DESPITE COVID 19 LOCK-DOWN A SONGS FEST!

We have a Facebook group called Yaad Kiya Dil Ne (YKDN). It is a group for songs and music. For most people on Facebook, a group is just a group of like minded people engaged in a common activity. For us, YKDN is akin to a family; everyone is emotionally involved.

The group has thematic Fests every month in which participants put up songs on selected theme. Some of these Fests have been saved on this blog such as: Prelude To Aansu Songs Fest On Yaad Kiya Dil Ne (YKDN) Group, Baadal Or Badra Songs Fest On Yaad Kiya Dil Ne, and Mera, Apna, Hamara Songs Fest On YKDN – My Songs.

During the month of April, every year, we have our Annual Live Fest at Kandaghat (Shimla Hills, Himachal Pradesh). Accounts of some of these held are: Yaad Kiya Dil Ne Group Meet At Whispering Winds, Kandaghat (2016), YKDN Live Fest At Kandaghat – Yet Another Tribute To Shakeel Badayuni (2017), and YKDN Live Fest On Waltzing Numbers – Background (2018).

This year due to continued lock-down since 25 Mar, it wasn’t possible to have our Annual Live Fest at Kandaghat. Most of us were saddened.

There is a saying that ‘When the going gets tough, the tough get going’. I have often been teased and taunted because of my devotion towards my sisters in the YKDN family. No more; because, my sisters came to our rescue. My behna Manik Lakhkar Chava came up with an idea that a Fest could be held on Video Conferencing. And who was there to execute this idea? Well, my sister Suman Saxena. Even though Manik was already networking with her larger family on Zoom, Suman suggested that Zoom wasn’t a reliable application. She suggested Go To Meeting and diligently went about inviting  and netting people to a Fest on Video Conferencing on Sunday, 26 Apr 20.

Whilst it was sheer hard-work for Suman, very quickly the excitement started building up. We decided on the following:

• The Fest would be an occasion to pay homage to Jaswant Singh Lagwal whom we lost prematurely and tragically on 25 Mar 20. He is survived by his wife Kavita (who has often cut the YKDN cake during our meets, she being the youngest) and sons Niraj and Pankaj.
• Since Jaswant was a great fan of Dharam paaji (actor Dharmendra), the songs selected for singing by us would be Dharmendra songs.

This is how we went about it preparing for the Fest:

• We formed a Whats App group that we named FOG or Fest Op Group and made Suman and Manik Admins of the group in addition to me. All those participating were made as members of the group. Unlike all other groups that are formed for specific purposes but finally come down to being just social groups, it was decided and made clear that this group would be used only for operating instructions of Fests.
• The programme was planned. It was decided that during the first one hour we’d stick to paying homage to Jaswant and later on we would have an off-the-cuff sing song session.
• The first one hour was to have six songs including our group anthem ‘Yaad kiya dil ne kahan ho tum’. I downloaded the Karaokes for all the songs and shared with other so that we’d be on common footing.
• For the final group song ‘Yeh dosti hum nahin todenge’, I made a video with pictures of Jaswant and family and shared it on You Tube.
• I also made a poem for him titled ‘Yeh dosti hum nahin todenge.

Suman, meanwhile, was busy in networking all participants on Go To Meeting. Most people were to use it for the first time. She, therefore, with great patience and thoughtfulness sorted out people’s individual and collective problems.

We even invited Jaswant’s family to join.

Finally, the day arrived. We started netting in from 3:30 PM and soon had the following: Amit Lambah, Anil Koshti, Anila Bhatia, Anindya Chatterjee, Ashwani Khanna, Ashwani Sharma, Jojy Kunchattil, Maj Vishwas Mandloi, Manik Lakhkar Chava, Milind Madhav Hastak, Mona Maharaj Singh, Nimmi Iyer, Nikkilat Bajwa, Nitin Shringarpure, Pavan Malhotra (he left half way through), RPS Josen, me,  Raj Dutta (he left soon after joining), Rajendra Kumar Tandon,  Rekha Mittal, SK Iyer, Sukhvinder Deol, Suman Saxena, Sumedha Nair, Sumona Jaswant Grewal, Surekha Saini, Surinder Grewal, VIS Bal, Vipan Kohli.

All the participants could make it and at one time we had 33 participation points. Since most people were with their spouses, we had a gathering of more than 40 people. Most people had earlier physically participated in one Fest or the other except for Milind Madhav Hastak, Nitin Shringarpure, Pavan Malhotra, Raj Dutta and Sumona Jaswant Grewal. Jaswant’s family couldn’t join in. However, the complete recording of the Fest was sent to it.

This is how we went about it:

1. I welcomed all participants and recalled milestones in the life of Jaswant Singh Lagwal ending with his sad demise on 25 Mar 20. I read out the poem especially made for the occasion: ‘Yeh Dosti Hum Nahin Todenge‘.

2. 

   

   We had a one minute silence for him as well as for Evani Leela’s younger brother Venkat Gullapalli whom we shockingly lost just two days before the Fest, on 24 Apr 20.

3. We began with a round of applause for Manik and Suman who conceived the Fest and made it possible.
4. We sang the YKDN Anthem: Yaad kiya dil ne kahan ho tum. In the last five years of Fests, whenever we commenced a Fest we have always sung this song put together by Hasrat Jaipuri, Shankar Jaikishan, Hemant Kumar (singing for Dev Anand) and Lata Mangeshkar (singing for Usha Kiran) for the 1953 Amiya Chakrabarty movie Patita.
5. We sang the song Ek haseen shaam ko (Raja Mehdi Ali Khan, Madan Mohan, Mohammad Rafi) for the 1966 DD Kadhyap movie Dulahan Ek Raat Ki starring Dharmendra and Nutan.
6. For the next song Pal pal dil ke paas tum rehati ho, Suman had shared an audio of the song sung by Jaswant himself. Originally, it was sung by Kishore Kumar on the lyrics of Rajinder Krishan and composition of Kalyanji Anandji for the 1973 Vijay Anand movie Blackmail starring Dharmendra and Rakhee.
7. The next song to sing was very nostalgic for us: Gaadi bula rahi hai seeti baja rahi hai. It was sung by Kishore Kumar for the 1974 Dulal Guha movie Dost on the lyrics of Anand Bakshi and composition of Laxmikant Pyarelal. When Jaswant came to know that his favourite Dharmendra was in the train from Shimla to Kandaghat when this song was sung in the movie, he reenacted the song whilst arriving for the 2018 Kandaghat Live Fest.
8. The next song to sing was Aaj mausam bada beimaan hai from the 1973 A Bhim Singh movie Loafer starring Dharmendra and Mumtaz (Anand Bakshi, Laxmikant Pyarelal and Kishore Kumar). By this time we had discovered that synchronization with so many people singing simultaneously was making the song fall flat. So, we decided that we would allow individual singers to sing whilst others would mute their microphones. This song was sung by Mona with RPS Josen joining in.
9. The last group song from 1975 Ramesh Sippy movie Sholay starring Dharmendra, Amitabh Bachchan, Hema Malini, Jaya Bahaduri, Sanjeev Kumar, Amjad Khan, Asrani and Jagdeep had Jaswant’s video shared with everyone. Most had moist eyes.

After completing the planned programme as above, it was decided to give individuals a chance to sing. The following sang and sang rather well: RPS Josen, Rekha Mittal, SK Iyer, Nimmi, Mona, Jojy Kunchattil, Surinder Grewal, and Ashwani Sharma.

In the end, another round of applause was called for Manik and Suman. Mona said a few thoughtful words from all of us for Jaswant and Kavita. Everyone agreed that the Fest was a great success especially with all the restrictions during COVID 19 Lockdown.

There were, of course, a few lessons for future Fests with video conferencing:

• Group songs with a number of participants is not a viable option since there are insurmountable problems of synchronization.
• People need to maintain group discipline in that they should mute their microphones when not speaking.
• For singing in built microphones of the computers and cellphones are not the answer; one requires good compatibility external microphones.

Those who couldn’t attend the Fest can download the complete recording of the Fest by clicking on the following link:

https://we.tl/t-g1Qa9IK9Zw

In addition to thanking Manik and Suman for the video conferencing idea, permit me to thank all participants for their enthusiastic and meaningful participation in this unique Fest.

Lets meet again next month.