THE OBSERVER-(M-19)

 😎THE OBSERVER-(M-19)😎

……..contd from M-18……….

Wed 26 Aug 2020

What all changes a little music can bring into life ! Soon after returning to Pune after the camp at Marve, came one of the major annual events in C.M.E. - the Musical Evening. By then, the songs we played along with our Sri Lankan friend had become so popular that we were specially recommended by our Course Officer to perform in that event. While going for practice sessions, we got involved in other numbers too and met a lot of interesting people in the process.

I played my favourite solo Arabian theme and also accompanied some other singers. The medley of three Sri Lankan songs started with an invocation to Lord Kataragama ( Sri Lankan equiv of Ganapati bappa ), followed by two Desmond D'Silva byla numbers - "Soodamanike" and "i had a lovely bunch of coconuts." In the process of  going through the various levels of rehearsals, one of the Cdrs decided that Chandrasiri, our Sri Lankan friend, would have to speak out a few words by way of intro at the start. He had to describe how we had happened to meet each other on the beach by chance during Camp Marve and then went on perform together. This poor chap had never in his life sung in public and he was so quiet by nature that till that point of time, no one in the Course even knew about his existence, leave aside hear his singing. His immediate reaction was to refuse point blank. But u all are well aware of how things are once the Big Guys have made up their mind on such issues, it had to be done. We wrote down a few words for him to speak and somehow managed to cajole him into doing his bit. To help him further, we always had a warming -up session with rum in my room before going for formal practice. The adm arrangements at the venue were also perfectly suited for us with a backstage bar readily available for further boosting of the morale as and when required.Once we got up on stage for the Sri Lankan number,Chandan would softly strum on his guitar while i began the speech for Chandrasiri by prompting him gently. He would begin rattling out the necessary  words.The moment there was some hesitation in the speech, i would kick off the song with prelim music on the harmonica. The entire show was a big hit and he became a star. Other participants in the event were Senior offrs and families from other Courses and Staff from CME & BEG as also some professional civilians.For days after the show was over, we would regularly have impromptu sessions of music at the Offrs Institute very frequently with both booze and music flowing freely and everyone enjoying. I used to be in charge for signing common chits at closure for all that was consumed. These sessions would continue till long after the official closing hours of the Instt. During the course of one such evening, the waiter came to me with a chit which said  ……..-" Wash Basin - one nos." 

 My first thought was that i had had one too many and asked someone to confirm whether i was reading correctly. It was confirmed. One of our dear enthusiastic batchmate appreciator of music had broken a wash-basin in the bathroom after leaning on it for support. Accompanying the waiter to the bathroom, i saw our man's hand bleeding and washbasin smashed. Took him for minimum dressing. Next day, there was a  big hue and cry in the classroom with the Course Offr shouting that the whole YO's Course had been disgraced due to the incident. No names  had come out in the open somehow, although it must have been quite clear as to who the culprits were. The washbasin was duly replaced by the same evening with a major contribution by the perpetrator and add-ons by others.Till then, i was not even aware that these things not only cost money but quite a bit too. Whenever i happened to visit CME later ( which was very often ), i never tired of showing everyone the washbasin installed by us to anyone who would care to listen.