I dream......

While everyone was so ecstatic about the inevitable victory of RK hall in inter hall eastern vocals, I could be seen very quiet ( hallucinated ). No, not that success had gone to my head. But, in a very unusual manner I was pushed into some retrospection.

I remembered the days when I used to participate in the Bhajan competition in my primary school . My mom used to teach me the bhajans which she thought I would be able to manage. And those songs used to be very simple. Not that I wasn’t in tune. But, I couldn’t handle the variations, embellishments and minuteness in songs well. My sister, on the other hand, used to get pretty difficult songs which she used to execute perfectly. She always came first and I used to come on second, third ( once no position at all) position. My cousins often used to mock me for I could not handle even simplest of the embellishments. My teenage came, when my throat started cracking whenever I attempted to sing. I said quits to singing.

Then I came to this place. With a cassette of Sonu Nigam, which my seniors had gifted me. (My sister often used to pull my leg me by saying that they want you to listen to the songs properly before you try singing them again :) ) .With no source of amusement available at this place, I often found pleasure in listening to that cassette and singing along. Slowly, I fell in love with his voice. I looked for more of his songs and I came through the list of following songs, which a guy of much limited capacity like me found almost impossible to be done:-

1> Satrangi re :- the song had so much of variation + high pitch + no breathing time + passion

2> Zindagi maut na ban jaaye :- “desh mein…………” alaap was almost impossible

3> Mera rang de :- so much of embellishment in the introductory line.

4> Saathiya( title song) :- fine embellishments again.

5> Deewana tera :- Voice scatting which is very difficult to be done.

By then, my band was formed in kgp. I met people with absolutely amazing musical callibre like kartik, vamsi, saurabh, apratim, coke. I had decided by then. By the end of my stay in kgp I will develop my caliber as much as to cover all these songs elegantly.

Instead of going for a classical training, I kept on practicing on my own. And I practiced much. I always knew my weakness as well as I was confident about my strength which was building up slowly. I still remember how I used to practice “satrangi re” riding a bicycle so as to develop the capacity of my lungs to hold air. I don’t know whether these things helped or not, but the important thing was….I had the passion to improve. And that is what was most satisfying in my retrospection.

After my inter hall performance on 1 Feb 2006, I got a feeling somewhere that I have been successful in my attempts ( offcourse Successful with a capital S ). What could be a better testimony to this than the achievements of the duo ( Vamsi + Me ) in Inter Halls.

2003 :- 4^th place

2004:- silver medal

2005:- gold medal in a very stiff competition

2006:- gold medal in a very comprehensive manner.

While, I was watching some of the singers singing some kishore/rafi songs in tune, I remembered my old days when being able to sing a “rafi song “ perfectly in tune on stage meant so much for me. Now, somehow there was a feeling that I have come ahead of those old milestones. Film songs, old songs etc. make me feel challenged no more. I am standing at the foot of the mountain( read challenge). The challenge to be able to sing a pure classical no. perfectly. I have to move up now. To conquer this mountain.

And this is also my guru’s (Mrs Prema Mukherjee ) dream.

Thank you for tolerating this narcissistic blog. :)