Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Gurmeet Singh Shaant - Night Diwaan 31 Dec / 1 Jan

Happy New Year :)
May you be blessed with a constant and greatly heightened awareness of the Joy present in your life. And may you be blessed with the power to make choices in your life that keep you connected to that Joy.


Audio recordings taken from Bangkok Gurudwara - 2008 New Year Diwaan.

Aise Gur Ko Bal Bal Jaiye - Kanhra Partaal : Dhamar , Iktaal , TinTaal

Vadh Sukh Rainariye - Bihagra Chanchal


I have question:
How would you ask an enthusiastic member of the congregation that CANT SING FOR NUTS to keep shut while you record one of the Greatest Ragis alive today ?
The guy sitting on my right was croaking away, enjoying himself thoroughly at my expense.

And about 1 meter in front of me, towards my right, there was a kid about 11 years old, busy talking to his dad and fiddling with a plastic bag - I gave him a really mean stare to try get him to shut up and leave the bag alone, it finally worked.
Ok I can shut an annoying kid up, but how can you tell someone who's singing along to the Shabads to keep quiet? He was not doing anything WRONG. In Guru Darbar - we are all encouraged to sing the Guru's praises. I was stumped, so I let him be.

Check out the recordings --- the whole Sangat sang along, it was awesome. - except for the totally off-key fellow on my right, and the annoying kid with his plastic bag.

Not that I have any problem with people who are not able to sing but enjoy doing it anyway - I just wish they were aware of it and were considerate enough to keep quiet while other people are trying to record.
I was sitting RIGHT in front , 2 meters from the stage. The Darbar hall was PACKED .. I couldn't have moved anywhere to escape his voice.
He didn't do anything wrong .. It just bugged the heck out of me that I didn't get FIRST CLASS recordings.


I have 3 more recordings: One of the Simran we do from 11:55 - 00:05 , another Shabad, and Anand Sahib. But the guy who cant sing sings so bloody loudy that I can't stop laughing when I hear it - so I'll wait until I calm down a bit before uploading those.

Anyways:
I'm very happy that Bhai Gurmeet Singh Shaant, one of the most learned Ragis active today, is in town for another 2 weeks.

And I'm REALLY happy with my recording equipment. When I listen to the mp3 files - it feels like I'm back there in the Sangat experiencing the aural atmosphere all over again.

Cheers.

5 comments:

Manik Sethisuwan said...

you could try writing a note in punjabi + english and pass on to him, "gurdwara's pardaan requests you to keep silent as this session is being recorded for small children, satsriakalji"

if doesnt work u can write
"ps your voice sucks"

if still doesn't work u can raise the recorder in the air, btw is that double voice the sound of the offduty singer?

Manik Sethisuwan said...

or.. you could wear black gloves. :D it works.

Unknown said...

VJKK, VJKF
Appreciate the kirtan you put up veerji..

As for the memeber of the sangat singing off tune..well..since we are all in the Guru's darbar HE doesn't quite look at how in-tune HIS sangat is..I guess he (the guy next to you) was in his own bairaag..don't mean to be rude but I know I do that sometimes - sing out of tune - but its my love for my master.

Bhul chuk khima if i sound rude..but I guess the only place can actually be ourselves is at Father's place..the Gurughar..

Dhan Guru Naanak
Vaheguru Ji ka Khalsa, Vaheguru Ji Ki Fateh

Unknown said...

PS: sorry for the typos...lol

Mnv said...

Harkirat ji -
yep I agree with you .
I said " but how can you tell someone who's singing along to the Shabads to keep quiet "
I suppose I should've emphasized SHABADS.

The guy has every right to sing in tune ,off tune , or even some other tune in the Guru Darbar.

I was just expressing how bugged I was , because I was so excited about getting "good recordings" of Bhai Gurmit Singh Shant . and It didn't happen.