This month on 19th
April, Asansol Harmonicats hosted a harmonica meet at Raniganj (West Bengal) so
as to enable the local harmonica players from Raniganj, Asansol, Kolkata and
other parts of Bengal attend the programme conveniently. Raniganj is the
hometown of ‘Harmonica Tiger-Swarup Mitra’. The harmonica lovers outside West
Bengal were also welcome to join them.
The day-long programme was successfully attended by 55 harmonica players and the strength of the audience was around 70-80 persons.
Shri Vinayak B. (Vice President
of Harmonica Lovers of Hyderabad-HaLoH) was the anchor of this programme. The
programme started with the Lighting of Lamp by three junior as well as the most
promising Harmonica players-Sumit Guha, Haimanti Karmakar and Ashay Kumar. This
was followed by garlanding of the portrait of the ‘Father of Indian Harmonica’
- Late Shri Milon Gupta by Shri Asim Banerjee, who is an excellent harmonica
player from Jamshedpur. Shri Vinayak B. and Shri Asim Banerjee are direct
students of Milon da.
The programme was divided into
three performance sections either on karaoke or accompanied with orchestra. In
Pre-Lunch session, the beginners performed on stage. There were around 20 odd
local students who performed on stage. This was followed by authentic Bengali
lunch.
Post Lunch, the performances by harmonica players continued. They included Haimanti Karmakar (student of Sandipan Chakraborty), Sumit Guha, Rabin Tah, Dr Ashish Goyal, Shri Kumar Auddy, Rajiv Shrivastava, Naren Jain, Shri S.G. Helkar, Rana Mukesh Singh and Dr Tapan Maharana. The session continued till tea break.
Post Tea-break, the most awaited
performances were given by Sourab Debnath (student of Shri Swarup Mitra) from
Asansol, Shri Ajay Vijh from Singrauli (played 2 Hindi songs), Shri Sumanta Basu
from Kolkata (played around 5 Bengali numbers), Shri Swarup Mitra (played 2
Bengali and 2 Hindi songs) and Shri Asim Banerjee(played around 5-6 songs).
Duet performance by Haimanti and her guru Sandipan was also enjoyed by the
audience. Another highlight of the programme was a jugalbandi (jamming session) of harmonica and santoor by Dr Arindam Modak and Shri Swarup Mitra. During the programme, there was a
special classical dance performance on Lord Krishna and Gopikas’ theme by the
students of Sohini Dance Academy. This dance was choreographed by Mrs Swarup
Mitra.
M/s Reynolds and M/s Thomas
Music, Bangalore who deal in Hohner and Suzuki harmonicas respectively partly
sponsored this event. Coca Cola sponsored the beverages.
At the end of the programme, Shri
Vinayak B. received a standing ovation from the audience for his contribution
towards the advancement of harmonica,his role in HaLoHandhis participation
forthe success of this Meet. The local harmonica students got good exposure
during the event. This boosted their confidence and zeal to learn harmonica.
HaLoH wishes to see many such small local/state level Harmonica Meets all over
India so that it motivates the present youth to pick up this wonderful little
musical instrument.
(few videos will be published shortly)
We breathe harmonica!
