‘Chalo Dilli’: Harmonica Lovers’ Meet

Dilli Dilwaalon Ki- Channi Uncle plays a perfect host

On 2^nd October, harmonica lovers from different parts of the country gathered at Channi Uncle’s place in Delhi to “Breathe Harmonica”. This 59 year old gentleman has been playing the harmonica for almost 40 years. His name is Chander Parkash Chawla and he is popularly known as ‘Channi Chawla’. He is a retired government employee and is crazy for this cute little instrument. He says that playing the harmonica, listening to harmonica and discussing about harmonica makes him feel happy. He has a unique personality with a good sense of humour. He has his own distinctive style which separates him from the crowd. He loves collecting harmonicas and suspenders. No wonder, you’ll find him with the right combination of suspenders to suit his clothes. He hosted the meet at his place and made proper arrangements for boarding and lodging of the guests who were not from Delhi.

The Rendezvous- ‘Breathing Harmonica’

The harmonica lovers started arriving at Channi Uncle’s place since the morning of Gandhi Jayanti. No sooner did they arrive, than the harmonica session started and the people continued playing the harmonica seamlessly only to call it a day at 10:30 PM. It was also a memorable birthday celebration for Ramana from Hyderabad who happened to share his birthday with the father of our nation. The rendezvous lasted for almost 12 hours.

The guests of Channi Uncle included M/s Swarup Mitra from Raniganj near Kolkata (W.B.), Rameshwaram from Katni (M.P.), Ajay Vijh from Singrauli (U.P.), Ramana Ilayaraja from Hyderabad (A.P.), Keyur Shah from Ahmedabad (Gujarat), Raman Khandelwal from Jaipur (Rajasthan) and Harish Nayyar from Amritsar (Punjab). The Delhites who graced this occasion were M/s Rajeev Ranjan, Rajkumar and magician ‘Big Bhandari’. The co-hosts were harmonica lovers M/s Rakesh Chaudhry and Sandeep Tomar.

Harmonica Lovers with Arijit Mukherji

Channi Uncle and his guests visited harmonica icon Arijit Mukherji at his residence in Gurgaon. They had a good time listening to the mesmerizing renditions of his upcoming projects. Some of the songs of these projects were so soothing to listen that the guests Keyur Shah and Raman could not refrain themselves from requesting Arijit da to play one of the numbers once again on his music system. Arijit da also played some numbers on his harmonica to make the session livelier.

More info on Mr. Arijit Mukherji can be obtained at the following links.

http://harmonicahyderabad.blogspot.com/2010/04/arijit-mukherji-noteworthy-harmonica.html

Khana Khazana: Big Bhandari hosts dinner

The harmonica lovers were invited by Mr. Ashok Bhandari for dinner. Very few people know that he is a personality with multiple talents. Needless to say that he is also a good cook. He reciprocated Channi Uncle’s gesture by inviting him and his guests to his place.

Harmonica magician Mr. Ashok Bhandari popularly addressed as Big Bhandari by our harmonica lovers gave a brief speech to harmonica lovers on the harmonica during his earlier visit. He says that he is not a harmonica player and he does not know the mathematics pertaining to music and harmonica. He just plays the harmonica with feelings. He prefers calling himself a performer. Harmonica lovers who heard Big Bhandari Live for the first time were convinced that he has the capacity to entertain and mesmerize his audience with his performance.

More info on Mr. Ashok Bhandari can be obtained at the following links

http://harmonicahyderabad.blogspot.com/2009/12/ashok-bhandari-magician-who-loves.html

Back to Work:

After the Delhi visit, almost all the participants had forgotten their Dil (heart) and Dimaag (Mind) in Dilli for almost a week. Information related to some of the harmonica lovers present in Delhi can be obtained at the following links.

Ajay Vijh:

http://harmonicahyderabad.blogspot.com/2011/03/ajay-vijh-and-his-positive-vibrations.html

Swarup Mitra:

http://harmonicahyderabad.blogspot.com/2011/07/swaroop-mitra-harmonica-tiger-from.html

Rameshwaram:

http://harmonicahyderabad.blogspot.com/2010/07/harmonica-lover-of-week-rameshwaram.html

Keyur Shah:

http://harmonicahyderabad.blogspot.com/2010/06/my-experience-at-ahmedabad-atithi-devo_18.html

Happy Deepavali. Have a Blast.

Harmonica Our Passion!

Vardhman Jain visits HaLoH

Recently, harmonica lover Mr Vardhaman Jain from Vadodara visited Hyderabad on his official trip. He completed his engineering from MNIT Jaipur and joined Indian Railways. He has been playing the harmonica since his college days. Despite his hectic schedule he obliged and spared his valuable time for this brief rendezvous. Here is a tagged photograph of the Harmonica Lovers.

You can enjoy more videos from Mr Vardhman Jain at

http://www.youtube.com/user/vardhman1962

Harmonica Our Passion!

Inderjit Singh Soni: Visit to Pink City

Recently, Mr Inderjit Singh Soni visited Jaipur (Pink City) along with his family. He met our virtual member Raman Khandelwal. It was their first meeting but they felt that they knew each other for quite a long time. They spent two hours discussing about music, harmonica and had a musical session with karaoke tracks. Here’s one of those numbers played and recorded by him along with karaoke track at his home. Mr Soni, who started playing the harmonica in his childhood, says that he has been improving his harmonica skills after being associated with the harmonica lovers at HaLoH. He is also thankful to Mr Avinesh Singh for taking pains in teaching him the basics of recording.

Harmonica Our Passion!

Ashwin J. Betai: A Journey from Rangoon to Hyderabad

Our harmonica lover this week is Shri Ashwin J. Betai who was born in Rangoon (Burma) and is now settled in Hyderabad. He is a 50 yrs old Gujarati businessman with a good sense of humour. There is never a meeting at Indira park when HaLoH members do not laugh at his funny jokes. He can play many instruments like Harmonica, Flute, Mandolin, Harmonium and Keyboard.

Ashwin ji developed the love for music during his childhood at Rangoon when his father used to play the harmonica. Later, their family shifted to Kolkata where he used to observe his uncle play the Mandolin. His uncle taught him to play the Mandolin. At the age of 17 or 18, on his request, his uncle gifted him a Hero harmonica and he started performing in college stage shows. Today, after being settled in Hyderabad for almost 30 years, he still plays the Harmonica and Flute in several programmes of his community.

Though he has Hohner Larry Adler 16, he still loves to play old Hindi melodies on his Tower harmonica. His 13 yr old son Yash A. Betai is learning to play the harmonica from our own fellow member Shri B. Vinayak who was a direct student of Milon da. Mr Vinayak teaches with notations and feels that Yash is picking up harmonica skills very fast and jokes that one day he may play better than his father.

Ashwin ji has a special inclination towards the wind instruments. He feels that even a sick person becomes well after listening to the sound of harmonica and flute.

Our Second Birth Day!

Friends,

It was exactly two years ago (according to the Lunar Calender) i.e. Dushera 2009 that this blog was launched.

We had begun a journey not knowing where we were headed but I guess we are slowly finding our way, thanks to all your support, guidance and patronage.

We at HaLoH thank you all and look forward to your continued support.

A Happy Dushera to all of you.