The foreign interloper? 'Harm-onium'

M S Viswanathan, @ Mellisai Mannar,
King of Melody at the Harmonium.

I have always found the harmonium somewhat out of place among other Indian musical instruments. Yet, it plays a crucial role in a composer's toolkit. In a typical Indian musical orchestra, you find flutes, traditional trumpets in various shapes and forms depending on the region (such as nadasvaram or shenai), string instruments like the sitar or the veena, and percussion instruments like drums in various forms, small cymbals, and so on. Having an air instrument that resembles a piano seems somewhat incongruous. It looks like a mini piano with black-and-white keys. Then there is another instrument called the shruti box, which looks similar to a harmonium but lacks a keyboard and produces a continuous humming sound (drone music).

Another instrument that I found strongly rooted among other traditional instruments in a traditional Indian (Carnatic and Hindustani) musical recital is the violin. We know that the violin was adapted and Indianised in the 18th-19th centuries.

The harmonium was developed in 1840 as a bellows instrument operated with a foot pedal to pump air. The church found it very useful because it was portable. When missionaries arrived to proselytise natives, they discovered it was very convenient for getting around. 

The Legendary Dwarkin's Harmonium
https://www.getbengal.com/details/harmonium-by-dwarkin-created-a-revolution-
in-bengals-musical-journey-getbengal-story

The Indian public also developed a liking for the instrument. They found it well-suited for Indian musical styles, which emphasised melody, unlike European styles that relied on harmony. Indians mostly sat on the floor when playing music, so the harmonium lost its legs and foot pedal. The bellows were operated by hand movements. Soon, the Indian harmonium — the small, portable, hand-pumped reed organ — became the preferred instrument for Carnatic and Hindustani musicians. Even Rabindranath Tagore used it in his academy, Santiniketan. 

Musical composers of Tamil film songs from yesteryears, such as MS Visvanathan, Theva, Illayaraja, and even contemporary maestros like AR Rahman, are known to craft their masterpieces from scratch on these harmoniums. 

Interestingly, this essential musical instrument, at times, conferred divinity status, was banned from the airwaves by All-India Radio for nearly 30 years between 1940 and 1971. Nationalists in the Quit India movement regarded the harmonium as a foreign intruder and a symbol of British cultural dominance. The call for a ban on the harmonium was led by Tagore and others who aimed to define and protect pure Indian musical heritage. In an independent India, Nehru sought to establish a 'pure' national music. Even harmonium players could not be on All India's payroll. Nevertheless, the harmonium remained a popular instrument throughout that era and remains significant today.

A funeral of harmoniums in Lahore. (1940)

The harmoniumists staged a mock funeral after

All India Radio's ban on its use. They buried

11 harmoniums, reminding people of a time when

Emperor Aurangzeb banned them during his reign.

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A Poet Extraordinaire

Some people eat to live. Whatever comes their way, they would eat, mindful of the calories and ensuring their nutritional values. Others live to eat. They do not mind toiling in the blazing sun or braving the heavy traffic to savour his prized street food, flaunting it in his social media page and insisting that his choice of food is to die for.

While some would hum to a tune, listen to it for a while, then forget about it altogether. Then it would be another song and another obsession. Some of us would dissect and analyse its lyrics, musical composition, ragaa, and taala just for the kick of it.

Pandi Durai is one such character. Malaysians first knew him as a Tamil newscaster on Malaysian TV. He was later heard on RTM Channel 6 radio at noon on Sundays, discussing Tamil culture and language through Tamil cinema songs. It came to be quite a hit among Tamil language connoisseurs. He later organised annual conferences to appreciate the compositions of Poet Kannadasan in Tamil cinema. Kannadasan can easily be crowned as the most creative and erudite composer of Tamil. His knowledge of Tamil grammar, vocabulary, and poetry is beyond compare. His ability to pen beautiful, poetic lyrics filled with wordplay and smart innuendoes is undoubtedly genius. 

Juggling between his job as an advocate in the Malaysian Courts, his passion for the Tamil Language and his keen interest in Tamil cinema songs of the yesteryears, he started this function to appreciate the lyrical genius of Poet Kannadasan's songs. These events have been held annually for some time now. I recently attended one such event in a packed auditorium in Kuala Lumpur. Equipped with an excellent sound system, a live band, and three excellent singers and musicians, the function lasted close to five hours on a Sunday afternoon, bringing joy and contentment to people who appreciated the Tamil language and culture, as well as the hidden messages behind Kannadasan's evergreen compositions.

Amidst the song renditions, Paandi Durai interjected with his understanding of what Kanndasan was trying to say in his songs. He went on to unveil some of the cryptic messages Kanadasan may have intended to convey. There were also some innocent-sounding songs that, if decoded, may be X-rated and not suitable for a general audience. Yet, kids of the 60s and 70s were happily singing them away without an iota of clue of their lewd messages that a sex-craved lover would signal to his equally receptive partner.  

Like that, Paandi went on analysing a couple of songs under the categories of love, social message, philosophy and devotion. All in all, it was an evening that left its audience in a state of literary inebriation. They returned to the real world with the comfort that their ancient language has stood another generation of assault from other lingua francas of the world. 

One particular song that intrigued me that evening, that I have been listening to throughout my life without knowing its deeper meanings, was 'Paarthen Sirithen' (பார்த்தேன் சிரித்தேன்) from the 1965 movie 'Veera Abhimanyu' (வீர அபிமன்யு). The film revolves around the title character, Abhimanyu, Arjuna's son, the teenage warrior extraordinaire of the Kurushtera. When the director summoned Kannadasan to pen a sweet love song for Abhimanyu and his on-screen love interest. Kanadasan decided to be cheeky and composed a love song with the word 'then' mentioned 65 times. 'Then' in Tamil means honey. In it, he used 'then' as honey, the essence in the lover's beauty, the joy of their love, the passion of their union and the ecstasy of their passion. Many things are left to the listeners, but imagination sometimes has no limits. 'Then' is also used as an adverb. Through the programme, I also discovered that the word 'malai' can mean 'stunned' as well as 'mountain'. The poet cleverly uses this wordplay in a verse; the honey from the mountain, she is stunned. 

பார்த்தேன் சிரித்தேன் பக்கத்தில் அழைத்தேன்

அன்று உனைத் தேன் என நான் நினைத்தேன்

அந்த மலைத் தேன் இதுவென மலைத்தேன்

பார்த்தேன் சிரித்தேன் பக்கத்தில் அழைத்தேன்

உனைத் தேன் என நான் நினைத்தேன்

அந்த மலைத் தேன் இதுவென மலைத்தேன்

பார்த்தேன் சிரித்தேன் பக்கம் வர துடித்தேன்

அன்று உனைத் தேன் என நான் நினைத்தேன்

அந்த மலைத் தேன் இவரென மலைத்தேன்

பார்த்தேன் சிரித்தேன் பக்கம் வர துடித்தேன்

உனைத் தேன் என நான் நினைத்தேன்

அந்த மலைத் தேன் இவரென மலைத்தேன்

கொடித் தேன் இனியங்கள் குடித்தேன் என

ஒரு படித் தேன் பார்வையில் குடித்தேன்

கொடித் தேன் இனியங்கள் குடித்தேன் என

ஒரு படித் தேன் பார்வையில் குடித்தேன்

துளித் தேன் சிந்தாமல் களித்தேன்

ஒரு துளித் தேன் சிந்தாமல் களித்தேன்

கைகளில் அணைத்தேன் அழகினை இரசித்தேன்

பார்த்தேன் சிரித்தேன் பக்கம் வர துடித்தேன்

உனை தேன் என நான் நினைத்தேன்

அந்த மலை தேன் இவரென மலைத்தேன்

மலர்த் தேன் போல் நானும் மலர்ந்தேன்

உனக்கென வளர்ந்தேன் பருவத்தில் மணந்தேன்

மலர்த் தேன் போல் நானும் மலர்ந்தேன்

உனக்கென வளர்ந்தேன் பருவத்தில் மணந்தேன்

எடுத்தேன் கொடுத்தேன் சுவைத்தேன்

எடுத்தேன் கொடுத்தேன் சுவைத்தேன்

இனித் தேன் இல்லாதபடி கதை முடித்தேன்

பார்த்தேன் சிரித்தேன் பக்கத்தில் அழைத்தேன்

உனைத் தேன் என நான் நினைத்தேன்

அந்த மலைத் தேன் இதுவென மலைத்தேன்

நிலவுக்கு நிலவு சுகம் பெற நினைந்தேன்

உலகத்தை நான் இங்கு மறந்தேன்

நிலவுக்கு நிலவு சுகம் பெற நினைந்தேன்

உலகத்தை நான் இங்கு மறந்தேன்

உலகத்தை மறந்தேன் உறக்கத்தை மறந்தேன்

உன்னுடன் நான் ஒன்று கலந்தேன்

பார்த்தேன் சிரித்தேன் பக்கம் வர துடித்தேன்

உனை தேன் என நான் நினைத்தேன்

அந்த மலைத் தேன் இவரென மலைத்தேன்

It was a time when personal intentions could not be expressed explicitly. Private desires were often spoken in double-speak, hoping that the intended recipient would get the hint. Kannadasan's song lyrics have always been hailed as poetic, revolutionary and of high literary value. His wordplay in Tamil and additions of scriptural teachings are beyond the imagination of an average man.

Many of Kannadasan's songs and poems end with rhythmic cadences. It is said that when a director repeatedly harassed him to write a song by May, he did so. He cooked up a song ending with 'mei' at every verse (அன்பு நடமாடும் கலைக் கூடமே - Anbu Nadamadum kalaikudame in Avanthaan Manithan, 1975 movie).

Kannadasan can also be cheeky at times. Once, his musical director, MS Viswanathan, did not turn up on time for a composition session. MSV had overslept after a late session. Annoyed, Kannadasan wrote something to mean 'why does he care, he is sleeping. I am the person who will be caught!' Somehow, it was appropriate for the scene they were composing. It became a hit without anybody realising the hidden message. (அவனுக்கென்ன தூங்கிவிட்டான் - Avanukku Enna, Thungivittaan in Periya Idathu Penn, 1963)

The most bizarre story about Kannadasan's ingenuity is supposed to be seen in 1961 Paava Manipu. A Muslim family adopted a Hindu boy. He grew up as a devout Muslim man and is active in religious and charity work. He was seen taking part in an Islamic procession singing praises of Allah. This song, composed by Kannadasan, has every verse ending with 'Om'. This was the poet's subtle way of showing that this Muslim man has Hindu roots. Nobody knew till many years later. Imagine an Islamic song with ‘Om’, the divine Hindu sound, at every verse. Integration or what?

The event witnessed a tear-evoking moment when the audience was informed that Kanadasan’s son, Annadorai, was in attendance. He was later honoured in the typical Tamilian way, with a silk shawl and a garland. 

A Sunday afternoon well spent. 

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The purveyor of culture?

Diwali started early this year. A friend invited us over to his private Diwali function. With the usual mingling, wining, savouring Indian titbits, and exchanging fake pleasantries, the highlight of it all must have been when the DJ showed up with his music machine. 

What started as a head-bobbing event eventually turned into a full-scale, packed dance floor, with the music decibels hitting the roof. Everyone seems to know by heart the lyrics to Hindi film songs that spanned from the 1960s through to the 21st century. One by one, the guests sauntered onto the dance floor, mouthing the song with their legs mellowing like jelly beans. 

I stood at the sidelines, observing the whole spectacle like a fly on the wall. The guests must have all grown up listening to these songs their entire lives. They knew every nuance of the song, its every pause and every moment the music goes ballistic. It must have had an indelible imprint on their psyche as they were growing up, as they displayed so much joy. 

Then it dawned on me how significant a role Bollywood songs and music have played in preserving what is perceived as Indian culture. Playing music from Indian cinema, be it Tamil or Hindi, as well as hip Punjabi Bhangra beats by Daler Mehndi, constitute Indian music and culture today. 

Should we be eternally grateful that Indian cinema is doing such a great job preserving our heritage? Life may not be so straightforward. 

Talk to any conservative Tamil social thinker.  He will say that each movie is three hours of wasted time in one’s life. Three hours to indoctrinate viewers that getting drunk is mandatory when boys go out. It is perfectly normal for girls to binge drink. Pre and extramarital liaisons are common in modern life, and it is perfectly normal for a lady to slap her partner if he crosses the line, but it is not mutually exclusive. The converse constitutes patriarchy and toxic masculinity. 

Oh Poddu!

Then there would be those who fret that the lesser-spoken languages in the Indian diaspora risk being forgotten in the near future. If not for Marathi cinema, Marathi would have been on the decline and marginalised, just as Bhojpuri, Bagheli, Marwari, and other tribal languages are. 

Anyway, Bollywood is acting as a mucilage that binds. When it began using Hindustani as its lingua franca—a combination of Urdu and Hindi—it was hoped that it would act as a national unifier, stirring nationalism in a newly independent nation. When the colonial masters escaped from India in 1947, they expected India to balkanise, various states pulling apart based on linguistic, religious and caste lines. It did happen before, but almost 80 years on, they stay united, probably stronger than before. Bollywood probably thinks it is their good work. 

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Just another year?

1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything

Documentary - 8 episodes

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14544732/

1971 could have been merely a non-discrete year, but the creators of this docu-series believed it marked a watershed moment. They considered it the year when the carefree values of the 1960s began to shift. It represented the onset of revolutions. The generation born in the post-war years, once content, has aged, and their offspring now find themselves in a world rife with turmoil and uncertainty. 

In the late 1960s, America witnessed its sons returning in body bags from defending a country that did not wish to be defended. The Americans saw no reason to uphold the free world against a perceived communist threat. 

The hippie movement created a new cocoon for disillusioned youths to escape into weed, and rock and roll. In relation to that, the cult killing by the Manson family took centre stage. 

The hierarchical and patriarchal order of society was shifting. The introduction of oral contraceptive pills provided women, for the first time in their lives, an opportunity to control their fertility and potentially their sexuality as well. This was particularly significant, as they gained more self-confidence after emerging en masse to support the economy when men went off to fight in World War II. 

1971 must have seemed meaningless. With the Beatles breaking up, Lennon and Yoko engaging in their eccentric activities, and the great musicians Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, and Jimi Hendrix having passed away, the youth must have felt that music was dead. A new wave of performers emerged, bringing fresh messages and revolutionary ideas. 

Marvin Gaye belted out protest songs with 'What's Going On?'. Aretha Franklin joined the movement of Black Consciousness, and Tina Turner became an icon of female empowerment following her publicised abusive relationship with Ike. The Rolling Stones attempted to fill the gap left by the Beatles, but were often busy rolling dope in the South of France. David Bowie was making his mark on the scene with his androgynous appearance, dressed in a full gown. 

The Black Power movement was in full swing. Angela Davis, a UCLA professor and an unapologetic, card-carrying member of the US Communist Party, was in the spotlight. The gun she had acquired was used in the courtroom killing of a judge. Numerous musicians rallied behind her. James Brown's soul music empowered Black men and women. 

1971 was also when the world realised that our minds can be fickle and suggestible. The Stanford Experiment taught us an invaluable lesson that remains relevant today—anonymity caused people to behave in a despicable manner. The Charles Manson trials revealed how impressionable, naive young minds can be manipulated into committing outrageous acts. The US Army massacre at My Lai in Vietnam demonstrated that the Americans were no different from the Germans in Auschwitz and the Japanese in Nanking.

It was a time of political awareness, social change, and musical experimentation. It was also the birthplace of many fantastic singer-songwriters, such as Carole King and Joni Mitchell. Music was explored using electronic devices, such as synthesisers, as exemplified by the band The Who.

1971 witnessed the UK's longest obscenity trial, which involved a 1960s counterculture publication, Oz. In one of its editions, schoolchildren were invited to edit the Schoolkids' Issue, which included pasting a cartoon mascot from the Daily Express into a sex strip illustration. The editors received jail sentences. John Lennon and Yoko Ono, who were themselves embroiled in controversy over nude album covers, came to their defence by organising protest marches and dedicating a song to this cause.

Logically, not everything changes in a year. Many of the things mentioned evolve over time.

 

1971 could be merely a random year. Every year contributes slightly to the transformation of our life on Earth. 1971 might serve as just a talking point, much like the story of how the Hardy-Ramanujan number came about. When visiting mathematician Ramanujan in the hospital, Professor Hardy, unsure of how to break the ice, mentioned that he took a taxi with the number 1729, which he considered dull. Ramanujan responded by stating that the number was interesting because it is the smallest number expressible as the sum of two cubes in two different ways. [1729 can be expressed as 1³ + 12³ = 10³ + 9³]

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Times were a'Changing!

A Complete Unknown (2024)

Director: James Mangold

Clip from Youtube

One of my earliest memories from the late 1960s is of my uncle spending weekends at my house. He was a university student, a rare sight in Malaysia then. I was fascinated by the shaving cream he and his friend, who accompanied him, applied to their faces and skillfully shaved off. What intrigued me even more was the fragrant aftershave lotion they put on afterwards. I was captivated by the lovely containers it came in. I later discovered it was 'Old Spice'. Its logo, a pirate ship, left a lasting impression on me. They spoke a great deal in English, and I often wonder what they discussed—perhaps the societal changes about which Bob Dylan wrote in his songs? I could not comprehend the messages as they were mainly in English, the lingua franca of the educated lot in the country.

As we know, the 1960s were tumultuous times. The Americans were the de facto leaders of the free world, whilst developing countries struggled to free themselves from the yoke of colonisation. Communist ideology gained popularity among young rabble-rousers who believed Marx's teachings could save their nations and the world from annihilation. The US viewed it as its moral duty to curtail leftist ideas and promote the message of a free world. The Americans, however, wised up. Seeing the devastating effects of Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs, the inhumane expulsion of tribes from Bikini Atoll and seeing bodybags returning from Korea and later Vietnam, in the carefree times of rock and roll, people started expressing their discontent.

At about this time, a young Bob Dylan packed his guitar and landed in New York to meet his ailing idol Woody Guthrie. He soon got into the folk music scene there. The film tells about Dylan's rise to stardom and the opposition he got as he decided to introduce electric guitar and other band instruments into his presentation. The folk music purists feel that he was damaging the essence of folk music by going electric. The movie ends in 1965 when Dylan finishes a stunning performance by introducing his electric make-over, performing on his acoustic guitar, and riding into the sunset on his motorbike.

https://www.motorcyclistonline.com/bob-dylan-motorcycle-crash/

The movie is not a full biopic but a part of Dylan's life. I was looking forward to knowing about his most talked about alleged bad motorcycle crash that cracked several vertebrae, a concussion and facial lacerations, but it was not included. Upon researching, I discovered that it happened a year after the timeline where the story ends. Like many of Bob Dylan's great stories, famous for half-truths, and outright lies, the motorcycle accident is shrouded in mystery. There is a possibility that the accident never took place as there was no record of hospital admissions for an injury so severe. Dylan could have just burned out. Possibly, such an accident never took place; he just wanted to be 'out of the rat race'.

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Sure you didn't!

We didn't start the fire (History Podcast; 2021-2023)

Hosts: Katie Puckrik & Tom Fordyce

In the mid-1980s, a young person commented to Billy Joel. In the young person's mind, the world of the 1980s was plagued with tumultuous events. In passing, he said, "I bet the world must have been a more peaceful place when you were growing up."

That got Billy Joel thinking. He started jotting down all the significant events from his birth in 1946 throughout his time growing up in New York till the summer of 1989.

Like that, he came up with close to 119 incidences that impacted him at least. He started arranging the list, like a good composer would, and wrote a record-smashing hit that everyone in the 90s would know.

Billy Joel realized as he reminisced about the years that went by that the world had always been a restless place. Looking back on the events, one thing is clear: It was as unsettled then as it is now.

The list he came up with became a narration of all the events that happened in post-war America and even the rest of the world. It even became the history syllabus for many schools in a few states. Katie Puckrik and Tom Fordyce decided to make a podcast out of the whole thing. They interviewed experts relevant to the subject for each of the 119 events, personalities or political events mentioned in the song. What transpired at the end is close to 90 hours of banter and history lessons that are excitingly interlaced with wisecracks and jokes.

Completing all the podcasts makes me feel like I'm in slumber while everybody else is doing the stuff. Many things were below the radar, and time is the best teacher for what happened in the past and will happen in the future. Many more things happened in the background without the rest of the world's knowledge. Some events still remain enigmas, which the world will never know, like whether Oswald's bullet really did kill JFK on the fateful day in Dallas.

Starting with Harry Truman and his questionable decision to drop the nuclear bomb in Japan, the podcasters dissect Doris Day. And we soon discover that her life was not like the 100-watt sunshine smile she flashes in her movies. Her life ambition was crushed when she was involved in a motor vehicle accident early on life. She had to switch careers. Married with a child by 22, life was not easy. Married four times, in the later stage of her life, she had fought court case after court case to retrieve her life savings from her lawyer, who had swindled her.

Like that, we learn about what has been happening in the background beyond the glitz of neon and what is printed in the media. It ends with the late 1980s staged Cola War between Pepsi and Coke—a fake war started to create publicity while the fizzy drink makers laugh all the way to the bank. Perhaps if the song had been written a bit later, he would have written about the fall of the  Berlin Wall and the collapse of communism.

We didn't start the fire, It was always burning

Since the world's been turning

We didn't start the fire, No, we didn't light it

But we tried to fight it

The Imperialists, specifically the Americans, in the post-war era, can deny all they want that they did not start the chaos that is rampant around the world. The sad truth is that the turmoil we are in has its roots deeply planted by the actions of people before us, intentionally or otherwise. For one, the current Middle East Crisis originates from the Imperialists' interference in the regional exploration and usurping of black gold and strategic power control of local politics. They fanned fires to appear as peacemakers akin to pinching the baby's bottom and singing lullabies simultaneously. While they were at it, they decided to sell arms to both warring sections. Why not? And sing 'We didn't start the fire, it was always burning...'

(P.S. Highly recommended for history geeks.)

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