--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- RMIM Meet Report - part 1 --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- Posted by: arunabha shasanka roy (asroy@midway.uchicago.edu) Posting date: 1998/11/11 --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- "do din kii masarrat kyaa kahiye kuchh yaad rahii, kuchh bhuul gaye" - Sagar Siddiq Here is the first part of a report on the fun-filled RMIM West Coast Meet held on Nov. 6-7. Before I begin, since this IS the U.S.A., and I don't want lawyers baying for my blood :) , or, more to the point, since this is the first meet report that I am writing, some disclaimers are in order. I have tried to keep two things in mind : one, not to offend anyone , i.e. avoid treading on anyone's shoes , and two, to mention the interesting things that took place at the meet (i.e. offend people and tread on people's shoes) More seriously, it has been my attempt to write as far as possible in the light and fun spirit that characterizes RMIM .In other words, "with the common courtesy that's extended to every rmim'er on and off the net" :) If despite my best efforts I have said something I ought not to have, and have genuinely hurt someone's sentiments, I apologize in advance. But I doubt this will be the case. One thing that I DO apologize for is the length. It really IS too long. So read at your own peril. I am trying to adhere to Vish's instructions to me when I was designated as one of the report-writers :"ATD- Attention To Detail" If I have taken your words too literally Vish, sorry ! And if nothing else, I can always hide behind the oft cited excuse "I'm sorry it's so long , but I didn't have the time to write a shorter one" This post contains a report of the get-together at Vish's place on Friday night, prior to the actual meet. The commentary on Saturday's events has been written but I have to type it as yet. It will probably be posted in one or two parts during the next two days. This much said, let's jump straight in ...... *************************************************************************** It all began one fine day towards the end of September when I received an email from Vandana Vidwans, inviting me to the meet. Now that I come to think of it, it was less an invitation and more a peremptory order to attend :) It sort of began in the customary "you are cordially invited... " fashion and soon changed to "don't start your ronaa dhonaa about classes, advisors et al, .... to aa rahe ho naa !" :) I was keen to attend a meet , having almost attended the last one (but cancelled at the last moment) and to see all the guru's in person, and of course the fact that it was being held in San Francisco also did its bit. So I decided to go after all, and this was certainly, to use a cliched phrase, "one of the best decisions I ever made" I arrived a day early(Thursday) and went to the celebrated Shrimati's. Believe me, you West Coast guys are lucky to have that store. I haven't seen another store like it . It was just as well that it was sunny in Sunnyvale for that day. For the meet duration, the weather in "Sunny"vale was strangely at odds with the name , and I WOULD have been just a bit dubious about the name . On that front, on Friday night, Ketan was taken to task for the inclement weather "ye East coast waale apanaa weather bag me.n lekar safar karate hai.n" On Friday, the activities began. (Several parallel processes were running , one could make out from the multiple phone calls and multiple visits among organizers, runs to the stores, and the like) I got a glimpse of the activities in Vandana's house . Cooking on a massive scale , Vandana's typical conversation ran "let me make Cauliflower Mexicana, then we'll make Dum Aloo Kashmiri, then we have to make mango delight - don't tell anyone else, it's a surprise- then we should make some bhel- for bhel we shall make four chutneys , we'll prepare some bhel and Preeti and you can taste it and offer suggestions, tomorrow early morning I'll make tomato saar" - you get the drift. Anyway I was most happy to officiate as the designated taster.:) On Friday evening I met Preeti -sorry, that should be Dr. Panda or Dr. P , and Anup who brought in the RMIM Meet cake. (As an aside, Kalyan told me later that Anup is the "cake-guy" of the West Coast gang :"Any occasion, and he suggests having a cake " .) There was a good number of RMIMeet regulars (read "gurus") present and also a number of first-timers : Nachiket and Poonam Sharma, Tabassum "sahibaa" Hijazi, Noor Jivani, Rajesh Munshi, Rajiv, Shobha Divekar and yours truly. (if some first timer has been left out I'm sorry - or take it that I consider you a regular :) ) The get-together prior to the actual meet was to take place at Vish's residence on Friday night at 8 p.m. Basically it was to break the ice , so that on Saturday everyone would recognize and know all present. Vish's spacious and extremely well-kept house provided an ideal location for RMIM'ers to meet and interact. We reached a little late, and most of the people were already present. The place was alive and buzzing with gurus ! There was some appetizing food laid out on the table, courtesy Dr. Parrikar, UVR and Vish. But people seemed more taken up with meeting everyone present. Everytime someone would come in , everyone would perform the introductions . I was apprehensive about meeting the gurus but surprisingly everyone was most warm and engaging. (Don't know about "courtesy on and off the net" but I can definitely vouch for the "off the net " part :) ) Despite being a newcomer within moments I knew everyone . I could recognize many , thanks to a careful study of the previous RMIM meet photographs , but Ketan looked so different from his photographs that I gave up. Ketan was trying his best to shy away from from the camera when Vandana came up and remarked "Ketan, at least you should be on film so that others know how much weight you've put on since the first meet" Too bad, Ketan :) I've decided to list individually some interesting comments /events that took place in the course of this get-together instead of attempting to piece them into a coherent whole : "Buujh meraa kyaa naam re " or the "Vandana who" Problem : ---------------------------------------------------------- Bottom line :there are too many Vandana's on RMIM- such degeneracy is just insupportable. You would follow my plight if you had to type a meet report and had to append the entire surname whenever any incident involving a Vandana was reported. This problem is compounded by the fact that two of them also share common initials. So , Vandana V doesn't help either. At the last count I think there were twenty-nine Vandana's on RMIM. That apart, one of them employs a "nom-de-plume" . We attempted at length to unravel the theory behind when she posts as "Iyengar" and when as "Venkatesan". Kalyan's view :" When she posts good articles , it is "Venkatesan" and "Iyengar" when it is bad articles .(whatever that means) But Ms. Vandana Venkatesan-Iyengar only smiled and let us continue concocting our crazy theories :) There is as yet no final statement on the matter. :( The "Masala Tea" Incident : -------------------------- It was time for tea and when asked "how many for tea" two dozen hands went up. Guri, who had flown in just that afternoon after sleepless nights spent recording the meet CD's, very kindly offered to do the needful. Poor Anup was then lambasted from all quarters for "being a host and not making the masala tea" :) His subsequent efforts in this direction, however, were aborted when Vish announced "That is not the way to make tea" and proceeded to make it himself. However the killing part of the entire episode was when Rajan took one sip of the tea, laid his cup aside and declared, to all present "This is just awful tea" Not that the tea was bad at all, mind you, but, come to think of it, some sugar with it wouldn't have been a bad idea at all. After the laughter had subsided, Vandana Venkatesan went upto Vish and very sweetly said "Is the sugar unnecessary because of the Jaidev-Asha songs you have promised to play in the background ?" Well said ! :) And play he did. Some really first-rate songs of Asha and Lata from the years gone by. There was an absolutely stunning Asha song from "Joru Ka Bhai", Jaidev's first film , "man kii kaase kahuu.N" . There were a number of other Asha songs that he had recently added to his collection that he played for us , from films with music by Salil and SDB. I don't recall these , I think one of them was "Apradhi Kaun" .Oh, you forget about sugar when you hear these songs, priceless . Lata was actually sidelined for once, by a Lata-bhakt no less :) But for the diabetics in the audience, Vish also provided some saccharine in the form of a couple of Lata songs. (Vish, please pardon that flippancy on my part - I agree it WAS undue, but I couldn't resist :) ) Actually I heard Lata's "aa palako.n me.n aa, behosh raato.n kii ni.ndiyaa churaa " in an entirely different light that night. It was dark and quiet, the lights somewhat subdued, people talking very softly, and on Vish's system the song really sounded heart-wrenchingly beautiful. Remarked Vish :"after hearing such a song, one does not ask for more " Very true, Vish. Kishore Valicha :) ------------------- No, he was not an attendee at this meet. (For those who came in late, he is the author of the celebrated biography on KK. Celebrated as far as RMIM goes because of Rajan's unbeatable review of the same a couple of weeks back on RMIM.) It IS good he was not an attendee, he would have sunk through the earth in shame . Anand says that if K. Valicha had read Rajan's post , he would not dare to lift the pen for the reminder of his life .:) Dr. Parrikar was holding session with Ketan and a couple of others , and I happened to be in the room filling my plate when my ears fell upon the word "Valicha".Thereafter I sat glued. Rajan had all in splits recounting passages from the book which he described as "unputdownable" and "fittingly, as whacko as KK himself" Some of the best lines were " Rajesh Khanna, in his early years received such adulation as made him think he was God. It appears he once even tried to walk on water" and (regarding "miit naa milaa re man kaa" ) "...the song is sung in the dadra style and remains partially open throughout" Anyone who hasn't read Rajan's review, you are strongly urged to do so. I hope he posts some more :) Someone remarked that Valicha must have breezed through the verbal section of GRE whereas in the analytical section "use Dabbaa milaa hogaa" Newcomer Nachiket Sharma: ------------------------ This meet was attended by Nachiket, a classical music expert, who during his spare time, teaches at the Ali Akbar Khan Institute. Although this was the first time he was attending an RMIM meet, or indeed, interacting with the RMIM crowd, he found that many RMIM'ers already knew about him and his music, It must have been a pleasant surprise . Neha, Vandana Vidwans and How RJGK's Should Be Scored :) ------------------------------------------------------ Since this was the latest controversy on RMIM , it was inevitable that it would be alluded to, if indirectly. Vandana and Neha collectively came in for a lot of good-natured potshots , e.g. Preeti "it_would_have_been_a_ _disastrous_mistake " , Kalyan "Basically their point is :"It's not about the one point...... BUT WE WANT THE POINT !!!" " And in any event in which Neha or Vandana's team would get something wrong RMIM'ers would unfailingly urge them "Go on ! Argue ! Deamand the point !" :) But they bore all the jokes good-naturedly. Newcomer Tabassum "sahibaa" Hijazi: ------------------------------------ Everyone was eager to know who Tabassum sahibaa was.:) One of the most recent RMIM'ers, she was in the limelight lately when in an unprecedented gesture, Ashok apologized to Tabassum for having spoken a trifle too patronizingly/harshly about her opinion on whom the credit for the song "pyaar par bas to nahii.n hai" was due. Ashok deferentially addressed her as "Tabassum sahibaa" in this landmark post on RMIM and , as a result, we decided that henceforth she would alwys be referred to solely as "Tabassum sahibaa" :) I aksed Ketan the veteran RMIM'er if Ashok had apologized to anyone on the net earlier in the history of RMIM and he testified that Ashok hadn't. So that indeed accords sahibaa a high status, that too only a bare couple of weeks of her joining RMIM. Way to go, Tabassum ! User Names/Login Id's : ---------------------- The following points were discussed about the following personalities : Vandana Vidwans :Everyone knows about Malkauns now ! :) Vandana Sharma :why is her email id uusharma@... why not vsharma@ or vandana@ orsomething ?... arunabha : "Oh, so you are the guy whose name always appears in small case " One is certainly famous for weird reasons.:) Upon returning here, I found that this is indeed the case ! Of Gurus and Commoners, Upper Case and Lower Case: ------------------------------------------------- In Kalyan's recently published treatise , he had outlined ten ways to recognize a guru, one of which was "you sign off in small case initials" Vandana Vidwans said that inspite of there being two Vandana's , there was till a chance for her to become a guru. Since Vandana Venkatesan signs off as V (uppercase ), the lowercase v was still open for her to assume. Neha tried to offer the argument that she did not sign off in small case initials as evidence for her not being a guru, but all her efforts in this direction were to no avail :) Everyone present hailed her as a guru. Sorry Neha, some people are born gurus, some acquire gurutva, and some have gurutva thrust upon them .:) This and many similar activities continued late into the night. Before I end the description of the Friday night get-together , one last event bears mentioning. Some song was under discussion , and Kalyan said "Oh, that song is quite common, I have it !" And Vish said "Oh, is it really available ? I don't have it " And Kalyan quipped "Oh, Vish, you have only rare songs " It was about 1.00 in the night when we finally disbanded, scheduled to begin the next day's (saturday's) events at 10 a.m. -Arunabha