Doctor, Musicologist and a fan

That was an unforgettable Sunday afternoon.

 

A professional Doctor, a Musicologist (also a music director in some ways) and Yours Truly – all three of us huddled in a small room with nothing but pure music for company. And to keep us steady and sensible, there was this copious flow of ‘fermented liquid extract of barley malt and hops’, supplemented with unlimited supply of hot short-eats. The downpour outside was hardly anything when compared to the one inside.

 

It began with the 1970s AIR releases of Dr Balamurali Krishna’s concerts. Soon we moved to Hisham Abbas and not happy there, we tried the fusion by Sikkil Gurucharan and Anil. It was good but we were in search of ecstasy. I played some of Abida Parveen’s haunting Sufis. The director then explained some of Swathi Thirunal Maharaja’s great compositions. My doctor friend went nostalgic and started crooning the 1980s IR numbers and explained soulfully how he missed singing that great hit of the 1990s – from the movie Criminal. It seems he was to have sung the song but it ended up in SPB in Telugu and Udit (or Kumar Sanu) in Hindi (even if it was just track singing, its an honor boss, I thought)

We discussed what was creativity. We understood how VishalShekar’s nearly national-anthemic ‘My Name is Shiela” had its sheer-coincidental roots in Tommy Roe’s ‘Sweet Little Shiela ‘ or they mentioned something else also which I don’t remember. And how ‘Munni Badnaam’ had many previous versions in our own folk music. I wanted to listen to that “Launda Badnaam..” but could not lay my mouse on. When I mentioned my favorite Pritam’s name, the three of us fought fiercely to reel out songs that have already appeared in history in a different geography. What hurt me most was that the songs of Metro have already been copied by famous singers many years ago (hahahahah). For every hit number I mentioned, the two had one original composition to back up. It looked they had come prepared to counter me everywhere but it was worth learning. Imitation after all is the best form of appreciation I explained.

To prove that my knowledge of music was not less, I started strutting out songs in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and some Malayalam. They corrected me every now and then (hmmmm). Either my lyrics was totally wrong or the tune, messy.  I have started believing that doctors and engineers and chartered accountants make brilliant musicians than the ‘Arts’ guys like me (well, I should actually not be an example for any activity – the other will always look great).

We wound up when we realized what was cooked for lunch was soon running the risk of becoming our following day’s breakfast.

Ps: missed my alter-ego GK on this day. We have done such excursions a number of times in early 2000!!