Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music – January 2013

[Listening to Hindi Film Music, of the period 1950s till almost mid-1975, was one hobby that I did pursue quite avidly even during my First Innings of [so- called, busy (!)] life. It was during 2009-2010 that I could begin to spare time to download a huge number of songs from the internet – both in MP3 and in video formats. I certainly could reach a far greater number of songs, both, popular as well as hidden gems, from internet than I had ever reached through the sources of ‘old world technologies’ of radio, records, audio cassettes or CDs.

But, even till this phase, this was just a hobby, which was my great pastime and stress buster. It was only with the advent of my second innings in 2011 that I got to visit the blogs/ sites that specialized in collecting and presenting the songs-lists in creatively structured manner. That is when my journey to follow my hobby of listening to Hindi Film Music started to transform into seriously following (primarily) the Hindi Film Music of the Golden Era of 1950 till 1970s.

By the end of 2012, I was regular visitor / subscriber to at least half a dozen blogs / sites that have had their own individual style and preferences in the selection and presentation of the songs-lists. I had also grown from a pure passive follower to a moderately active participant, below the “Comments” line on those blogs/sites

So, hosting a collation of posts/ article, in the format of a Carnival, is my next step in the blogosphere journey of Hindi Film Music of the Golden Era.

All the blogs /sites that I visit regularly, have always a very rich fare of tastefully selected songs-lists in each of the post /article. Each of the blog/site has a core group of active participants in the lively discussions on what is presented in the article. So, I would be very brief here while presenting the post/article. I would earnestly request the visitor to this carnival to choose a very definite time slot, wherein his /her passions for the Hindi Film Music of Golden Era are invariably at very high tide, while paying a very very detailed visit to the posts/ articles /comments presented here. The time spent in each of this visit shall be far more worth its while. And that’s a promise.]

Since my introduction to the catchment blogs /sites commenced with Songs of Yore (SoY), I would open the Carnival with the first post of 2013 at SoY – An evening with Mubarak Begum .  SoY has indeed brought back Mubarak Begum with this article – for the GenX, by reviving the memorable songs and, for the GenNext, an introduction to a forgotten chapter of the Golden Period of Hindi Cinema. SoY has done similar immense service to the cause of Hindi Film Music (HFM), by articles on other (almost) forgotten singers:

–          Kamal Barot – http://www.songsofyore.com/category/singers/kamal-barot/

–          Jagjit Kaur – http://www.songsofyore.com/category/singers/jagjit-kaur/

–          Suman Kalyanpur – http://www.songsofyore.com/category/singers/suman-kalyanpur/

–          Subir Sen – http://www.songsofyore.com/category/singers/subir-sen/

–          Asit Baran – http://www.songsofyore.com/category/singers/asit-baran/

among playback singers who did not get the due they seemed to deserve.

SoY also has presented Multiple Version Songs (2): Both versions by male playback singers – Happy and A Sad Song, penned by yours truly, for the fare this month. This is second article in the series of hybrid versions songs, as an important genre of HFM.

Interestingly, the articles form other Blogs also open up quite interesting dimensions of the Golden Era of HFM.

Dusted Off opened the year with a birthday greetings to Shakila, with a guest post – Happy birthday, Shakila! – by none other than her niece Tasneen Khan, (daughter of Shakila’s sister Noor and the legendary Johnny Walker) on Shakila’s 78^th birthday.  The icing on the cake was a follow-through article – Ten of my favourite Shakila songs., wherein Hoon abhi main jawaan literally reflects the Eternally Youthful Longevity of the songs of the Golden Era.

Dusted Off normally presents vivid, lyrically described, reviews of films – Hindi as well as English. This month the reviews include – we shall include only Hindi Films, and that too if the review has a specific mention of a song from that film – Kohraa (1964). Not surprisingly at all, four songs – of the two as the first choice – Yeh nayan dare-dare is the chosen one; a close second being the hauntingly beautiful Jhoom-jhoom dhalti raat, of which the slow, slurring version is more stirring than the slightly faster version., and the other two songs being , O beqaraar dil ho chuka hai and Raah bani khud manzil., are the highlights of the review.

Harveypam’s Blog celebrated another birthday- Nanda’s – quite differently, by presenting songs in Nanda’s Eight Voices. This article is preceded by fondly presenting “ten favorite songs of Nalaini Jaywant” in In Remembrance, Nalini Jaywant [N.B. The songs can be enjoyed at this playlist as well.] As we dip into the comments to this article, we get onto Subodh Agrawal’s value-addition, by way of  “this video on YouTube containing stills( of Nalaini Jayawant) taken by James Burke, Life magazine’s photographer in the early fifties as part of the ‘movie queens’ series.”, and that of Madhubala in bonus – And, if this was not enough, Haveypam richly supplements these with “pics dating from the 1850s”.
We now move on to the typical, theme-based, songs-list on Converstaion Over Chai – My Favourites: Village Songs, which goes on to mention another post on the same theme – Pacifist’s Ek Gaon Ki Kahani (A village story) on Harveypam’s Blog. [The playlist is here] Each of the post succeeds “in depicting village life in its various moods with “fields, fairs, harvest, celebrations, village children, the gaon ka rasiya, and the village belle, hay stacks, sickle, and what have you”.
A site dedicated to the memory of “Shankar- Jaikishan” presents those few songs Geeta Dutt has rendered under their baton, which have held onto their place among more prodigal songs of Geeta Dutt with other music directors or with SJ’s more prodigal ones with the other playback singers @ GEETA DUTT SINGS FOR SHANKAR JAIKISHAN.

Two other sites – Dances on the Footpath and atul’s bollywood song a day- with full lyrics need a very special mention, in that they are neither pure songs-list nor a songs-list and film review sites, similar to the ones we have discussed earlier in this carnival.

Dances on the Footpath  has two, quite interesting, posts this month-

–                     My Favorite Broken-Heart Song of All (from a favorite film from 1948) – a song that does not have “dil todana” as the lyrics, and

–          Sights and sounds of a glamorous Lalita Pawar from the 1930s – presenting Lalita Pawar in her prime youth.

atul’s bollywood song a day- with full lyrics, as the very title of the site  suggests, basically presents full lyrics of the song that is brings up on that day. Of course, it does have an accompanying video clip and good deal of other supportive information as well, a highly quantitative work, with absolutely no compromise on the quality.  January 2013 category archive already has 113 songs, and is still counting.

We would end each edition of the carnival with a first-time visited blog/site, too.

This month I visited, first time,  Bollystalgia’ to find  Bizarre stage shows in Bollywood to watch the “’performance item'(s) … where the hero or heroine happens to be a singer/dancer extraordinaire and does an elaborate stage show incorporating a host of sideys, props and dramatic set designs.”

[I take this opportunity to thank, on my personal behalf and on behalf all fans of Hindi Film Music, all those self-less individuals who have uploaded priceless video clips and songs on to various internet platforms to provide a sea of primary database to the blogs/ sites discussed herein. It is their most invaluable contribution that is more than helping the Golden Era of Hindi Film Music, not only to rekindle the memories of our generation, but also to help leave a rich treasure to the generations of the future.]

Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs – January 2013

I plan to primarily focus on Quality of Life and Quality of Quality as a Profession in the carnivals that I would present every month.

No one would have ever imagined that an inaugural carnival, in the year 2013, on a subject like QUALITY, so much and so widely debated, at least for more than 70 years now can open the score with taking up a discussion on the definition of Quality.

Aimee Siegler in her post Influential Voices: Defining Quality, while leading us to two more active debates – Paul Borowski’s How Do You Define Quality?  and Roberto Saco’s circuitous definition  – wide opens the scope of Quality – internalization of Quality and Embracing Sustainability.

As we then take the next step setting the stage with Vikram Karve’s Quality of Life wherein he has raised an all important question – We all know how to love, how to live and how to learn, and we do spend time and effort doing these three things, but how many of us are concerned about leaving our legacy for posterity?

The Drucker Institute has a quite business-like article, on a parallel line: The Secret of Becoming a Corporate Superhero, which states: Long-term value creation doesn’t require the powers of a superhero. It starts with putting the customer first, understanding real value drivers and thinking carefully about how to create new opportunities.

However, we would expanding our scope in these carnivals and would share an Eagle’s eye view, primarily on  – Vision(ing); Concepts and Values; Measurement Paradigms and “Reinvent Continuously”  – aspects of Quality of Life and Quality of Quality as a Profession. We may not, necessarily, cover each category in each edition of the carnivals here, but we would certainly keep on exploring the blogosphere on these roads.

So here we go:

 

 

Simple Tom provokes us to catalyse our inherent quality of questioning to search for the meaningful understanding and realizing the true potential of world around us  in “Keys to Higher Consciousness”.  He has also laid out a well-defined challenge by asking an equally provocative question – Are You a Visionarie or a Follower? “You’ve just gotta go for  it and put one foot in front of the other!”

Jesse Lyn Stoner goes on to provide a set of realistic directions on “How to Keep Your Team Goals on Track”, to those of us who have been able to create a shared vision, but face (whether known or unknown or unaware)  threat of unaligned systems and  practices that can derail their future journey. (better be aware of those rumbling sounds!)

Zen Habits, in “Do less: A Short Guide”, strongly advocates going against the stream and stepping back. The underlying intrinsic philosophy is to ‘savor’ and ‘curate’ our tasks so as to create a day of ‘doing less’, and in turn ‘savor’ our life.

On a somewhat similar stream of thought, Socratez Online provocatively cajoles to stick our neck out of our comfort zone, in the article “Tips For Perfectionists” to achieve what we are destined to achieve, “despite (our) flaws and because of (the) courage to be imperfect.”

Over and above this qualitative future view of our world, we see highly charged and considered discussions on the future of more mundane activity – the Manufacturing – that should be of matter of concern and interest for the current and future  management and manufacturing professionals. Manufacturing the future: The next era of global growth and innovation, a major report from the McKinsey Global Institute, presents a clear view of how the manufacturing contributes to the global economy today, and how it will, probably evolve over the coming decade. Our evergreen management thinker, Peter Drucker, is quoted as “The company is insourcing the basic compounds to achieve quality control, but it is outsourcing the final” production. It is looking at the entire value chain and deciding where to place various activities.” In a satirically titled article Why This Blog Post Was Not Outsourced to China.  No doubt, the circle of outsourcing seems to have turned a full cycle. To those professionals who had had not the direct experience of the first cycle, this new phase will have its own challenges. And to those who have been part of the now-mature-paradigm of outsourcing, this new vista are going to throw open a new world, as well.

From this macro perspective, we  come down to the near-future realities and gain a perspective of  how to “Get Prepared for 2013′s Unpredictable Changes and Chances” so that “as our chances come we’ll emerge as victors rather than victims of change”

Getting out of our comfort zone is (always!?) scary. “Not of death or injury of course, but of failure”. Stacy Barr in her regular lucid style goes on say “BHAGs, stretch targets and any other kind of big goals demand that we simultaneously think about the result we’re aiming for and the adventure of getting there.” in The REAL reason for BHAGs is NOT to achieve them!
Manufacturing Innovation eXcahnge (MIX), which  operate a novel   feature, Hacks which presents boundary-pushing proposals for changing the way organizations work and leaders lead … We have a very interesting report from a hack that suggested  the idea of managing performance was itself incompatible with the 21st century notion of reinventing management that we discuss every day..which led to running a (grassroots) hackathon. The ultimate compilation of results of experience of almost 70 persons  around the world that may well define a new vision of a “performance management” ( or by whatever name it may be known in Management 20 world is a report – “Getting Performance without performance management”.

Dr. Pietro Micheli, in “The Seven Myths of Management” observes that “Too many indicators and reports, and loose connections between strategy and measures often make measurement systems very expensive pieces of furniture.” He goes on to state that “While their intentions are usually positive, our research shows that, in fact, they often encourage exactly the behaviors their organizations neither need nor want.

Obviously, any measurement system is going to result into under and overachievers as well.  We have two relevant and searching articles – What Overachievers Can Do to Save Themselves – for Shri Subrato Bagchi, wherein he proclaims that “there is no external enemy. Only ordinary people need an external enemy. The overachiever is his best friend and his worst enemy.” However, “Overachievers that run the course are conscious to disassociate themselves from their personal success” and failures if there are any.  “As much in the corporate world as outside, sustained overachievers take their success as a responsibility; as a burden, not an entitlement. Therein lies the capacity to keep the feet firm on the ground even as the eyes are set on the peak.”

In the article from strategy+business  “The Cult of Three Cultures”, MIT expert Edgar Schein “suggests that there are at least three separate professions creating their own cultures within every large corporation. Professor Schein calls them the “operational,” “executive,” and “engineering” cultures. Each has its own attitudes about people, work, money, time, technology, and authority. The exact names and descriptions of these professional cultures are open for debate, but the heart of the theory is the inherent conflict among them. Members of each culture consistently misunderstand each other, even when they earnestly desire to work together.”

Quality can deliver quite a serious message in a very lighter way. Mark Graban in his LeanBlog presents Dr. Deming’s wisdom with some very funny moments. He has taken pains to curate some of those funny moments from a 2-hour address to a university in Connecticut by Edwards Deming.

Before we conclude this month’s Carnival, it would not be out of place to visit an article – 5 Keys To Making Strategic Reinvention Stick – by Kaihan Krippendorff. The author pointedly shares on overcoming obstacles to self-improvement while narrating five critical elements of a defining plan from Phil Cooke’s new book – Telling Your Story in the Age of Brands and Social Media.

We conclude this month’s carnival with a lively set of lessons of Business Etiquettes that “Emily Post is charging $200 – $300” but we have them “free of charge”. Here are two samples:

• “The superior man is polite but not cringing; the common man is cringing but not polite.” Confucius
• “A man’s hat in his hand never did him any harm.” Italian Proverb.

Acknowledgements of submission of articles to this carnival:

Brittany Martin presents “How to Evaluate Your Nanny; to bring it to the notice of all the professionals that there is no dichotomy between sound (management and technical) principles as applicable to The Profession or to The Life, so long as we have the Right Attitude of Quality.

Comments to improve and enrich the Carnival are most welcome.

Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs

2012 was the year when I was on the freelance wanderlust on reading on the net. Among several subjects I pursued, one topic which has attracted my attention was Quality Management, in its quite wide spectrum.

If Tanmay Vora’s QAspire or Rajesh Setty’s wide-ranging articles or ASQ came up on the radar early on and have drawn my major (reading and seriously pursuing) attention, my quest for more and more wider ranging blogs /authors has remained quite fruitful.

Come 2013, and I firm up my freelancing reading into following a serious hobby of writing on what I like of what I read.

So here comes Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs, to be published on every third Sunday of the month.

In order to collect a fair number of articles under one roof, I have chosen the format of Carnival.

I have chosen this format because, “blog carnivals are a great way for bloggers to recognize each other’s efforts, organize blog posts around important topics, and improve the overall level of conversation in the blogosphere” (Courtesy: http://blogcarnival.com/bc/p_about.html).

I will be publishing these Carnivals as posts on my Blog – The world is too small? or Is it? Under  — — Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs category.

The focus of articles and blogs here would be relating to the Quality as a Profession and as Way of Life.

So, I look forward to 20^th Jan.,2013, the first-ever  3^rd Sunday when I plan to publish the First edition of this Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs.

The Genesis of Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music

The seeds of my hobby of listening to Hindi Film Music were planted in my early childhood, when we would listen to the songs of the film currently being screened at Modern Talkies, a cinema hall located a street away from the back-wall window of our home, in Bhuj (Kutch, Gujarat). The cinema halls of those days used to play the songs of the current film, as a means of promoting the film, before the show and during the intervals.

However, it was only at the beginning of my ‘second innings’ that I started penning down my views on songs that I liked. But, for this to happen, the credit goes to blogs / sites dedicated to vivaciously re-visiting Golden Era of Hindi Film Music, in a very innovatively and creatively structured manner.

I started by writing tentative ‘comments’ to the articles posted @ Songs of Yore. The articles on artistes like Jagjit Kaur, Suman Kalyanpur, Kamal Barot, Subir Sen; on music directors like Daan Singh, Vinod, C Arjun, Shailesh Mukherji made me to subscribe to the site for receiving the articles as they were published and post my own views and likings on the articles.

Then came an article: Best songs of 1955: And the winners are! , where upon I went on long on expressing my views. And to the surprise of surprises, Shri AKji seemed to receive these excursions very positively.

That built up my rapport not only with SoY, but with also with other blogs linked- rolled thereto – Dusted Off  , Conversations Over Chai ,Harveypam’s Blog ,Atul’s Bollywood Song A Day – with full lyrics.

The Genesis of Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music

I have also been reading a special compilation of articles published on blogs having a common underlying theme. One such very successful and effective series is Leadership Development Carnival, primarily host-anchored by Dan McCarthy of Great Leadership.

So, I also would like to take up Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music. I would compile and present the work of the blogs that I already visit very regularly and share mu views thereto. I would also introduce myself to at least one new blog on the subject, thereby enriching the carnival collection under one roof.

I plan to publish the post on last Sunday of every month, beginning with January, 2013.