ANUPAM PAUL: A Stupendous Harmonica Lover

Anupam Paul (Anupam Da), a renowned Harmonica player not only in West Bengal but also in India was born on 27^th May 1953. Anupam Da was very close to his guru- Shri Milon Gupta (Milon Da), the celebrated harmonicist in India for a long corridor of 25 years (1970-1995) and admired him as his friend, philosopher and guide.

The beginning- Search for a Guru

 Milon da and Anupam da were performing in the year 1981 at 
Tumluk, Midnapore district, West Bengal (from left Soumitra chatterjee(famous Indian guitarist, Anupam da, Milon da and Milon Deb (accordian).

Love for harmonica started at the age of 16 when Anupam Da first listened to the harmonica track of the song- ‘Kahin Deep Jale Kahin Dil’ played by Milon Da. In 1970, during his college time, Anupam Da was searching the venue at Kolkata where Milon Da usually took harmonica classes. At that time, Milon Da was very busy in Mumbai and occasionally came to his rental house at Kolkata. One day Anupam Da came to know from his friend that Milon Da will come to perform at ‘Lake Commercial College, Kolkata’ for their annual programme. Anupam Da went there and discovered that Milon Da’s harmonica teaching school was at Golpark, Kolkata. Anupam Da went there and met Milon Da and his learning of harmonica started thereon with the fees of Rs. 10/= only.

Anupam Da narrates an anecdote about Milon Da that once when he accompanied Milon Da for his recording he (Milon Da) was told to change the key of the song. Though Milon Da had prepared the song in a different key, he recorded it in the key he was told in the very first take. This had left Anupam Da amused and he was impressed.

Contemporary Harmonica Lovers:

During his days as a harmonica learner, a large numbers of students of Milon Da like Kajal Chakraborty, Premangshu Chatterjee, Bhaskar Chowdhury, Satyanarayan Chakraborty were contemporaries of Anupam Da. HaLoH member Shri B. Vinayak from Hyderabad had met Anupam Da during his stay at Kolkata when he went there for learning the techniques of harmonica from Milon Da.

Television performance, Releasing of Albums and Live Performances:

Anupam Da performed a Bengali ‘Kirtan’ (Ami Sukhero Lageea) on television in the year 1975. Milon Da was very much cordial with Anupam Da and occasionally they went together to the studio whenever Milon Da had any recording assignments. Their relationship lasted till Milon Da’s death (1995). In 1995, with his harmonica, Anupam Da recorded his first cassette “Chena Sur Achena Dhbani” on Bengali Folk Song using the same style as Milon Da with the famous music arranger V. Balsara. Again, in 2004, HMV Sa Re Ga Ma released an album- “Pehli Pehli Baar Hai” on Hindi Film Songs in Harmonica performed by Anupam Da. Both the albums were marketed well.

Role as a Harmonica Teacher:

Since 1980, Anupam Da started to teach his students harmonica skills once in a week except Sunday as his engagement was fixed with Milon Da on Sundays. In his career, wherever he resided, he went to Milon Da as a regular student. His playing style, technique and overall performance is like Milon Da. Till date he is engaged in conducting harmonica classes, preparation of notations of new generation songs, repairing of harmonica reeds etc. He is very much cordial with his students.

Views on Harmonica playing:

Anupam Da’s view in playing Harmonica is – One can play any song starting from any notation (sa/re/ga/ma) irrespective of its original scale but it must be sweet to hear and one must be satisfied with one’s playing without breathing problems. According to him, the beauty of the song should remain the same and he advocates the reversing of slider for getting the desired effects on the harmonica. According to him the final output should be good and this is what matters. The audience is least concerned about which key of harmonica was used to play the song. They are just concerned with the final presentation of the song. He possesses harmonicas like Hohner Super Chromonica 270, Hohner CX-12 and Suzuki SCX-48. His all-time favourite is Hohner Super Chromonica 270.

Anupam Da now resides at Kalyani, West Bengal with his family and will soon retire from his bank job. We pray for his long life.

Inputs for this article were given by Dr Prasanta Kumar Bandyopadhya.

Your Attention Please! Meet this Guru-Shishya Duo from Jamshedpur - Asim Banerjee and Ujjal Dutta

HaLoH introduces you to Shri Asim Banerjee and his student Ujjal Dutta who are from Jamshedpur. Hope you will enjoy their breath-taking performances. Published below are their autobiographies.

Autobiography of ASIM BANERJEE

My memory drags me long back to my childhood when I felt magnetically attracted to the small instrument- ’MOUTH ORGAN’. I used to buy some toy instruments but couldn’t manage to play any way. Days passed on until a memorable day of 1980 when I was a student of Matriculation. Through one of my school friends, I came to know about the Chinese ‘Hero’ harmonica. My eldest brother-in-law inspired me a lot to play the Instrument. One day suddenly to the pick of my surprise I found that I could play the Bengali song- ’DHAN O DHANYE PUSHPE BHARA’. Needless to say, there was no perfection at all.

By and by in the year of 1982, for the first time, I listened to the LP record of legendary mouth organist -late Milon Gupta. I was totally mesmerized. What a perfect rendition it was. That day I dreamt of becoming a perfect MOUTH ORGANIST like him. Time passed by. It was in the year 1985 that I got admission in a private polytechnic college in Kolkata. This was a golden chance for me to meet the maestro and to surrender myself to him whole heartedly. By the grace of GOD, one day, I got that chance. I came to know that one of my college friend’s uncles was a close friend of Milon Gupta. I utilized the opportunity and requested my friend to introduce me to Milon Gupta through his uncle by hook or by crook. The uncle wrote a letter to the maestro referring me and told me to meet him.

I went to Mr. Gupta’s residence at Deodar street (Garcha, Ballygunj, KOLKATA) but to my disappointment I couldn’t meet him. He was then working as an electrical engineer in Gestkin Williams. There was a major break down in the factory and he was busy managing that. Every day, I used to go to that place twice a day (morning and evening) by bus. One side journey lasted for at least two hours. One day his wife sympathized with me and committed to ensure that I meet Milon Gupta. At last I could meet the legend- A six and half feet tall fair giant man with a pleasing personality. He asked me- ‘’Do you have the basic knowledge of playing? How could you learn?’’ I answered-’’ I just follow your recordings because I could not get you directly’’. He told me to play something from his recordings and something of my own. He was very much pleased. His wife exclaimed- ‘’you are EKLAVYA!’’. From that day onwards both of them used to call me EKLAVYA.

After that my learning session started. He was an excellent teacher and artist. He had extra-ordinary sense of music. I am fortunate enough to get such a person as my preceptor.

I was astonished how a technocrat could become a high-level musician at the same time. I have seen him play many songs live from his recordings. One of the songs which is in my memory is ‘’Jaago Mohan pyare ‘’ (from the film- Jagte Raho). I got the best compliment of my life from MILON DA - ‘’ You are my carbon copy’’.

Now I am an amateur mouth-organist. I have performed in a number of shows including performance in Doordarshan (Kolkata). At present I am working as faculty of electronics at RD TATA TECHNICAL EDUCATION CENTRE in JAMSHEDPUR which is my native place.

Autobiography of UJJAL DUTTA:

Hi, I Ujjal Dutta have been playing the harmonica for last seven years. Initially I was not aware of the instrument- Mouth Organ. Its connection with me is a co-incidence. In the year 1994, I took admission in I.I.H.T Jamshedpur to learn computer hardware. There, I came in contact with my electronics instructor Mr.Asim Banerjee. One day I learnt that Mr.Banerjee is a very good Harmonica player. I also came to know that he was a disciple of the legendary Harmonica maestro Late Milon Gupta. One day, I requested my Sir and I went to his residence. I got a chance to listen to his rendition- (Chingari koi bharke and Pani Pani re). I was very much attracted towards the lovely instrument. I made up my mind to take lessons from him which are still going on till date. I learnt a lot from him and as a result I am an amateur Mouth organist and mouth organ is my passion. It seems that my life without Harmonica will be dry and unimaginable.

Now, I am running a small jewellery business in Jamshedpur.

Harmonica Our Passion!

22nd Nov'11-Celebrating Milon da's 81st birth anniversary

Last night Harmonica Lovers of Hyderabad celebrated 81st birth anniversary of Milon da. They had a great time from 10 pm till midnight playing few Milon da’s numbers on harmonica. Milon da is the man who popularized harmonica with his melodies and taught harmonica to many harmonica lovers including our core member Shri Vinayak B.

22nd Nov'10-Celebrating Milon da's 80th birth anniversary

Last night Harmonica Lovers of Hyderabad Shri Vinayak B., G.Rajkumar and I celebrated 77th birth anniversary of Milon da at my home. We had a great time from 9 pm till midnight. Milon da is the man who popularized harmonica with his melodies and taught harmonica to many harmonica lovers including Shri Vinayak B.