Paying Guest in Mumbai

"Watch out for land-lords trying to palm off their daughter to you" was the advice given to me by my aunt when she heard that I am shortly headed to Mumbai, and will be looking for Paying Guest (PG) accommodation.

My first PG accommodation was in an old ramshackle villa called Norman House in Agar Bazar, Dadar near the Portuguese church.  The land-lord - a crafty old Anglo-Indian - charged me Rs 500 per month for a bed in a twin sharing room (this was in the good old '80s).  The "twin sharing" room soon accommodated an extra 2 beds which made for indeed very crowded living.

Wanting my own private space, I briefly moved into my own separate room in another PG place near Kaboothar Khana in Dadar.  The experiment was short-lived as I realised that I was living in a house that had a drug addict (and with all its attendant problems) - so soon I was sheepishly back at my old PG in Agar Bazar.  The land-lord triumphantly told me "I told you so" - and increased the rent to Rs 600 as punishment for my treachery.

One met varied people as room-mates in the PG.  In fact it was like a railway station - with people coming and occupying a bed for a month and then moving on. In the course of a few months I befriended a team of encyclopaedia salesmen, a steel salesman, a telephone salesman, a chemist, and a mystery man who used to sleep throughout the day.  One of the room mates was an estate agent, and he told me about an excellent PG facility located in Hindu colony in Dadar TT.  It was a single occupancy room (a real luxury in Mumbai) with a balcony, and the land-lord only wanted Rs 800 per month as rent.  However, apparently the owners - an aged Maharashtrian couple - insist on carrying out a detailed interview with aspirants, and had rejected several aspirants to the room.  I anyway decided to try my luck, and went to meet them at their house.

I had tea with them on their terrace over-looking the busy Ambedkar road.  Something in me must have clicked - for soon they told me that I can move in.  A room to myself - finally!

The changing art of counting heads

The Economist in a recent article gave some interesting facts about how Population Census is carried out in different parts of the world.  I learnt some surprising aspects:

1. I always assumed that Population Census has to be done physically i.e. someone has to go and physically visit each house and assess the number of people.  This was actually so in all countries until recently.  However,  increasing privacy concerns - and rising costs - is changing this.  In countries like Germany, Census is carried out almost entirely virtually - through accessing government databases such as National Employment records, birth and death registers etc.  Subsequently, only 10% of the sample is randomly selected for a physical old style face to face interviewing for the purpose of verification.

2. Interestingly - for this 10% of the selected sample - there is a penalty if they refused to co-operate with the enumerators.  This is unthinkable in traditional Market Research.

3. This pattern of using secondary sources to carry out the population census is becoming more and more popular - 17 countries in Europe do it in this manner.  And even the US is planning to shift more and more of its census data collection to online.

4. The US currently carries out its Population Census still in the old fashioned manner (as in India).  It cost them USD 43 (i.e. about Rupees 2000) to count each person.  The equivalent cost for counting each person in India was only 40 cents (i.e. about Rupees 17). 

For me there were 2 important take-outs from this article:

- Data collection,  even for something like the Population Census, will increasingly move to a secondary data collection methodology using online databases.  Hence with the national biometric ID being issued to every Indian, it is possible that the Census methodology as we know it today will vanish within the next couple of decades even in India

- The other take-out is the cost.  If data collection continues to be so cheap in India then there will be no immediate cost incentive to move to a Secondary data collection system as in other countries.  The only reason why India will abandon the face-to-face primary methodology and move to a secondary system would be in the interests of time and accuracy.

Forgotten Greats : Mehmood Dholpuri

Just came to know from Shubha Mudgal's column in Mint that Mehmood Dholpuri, one of the well known harmonium players, passed away on May 25th.  Even though I am an avid follower of developments on the Indian music scene, this news was hardly reported by the media - sad that such a great musician passed away relatively unnoticed.

Dholpuri initially played the Sarangi - and then later moved on to playing the harmonium.  As a harmonium player he was synonymous with Delhi - just like Appasaheb Jalgaonkar was synonymous with Pune.  Any vocalist performing in Delhi would  first check Dholpuriji's availability.

Dholpuri passed away at the relatively young age of 58.  This is a bit tragic as it takes musicians decades and decades of thankless perseverance before they attain recognition : even a great like Bhimsen Joshi started getting recognition only when he was well into his sixties.  So Dholpuri passed away before the music world could give him his due.

Some of Dholpuri's performances can be seen here on Youtube.  There is also a very nice interview carried out with him a few years ago which gives an insight into his life and struggle for recognition - this can be viewed here.

Smooth Landings in Egypt

I believe Egyptian pilots are one of the best in the world when it comes to smooth landings.  And until recently  Egyptian air travellers on any flight used to applaud whenever a pilot showed his dexterity by making an extra smooth landing - without any of the bumps and jerks.  It used to be a spontaneous gesture unique to Egyptian air travellers.  And I used to appreciate this small gesture - nowhere in the world have I seen air travellers applauding the pilot for a good touch-down.

On my recent air travels, I notice this habit has completely vanished.  No applause even for the smoothest of landings. Either the expectations have gone up - or Egyptians have weightier things on their minds.

This is a change I have noticed since the Revolution - the average Egyptian's expectations seems to have gone up about anything and everything.  My guess is that the events surrounding the revolution have made Egyptians much more demanding - and therefore probably much less appreciative of the simple pleasures that they once used to celebrate with gusto.

Meanwhile the Egyptian pilots continue to do smooth landings - bless them.

A Salute to the Egyptians

I have always deeply admired the Egyptians - I love their sense of humour, their warm open nature, and  their respect for a healthy work-life balance in their lives (something that many Indians tend to lack).

The recent events in Egypt has taken my respect for Egyptians a few notches higher.  It is not for me - a foreigner - to say who or what system should govern Egypt.  All I can say is that freedom and democracy are important for any civilization, and is something worth struggling for.

The last 10 days I have seen a different facet of Egypt - I have seen a steely resolve among the youth of Egypt that I had never seen before - a steely resolve that can remake history.

It is said that suffering and struggle tends to shape character and strengthen bonding - and this is what I am observing today among the youth of Egypt - whether in the way they organised the neighbourhood protection committees to protect their families, or in the way their spirit has held up against huge odds.

One cannot with certainty predict the outcome of any event.  But whatever the outcome of this event - of one thing I am very sure : the Egypt that I will return to (hopefully very soon), will be a different Egypt, and a much improved one, for sure.

Moving On

True to my vagabond spirit, I am now all set for the move to Cairo - and I admit I am all excited about my 2nd innings in North Africa - this time with Nielsen.  My first stint (with TNS) was memorable to me and my family - we love the people in that region - they are warm and hospitable, and seem to have a very balanced approach to life.

I am hoping that this 2 nd stint will be as fulfilling and satisfying as the 1st stint.  What gave me the biggest source of reward during my previous stint was of course the blossoming of quite a few Egyptians, Tunisians and Moroccans into extremely good professionals in a short period of time.  They are all now in very good positions - either still on the agency side or on the client side - and I am really proud of what they have achieved for themselves.

From what I hear, the Nielsen Egypt and Morocco offices are flooded with young talent - and I can hardly wait to get to know them.

Nandan at the Nielsen India Consumer 360 event

I understand that Nandan Nilekani was the chief guest at the Nielsen Consumer 360 event held recently in New Delhi, India. Nandan happens to be a hero of mine (read why he is my hero in the blog post Quitting At The Top posted a few months ago.)

I am really happy that Nielsen India managed to get a person of Nandan's stature to be the chief guest.  Nielsen India aimed big - and no wonder the event was stated to be a spectacular success

A Musical Morning - Preethi Kamath

Preethi Kamath gave an impromptu performance to a private audience in Dubai last weekend.  She effortlessly alternated between singing in the Hindustani and the Carnatic styles - a difficult task for even the trained vocalist.

I greatly enjoyed accompanying Preethi on the Harmonium.  Initially I was a bit queasy as this was an impromptu event without any rehearsals - and accompanying Carnatic music on the Harmonium is always a huge challenge particularly if it has to be done spontaneously, and with no prior knowledge of the Raag.  So I was indeed thrilled when the accompaniment went off smoothly.

The high-point was of course the sight of my mother (and guru) Meera Rao accompanying on the Tabla. Videos of the event have been uploaded on YouTube.  My personal favourite - embedded above - was Preethi's rendition of the song Sarasee.   The other notable one was the rendition of Raag Malkoums in both the Hindustani and the Carnatic (Hindolam) style.

The Tabla Player

The Tabla (Indian Drums) normally sets the rhythm and the tempo in music.  It makes a lot of sound - and brings "life" to the music.  And it often breaks out into a rhythm of its own - and sometimes hijacks the audience attention before the vocalist again reasserts control over the proceedings.  

The Tabla player wants attention and recognition - and normally when he does his job well, it is recognised, and draws an applause from the audience.  

In organisations, the Tabla players would be the people who bring in the Revenue - normally people in Marketing or Sales.  They very often fancy themselves as future Leaders – and therefore often challenge the leadership.

The different styles of playing harmonium

The harmonium as a musical instrument is designed to support the vocalist.  The problem is that some players of harmonium play it as if it is the hero of the music event.  They therefore try to over-shadow the vocalist either by second-guessing the vocalist (and therefore constraining him), or by playing it in such a loud and dominating manner that the vocalist's voice gets drowned in the process.

Then there is a difference in the way one can project the sound by controlling the way the air escapes through the reeds.  Some harmonists prefer to play using a single reed as you get a very sweet sound - this is ideal when the musician is an accomplisted vocalist, and only needs support from the harmonist to "fill in" the gaps.  However, most people prefer to play using either double or triple reed as the sound is stronger, and it tends to lend better support to the amateur vocalist.

Although normally I play using both reeds, recently I had to play on a single reed as the singer had a very soft voice - and even at low volume the harmonium would have drowned her beautiful voice.  You can listen to the recording of that performance of Geethaji singing "Aaj Mujhe Aayike" here - Geethaji sang this as usual very beautifully - though I wish I had played the harmonium better.

What Musical Instrument defines you?

There is much to learn from music.


All of us tend to get drawn to a specific type of musical instrument. In Indian (Hindustani) music, it could be the vocal chords (singing), or the Harmonium, the Tabla (percussion) or the Taal (cymbals).


While we may like everything, there will normally be one instrument that a person will be especially drawn towards.  And when I say "drawn towards", it does not necessarily mean that he/she actually plays it - it could also mean that he/she pays special emphasis to this instrument while listening to a piece of music.


I believe that the type of instrument that you are drawn towards reveals your personality.  And happiest are those who are in careers/positions that match their musical talent.


Do you know what is your musical instrument?  If you don't know, then it is likely that you are not sure about your own strengths in your work place - probaly you are yet to discover yourself.  And if you are not in a role suiting your musical instrument, then probably you are not very satisfied in your current role.  

The Vocalist

People drawn towards Vocals (singing) are normally leaders - they tend to bring all the other musical instruments together to make a composite whole.  


In Indian music, the singers take centre stage - and the concert revolves around him - and the vocalist therefore grabs most of the attention.  It is the role of the Vocalist to draw out the best talent from all his team players - whether it be the tabla player, the harmonium player or the cymbal player.


He normally sets the theme for the concert and provides the overall direction.


In organisations, Vocalists would be the senior managers/leaders e.g the CEO

The Harmonium Player

The Harmonium is a supporting instrument that sets the tone, and closely supports the Vocalist.  It ensures that the Vocalist is always on track - correcting and guiding him when he strays off-course.  

The harmonium "fills-in" when the Vocalist pauses for breath, and brings in melody and harmony into the music.  

The Harmonium players are relatively low-profile, and they get their greatest kick when the entire music program goes off smoothly.

In organisations, harmonium players are conscience-keepers and normally display a strong mentoring trait.  They work very closely with the leader - and are usually either in supporting roles such as HR or Training - or in a monitoring role such as Finance. 

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Other popular posts relating to Harmonium : 
Fingering Techniques for Playing Harmonium
Custom-made Triple-Reed harmonium 
Palitana Reeds for my harmonium

Why Every Harmonium sounds different - C Sharp Tuning
My "Big Moment" finally happened

The Cymbal or Drone Player

Finally we come to the Taal (cymbal) player. Sometimes, in Hindustani music the Taal player is missing, and instead you would find a couple of drone players i.e. the people sitting behind the vocalist maintaining the base tone.  The Taal - or the Drone player - is the least noticed and acknowledged - though he is the crucial person who maintains the basic beat/tonality.  

Without the Taal or the Drone, there would be a large vacuum in the music.  

In organisations, the Taal players are the people in operations, logistics and systems - they are the people who run the machines, and who ensure things get finally implemented.  They are normally the least acknowledged - but who work the hardest.

Eknath Thakurdas

While listening to some old live recordings of Bhimsen Joshi (Sidhi series), I came across Eknath Thakurdas - one of the greatest harmonium players ever.  He is sheer genius.  He was probably the only accompanying artiste who could challenge Bhimsen.  I could not find any of his performances after the mid seventies - so I presume he passed away sometime in the early seventies.

Listening to Eknath play the harmonium gives me goose bumps. While there is an entirely new generation of harmonium players now, they cannot be compared to this genius.

I tried to find more about this great person - but alas there is nothing about him on the net.  Finally after a lot of search I managed to get a video grab of how he looked like.  The picture is a bit grainy - but the face shows a lot of character.

Here is a short clip of Eknath Thakurdas at his best - he is accompanying Bhimsen performing Raag Durga sometime during the mix-sixties.  The clip is just 2 minutes long - but it shows the genius.

You will also notice the very different and distinct timbre (tonal quality) made by his harmonium.  I wonder what happened to his harmonium after he passed away.  Which lucky person got this instrument that has been blessed by this maestro?  I don't think any of the current crop of harmonium players got it.  I have listened now to Eknath Thakurdas so much that I would recognise his harmonium anytime anywhere due to its very distinct sound.

How I wish that I had the luck to have seen him perform.