Last November I sat with Sagar through his vocal music class.

for a performance to be held in April 09

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=376w1QPz07w

The song picturized so beautifully on Ashok Kumar in the 1963 movie, Meri Surat Teri Aankhe.(Roughly translated-My Face, Your Eyes) brings vivid memories of the first post-independence generation of India.

An Old Hobby

My father, was a great enthusiast of Old Hindi film songs and he would note them down, in a small pocket diary.

I keep that diary in front of me, on my desk, as I carried it with me to Tripoli as a Souveneir. He used to sing from his college days in AIIMS (1958-1963), but seeing his collections, I realized that it was in the loneliness of his military field posting of Nagaland (1979-1982) when he really got serious into forming proper collections of the songs.

Time to pass it on.

I do not have that range or discipline to follow the songs, their root ragas, which form their basis. That is what is being taught to Sagar by his Music teacher, Ms.Nigam

Once he knows the basics, the ‘pop-songs’ will be a cake walk for him, the teacher says, insisting that he learns the basics.

This echoes what his Guitar teacher ‘Ossie Sir’ says.

“He has to have the basic movements right.”

Last October he passed the Cambridge exam and Maben showed me the notes of evaluation for every tune which he played and also how the examiner noted when the student had slipped and where he needed improvement.

I think it is time that I give Sagar the small pocket diary with the lyrics, which his grandfather made.