On May 8, the 2012 Polar Music Prize recipients were announced: Yo-Yo Ma and Paul Simon. A prestigious international music award, the Polar Music Prize recognizes exceptional achievements in the creation and advancement of music in all its various forms.

The Prize is awarded to two laureates each year, in order to break down boundaries of genre by bringing together individuals from different musical worlds. Previous laureates have included Mstislav Rostropovich, Dizzy Gillespie, Sir Paul McCartney, Ennio Morricone, B.B. King, Renée Fleming, Bob Dylan, Isaac Stern, Joni Mitchell, Björk, Kronos Quartet, Ray Charles and Ravi Shankar, among many other celebrated musicians from diverse backgrounds.

The citation issued with the announcement recognized that “Yo-Yo Ma has dedicated his virtuosity and his heart to journeys of musical exploration and discovery around the world. With a cello and curiosity in his wake, Yo-Yo Ma has, in travelling routes like the Silk Road, united people from every continent. Yo-Yo Ma is living proof that music is communication, passion and the ability to share experience.”

His Majesty King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden will present the prizes at a gala ceremony at the Stockholm Concert Hall in August. And our laureate will also perform. A concert with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra under maestro Sakari Oramo will take place at the Stockholm Concert Hall on August 25, 2012.

And no one deserves it more than him…Congratulations Yo-Yo!!!!

Team HUM with the Ensemble

Matt Herskowitz—Piano ( USA ) *

Haruka Fuji———World Percussion ( Japan ) *

Wu Tong————Vocal/ Sheng/ Bawu ( China )

HUM Ensemble:

Mayank Raina——-Flute*

Sohail Yusuf Khan–Sarangi*

Bivakar Choudhury-Percussion

Anil Chawla———-Keyboard

Sandeep Das———Tabla

* First time as members of HUM Ensemble

L to R : Subhojit Bose, Managing Trustee – HUM,  Amitabha Bose, COO- HUM, Dr. Jitendra – Sarthak

Matt Herskowitz, fabulous Jazz pianist from the USA and World Percussion star Haruka Fuji of Japan for Helios group at Noida

New Delhi on the 28th of April, 2012

HUM Ensemble also welcomes its newest member Bivakar Choudhury on percussion for this concert.

She said, “ Yo-Yo’s looking for you, he wants you to come meet this friend of his.”  I followed her to the back of the auditorium where I saw Yo-Yo talking with a small family.

On seeing me he very excitedly tells the woman, “ Here is the guy who composed the piece you liked!” And to me he said, “ Sandeep meet my very good friend Steve, his wife Laurene and the children.”

The gentleman and his wife talked very warmly to me for some time.

As I was turning to leave, my dear friend Johnny , who was standing near by, nudged me gently.with his elbow He said, “ Did you recognize who this is?” I innocently said, “ No, but he seems to be a very close friend of Yo-Yo’s for sure!”

Johnny, smiled and said, “ Well does the name Apple ring a bell?”  And this is when I realized that I had just been introduced to the Mr. Steve Jobs !

This was the first of many other future meetings with this man. The first thing that always struck me was the simplicity of the clothes of this man, in reality the simplicity of the man. He would hang out with us, the ensemble members, with almost the capacity to be invisible. You almost were not even aware that he was there. Yet he would come and appreciate any piece that he liked each and every time.

I still remember the first time he was kind enough to pull out the, yet not seen or known to the world, “i-phone” and give us a demo. I must say that to this day I feel proud that I was amongst the lucky few who probably got to see this gadget, which went on to change how the world connects with one another, much before anybody else had even heard of it.

And a demo from none other than Steve himself!

I remember Yo-Yo discussing this with me one day, when we were talking about pollution and cars etc…that Steve is also very passionate about this and he might already be on his way to do something unique about solving this problem.

Whether or not this was to be…I don’t know yet. But when I had just finished recording in NYC that day and was about to start packing my Tabla’s , John Hadfield, the fabulous percussionist friend of mine gasped and said, “ Oh, Steve Jobs is no more!”

The words ripped through my heart…not that we did not know it was coming. Still my heart was not ready to hear it that soon. I looked at him and couldn’t help saying, “ John this is a fake news, right? “

He looked at me and said… “No…apple has put it on its web site and it’s true!”

I was surprised at myself…when I realized that I really felt empty from inside. As if , I had just lost someone very close to me.

I realize now that this feeling was shared by millions across the world.

“ Sarakti Jaye hai rukh se naqab…aahista, aahista” . Who had not grown up with these lines in India till the late 80’s?

That voice, which just with the mere tonal quality to it , could kill you whenever it wanted to.

The last time I bumped into him was in Cochin. I had just finished playing and was on my way back to my green room when I heard this deep sonorous voice calling out to me.

I looked towards him and said “ Namaskar”. He smiled and said, “ You reminded me of your guruji again , today! Sabash Sandeep! I will tell him what a wonderful disciple he has produced as I am headed to Varanasi from here.”

I just smiled back and thanked him for his compliment. Alas! I did not realize that this would be the last time I saw him again.

No sooner had I landed back in Delhi, I heard of this other loss to the world. “ Jagjit Singh is no more”!

Who in India can deny that this was the voice which single handedly reigned as the foremost Ghazal singer that this country has produced in the current generation. And probably, the most popular, after the legendary Begum Akhtar?

He made Ghazals simple and accessible to the masses of India.

And the sheer fact that there was a time when anybody and everybody started pulling a harmonium close and start singing ghazals, his was the only voice which continued to touch the hearts and souls of the millions that would listen to him proves his greatness.

The others, falling by the way side and long forgotten.

One wonders when you see all the other people without whom the world would actually be a better place not only continue to live but being happy and fine, whereas souls like these being taken away so early, that whether there is any justice up there at all???

Anyway, who am I to decide what is right and and not right or really be able to understand what life and death is all about…

One thing though that I am sure about  is that God does need better communication devices to communicate with his own creations. At times HE must be wondering whether it is HE who really created some of these monsters that we come across everyday of our lives.

So who knows, maybe that is why HE had to ask Steve to come to his aid faster than actually planned…and what better than listening to Jagjit Singh singing while Steve is at work to get HIM a better device???

And they pray for these because there are lesser production costs unlike a garish studio program that involves morons from two sides of the political spectrum. And then their studio musicians get to score dramatic music to back such events and reporting. Looks like they will have their prayers answered quite frequently. And rest assured our media scavengers will be right there with their “breaking news” !

Well Barkha Dutt (NDTV) was there in a black jacket and wet hair, Arunoday Mukherjee (CNN-IBN) was there with an umbrella and then there was Sreenivasan Jain (NDTV) narrating the story of Tushar and Asghar, both victims of the blasts, both unconnected and how “their paths never crossed”. Jain’s narrative sounded more like “communal harmony” during distress. Almost all of them gave us a history lesson on Zaveri bazar. I guess that helps. This time around the panellists on various shows, especially those from Mumbai, were simply angry. Very very angry!

And for comic relief the duo of Rahul Gandhi and Digvijay Singh were quick to enlighten us. DS mentioned we were better off than Pakistan when it came to terror attacks. Be grateful. RG, with his usual intellectual insight, came up with 99% attacks prevented and how 1% attack might get through. You’re lucky, you’re only 1% dead. How he came up with such silly statistics is anybody’s guess.

There is simply a marked unwillingness on the part of the Central government to take proactive measures to prevent such acts. P. Chidambaram seems to talk a lot after each attack but appears to have done precious little to strengthen internal security. The inaction is explained quite well in an article in Outlook magazine, “Four questions for the home minister”. I guess it is now time to separate the home ministry from the responsibility of internal security and have a completely new ministry for Internal Security. Who knows we might even need a ‘ministry for terror’ if this situation continues. For consolation PC repeatedly mentioned that this Mumbai attack came after 31 months. There are reports on various intelligence agencies, like the NIA (National Investigation Agency) lacking trained staff or Counter terrorism policy not in place. Even if the national intelligence agencies were to be networked well I wonder how many people in those agencies can even solve a Crossword puzzle.

The media couldn’t help patting itself for conducting itself differently from the past or even patting the government for being calm and not panicking. Some tweets sent in by regular reader Free_Verse are truly amazing:

Rajdeep Sardesai: a word of praise for the maha cm prithvi chavan. was calm, composed and clear. not like the vilasrao-rr duo last time.
Barkha Dutt:- Some lessons have been learnt. Mumbai cops sent sms messages across city asking people to remain indoors and calm, updating on blasts
- Information flow out of both state and central govt so much better compared to 26/11. Chief Minister sounds controlled and measured.

Nikhil Wagle:Thanks to prithviraj chavan who acted swiftly n reminded us of sharad pawar after 93 blasts.
Rahul Kanwal:Must acknowledge govt’s response much better than 26-11. Constant flow of information. Quick emergency response. No undue panic
Pallavi Ghosh:This time handling of post blast situation much better thn 26/11..regular briefings, pmo updating, chidam going to mumbai asap..

You’d have thought that all the calmness meant carefully calibrated action after the attack. You might even think all these journalists had done a careful analysis of Prithviraj Chauhan or the government at close quarters. It is fair for the media not to bash the CM or the government at such a time but praise is certainly uncalled for till the full story of the events have unfolded.

Seriously, this is what the Indian Express reports on the emergency response: “Bleeding victims put into taxis, trucks and private vehicles were the first to reach the hospitals, much before any ambulance, government or private, could reach the site of the terror attack… And it needed yet another terror attack to expose the gaping hole in the city’s emergency response system.”  OR see the front page pictures on The Times Of India. Well, for all the back-patting that the TV media gave the CM and the Maharashtra government, truth is that emergency systems aren’t really working as they should. There is a difference between staying calm and not panicking and being calm and fighting fire in an emergency. In times of distress calmness can only be half a virtue.

The CM himself confirmed on CNN-IBN today that for 15 minutes after the blasts the communication had completely broken down. Take that for the prompt and coordinated response. And the best note also comes from Chidambaram himself: “whoever has perpetrated the attacks has worked in a very clandestine manner“. Really? Alright, in future are we going to expect terrorists to act in ‘open’ manner? Someone in the media surely needs to pull up PC and tell him that terrorists are expected to indeed act in “clandestine” ways. PC delivers that great piece of silly wisdom as an explanation which the media faithfully reports without question.
For good measure, the man who is forever lost for words had this to say: “I cannot find words to condemn the barbaric acts of terror that resulted in the senseless killing and injuring of innocent people in Mumbai yesterday…” The Prime Minister also stated the perpetrators of the terror attack would be found and brought to justice. More words! We are yet to see justice for past acts of terror. Kasab and Guru are living at the cost of taxpayer money. And the silly question some media pundits ask is if their hanging would prevent terror attacks. Well, not carrying out sentences passed on them doesn’t exactly send a great signal to future terrorists, does it? And keeping them alive and in luxury does send a message to the terrorists. “Go ahead, nothing will happen“!

We may not be able to do everything that the US does in pursuit of terrorists but the unwillingness to act is quite extreme. The government does not even declare a huge bounty/reward for informants who will lead to the terrorists. Surely, that is possible and better than spending crores on maintaining convicted terrorists in luxury. In an emergency a visit by a VVIP now is the biggest distraction and hindrance to relief work. Last evening someone on Twitter summed it up nicely:

Anushree Kothari : “So Sonia Gandhi passed by Worli Sea Face with an entourage of 56 cars! Police at every 10 steps all thru the way, both sides!”

“An ambulance was stopped (on the opp side of the road) to facilitate Sonia Gandhi’s entourage! #*&^*&TheCongress !”

That is exactly what angers the victims and citizens even more. The government spends precious resources chasing a Ramdev or a Balkrishna and other individuals on frivolous grounds. It has the guts to attack and forcefully evict peaceful protesters while sleeping at night. That is your government’s will to fight terror. Strangely, a report that clearly establishes links between politicians and underworld is never being discussed. This article inOutlook will hardly encourage anyone’s belief in the government’s willingness to pursue justice. With corruption and politicians busy grabbing wealth, real estate or sports bodies one has to wonder when they even find time to discuss security.

You are lucky,  you are only 1% dead.

Support and help may not have come from expected corners but when things seemed to be insurmountable, support has come from totally unexpected sources.

Support of the mother organization SRE, support from my musician friends be it from the SRE or their Indian counterparts and support from members of TEAM HUM (all voluntary) is something without which HUM could not have moved an inch.

The overwhelming response that HUM has got in Delhi (2010-11), Kolkata (2010) and Mumbai (2011) from the general audience only strengthens our resolve to keep pegging and chipping in and maybe HUM will make a difference, however small!

Thank you one and all for everything. The pictures and video is here and we will be posting them soon. Enjoy!

HUM and India welcomes him with open arms. I am sure you all will enjoy his mastery over various instruments.

To know more about him do visit our Visiting Artists page!

Welcome Shane Babu!

It has been rectified. Please do keep writing to us and we will get back to you positively.

Thanks,

Sandeep Das