Valentine’s day performer-Shri Amaram Raj Kumar

Shri Amaram Rajkumar, executive member of Harmonica Lovers of Hyderabad (Regd.), a man of simplicity and one of the senior harmonica players of Hyderabad was born in a Royal family of Secunderabad. He’s a retired employee of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, but still serving the AP state Govt in the same Dept where he retired. Mr Rajkumar was inspired to pick harmonica by his friend Late Shri. Cyrus Mehta, a sailor who always used to carry a harmonica in his pocket in the early 60’s. Shri Rajkumar has been playing the harmonica since his college days has performed many a times in various prestigious auditoriums including Ravindra Bharati. Several news papers have written lot about his talent. Apart from harmonica playing Mr Rajkumar also has a grand collection of rare LPs, EPs and cassettes of his favorite artistes like Shri Milon Gupta, Shri Madan Kumar and also some western artists.

Mr Rajkumar, another front runner of HaLoH, never waits for any invitation to play the harmonica. When he plays the harmonica, at least 10% of Indira Park can feel the vibrations of his harmonica and he can manage a huge audience without a mike. This is one of the reasons why we usually start and end our harmonica sessions with him.

This Sunday, we were all awaiting Mr Rajkumar and he appeared in a cool pink T-shirt with charming looks. No wonder we realized that it was Valentine’s Day and he played all LOVE songs on harmonica. The session started with the song ‘Oh Maria’ (from the film ‘Sagar’) by me followed by other players. Finally, it was Shri Rajkumar’s turn to say ‘SAYONARA’ on his favorite Hohner Chrometta14 (from the film ‘Love in Tokyo’) for the day. Please watch this video.

Happy Valentine's Day

Love from the land of melody

I believe, every human being on this earth has an attachment to a place which could be his birth place, the place where he grew up or studied, the place where he fell in love with someone or may be a place related to his religious beliefs. Shri B. Vinayak, the backbone of HaLoH (Harmonica Lovers of Hyderabad) has a similar attachment to the city of joy-Kolkata. I believe the reason behind this attachment can be best described by Shri B. Vinayak himself. I request him to describe his bonding with Kolkata and his experiences at this city in his recent trip. Vinayak ji, are you reading this?

On learning about Shri Vinayak’s trip to Kolkata, I had given him a piece of paper with a name and a mobile number jotted on it and requested him to meet that person to convey regards on behalf of HaLoH and me. Wonder whose name I wrote on that paper? It was the name of one among those persons whose exuberant harmonica playing on esnips influenced me to take my Chromatic harmonica seriously. He’s none other than Mr Sumanta Basu from Kolkata.

Sumanta Basu-A brief introduction:

Sumanta Basu, aged 35 years from Kolkata is a very popular harmonica artist on eSnips. No wonder, most of us must have come across his profile at some point of time. He is a self-taught Creative Designer working for the web media since last 13 years, and working for a large range of clients who are really big players...He has been playing the harmonica for the last 19 years.

He says : “I love my friends, who are pretty serious about their careers, shouting lovingly at a crazy boy they are talking to. What to do, I like to spell my own words... and there is no cause behind it. I love to see... I love to read... I love to listen... I love to write songs... to take photographs... I love to do what ever I feel like... I love to find as many ways I can, to tell you my tale, to explore various languages to communicate with... I love to play the Harmonica... Like other composers, I have a special attraction for Rabindranath and his compositions. The more I play him, the more I realize, that he was the first composer of our country, who have composed modern, and such smart tunes for all times to come. I’m jealous of the precision with which he has made application of all the major and minor notes…”

His favourite musicians are Kabir Suman, Salil Chowdhury, RD Burman, SD Burman, Naushad, OP Nayyar, Shankar Jaikishan, Jim Rives, Pat Boon and BoB Dylan

Please listen to this number played by Mr Sumanta Basu

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After 6 days long trip to Kolkata, Shri Vinayak returned back to Hyderabad and met me this Sunday at Indira park. Affectionately he gave me a CD “Those were the days ” which was sent from Mr Sumanta Basu with his autograph on it. The moment I saw the autograph, I kissed the CD because I felt it like an honour for me from my favorite artist. Unlike other Sundays,I left Indira park a little early as I was very much desperate to listen to Mr Sumanta’s latest western numbers. After listening to the album, the hangover still continues in me. Given below are the songs which he played in this album.

Those were the days

1.Guantanamera

2.Besame Mucho

3.The Banana boat song

4.Que Sera Sera

5.Tequila

6.Never on Sunday

7.500 miles

8.Summer Holiday

9.Sounds of Silence

10.Lara’s theme-Dr.Zhivago

11.Those were the days

12.Speak Softly Love-Godfather

13.Rivers of Babylon

14.Que viva Espana

The CD was recorded by Mr Sumanta Basu himself at his home. Quality of recording is at par with many international albums. I strongly believe his skills will be recognized by global harmonica lovers very shortly

Write up on the CD by Mr.Sumanta Basu

My land is a land of music and melody. Since time immemorial, our songs and their modern forms have mesmerized me and urged me to reach out beyond the bounds of place and time, musically from within. Years later, at this age, I have been able to muster the courage to bring this out to all.

None of the 14 numbers, chosen for this album are from my own country. In fact they do not belong to any particular country. These times, different in character, created at different times in different societies and I have been recorded by various artists long before I was even born. Hence the onus of judging the authenticity of these numbers played by me rests solely onto the listeners.

The responsibility that I have taken on myself besides playing the tunes on the harmonica are that of recording, mixing, CD mastering along with creating this inlay.

I am deeply indebted to the medium called Internet for the music arrangements. I however, regret being unaware of the names of my accompanying musicians.

Well, I guess, this is globalization..

To listen to more Indian songs played by him, visit his eSnips profile at

http://www.esnips.com/user/sumanta-harmonica

Sumanta, we love you... Looking forward to listen to your future works.

Rendezvous at Delhi

A few weeks ago, on a cold day, I visited Shri Ashok Bhandari ji’s office at Delhi. It was a planned trip from Jaipur. This was our first meeting; nevertheless we felt that we knew each other quite well. I asked Ashok ji to give some tips on playing the Harmonica. He asked me to play and I played the popular Hindi aarti “Om Jai Jagdish Hare” on my harmonica. Bhandari ji took his 16 hole Hering and played this aarti with ease. This was the first time he was playing this tune. He picked it up pretty fast. He mimicked my style at first and later played this very same aarti in his style with “feelings”.

He has developed his “Bellow blowing technique” wherein he ensures that his lungs are filled with a lot of air. He then controls the air pressure while playing the notes. He also demonstrated how to control breathing while blowing and drawing notes. A balance is maintained between how much air is drawn through the holes and through the nose in case of breathing in. Extra air is blown out through a passage created by slightly opening the lips while blowing only the required quantity of air through the holes for the reeds .I also got an opportunity to witness his favourite “stunts” on the harmonica. Well, I’m talking about those strange peculiar sounds he creates on the harmonica. This was followed by demonstration of harmonization, octave playing, different kinds of vibrato etc. There was a drastic improvement in my playing within half an hour of his demonstration.

We were waiting for one more harmonica lover: Harish Nayyar from Amritsar (Punjab) who arrived there directly from New Delhi railway station. When Harish entered the room, he was amazed to see lots of harmonicas scattered on the table. He played the popular Sindhi number “Dama dam mast kalandar” sung by Runa Laila on his Swan 1248 professional. After some harmonica session, we had lunch. We were impressed by his hospitality. Being a learner with no extraordinary harmonica skills, I still felt at ease in his company. It was time to bid adieu after spending 5 hours at Ashok ji’s place. Harish and I really enjoyed ourselves. It was a memorable day.

Harmonica Our Passion!

Internet bridges the gap between harmonica lovers..

Raman Khandelwal (Popularly known as KK-Kromatic Khandelwal) a virtual member of HaLoH came across one of his childhood friend Vijaykrishna Pilla(who now stays in USA) on internet after 20 years. KK was happy to learn that VK Pilla use to playing the flute during his school days also developed same passion for harmonica recently. VK Pilla who was on an official trip to India( New Delhi) last week made it a point to meet KK at Pink city without fail. KK and VK Pilla met after 21 years had a good time discussion about harmonica and music. VK Pilla native of Hyderabad learnt about harmonica happenings at HaLoH , immediately he called us from Jaipur and confirmed about his participation in this week’s HaLoH meeting at Indira Park.

Today, On his arrival he offered us Pheeni(A famous sweet dish of Jaipur) “sweets” are really “sweet”. Later we had a great musical session which included with his flute recital.

Mr VK Pilla left the park loaded with love and affection of Harmonica Lovers of Hyderabad.

We wish to meet him during his next visit to India.

HaLoH celebrating 60 years of Janaganamana

It is 60 years back on the same day a great event has taken place.Jana Gana Mana, composed by Late Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, was officially adopted by the Constituent Assembly as the Indian national anthem on January 24, 1950.

HaLoH celebrating 60 years of our national anthemJanaganamana, since today is HaLoH day(Sunday) our meeting at Indirapark started with our National anthem Janaganamana on harmonica as a group.

Avinesh Singh

Mr Avinesh Singh, A guitarist turned harmonica player (Lover) actively participated in today’s meeting with his Hohner Super 64x. Mr Avinesh joined HaLoH after seeing this blog. He speaks softly and plays all new songs on harmonica so softly without imitating anybody. Finally we understand that he is a software engineer :-)

Inderjit Singh Soni

Shri Inderjit Singh Soni, An Industrialist and an Elite personality of Hyderabad, visited HaLoH and played few western numbers on his SUZUKI SCX-64 for us. His keen sense of humor and his incredible sound made it an unforgettable moment. Shri Soni extended his invitation to all harmonica lovers to visit his residence in Gunrock Enclave to make big sounds on harmonica and insisted us to utilize his spacious house premises for the practice sessions either with Hot or cold liquids :-P

We suitably reciprocate.

P N Murty

Harmonica Lover Prasad introduced another harmonica lover (his uncle) to HaLoH who is Shri P N Murty, A senior tax consultant of Hyderabad visited HaLoH with his grand collection of Hohner harmonicas.He played few nostalgic hindi tunes for HaLoH. All of us were surprised with his energy levels.

Shri P C Rao's Sanwale salone aye

Over a year we had heard a lot about Shri Purnachandra Rao, A senior Harmonica player, Music teacher running a very popular music school SSS Music academy in Hyderabad, on top of that he is a music director of Telugu film industry and composed for 15 films.

The atmosphere was really graced with his presence. He played few numbers on harmonica for us, what a performance! Watch this video...

All of us requested him to visit HaLoH regularly to guide us with his knowledge.

A memory lasts forever..

Shri Tapan Bhatt's Aage bhi jane na thu..

After the visit of Shri Kumarpal Shaw from Harmonica Club of Gujarat ( HCG ) few months ago, Another harmonica lover from HCG Shri Tapan Bhatt visited Hyderabad recently. Shri Tapan Bhatt is General Secretary of HCG. His passion for harmonica would be clearly seen when we exchanged series of messages through SMS. I was delighted to learn that there is one more harmonica lover with the same passion which we have for this instrument. A harmonica musical session was arranged at one of our HaLoH member Shri Mahendra Gala’s residence in the evening on 6^th of Jan.Other HaLoH members Vinayak B, A.Rajkumar, G.Rajkumar, Ashwin and Vijay Konda attended that musical session. We enjoyed listening to the renditions by Shri Tapan Bhatt on his Hohner Super 64X. HaLoH members present there had played harmonica one by one followed by the Indian harmonica anthem “Hai apna dil to awara” which was played by all of us together along with the karaoke track.

HaLoH looks forward to meet more harmonica lovers from HCG in the days to come.

ASHOK BHANDARI- A MAGICIAN WHO LOVES THE HARMONICA

Ashok Bhandari-A magician who loves the Harmonica!

Here’s a mesmerizing rendition by Shri Ashok Bhandari who believes “Anything which can amuse is music”. This piece of music titled “Arabian Nights-Part 2” is being recorded without any digital special effects. HaLoH thanks Shri Ashok Bhandari for this video.

First steps:

Ashok ji has been playing the harmonica since early seventies. It’s almost forty years now. He was inspired by Late Shri Milon Gupta (Milon da) and Shri Madan Kumar. He had personally met Milon Da twice and took some tips on harmonica playing from him. He remembers listening to Shri Madan Kumar’s renditions on Juke Box during his college days. This used to cost 25 paise per song in those days. Shri Nachiketa Desai, a journalist and a Harmonica lover from Ahmedabad also influenced him in developing passion for this tiny little instrument during their college days at BHU campus. Ashok ji says “I’ve learnt a lot about harmonica from Nachiketa during our stay in the hostel.”

Falling in Love:

Apart from playing the harmonica, Ashok ji plays the keyboard, flute and many other percussion instruments. In fact, he is a very good percussionist and had performed on various percussion instruments long ago. When asked why he fell in love with the harmonica, he says that it (harmonica) is the sweetest instrument. It is very challenging to play the harmonica because one can’t know what is happening in the player’s mouth. Moreover, harmonica is a magical instrument which leaves the audience spell bound. He sites an example mentioning that he has to take a truck load of props for his magic shows and carries this tiny instrument with him. He always plays the harmonica during his shows and finds that his audience which attends his magic shows is impressed by his harmonica performance to a much greater extent.

The style:

Ashok ji is basically a chromatic harmonica player and plays Indian music. In fact this piece of music which is being uploaded along with this article is Arabic music played on a chromatic harmonica. There are lots of chromatic notes in this rendition which he believes is almost impossible to achieve in a diatonic harmonica. He believes that one should “Improvise” on the song one plays and should avoid being a carbon copy of another player. He sites an example of the king of ghazals Jagjit Singh who sings ghazals as per strict music notations in his albums but whenever he performs live in front of the audience, he improvises upon his own music and adds a new flavour to the performance. He also gives an opportunity to all other people accompanying him with various musical instruments to improvise. Ashok ji says, “When western people improvise on our music, we say it is fusion but when an Indian improvises on any music, it is frowned upon.” He prefers playing Indian music on a chromatic harmonica rather than playing the same on a diatonic harmonica by bending notes. He loves to hear harmonica players playing Indian Raagas and Folk. He says that he isn’t a good harmonica player, however he is a good performer and knows how to mesmerize his audience with his harmonica. A majority of his harmonica audiences on internet are foreigners who enjoy his Indian music. According to him, there is a lot of scope for harmonica to develop as a professional music instrument in India.

All time favourite:

Ashok ji’s all time favourite is the Hohner Super Chromonica 270 which was also played by late Milon da in India. Currently, he has a collection comprising Hohner Super Chromonica 270, Hohner Chromonica 3 (Old model now discontinued), Hohner 64 professional and Hering. This music in the video is played on a Suzuki Slider SC-64 harmonica. Though he owns a few diatonic harmonicas, he plays straight in first position.

Harmonica school:

Ashok ji has recently started teaching harmonica to students at Delhi. He also has a few online foreign students. He intends to promote the harmonica among school students. He says “Just imagine 400 school students playing the harmonica simultaneously. Imagine the sweet sound of harmonica with so many players. When a few thousand harmonica players abroad can create a world record of playing the harmonica together, why can’t we Indians?”

Message to all harmonica lovers:

Magician Ashok Bhandari is thankful to various online harmonica groups and forums, different blogs and websites pertaining to harmonica for promoting this instrument. He says “We should avoid having ego and petty quarrels between various harmonica players. Criticism on one’s rendition should be taken positively to improve our knowledge about music and harmonica playing skills. Friends, lets keep the harmonica flag high”

Harmonica Our Passion!

HaLoH goes on air..

On 21^st Nov’2009 6pm-8pm, Harmonica Lovers of Hyderabad Rajkumar Gavvala and I played the harmonica live for two hours on RED FM 93.5, A popular radio channel in AP. Apart from the live harmonica renditions, there was a chat on this tiny little instrument with radio jockey Sunayana(We pleasantly surprised, when we realized that Sunayana ( An award winning movie Ammoru fame) is the RJ for our show.She was a very good child artist in good number of Telugu films and I believe most of the people in AP feel like Sunayana is their family member.The two hours show was finished like two minutes with her mind blowing jockeying skills.

The RED FM 93.5 team was so impressed by the harmonica music, that they requested to play some more songs on harmonica for them after the programme and RJ Sunayana introduced us to her better half Mr Vinay, both are made for each other. Other HaLoH members too enjoyed the live of this programme from their homes along with their family.

Quality thats for ever..

Prasad..Passion for harmonica.

A harmonica lover Mr Prasad , An employee of Google India happened to listen our live harmonica live programme in RED FM 93.5 on radio in his car and he was excited to learn that there is an umbrella titled “HaLoH” in Hyderabad which is very active in promoting the harmonica.He turned up for the gathering today on 22^nd Nov’09 at Indira park to celebrate the 76^th birth anniversary of the harmonica legend Shri Milon Gupta.He told he lost the touch with harmonica over ten years but with a ten hole diatonic he played not less than ten songs flawlessly.HaLoH welcomes Prasad.

HaLoH celebrates 79th birth anniversary of Shri Milon Gupta.

RED FM 93.5 live of HaLoH programme from Indira park

The special agenda of today’s gathering on Sunday 22^nd Nov’09 at Indira Park was to celebrate the 76th birth anniversary of Indian harmonica legend Shri Milon Gupta.

Milon da’s photograph was honored with garland and shawl by HaLoH members. Since this harmonica legend no more with us the same shawl was gifted to his student and back bone of HaLoH Shri Vinayak B. On this occasion the RED FM 93.5 had broadcasted one more live programme for one hour 8am-9am from Indira park. This was RJ Sunayana’s Interactive session with us on harmonica and HaLoH activities, Mr Ravibabu played harmonica live on the mobile phone through which the programme was broadcasted.This was the one of the happiest moment for the Harmonica Lovers of Hyderabad(HaLoH).

Harmonica lover Uday's journey to happiness starts..

The melody of love just let out a perfect tune. Congratulations on your wedding!

Our deepest condolences!

Our sincere thoughts and prayers are always with you.

A reason to smile!

It is our firm faith that music is the language of God made us believe that it is nothing less than a miracle when we received a call from Dr.Rao of GOLD AGE ASHRAM AND HOSPITAL, a home for the aged people since 1979, to entertain the resident senior citizens under their loving care this Sunday, on the 8th of November 2009.These senior citizens had a reason to smile as they enjoyed our renditions on the harmonica. This is the first performance of HaLoH for the outsiders.
As soon as we entered the premises of GOLDAGE we were totally engulfed by the divine atmosphere pervading there and we were possessed by their motto - I Love You, I Surrender to You, and I Serve You.
Our faith got strengthened even further when we realized that we got our maiden chance to associate ourselves as HaLoH with the people who were selflessly serving the inmates as a mother takes care of her own children. Some of them were from families that were well off and their children were reluctant to take care of their parents. Some senior citizens were so sick that their physiotherapist Dr.Rao was surprised to see them tap their legs and clap along with the music that was being played on the harmonica.
Rajkumar Gavvala began our performance with the song… Chinnari ponnari puvvu(means..Oh tiny little flower in Telugu) and followed by golden melodies, devotional songs and few bhajans at the end of the programme as a group we played our national anthem Jana gana mana on harmonica.
At the conclusion of our performance we received blessings of all the mothers present there, which gave us further strength, changed our outlook towards life and we stepped out with a new vision.

Thus begins the Golden age of HaLoH with GOLDAGE.

Harmonica Lovers of Hyderabad (clockwise) Ashwin, Mahendra gala, Ravibabu,A.Rajkumar,Vinayak, and Shivraj completely engrossed when they are playing for residents of Goldage.

I enjoyed playing Mera jutha hein japanie from Shri.420 at Goldage.

They are all just 7yr old with 70yrs memories.

HaLoH meeting at Chennai?

I was confused for few seconds when I learnt from Kailashnath over phone that HaLoH meeting was held at Chennai. Actually, two Harmonica Lovers of Hyderabad Vijay Konda, Kailashnath met at Chennai during their official visit. They compensated their absence on this Sunday Goldage programme by meeting at a hotel in Chennai.

HaLoH meet up on Sunday 1st Nov ' 09

This sunday, 16 harmonica lovers attended the meeting at Indira Park, Hyderabad. There were some new faces to grace the occasion. They were Shri Nageswara Rao, a retired employee of AP Govt., Jayaram and Ravindra who are students of Osmania University School of Foreign Languages, and Sirish, who learnt about HaLoH through this blog. Another new member Mr Ravi Babu is seen playing DIL DIL SE MILAKAR DEKHO from the movie MEMSAHIB in this photograph. Mr Vinayak accompanied him with his whistling.