of the mess that has gathered on the artist's court...

'Baba Vinay Dev' took chaukari stance!!

BoomShakala! The Guy in the grey-green shirt is Aman, who joined in the spirit of the jam. Chintan (on the dhapli, red T-shirt) joined the jam after long time.

The spirits were high, with a lot of people taking to 'dance the night away'! Vinay as usual quick to join in the fun!

Two cute little girls sang beautiful songs in turns!

Tarun on the Djembe in full steam!

Thats my mum, who sang the Punjabi song charkha channan daa for us!

The Jam Windup pic. Sitting in front: Khyati

1st row standing L to R: Vinay, Ashwinie, Me and mom

2nd row: Pulin and Chintan

last row: Kailash, Kingshuk, Aman, Madhur

The Jam goes on! 15th July 07 @ Bandra Bandstand

So the rain provides 2 consecutive weeks of respite..! Great for us, for playing outdoors is far better than any other thing..the environment is great and a place like Bandstand is accesible to all..families, couples, wannabe couples ;-) and people from all stratas of the society are free to mingle..!! (we've played in a mall..but it takes time for our energies to catch on there..) and the other great thing is passerbys, joggers stop by and become a part. A great new found friend called Leslie was telling me that this is more like a "Democratic Musical Platform". We call ourselves a "jam band" or an "ever growing jam band", we're ready to play anything that the audience wants to listen and be part of..sometimes musical perfection is brutally murdered, but the objectives of having spontaneous colllective fun is achieved!

Another friend's friend cooked up another name for this concept "Alfresco Musica"! thats Italian for "fresh music"!

Here's how it went:

Back in our old positions, sitting on the stairs with everyone is more fun..there is no on stage thing and people feel more ready to participate and take initiative!

Lots of lovely little kids add colour to the whole affair!

The band 'erupts'!

Sanjay and Ali (Clockwise from top left) have become regulars and add a lot of energy to the whole thing! Kaviraj playing the dhapli, Tarun on the Djembe.

Oh yeah..! both of em play the F chord with some emotion!! haha! Yogi (the guy with the V haircut) was in great swing and sang two great great awesome songs from the same guy who wrote 'Bandeh'. They were "do paise ki bhajee" and one more great ultra-meaningful fun-satire song, really really nice.




One of our really enthusiastic regular supporters, Mr. Hari adds a lot of spirit to the whole thing!

A great Jugalbandi emerged between Vinay and Tarun, with both refusing to relent!

which led to this guitar banging 'friendly' match between Suraj and Vinay! Haha! whats life without a little bit of fun!

The windup pic: Lto R: Prashant, Poonam, Monika, Sanjay, Kaviraj, Gauri, Yogi, Vijeeth, Ali

MFM Back in Bandra with a Bang! : 8th July 07

After the rains held us from getting on with our jams for 2 consecutive weeks, we were dying to resume, and resume we did! The rains offered a bit of respite and we were there, enjoying and jamming with the people. The spirit was the same, and it made me think that its with the people that the real fun lies, a hundred collective souls, all united with the medium of music, enriching each other!

Quite a few of our gang could not make it, but many of us were there, and I guess thats the beauty of a band our size! even if some of us come, we can raise some hell! Kailash, Pulin, Amar, Mradul, Tarun, Suraj and Bilal were there with many of our great regulars from the audience who love to join in! We played 'Bandeh' to highlight the environmental message that lies in it, and the passion in that song catches on...and with the Live earth concerts (http://www.liveearth.org) going on all over the world, it was our little contribution to the movement.

So here we go, Ladies and gentlemen!
Music for Unity. Music for Peace. Music for Freedom.
Music for Meaning!

Great weather and great crowd!

which kept on growing, with people from all dimensions of society converging on a common platform!

Smiles all around! did somebody crack a joke?!!

aaaaaaaa! the band in full swing! With Amar (The baldy in the gray T-shirt) enriching everything with his customary energy levels!

Two cute kids came and sang songs with us. The little boy sang a great rap song in one single breath!

Now thats the spirit of the jam! An old lady, really caught on to the spirit of the jam and hit the dance floor! with Amar, in his no inhibitions style, come into the mood as well!!

Great dancing! Everyone was saying "Love you Maaa!"!!

The Garage Jam of 1st July 07

The rains have been merciless, staying quite for most of the week and pouring down on Sunday! This Sunday it stayed quite for a while..but not enough for us to even begin jamming!
But a high point was that Kekoo Gandhi was soooo kind to let us have his home's garage for practicing. He even went to the length of offering his bedroom for practicing, saying he'll move out to another room! Hats off to him!

It makes me believe that once you hit the road with something that you want to do, something you really believe in, you get help all along the way, we just have to keep on going!

So that day Pulin, Vijeeth, Suraj, Chintan (a pro drummer, who joined the jams back after a long break), Mradul (A guy who met us in the jam of 17th June and has joined the 'ever growing band'), Gauri (Sings and writes great, meaningful poetry) gathered to practice. Later Tarun , Kailash, Desmond and Aneef joined us as well!

Mradul and Vijeeth: Caught in the corner?!!

Me, Vijeeth, Gauri, Chintan (on the drum machine), Mradul. The jam was going great!

Pulin showing that he is as good at the drums as he is on the guitar!

We got into a really intense jam, with virtuoso leads and riffs and drums happening all over!

Desmond Joined in later as our Master of Ceremonies!

The Barebone Jam of 24 June, the rainiest Sunday!

The rain Gods had different plans regarding our till now uninterrupted Music for Meaning jam of Sundays! With the rains playing hide and seek throughout the day, we officially called it of with a lot of yes-no yes-no! But 3 of us (Amar, Kaviraj and Suraj) with nothing better to do, managed to make it with just a tamborine and still have our jam! No pics though the camera would have drowned in the rain!

MFM Jam on a Rainy Sunday-17th June

As we had feared, it rained but we were there, rain or no rain! with the rain Gods giving us a little 'window' of time in which we could get our act together! We had a smaller audience, and we played for a very small while, before we were little blown away, saving out instruments and seeking shelter.

But this jam, it made me think...that probably hitting the center stage at the 'artist's court' at Bandra Bandstand promenade was not the best idea..probably we're going too organized..probably focusing too much on our performance...probably sitting there on the stairs with the people was a better place to get people spontaneously involved and jamming with us..I remember the days when simple people from among the audience would come and compose their lyrics 'on the fly' with us...that was a different kind of participatory fun.. gotta think about it..hmm..

That apart, people and we do enjoy, playing and singing together by the sea!


It was realy pleasent, and the people who like us sported the rain, did enjoy! I wish we could coontinue playing with a little shelter in the rains!

Music for Meaning in full swing...!

The wet windup! the 2 guys (stooping) at extreme right corner are regulars from the audience.

Music for Meaning @ the Mount Mary Church, Bandra, 16th June

Kekoo Gandhy invited the music for meaning gang to play at the Mohalla Comittee meeting held at the Mount Mary Church at Bandra. The Mohalla committee meetings are all about the people (neighborhood) and the Police joining hands to maintain communal harmony throughout the city. Music for Meaning was invited to liven up the meeting with their message of social unification, peace and freedom through music, while the members of the committee presented the work they had done for various causes. The meeting was chaired by the legendary ex-comisioner of police, Julio Ribeiro who appreciated music for meaning for its vision and efforts.

A part of the music for meaning group played at the Mount Mary Church at Bandra. L to R: (Names not in bold are the MFM gang)

Kingshuk, Suraj, Tarun, Kekoo gandhi, Amar, Julio Ribeiro, Kaviraj, Desmond. Kailash shot the picture.