Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music – Volume XII – April 2024 Edition

Welcome to April 2024 edition of XII^th Volume of Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music.

Recent celebrations to celebrate birth centenary of Mohammad Rafi (B: Dec 24, 1924 | D: Jul 31, 1980).

In the fourth show, on 24^th April 2024, singers and musicians attempt to recreate Immortal Rafi … Immortal Duets

Here is one of the most elaborate April Fool pranks played by a film magazine in the 90s: Anupam Kher on a magazine cover as Sridevi’s sister.

Presently we move on to our section on tributes and celebrations for the month –

Rafi sings for Composers from Bengal – Anil Biswas, Salil Chowdhury and Hemant Kumar were covered in Part 1, S D Burman in Part 2 and R D Burman in Part 3 and now Part 4 focuses on a few well known, a few lesser known or forgotten composers from the 40s and the 50s mainly..

An Actress Par Excellence – There was more to Meena Kumari than being ‘Tragedy Queen’. Anuradha Warrier revisits the incomparable actor’s films that showcase her incredible range and immeasurable talent

The Masters: Shakeel Badayuni is a tribute to one of the finest romantic poets who worked in Hindi cinema on his 54^th anniversary.

The Sculptors of Film Songs (14): Four Shades of the Dusk of the Series covers Bhanu Gupta, Homi Mullan, Kishor Sodha and Ranjit Gazmer in the concluding article of the series on SoY. The previous Arrangers and Musicians covered in the series are Sebastian D’ Souza, Anthony Gonsalves, Enoch Daniels, Kishore Desai  Manohari Singh, S Hazara Singh, V Balsara, Ramlal , Dattaram, Van Shipley,  Goody Seerwai ,“The Lords” and Ramprasad Sharma and Sons.

Wooden/Temple Block Songs – The wooden/Chinese temple blocks are percussion instruments without a membrane. According to music lover, musicologist, historian and archivist Kushal Gopalka, the earliest use of non-traditional percussion was made in Jawani Ki Reet (1939) by R.C.Boral, when he used wooden blocks for the song Chale pawan harsoo

Dilip Naik, the Hindi film industry musician you had heard even before you heard of him – Rudradeep Bhattacharjee – Dilip Naik made his debut as a session musician on the songs Chheda Mere Dil Ne and Gori Zara Hans De Tu from the Dev Anand-Sadhana starrer Asli Naqli (1962). In both these songs, Naik was part of a trio of acoustic guitarists in an orchestra consisting of more than 60 musicians. He had so far only played in front of a live audience; this was his introduction to the anonymous nature of a session musician’s work.

April 2024 episode of IX^th volume of Fading Memories, Unforgettable Songs takes up Hasrat Jaipuri – Beyond Shankar Jaikishan: 1961 – Part 2. Till now, we have covered –

The songs from 1950 to 1953 in 2017,

The songs from 1953 to 1955. In 2018

The songs from 1956 -1957 in 2019,

The songs for 1958 in 2020,

The songs for 1959 in 2021,

The songs for 1960 in 2022, and.

The songs for 1961 Part I in 2023

Celebrating cinema through pictures:

We now move on to posts on other subjects –

How Ameen Sayani’s Binaca Geetmala took film songs to listeners in Jhumri Talaiya and beyond – Isabel Huacuja Alonso – For decades, Anil Bhargava, a devoted listener and chronicler of the programme, meticulously recorded the song competition’s results as well as any changes that the programme underwent. Bhargava began in his early teens, continued the work of his father, who recorded Geetmala’s earliest rankings. Based on these handwritten diaries, he published, Binaca Geetmala ka surila safar (Binaca’s melodious journey). This book is one of the finest resources about Geetmala available.

Book Review: DIRECTOR’S CHAIR: Hindi Cinema’s Golden Age by Manek Premchand

Published by: Blue Pencil 2024
ISBN: 978-81-956660-8-9; Pages: 571
Price (Paperback on Amazon): ₹750

The Teller of Middle-Class Tales – Basu Chatterjee is the subject of National Award-winning author, Anirudha Bhattacharjee’s latest book, Basu Chatterjee and Middle-of-the-Road Cinema.

Subsequent to, Characters with Books: In English-language cinema, Hindi film characters with books, Part 2 is a sequel to a post about characters in Hindi cinema shown with book. The article narrates screenshots of Hindi film characters with books; and not just characters with books in the background.

In her latest book ‘Amitabh Bachchan as the Other’, film critic and author Shoma A Chatterji contends that beyond Amitabh Bachchan’s persistent ‘angry young man’ label, his cinematic prowess defies stereotypes, aligning him more closely with the intriguing concept of ‘The Other.’

The Hindi 𝘎𝘢𝘢𝘯𝘦 typically are not the songs that Vividh Bharati or ‘old’ time Radio Ceylon would play; these are the songs that has fast rhythm and random words thrown in, in the name of lyrics are Hindi gaane for the GenX.

Yeh Jeevan Hai: Songs on Life and Its Myriad Hues – NS Rajan explores how diversely our poets and lyricists have treated the subject of jeevan or life in all its moods and expressions in Hindi film songs.

Hindi film qawwalis – Part I  presented the qawwalis from ’40s to ’50,Part II those from’60s. Now, Part III covers from the 70s and the 80s and now, the Part IV covers qawwalis from 90s and beyond.

In continuation to our tradition of ending the post with a few songs of Mohammad Rafi, this year being the celebration of Mohammad Rafi birth centenary, we will take up what others have said about him:

• • Thirty years on, Mohd Rafi remains a favorite – Shammi Kapoor and others

 

I look forward to your inputs to enrich the contents of Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music.

Disclaimer: This monthly series of posts is my best-effort-based compilation of posts on Hindi film songs that I normally visit regularly. As I record my sincere thanks to all the original creators of these posts, any other posts that I have nor covered herein shows my lack of awareness of existence of such posts and is by no means any disrespect to their work. The copyrights to the posts, images and video clips remain the properties of the original creators.

Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs – Volume XII – April 2024 Edition

Welcome to April 2024 edition of the XII^th volume of Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs.

The theme for the XII^th volume of our Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs is The Defining Trends of Quality Management – Raising The Bar.

For the present episode, we will take up knowledge sharing within and outside the stakeholders.

Knowledge sharing is capturing, managing, and distributing key information within an organization.

The gap between what the organization knows and what it needs to know to succeed can be reduced by:

• by encouraging communication between teams and departments.
• By creating central repository for knowledge and best practices whereat the employees document their knowledge and any essential information about their job
• By creating a centralized tool whereat all data is so stored that employees don’t waste time looking for what they need.[1]

A prerequisite to understanding the economics of Knowledge Management is to define the typical stakeholders in a corporation in the midst of a KM initiative.

The four levels of knowledge management[2]:

Level	Activity
1	Information Management
2	Knowledge Sharing
3	Sensemaking, Decision Making & Innovation
4	Agency and Communityship

While the difficulty of sharing knowledge is in transferring knowledge from one entity to another, it may prove profitable for organizations to acknowledge the difficulties of knowledge transfer and adopt new knowledge management strategies accordingly

Further reading:

What is knowledge management?

Becoming a knowledge sharing organization

Essentials of Knowledge Management by Bryan Bergeron

The Ultimate Guide to Organizational Knowledge Sharing

Next Level of Knowledge Sharing – Insights from an SME

We now turn to our regular sections.

Finally, we take up the article Lean with Lazarus: Don’t Close the Door on the Most Basic Quality Principles – If the culture in your organization is essentially “do the best you can,” then you really need to take a closer look at these methods – Airplane travel is indeed the safest way to get from point A to point B, with a 1 in 11 million chance of being involved in a fatal crash. But when the chair of the NTSB suggests the airline industry has a “quality control problem,” it’s fair to demand that the industry ensure some of the most fundamental practices are not just acknowledged, but put into practice every day. Here are a few practices that might benefit a process known to produce missing bolts.

Fewer handoffs: Labor intensive processes are already error-prone, and the likelihood of an error increases exponentially when one worker is handing off responsibility to another. Perform a thorough value stream or swim-lane analysis to reveal all the handoffs in your process. Then redesign the process to eliminate or at least minimize them. Solve this problem for the last time.

Error Proofing. Envision a process that is incapable of producing an error, and you have the right mindset to start. In actual practice, the goal is to “make it easy to do the right thing,” and that takes the form of unambiguous job aides, visual controls, and forced functions.

Mindfulness.  The purpose of mindfulness is to be in the present moment, free of distractions, with full concentration on the task at hand. Multi-tasking is inconsistent with mindfulness because while computers may be able to multi-task efficiently, human beings cannot. We ultimately sub-optimize most of the activities we are trying to accomplish when we are either multi-tasking, or otherwise not fully present.

Only a relentless quality team can ensure that when it comes to the bolts, they are in the right place, at the right time, and at the right tension.

 

I look forward to your views / comments / inputs to further enrich the theme of The Defining Trends of Quality Management – Raising The Bar.

Note: The images or video clips depicted here above are through courtesy of respective websites who have the copyrights for the respective images /videos.

[1] 7 Best Knowledge-Sharing Tools in 2024

[2] Four levels of knowledge management

Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music – Volume XII – March 2024 Edition

Welcome to March 2024 edition of XII^th Volume of Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music.

Recent celebrations to celebrate birth centenary of Mohammad Rafi (B: Dec 24, 1924 | D: Jul 31, 1980).

In the third show, on 24^th March 2024, to celebrate Mohammed Rafi Birth Centenary Celebrations, playback singer Javed Ali attempts to recreate magic of Rafi Sahab with memorable solos, and duets supported by popular female singers – Sangeeta Melekar and Preethi Warrier.

Rafi’s Centenary Special: 35 songs from 35 years (1946-1980) – If one compares the voice between the first song in this selection Kah ke bhi na aaye tum (1946) to Maine poochha chand se ki (1980) there is hardly any change.

Mohammad Rafi Birth Centenary: Remembering Some Happy Solo Songs of ‘40s – There would be no doubt that recalling Mohammad Rafi’s happy, romantic, solo songs, for the years 1944 – 1950 should be a very unique experience.

Presently we move on to our section on tributes and celebrations for the month –

March is the month of Holi, festival of colours, across India. In RK Studio holi was played with a lot of grandeur.

SN Tripathi – His Music Still Lives On – Anuradha Warrier presents on his 111^th birth anniversary melodies composed by this maverick music director in no particular order.

Happy birthday to veteran actress Wahida Rehmanji on 3rd February, 2024.

My Favourites: Songs by Ravi on his 12^th death anniversary. Here is a selection of Ravi compositions in no particular order.

Hum Tere Bin Jee Na Sakenge Sanam – Remembering Ganesh on his 24^th death anniversary.

The romantic songs of Shashi Kapoorji is remembered for the lovely songs – Meri Nigah Ne Kya Kam Lajawaab Kiya – Mohabbat Isko Kahate Hai (1965) – Mohammad Rafi – Lyrics: Majrooh Sultanpuri – Music: Khayyam

The Elusive Nanda – Nanda’s sweet innocence made her the nation’s favourite. On her 10^th death anniversary, Anuradha Warrier revisits some of her best performances.

Also, to recall from the archives: Jeevan Ka Matlab To Aana Aur Jaana Hai: Remembering Nanda

Female bonding and their duets is a commemoration of the International Women’s Day with female duets.

The Sculptors of Film Songs (13) Ramprasad Sharma & Sons, the saga of contribution that the four generation of Sharma family. The previous Arrangers and Musicians covered in the series are Sebastian D’ Souza, Anthony Gonsalves, Enoch Daniels, Kishore Desai  Manohari Singh, S Hazara Singh, V Balsara, Ramlal , Dattaram, Van Shipley,  Goody Seerwai and “The Lords”

March 2024 episode of IX^th volume of Fading Memories, Unforgettable Songs takes up Ghulam Mohammad and His Singers: 1954. Till now we have covered Ghulam Mohammad’s songs for the year

1943 to 1949 in 2021, and

1950-1952 in 2022.

1953 in 2023

Celebrating cinema through pictures:

We now move on to posts on other subjects –

Are We Accepting Ourselves Better Now Than Ever? – Audiences have begun embracing mindless entertainment, reflecting a cultural shift towards a slow and steady acceptance of our own true choices and ourselves. This acceptance extends to our past, as seen in the resurgence of 90s music and the acknowledgment of B and C grade cinema. Saumya Baijal critiques this emerging trend.

Characters with Books: In English-language cinema – Six years after a post about characters in Hindi cinema shown with book was published, Dusted Off presents post wherein it is with characters in English-language cinema.

The Qalandariyya (reflections on an excellent video by Filip Holm, which I saw just two weeks after the Urs of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar) from Filip Holm’s show, Let’s Talk Religion, entitled “The Counter-Culture, Lawless Muslim Mystics Who Drank Wine? / The Qalandariyya.”

Latent Duets are not distant duets. Both singers have at least one antara each to register their presence. But the second singer enters the fray only after the first antara.

Hindi film qawwalis – Part I  presented the qawwalis from ’40s to ’50 and Part II those from’60s. Now, Part III covers from the 70s and the 80s.

It’s what you wear: Ten songs about attire, songs that make a mention of a particular garment, beyond a list on dupattas/chunaris/odhnis.

Through the Lens, Brightly: Women in Cinema, Women at Work, authored by Shoma A Chatterji, unearths how the ‘working woman’ has been presented in films directed by women. The book is divided into three parts. Part I, which serves as a general introduction to the theme. Part II and Part III of the book analyses nine significant films made by women directors where the author combines scholarly research and critical acumen to contextualize individual directors and the complexity of separating the feminine from the professional.

Here are Bollywood Rewind articles of Samapda Sharma in Indian Express:

• • Muhammad Ali Jinnah was a key figure in the making of India’s first talkie film Alam Ara. – Muhammad Ali Jinnah was the founder of Pakistan, but he was also the lawyer who actually made it possible for Alam Ara to become the first talkie film of India 93 years ago.

In continuation to our tradition of ending the post with a few songs of Mohammad Rafi, this year being the celebration of Mohammad Rafi birth centenary, we will take up what others have said about him:

Pyarelal on Mohammad Rafi

Laxmikant on Mohammad Rafi

I look forward to your inputs to enrich the contents of Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music.

Disclaimer: This monthly series of posts is my best-effort-based compilation of posts on Hindi film songs that I normally visit regularly. As I record my sincere thanks to all the original creators of these posts, any other posts that I have nor covered herein shows my lack of awareness of existence of such posts and is by no means any disrespect to their work. The copyrights to the posts, images and video clips remain the properties of the original creators.

Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs – Volume XII – March 2024 Edition

Welcome to March 2024 edition of the XII^th volume of Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs.

The theme for the XII^th volume of our Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs is The Defining Trends of Quality Management – Raising The Bar.

For the present episode, we will take up managing the enterprise risks in the changing environment.

With the implementation of ISO 9001:2015, risks and opportunities have become the cornerstone of ISO standards. These standards define risk as “the effect of uncertainty on objectives, whether positive or negative.” This definition shifts the understanding of risk away from the possibility of a negative outcome and toward the uncertainty itself.

The world today is in the throes of permacrisis – a world in permanent crisis, grappling with profound, persistent, ongoing challenges.[1]

In the present-day world, the uncertainty comes not only from the changes but the rate at which these changes happen. The firms able to effectively deliver change will thrive and are more likely to emerge stronger from these changes. Effective change boils down to directing energy and aligning efforts toward three key elements:[2]

• The strategy and thinking (The Head)

• The people and behaviors (The Heart)

• The underlying infrastructure (The Guts)

The types of risks are normally classified as:

Of these risks, financial, economic and technological risks are the domains of specialists in the respective field. So, we will not include these in the discussions here. We ill take up the other three types – strategic, compliance and operational risks for brief discussion in the next episodes.

And, of course, the one related to climate change risks, too.

Further reading:

• • Risk management – Harvard Business Review
  • Managing risks in changing market landscape
  • Business Resilience – The world is experiencing a level of disruption and business risk not seen in generations. Some companies freeze and fail, while others innovate, advance, and even thrive. The difference is resilience. : Institutional Resilience | Financial Resilience | Operational Resilience | Technological Resilience | Organizational Resilience | Reputational Resilience | Business Model
  • The future of risk: New game, new rules
    • Resilience – When disruptions are ever present, organizations need the ability to respond to and recover from unforeseen challenges to get back to thriving. This resilience has become a key organizational attribute—and a skillset in its own right.
  • Risk management and compliance can do more than mitigate threats and safeguard a company’s operations and reputation—it can create value.
  • Future of Risk
  • Risk Management Forecast for 2024: Defining Trends and Ways to Prepare

We will now turn to our regular sections –

@ ASQ TV, we will listen to 2023 Most Viewed. The top one was Quality Culture.

More Material on the subject @ Culture

Finally, we take up the article Quality Headline: ISO now REQUIRES management to consider “climate change’ in your MSS By Roderick A Munro – Effective immediately, all MSS requirements have added two new statements to organization’s current registration.(These can be found across 35 standards with the notation of “Amd 1:2024 (amendment)” and are free to download..)

The additions are:

4.1 – Add the following sentence at the end of the subclause:

“The organization shall determine whether climate change is a relevant issue.”

4.2 – Add the following note at the end of the subclause:

“NOTE 2 Relevant interested parties can have requirements related to climate change.”

It appears that ISO has also released several free publications talking about how ISO is working with worldwide stakeholders to address climate change. Some of the free downloads include:

PUB100449 Climate change adaptation

PUB100271 Environment Climate Change mitigation

PUB100067 ISO and climate change

ISO Climate Action Toolkit

Climate action toolkit: case studies

I look forward to your views / comments / inputs to further enrich the theme of The Defining Trends of Quality Management – Raising The Bar.

Note: The images or video clips depicted here above are through courtesy of respective websites who have the copyrights for the respective images /videos.

[1] Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) Trends in 2024

[2] Managing change risk – Ramy Farha, Chris DeBrusk, and Antonio Tugores

Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music – Volume XII – February 2024 Edition

Welcome to February 2024 edition of XII^th Volume of Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music.

Recent celebrations to celebrate birth centenary of Mohammad Rafi (B: Dec 24, 1924 | D: Jul 31, 1980).

Rafi Legacy Continues

The Story of Main Pyaar Ka Raahi Hoon – Anyone who listens to lyrics of songs intently, will surely find something amiss here. The lyrics of the two antaras sung by Asha have been interchanged while singing. As a result of this, in the antaras, there is no link between Rafi’s lines and those of Asha. How the lines got mixed up and who was responsible for the slipup is not clear. Moreover, no one noticed this gaffe till the song was to be picturized. But by then it was too late as the film had to be released. Thus, the song could not make it to the film.

We also pay our respects to Ameen Sayani (21 Dec, 1932 – 20 Feb, 2024). Ameen Sayani was not a native speaker of Hindi, Urdu, or Hindustani. He grew up in a Gujarati-speaking Muslim household and attended an English-language boarding school….The fact that Sayani was not a native speaker of Hindi, however, seems to have ultimately worked in his favour. On the air, Sayani consciously adopted a simple manner of speech that non-native speakers of Hindi, including his own family members, could easily understand.

Ameen Sayani, for a change, is being interviewed by Neeti Jain for Hello DD program:

Presently we move on to our section on tributes and celebrations for the month –

Continuing the series, the year-wise review of Lata Mangeshkar’s career, on Lata Mangeshkar, Mehfil Mein Teri revisits 1961 – Lata Mangeshkar.

“Aa Ke Dard Jawan Hai, Sajna, Raat Ka Ishara Hai” – Ahmed Wasi – This song, composed by O P Nayyar for Pran Jaaye Par Vachan Na Jaye (1973), is the point of entry for Ahmed Wasi as the lyricist. (YT version of the article: Ahmed Wasi – The Only Lyricist Introduced By O.P.Nayyar – Rare Bollywood Trivia – Rare Nostalgia

February 2024 episode of VIII^th volume of Fading Memories, Unforgettable Songs takes up Talat Mahmood – Duets with Asha Bhosle – 1954| 1955. Till now, we have explored –

In 2017, an overview of Talat Mahmood’s duets receding from the memory.

In 2018, Talat Mahmood’s duets with rare co-singers,

In 2019, Talat Mahmood’s duets with Mubarak Begum and with Madhubala Jhaveri,

In 2020, Talat Mahmood’s duets with Geeta Dutt, essentially from 1950 to 1952,

In 2021, Talat Mahmood: Duets with Geeta Dutt, from  1954 to 1957, with one duet even in 1972

In 2022, Talat Mahmood: Duets with Shamshad Begum, and

In 2023, Talat Mahmood’s: Duets with Asha Bhosle: 1951 | 1952 | 1953

Celebrating cinema through pictures:

We now move on to posts on other subjects –

Forgotten Artists of Early Cinema and The Same Name Confusion (2) contains 20 sets of same name artists. The first part of the book contains similar pen portraits of some 34 artists from the early era.

Author: Arunkumar Deshmukh (Copyright) | Publisher: Professor Toofanii Publishers, Lansing, MI USA (2023) | Editor: Professor Surjit Singh | Price: ₹450 plus postage (Paperback) at pothi.com.

Hindi film qawwalis – Part I  presents the qawwalis from ’40s to ’50 and Part II those from’60s.

(Note: Cinema Qawwali Archive, curated by Yousuf Saeed, has so far archived over 800 songs dating from 1939 to 2022.

Street Dancers of Bollywood sing the songs that were key for taking the story forward. Often these songs became the high point of the film and achieved everlasting popularity

Songs with Homonyms – Homonym is a word that both sounds and is spelled the same as another word. One finds repetition of a single word to convey two different meanings in some songs. This play on words demonstrates the calibre and intelligence of the lyricist who can use homonyms to convey a multi-layered message succinctly. he homonym could be in any part of the song – prelude, mukhda or antara. E.g. Bhoole Se Kabhi Yaad Kar Ae Bhoolne Waale – Ek Roz (1947) – Naseem Akhtar – Lyrics: Sarshar Sailaani – Music: Shyam Sundar

Here are Bollywood Rewind articles of Samapda Sharma in Indian Express:

• • DevD vs Devdas: Anurag Kashyap’s adaptation respected Paro and Chandramukhi in a way that Sanjay Leela Bhansali completely missed – 15 years of Dev.D: Anurag Kashyap’s adaptation of Devdas puts Dev in his place and celebrates the women who happen to fall in love with him despite his bad attitude.

In continuation to our tradition of ending the post with a few songs of Mohammad Rafi, this year being the celebration of Mohammad Rafi birth centenary, we will take up what others have said about him:

Burjor Lord talks Rafi Sahab

I look forward to your inputs to enrich the contents of Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music.

Disclaimer: This monthly series of posts is my best-effort-based compilation of posts on Hindi film songs that I normally visit regularly. As I record my sincere thanks to all the original creators of these posts, any other posts that I have nor covered herein shows my lack of awareness of existence of such posts and is by no means any disrespect to their work. The copyrights to the posts, images and video clips remain the properties of the original creators.

Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs – Volume XII – February 2024 Edition

Welcome to February 2024 edition of the XII^th volume of Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs.

The theme for the XII^th volume of our Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs is The Defining Trends of Quality Management – Raising The Bar.

In 2023, we had taken up the quality perceptions relating to competitiveness, continuous improvement and business purpose. For the present episode, we will take up quality perceptions in terms customer expectations.

The most important change in the customer expectation is that it has moved away from product quality as the differentiator of customer satisfaction to an increase in value as well as right performance, service, design as the basis of meaningful experiences that resonate with their values and aspirations.  The customers expect an experience – fast delivery, impeccable service, and a seamless, personalised user journey from start to finish.

The customer expectations are no more static now; they are perpetually evolving, influenced by a host of factors including technological advancements, social dynamics, and increased access to real-time information.

Further reading:

• • Customer Expectations: 10 Key Expectations to remember to have happy and loyal customers.
  • Learn why customer expectations are important to understand as a game-changer – Päivi Meriläinen – key takeaways found in the original Part 1: Chapter 3 of Services marketing: integrating customer focus across the firm, 3rd European edition.
  • Understanding customer expectations: Types, management tips, and examples – According to the Zendesk Customer Experience Trends Report 2023, 73 percent of consumers will switch to a competitor if they have multiple bad experiences. Prevent your customers from running for the exit by positioning yourself as a customer-first company.
  • The Hacker’s Guide to Customer Experience – The handbook for detailed understanding of Customer Experience – What it really is, how to implement it and above all, how to increase it using tested and concrete methodologies.
  • How Customer Expectations Are Shaping the Future of the Supply Chain – The modern supply chain is no longer merely a behind-the-scenes operational necessity; it has become a critical strategic asset for companies.
  • The Future of Supply Chain Quality Management – Use Quality 4.0 to enhance your customer experience – for quality leaders to understand the connection between shifting customer expectations and Quality 4.0.
  • (Customer) Experience is everything – Speed. Convenience. Consistency. Friendliness. And human touch—that is, creating real connections by making technology feel more human and giving employees what they need to create better customer experiences.
  • The secret ingredients of great hospitality – Will Guidara|TED@BCG – Restaurateur Will Guidara’s life changed when he decided to serve a two-dollar hot dog in his fancy four-star restaurant, creating a personalized experience for some out-of-town customers craving authentic New York City street food. In this funny and heartwarming talk, he shares three steps to crafting truly memorable moments centered in human connection – no matter what business you’re in.

We will now turn to our regular sections –

• • @ ASQ TV, we will listen to Customer Expectations: Quality and Technology.

More Material on the subject @ Customer Experience

Finally, we take up the article ‘From the Editor’ (of Quality Magazine) – by Darryl Sealand:

• • By Hook or By Crook: We often hear phrases like “gaining a competitive advantage,” or even words like “leverage,” which, along with “by any means necessary” are often ambiguous. It can often be difficult to determine where the line is between a positive advantage and cheating.

Quality—whether described as the measurement and inspection of parts and products or as process control and continuous improvement in manufacturing—can help before, during, and after such events. It can even go as far as to protect reputation, particularly with the ambiguity around the term competitive advantage.

It reminds me of yet another popular proverb. We need to go back even further than 13^th century England to the Roman Empire.

“Caesar’s wife must be beyond reproach.” It was said of Caesar’s wife, Pompeia. In her case, it meant, “If one is romantically involved with a famous or prominent figure, one must avoid attracting negative attention or scrutiny.” It is also true of the people and processes close to, or part of, a well-known entity, like a manufacturing operation, and those people and processes should be beyond reproach, far beyond merely protecting the brand, but especially if the “unthinkable” were to occur.

In fact, quality can even help in clearing up the ambiguity of cheating versus gaining competitive advantage. Take, for instance, DeflateGate: “Unraveling the Tom Brady DeflateGate” .

I look forward to your views / comments / inputs to further enrich the theme of The Defining Trends of Quality Management – Raising The Bar.

Note: The images or video clips depicted here above are through courtesy of respective websites who have the copyrights for the respective images /videos.

Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music – Volume XII – January 2024 Edition

Welcome to January 2024 edition of XII^th Volume of Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music.

This the year which has birth centenary of Mohammad Rafi (B: Dec 24, 1924 | D: Jul 31, 1980).

Woh Jab Yaad Aaye – Inaugural Programme for Mohammed Rafi Birth Centenary Celebrations

Rafi’s Birth Centenary Year begins with his Hindi film songs from the years 1944 and 1945.

SoY opens the celebrations with Mohammad Rafi from A to Z to which Hans has added his own curated list.

Md. Rafi – A Singer Who Seldom Spoke – Try looking for interviews where his voice can be heard in conversation with someone and you will not find more than two or three. Ameen Sayani, the great radio compere who has interviewed the who’s who of the film industry never succeeded in doing an interview with Rafi. When Rafi did finally accede to his request of doing an interview and that too on his own terms – of answering every question through a song of his – it was perhaps too late, for he left for his heavenly abode before this could happen. This was how reticent Rafi was.

Sanjeev Ramabhadran – Remembering the Rafi-Naushad Duo : Can we recollect the songs after listening to these alaaps:

Presently we move on to our section on tributes and celebrations for the month –

Mahefil Mein Teri celebrated the installation of Eam idol (प्राण प्रतिष्ठापना) with a devotional song list dedicated to Lord Ram @ II Jai Shree Ram II.

Qamar Jalalabadi: The Unforgettable Lyricist – D P Rangan presents a thorough view of one of the most eminent lyricist, Qamar Jalabadi, who is remembered for wide range of timless songs he penned for Husnlal-Bhagatram, Kalyanji-Anandji, OP Nayyar and others.

Rafi sings for Composers from Bengal – After part I covered Mohammad Rafi’s songs with Anil Biswas, Salil Chowdhury and Hemant Kumar, and Part II covered those of S D Burman, Part III recalls Rafi’s association with R D Burman marking the latter’s 30th death anniversary .

The Sculptors of Film Songs (11) Goody Seerwai: Goody Seerwai pioneered the popularity of piano accordion in Hindi film songs. The previous Arrangers and Musicians covered in the series are Sebastian D’ Souza, Anthony Gonsalves, Enoch Daniels, Kishore Desai  Manohari Singh, S Hazara Singh, V Balsara, Ramlal , Dattaram and Van Shipley

January 2024 episode of VIII^th volume of Fading Memories, Unforgettable Songs takes up Jaidev: Brilliant, But Underrated, Composer:  1978. Till now,

In 2018, we listened to his songs from the most successful films phase of 1955 to 1963.

In 2019, we listened to his more remembered songs from his less remembered films for 1964 to 1970,

in 2020, we listened to highly appreciated songs from the films that did not succeed in 1971,

In  2021, we recalled the songs that have faded out because the films flopped in 1972-1973,

In 2022, we listened to his melodies form relatively not so known films for the years 1974 and 1975, and

In 2023 listened to rejuvenating Jaidev in Laila Majnu, Aalap and Gharaonda for the years 1976 & 1977.

Celebrating cinema through pictures:

We now move on to posts on other subjects –

The Postlude Songs – The postlude thus is a piece of music that appears at the end of a song, after the singer has finished his job. The songs with a postlude are in a minority. In the context of Hindi film songs, one finds that several music directors have used the postlude.

Here are Bollywood Rewind articles of Samapda Sharma in Indian Express:

• • This actress was the star of India’s first ever sequel made in 1940s, did her own action decades before Akshay Kumar and Ajay Devgn  – On Fearless Nadia’s 116th birth anniversary, here’s looking back at the original franchise queen who starred in India’s first sequel. The first film to have a sequel was the 1935 film Hunterwali, starring the original stunt queen Fearless Nadia and the sequel, which came almost a decade later, revived her career.

In continuation to our tradition of ending the post with a few songs of Mohammad Rafi, this year being the celebration of Mohammad Rafi birth centenary, we will take up what others have said about him:

Classic Legends Mohammad Rafi – Javed Akhtar

I look forward to your inputs to enrich the contents of Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music.

Disclaimer: This monthly series of posts is my best-effort-based compilation of posts on Hindi film songs that I normally visit regularly. As I record my sincere thanks to all the original creators of these posts, any other posts that I have nor covered herein shows my lack of awareness of existence of such posts and is by no means any disrespect to their work. The copyrights to the posts, images and video clips remain the properties of the original creators.

Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs – Volume XII – January 2024 Edition

Welcome to January 2024 edition of the XII^th volume of Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs.

The theme for the XII^th volume of our Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs is The Defining Trends of Quality Management – Raising The Bar. It in fact is the extension of the 2023 theme – The Defining Trends of Quality Management – An Analytical Survey.

The 2023 remained under shadows of uncertainty caused by changing work place culture on account of latent and unforeseen effects of work-from-home practices, fluid global geo-political scenario, recession dominated thinking of the economic issues, etc. These issues remain even more relevant as we enter 2024. The unpredictability continues to define the trend.[1]

Predicting how things will evolve is challenging, and much will depend on the choices we make throughout the year. To mitigate this uncertainty, the world of quality management increasingly emphasizes the importance of the ‘best practice’ concept. Best practices refer to methods or techniques proven in practice as the most effective solutions to address specific problems. The constant pursuit of improvement and the ability to anticipate changing conditions and processes are key components for maintaining and refining these best practices. It’s an ongoing process, something we’ve become accustomed to, as quality management is inherently an ongoing process.

At the beginning of 2023 we had identified the following trends:

1. 1. Changes in quality perceptions and approaches in terms of product and system quality as well as customer expectations.
   2. Evolving of management of risks under constantly changing business practices
   3. Knowledge sharing within and across the departments as well with outside stakeholders.
   4. Increasing significance of decision intelligence
   5. Improving the quality and reliability of the supply chain.
   6. Defining quality standards and related job roles in view of increasing need for seamless blending of technical and cross-functional skills.
   7. Increasing significance of integration of QEHS
   8. Increased importance of quality management approach with enterprise-level strategic planning

We had covered the quality perceptions relating to competitiveness, continuous improvement and business purpose during 2023. We shall now take up more topics from the foregoing trends with a view to explore the inputs to the enhanced abilities of quality personnel to be able to anticipate the changing conditions and to maintain and refine the best practices related to it.

More reading:

• • • • • “What does quality management look like in 2025, and how do I prepare for it?” – Gartner webinar

We will now turn to our regular section -.

We take up Greta Cutulenco’s article – Shifting Left in Manufacturing Quality: The future of quality in manufacturing is predictive – this month:

Increasing pressures such as supply chain disruptions, accelerating product cycles, the greying workforce, and increasing consumer demand for complex electronic products mean that manufacturers must do more with less… and do it faster. Manufacturing quality teams are put in a tough position; they must improve quality while maintaining or increasing production volumes.

The truth is, quality teams are working with tools that were not designed to handle the speed and complexity of today’s manufacturing environment. In order to affect critical quality metrics like scrap, rework, or First Time Yield, they need a new method to manage quality. Not only that, but this new method must make enough of an impact to offset the cost of implementing it.

The methods used to manage quality today were largely introduced in the 20^th century. Incremental improvements have been made in areas such as the improved application of statistical process control (SPC), vision inspection, and automation, but the foundation – ? managing the quality primarily by detecting defects – of quality management is still the same.

A product is manufactured with no defects occurring, passing both quality gates.

A Product is manufactured with a defect occurring at Operation 3, and failing the final quality gate.

There is a lot of waste happening in the way quality is managed:

• • • • • Defects are often discovered long after they occur, wasting power and materials
        • Defects detected too late result in unnecessary scrap and rework
        • Data is being collected and stored from testing and process but it isn’t fully used
        • Resources are put toward root cause analysis but it doesn’t always improve the process

A new method to manage quality must not only offer improved value in the form of improving quality, but it must address these areas of waste. That new paradigm is called predictive quality. With predictive quality, quality management happens in real time during the manufacturing operations, not after it.

Traditional quality model vs Predictive quality model

With the help of predictive quality model, manufacturers will be able to see defects coming and intervene even before they happen. If a defect still managed to occur, the solution could also leverage the process data to run an automated root cause analysis report, reducing the time spent solving an issue by hours or days.

There are three critical Industry 4.0 technologies which, when combined, can bring the dream of predictive quality to life: data collection, artificial intelligence, and cloud computing.

In order to offer practical value, a predictive quality solution needs to be actively integrated into the shop floor ecosystem.

Like it or not, predictive quality is coming.

I look forward to your views / comments / inputs to further enrich the theme of The Defining Trends of Quality Management – Raising The Bar.

Note: The images or video clips depicted here above are through courtesy of respective websites who have the copyrights for the respective images /videos.

[1] Unpredictability continues to define the trend

Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music – Volume XI – December 2023 Edition

Welcome to December 2023 edition of XI^th Volume of Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music.

Presently we move on to our section on tributes and celebrations for the month –

“Lapak Jhapak Tu Aa Re Badarwa, Sar Ki Kheti Sookh Rahi Hai” – Bhudo Advani – He entered world of Hindi Cinema through a small role in Afzal alias Hur-e-Harram, in 1933.His last film was Shataranj Ke Khiladi (1977)[1].

A Very Good “Remote Collaboration” Covering the Greatest Bharatanatyam-Based Film Dance-Off of All Time (with original versions added for comparison)., e.g. Aaja Tu Aaja – Raj Tilak (1958) – Asha Bhosle, Sudha Malhotra – Lyrics: Pyarelal Shrivasta (P. L. Santoshi) – Music: Ramchandra Narhar Chitalkar (C. Ramchandra) and its Tamil version “Kannum Kannum Kalandhu.”

The Perfect Duets of S.D.Burman – Perfect duets have two voices – both male or both female, without any chorus and both the voices are given an equal share, so much so that alternate lines are sung by the two singers in quick succession with the male and the female singers singing different lyrics. This pattern is followed throughout the song i.e. both in the mukhda and the antara. The perfect duets S D Burman created are almost like dialogues set to music.  These duets do complete justice to the male and the female voices; there could not have been a more equitable distribution. The rotation of voices is perfect.

The Sculptors of Film Songs (10) Van Shipley : Van Shipley commenced his career in Hindi films by playing violin, he is perhaps better known as ‘The Man with Golden Guitar’. The previous Arrangers and Musicians covered in the series are Sebastian D’ Souza, Anthony Gonsalves, Enoch Daniels, Kishore Desai  Manohari Singh, S Hazara Singh, V Balsara , Ramlal and Dattaram

November  2023 episode of VIII^th volume of Fading Memories, Unforgettable Songs takes up Mohammad Rafi’s First Duet Song With The Music Director: Second Five-Year Period: 1949 -1953 – Year 1951. Having covered the 1^st Five-Year Period of 1944 to 1948 in the year 2021. For the 2^nd Five-Year Period of 1949-1953, till now we have covered

Part I of the year 1949 in July 2022,

Part II of the year 1949 in December 2022, and

Year 1950 in July 2023.

Celebrating cinema through pictures :

We now move on to posts on other subjects –

Ten of my favourite flower songs ads to the previous lists of nature songs; tree songs; and bird songs. Harvey, years ago, had done a superb post on flower songs

‘He’ sings and ‘She’ dances, wherein are the songs that the man sings and the lady dances to it.

Hrishikesh Mukherjee, N.C.Sippy & Sustainable Fashion – ‘Aaja Re Pardesi’ (Movie: GUDDI-1971)  and Bawarchi – tum bin jeevan are the two songs can easily be called a shining example of sustainable fashion which was silently advocated as early as the 1970s by two visionary film makers, Hrishikesh Mukherjee and N.C.Sippy. For them, it was substance that mattered more than packaging. One must also praise the heroine Jaya Bhaduri whose consent would have also mattered. The make up is different but the saree is the same in both the songs.

Also interesting is the fact that in one of the posters of Bawarchi, Jaya Bhaduri is shown wearing the same saree but the look is of Kusum (of Guddi) and not Krishna (of Bawarchi)!

Naagin… No Longer Naagin? The Evolution of India’s Naagin Encapsulated – The mythological Naag/Naagin were once Bombay entertainment industry’s embodiments of separated lovers. Ashish Dwivedi encapsulates the Naagin’s journeys from graceful risings to a sudden fall from grace.

Here are From Bollywood Rewind articles of Samapda Sharma in Indian Express:

• • Yaadon Ki Baaraat turns 50: Old isn’t always gold, and this Salim-Javed film is proof – Nasir Hussain’s Yaadon Ki Baarat released 50 years ago. Written by Salim-Javed, the musical hit was one of the most popular films of that era but does it deserve all the hype it gets?

SoY has adjudged Gyan Dutt and Anil Biswas as joint winners of Best Music Director award for 1942, in Best songs of 1942: Wrap UP 4

In continuation to our tradition of ending the post with a few songs of Mohammad Rafi, for the year. We continue with Mohammad Rafi – Dilraj Kaur duets.

Hum Tum Par Mar Mitenge – Mandir Aur Masjid (1977) – with Jani Babu Qawwal and Anuradha Paudwal – Lyrics: Aish Kanwal – Music: Sharda

Hoth Hai Tere Do Lal Moti – Heera Moti (1979) – Lyrics: Ahmed Wasi – Music O P Nayyar

O Mere Beliya O Mere Saathiya – UR – Lyrics: Dev Kohli – Music: Sonic Omi

I look forward to your inputs to enrich the contents of Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music.

Disclaimer: This monthly series of posts is my best-effort-based compilation of posts on Hindi film songs that I normally visit regularly. As I record my sincere thanks to all the original creators of these posts, any other posts that I have nor covered herein shows my lack of awareness of existence of such posts and is by no means any disrespect to their work. The copyrights to the posts, images and video clips remain the properties of the original creators.

[1] Bhudo Advani – A Long Forgotten Star Of The Bygone Era – Rare Bollywood Trivia – Rare Nostalgia

Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music wishes its readers a lyrically composed 2023 with happiness, health and progress in great harmony.

The episodes of January 2023 to December 2023 have been compiled as one file @ Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music, Volume XI – 2023 and can be read / downloaded by clicking on the hyperlink

 

Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs – Volume XI – December 2023 Edition

Welcome to December 2023 edition of the XI^th volume of Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs.

The theme for the XI^th volume of our Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs is The Defining Trends of Quality Management – An Analytical Survey.

In an effort to skim a little deeper into the “purpose” of the business, we have tried to understand ‘Why’ of the purpose of the business. In this episode we will look at The Purpose of the Business in the Context of Future with The Basics of What of Defining the Purpose w. r. t. The Golden Circle initiated by Simon Sinek.

The purpose” is used in three senses: competence (“the function that our product serves”); culture (“the intent with which we run our business”); and cause (“the social good to which we aspire”). Any exploration of purpose begins with recognizing that these agendas are valid inputs to the process.

Although every company needs a cause for the purpose, not every cause of purpose must take the form of a social cause. Improving ESG performance (especially in areas that are most material in your industry) is good for business. But it is distinct from the purpose of a business. [1]

Further reading: Spotlight Series / Making Purpose Real

The Purpose of “Purpose” typically should pass the tests that:

• It feels unique to the company,
• there are facts, and details to support it by showing what it looks like in action, and
• all employees can have a sense of how they are contributing directly to something that is bigger than the company itself.

This brief discussion makes it evident that finding the purpose is a lifelong journey. When you develop your core values and stop seeking external affirmation, you’ll find that the question of “What is my purpose in life?” is much easier to answer.[2]

Some more readings:

• • Four ways to put your purpose to work in 2021 – Monica Dimitracopoulos
  • Creating a Meaningful Corporate Purpose – Hubert Joly
  • Quality 4.0: The Future of Quality?
  • Business is about purpose: R. Edward Freeman at TEDxCharlottesville 2013
  • Articles @ Purpose and Values

As a part of efforts to define ‘what’ of the purpose for the quality management of business, during 2024 we will continue to explore various defining trends in the way quality management shapes up to brace the future challenges .

We will now turn to our regular section -.

We will revisit the major events in 2023, @ASQ, so as to look forward to these events in 2024 with a view to remain abreast with current thinking in so far as quality management is concerned:

• •   2023 Women in Quality Symposium
  •   2023 Audit Division Conference
  •   2023 Innovation for Excellence Summit 
  •   2023 Improving Measurement Confidence and Reducing Risk
  •   2023 ASQ Quality Innovations Summit (formerly named Quality 4.0 Summit)
  •   2023 World Conference on Quality & Improvement

Finally, we take up the article ‘From the Editor’ (of Quality Magazine) – by Darryl Sealand:

• • Puzzles and the Art of Solving Them – Like other puzzles—and any other endeavour—the key to a solution is an understanding of the rules and the tools to lead you to the solution. However, the strategy is much like a Swiss army knife, the more tools you have at your disposal, the better opportunity to complete tasks.

For further reading:

“The Force of Decision Rules,”

“Multisensor Metrology Systems: Quality’s Swiss Army Knife,”

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Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs wishes everyone the year 2024 to smoothly remain abreast with the Defining Trends in the way Quality Management shapes up to brace the future challenges.

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Please click the hyper link to read /download January 2023 to December 2023 articles on the core subject of The Defining Trends of Quality Management – An Analytical Survey @ XI^th Volume of Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs.

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I look forward to your views / comments / inputs to further enrich the theme of the Defining Trends in the way Quality Management shapes up to brace the future challenges.

Note: The images or video clips depicted here above are through courtesy of respective websites who have the copyrights for the respective images /videos.

[1] What Is the Purpose of Your Purpose? – Jonathan Knowles, B. Tom Hunsaker, Hannah Grove, Alison James

[2] What is my purpose? – Team Tony