MAKING MUSIC

Bombay Buck
Mumbai Mirror - Thursday, May 31, 2007

Kenneth Lobo meets up with a group of music aficionados at the Mumbai Educational Trust World of Music, presently preoccupied with creating a storehouse of eclectic melodies.


BACK IN COLLEGE AT St Xavier’s, two magnificently stocked libraries catered to the student’s diverse reading habits, but if you wanted it supplemented by music, there was the Indian Music Group library, whose membership entitled you to air conditioning and their eclectic selection of Indian Classical music. not everyone was thrilled with the genre, however though today gadgets that stomach unprecedented numbers of songs in seemingly inexhaustible bellies make up for that drawback. The folks over at Mumbai Educational Trust (MRT) in Bandra recognized the eclecticism and bottomless pit syndrome that characterize youth of the 21st century, and assembled the MRT World of music or MWM in September 2006.

The idea of the lounge was a marriage of the institute’s information Technology spine and my love for Indian Classical Music”, says Sunil Karve, Vice Chairman, MET League of Colleges. Karve says that he struggled to find the particular kind of music or the exact song that fit his mood in the limited time he had for himself. After brief consultations with his in-house team, he began the first phase of any archive worth its salt, accumulation. “We requested teachers and students to donate their collections to the institute on loan. Some even had old spools which we digitally transferred”, says Karve.

For the lengthy process – sox top eight months of sifting and archiving - Karve enlisted the help of talented classical vocalist Omkar Dadarkar, who had no clue why he was listening to as many pieces of music, tagging and separating the chaff from the wheat. “I’d watch out for three elements: quality of music, lyrics and musicality”, says Dadarkar, who trained for six years at the Sangeet Research Academy, before being snapped up by Karve on his return to Mumbai. So you won’t find a lot of Himesh Reshammiya in here? Dadarkar laughs.

The best part of the MET’s endeavour is its indiscriminate outlook and musical liberality. Over seven categories of music are further divided into genre, artist, lyricist and director. Where Dadarkar felt the lack, particularly in Western music, he roped in students and further plans to hire musical consultants. The highlight of the collection is undoubtedly the Indian Classical music category. Not only is the selection of songs extensive – their taal, ragas and origin have been uploaded for the students to understand the roots – but they are accompanied by grainy black and white documentaries of the masters like Ustad Amir Khan, for today’s generation to glimpse into the past, reclining on comfortable seats.

The next phase of the project is to segregate music by the mood and allow listeners to find out what music is good for a particular time of the day “like Raag Bhairvi is for the mornings”, says Dadarkar. The vocalist is convinced this can be applied to Indian Classical music as well as Western music, though that task seems more knotty. Again, the chairman seems responsible for the initiative. “At King George School in Hindu Colony, I remember a concert by Pandit Bhimsen Joshi. The combination of the Weather (it was raining) and music was over whelming and it’s something I’ll never forger. I often shed tears while listening to classical music,” he says. Karve used to be cynical about the survival of Indian Classical music, but student participation and feedback at the lounge has helped change his mind. “I thought the genre is dead, but now I’m convinced it will last at least a little longer”, says Karve.