(Source- google)
(Recap – In the first episode, I mentioned, when I sought admission in a distant city Intermediate college, for the first time in life, I came to know about the live Orchestra musical program. The program was scheduled to be held in the college library-hall. There, I too heard about a popular male singer of the city.)
The entire orchestra program was enough to make me spell bound. That was the time, I used to attend my daily morning classes and for that I had to make, up and down daily from my hinterland village. My daily morning shift ended at about one O’clock . This distance I daily covered with my bicycle ride, that was the best ever affordable option for student like me. Since, cultural program was to commence from 5 p m onward, naturally it had to continue till late evening. I already had informed my parents about my expected late arrival. My this college, in a sense located at the outer precinct of the city. From there, after a distance of about one km toward my village side, the route remained deserted in the night.
Fear of returning in dark of the night
That was an old era and no street pole electricity, this part of the city availed. Apart from, the population density was quite thin and public movement in the late evening was scarce. Though, I was enjoying the program enchantingly, but intermittently the idea of prospectus of returning all alone in the dark of the late night too haunted me. After some initial formal performances, when the popular singer of the city began his performance, really say, I got so engrossed in his melodic voice, so that I entirely felt rid of the fear of returning home in the dark of the night. I now can confess with open heart that at that tender age of life, it was the deep effect of music that I experienced, Though now it sounded, it was a light music program but it had had a sound impact on my mind and heart that erased the fear of late night returning.
When the star singer appeared on the stage, his intro was given with all pomp. There I came to know his name . It was Mr. Alexander alias Alek Sir! A nick name he owned as Alek Sir. The most known and popular singer of the city. I was buoyant with dreamy feelings. There only, our head of the Biology department announced something in his praise. He too equaled his talent to the great Hindi Cine singer Kishor kumar and conferred him with the same entitlement ”
Something about Alek Sir
Mr Alexander alias Alek Sir had a little more bulky physique. Probably because of that he kept his bush shirt spread over his pant. A dark complexioned but sharp featured face, well combed hair in the style of cine stars. He was blessed with a talent to copy the voice of any hit male singer with an accurate similarity. As it was obvious by his name, he was a Christian. He at the inception of the program, greeted all in the hall and said, ” Just I am going to sing a song from a recently released hit movie “Bobby.”
Truly say, till that time of period, I personally had not developed the hobby to watch the movie in the cine – hall frequently. It was because of my rural humble back ground. Hardly two or three movies in a single year, student like me could afford to watch in the Cinema hall. No doubt, I had heard little bits about the film “Bobby”, Alek Sir was talking of. It was a hit movie of the year with a new theme of ‘teen age love story’. As far as the question of listening of hit songs of recently released movie was concerned, that was subject to certain conditions.
Student like me hardly could avail the opportunity to listen Cine songs on the radio-set back in village. Even the radio-set in my village were owned paltry by two to three families only. There by chance we heard the cine songs occasionally. In the program, the hit song of the movie “Bobby,” the singer was going to present, in fact was basically not in the voice of Kishor Kumar, it was sung by a fresher named Sjhailendra singh, But as our Alek Sir had a talent to imitate the voice of any singer, he too ably sang the song.
The first song’s performance
With the strum of electric guitar and beat of drum, Alek sir began his performance. The wordings of the song were , ” Mai shayer to nhi, magar aye haseen jabse dekha tujhko, mujhko shayari aa gayee, ( I am not a poet, but O beauty! the moment I threw a glance over you, I got transformed into a poet!)” Indubitably, the wordings of the song and composition of the music was excellent . This playing of song, God knows only, how got imprinted indelibly into my heart and mind. Even on this day, when I hear this song, it produces a nostalgic impression into my being self. At once, I travel back into my first ever thrilling, sensational episode of life of watching my first ever live orchestra program of life.
Orchestra party now in oblivion
Now I am an old man and so many decades have lapsed of watching that program, but still it’s vibrant inside me. After my watching that live orchestra program, gradually time too got changed. The time stepped into several changes of modernity. At the first, the inviting of orchestra party in wedding functions became so common by all classes of the community. The craze of orchestra party with the passing of time lost all its craze. In the beginning, there were only few such parties, but later on crowd of orchestra partied mushroomed up. After some years of that student life program, this kind of Orchestra program went into oblivion and became out of fashion. Otherwise also, with the introduction of new gadgets and facilities like DJ replaced them. (Cont’d) . Penned by — Vinay Pharasi …..
