Dears,

In this discussion forum we have seen many people including myself taking help from experts like John C. Luf so easily without paying anything in return, sometimes paying back with hostility. From the recent issue of a newspaper in Kolkata, "The Telegraph", I am attaching an article to learn how we students should behave in front of our teachers like John Breen or John C.Luf. I am giving the responsibility of explaining the indian film context to non-resident indian piping engineers to our foreign friends & teachers.

regards,

sam
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My Fundays
Ismail Darbar
This versatile music director has conquered the hearts of fans with his tunes in movies like Devdas and Kisna. he was in Calcutta a few weeks ago to judge the participants in a talent show contest
For four generations, we have been a family of musicians in Surat. My family had a band party called the Darbar Band. But there was no future in it. Business was seasonal. Income dried up in the monsoon when no weddings took place. Sometimes I used to accompany my father to the receptions. But the high-handed attitude of clients towards the musicians would hurt me.
I hated the municipality school I went to. It taught Urdu and Gujarati. Though it gave me the scope to be the lead singer on all big occasions like Independence Day, I dropped out after six months in class VI. Between the age of 11 and 13 years, I picked up a number of things — tailoring, folding mithai boxes, painting cars in a garage, zari work… But I never survived in any of them beyond three-four months. So when my father left for Mumbai, I left with him. All the neighbours laughed and said I would be back in four days. Though I was heart-broken to leave my sisters, elder brother and friends behind, my father made sure I hung on.
I was taken for violin lessons to Ramprasadji, father of Pyarelal Sharma of the famous Laxmikant-Pyarelal duo. Students from all backgrounds came for classes to him. Manoj Kumar’s son came in a Mercedes, while I landed up, bumping all the way in a bus. There were some students whose fathers were violinists in the industry. The music of the film Karz was being recorded then. They would come and play the tunes to impress others.
I could not afford to pay for tuitions. Instead, I would run all the errands of guruji. They stayed in a multistorey building without a lift. There were days when I would run up and down 25 times. My father always kept my spirits up, saying “Guruji ki sewa karoge to mewa khaoge (If you serve your teacher, you'll reap the benefits)”. When I used to massage him for hours at a stretch, he would bless me saying that I would become a bigger composer than Laxmikant-Pyarelal. Maybe the blessing worked. While the duo never got a National Award in their career, I got one for my first film Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam
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