JIM REEVES- NOT THAT EASY TO FORGET

31 July 1964. Popular singer Jim Reeves, piloting his own plane and accompanied by his business partner and manager, Dean Manuel, takes offr from a town in Arkansas for Nashville for a business deal. En route, the plane runs into a violent thunderstorm and goes missing. 2 days later, a search party locates the wreckage of the plane and two bodies. Jim Reeves and Dean Manuel are declared dead. A pall of gloom descends over millions of Jim Reeves fans all over the world.

In early 1950s, when I first started listening to English popular music, 'crooners' were the rage. The advent of better microphones gave rise to a new soft and intimate style of singing which came to be known as 'crooning'. Singers like Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole and Perry Como were its top proponents with romantic songs which touched the heart and on which one could do a close slow foxtrot or waltz with a chosen partner!

Then music became loud, and for many, raucous, with a heavy beat. Rock and Roll made its entry with Bill Haley and His Comets hollering 'Rock Around The Clock' in 1954. Other artistes followed: Little Richard (Good Golly Miss Molly, Tutti Frutti) with his screaming voice and Jerry Lee Lewis (Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On, Great Balls Of Fire) stepping on the piano and playing with his feet while singing in rapid fire mode. And the top of the pops, Elvis 'The Pelvis' Presley with his gyrating hips and distinct style of singing and mumbling numbers like 'Heartbreak Hotel', 'Hound Dog', 'Jailhouse Rock' and 'Don't Be Cruel'. The youth had moved from slow, close dancing to frantic jiving.

But they wanted more. So Chubby Checker came with 'The Twist' getting them to shake one's whole body and legs to twist and rotate. Older people tried to follow suit and it is said that no other dance form has caused more injuries than the Twist!

A movie titled 'Fire Down Below' popularised another craze- the 'Limbo'. My generation would be familiar but for today's youth, to do the Limbo, one had to pass under a low horizontal bar without dislodging it. Consider it the opposite of high jump, but here instead of jumping, one had to bend one's body backwards parallel to the floor and shuffle the legs under the bar usually with music and a drink in one hand! The popular exhortation was, 'How low can you go?' I was amazed to read that the world record for Limbo is held by a Denis Walston passing under a bar at a height of 6" from the ground. Unbelievable!

Amidst all the noise and wild dancing, James Travis Reeves, better known as Jim Reeves or 'Gentleman Jim', was creating his own niche and a big one too! He started off as a standard country and western singer and scored his first no.1 hit on the US country charts with 'Bimbo' in 1954. Soon he developed his own style with low volume and soft tones of his voice accompanied by lush strings and background vocals which came to be known as the Nashville sound. His baritone voice was rich, velvety and smooth that made it ideal for deeply emotional, romantic and passionate songs. What a welcome and refreshing change it was to listen to his soothing voice in contrast to the loud and frenzied Rock and Roll music. One could romance with a slow foxtrot or waltz once again!

'He'll Have To Go' was Jim Reeves' biggest hit which remained on top of music charts the world over for months with the lovely lines, 'With your sweet lips a little closer to the phone, let's pretend that we're together all alone.... and you can tell your friend there with you, he'll have to go!' A song which enchanted me was 'I'd Like To Be' which he sang in a happy, peppy way with delightful lyrics which go-  'I'd like to be...That lucky chair that holds you every night, I'd even like to be the apple that you bite... And when you're old enough to want to marry, I'd like to be the one who steals your heart away'. 

His range of hits went from 'Welcome To My World' to 'Adios Amigo' and included 'I Love You Because' (I love you for a hundred thousand reasons, But most of all I love you 'cause you are you), 'Am I Losing You','Danny Boy', 'Distant Drums' and 'Four Walls'. He also sang a number of Christmas and gospel songs which were hugely popular.

Mostly, he was his own songwriter and sang many songs with 'forget' as the theme. There was 'I'm Beginning to Forget You....like you forgot me'. Then 'Trying to Forget....the times you broke my heart.... but I'll forget, I'll forget, I know I will'. In 'I Won't Forget You' he sings, 'I"ll forget many things in my lifetime, but my darling, I won't forget you'. And the most touching, 'Am I That Easy to Forget.... Before you leave be sure you find, You want his love much more than mine, 'Cause I"ll just say we've never met, If I am that easy to forget'.

Did he fear he would be forgotten? Well, his songs kept hitting the charts for more than 20 years after his crash. He remains popular with his old fans even now.

No, Jim Reeves, you needn't have feared: you are not 'That easy to forget'!

SONGS VINNIE MAMA AND I SANG TOGETHER

Vinnie Mama was my mentor in music. 

It all started in Bharatpur in mid 1940s when I was about 7. Vinnie Mama, nine years my elder, was studying in Allahabad University and used to come home during vacations with a handful of 78 rpm records to be played on our HMV gramophone. They were mainly Pankaj Mullick songs supplemented by KL Sehgal (Aye Qatib-e-taqdeer, mujhe itna bata de, kyoon mujhse khafa hai tu, kya maine kiya hai) and Kanan Devi (Toofan mail, duniya, yeh duniya, toofan mail). I have never come across anyone so fond of singing as Vinnie Mama who could launch into a song at the drop of a hat. So he used to catch hold of me to sing himself and get me to sing along.

He was, of course, enormously fond of Pankaj Mullick and his favourite songs were 'Piya Milan Ko Jana', 'Aayi Bahar Aaj Aayi Bahar', 'Chale Pawan Ki Chaal' and 'Yeh Kaun Aaj Aaya Sawere Sawere'. He would coax me to sing and I learnt 'Maine Aaj Piya Hoton Ka Pyala', 'Yeh Raaten Yeh Mausam' and 'Aaj Apni Mehnaton Ka Mujhko Samra Mil Gaya' specially after I did well in some exam!  Thoughts of joining NDA and Navy were yet to germinate but I learnt to march to the beats of 'Pran Chahe Nain Na Cha-a-hey'.

In a lighter vein, there were two Hindi songs which were very popular with us - 'Gori Gori O Banki Chhori' and 'Meri Jaan Sunday Ke Sunday' which we used to call our national anthem. What fun lyrics the latter had: 'I love you, bhaag yehan se tu, tujhe Paris dikhaoon, tujhe London ghumaoon, aur khilaoon murgi ke, murgi ke, ande re ande, aana meri jaan, meri jaan, Sunday ke Sunday'. Incidentally, to live the song, I did Paris and London with my dear wife but couldn't get her to eat any 'ande'!

Then Vinnie Mama joined the Navy, made a few trips abroad, I joined St. Xavier's in Jaipur and we enlarged our scope to include English songs. Records that he brought home became songs we would sing. One of the oldest was 'The Rich Maharajah of Magador who had ten thousand camels and maybe more, he had rubies and pearls and the loveliest girls, but he didn't know how to do the rumba!' 

Another one was 'Irene Goodnight, Irene Goodnight.....I"ll see you in my dreams'. It had a tacky line in which after parting with his wife, the singer says 'sometimes I take a great notion, to jump in the river and drown'. Vinnie Mama always thumped my back smilingly when we came to those words.

We sang 'Clementine' who was light and like a fairy though her shoes were number nine. She fell into the foaming brine 'but alas, I was no swimmer (like me!), so I lost my Clementine'. 'Dreadful sorrow, Clementine' until ' I kissed her little sister, I forgot my Clementine'.

I remember us singing Vera Lynn's 'Bluebirds Over The White Cliffs Of Dover'. The song was resonating in my mind when Akhila and I took the ferry from Dover to Calais in 1987 and found the lyrics true to life: the cliffs of Dover were shining white and bluebirds were actually flying over them. A song fully fulfilled!  

A sailor ditty he taught me was 'She Wore A Yellow Ribbon' which went like-                           'In her hair, she wore a yellow ribbon, she wore a yellow ribbon in the merry month of May,                                                                            And if you ask, oh why the hell she wore it, she wore it for a sailor who is far far away.             Far away, far far away, for she wore it for a sailor who is far far away'.

He knew I was a keen listener of Radio Ceylon and every time we met, would ask me what new songs I had learnt. While we did some regular hits such as Perry Como's 'Don't Let The Stars Get In Your Eyes' and Doris Day's 'Que Sera Sera' or old ones like 'If I Loved You' from Carousel (Vinnie Mama had a deep baritone voice which could give Mario Lanza a run for his money), we preferred lighthearted songs which would keep us in good spirits. We loved 'Down By The Riverside' with the lines,                                                                                                         'Down by the riverside, I met my little bride,                                                                               Well, down by the riverside, I asked her for a little kiss.....                                                                                She said have patience little man, I hope you understand, I hardly know your name,                         I said if I can have my way, maybe some sweet day, your name and mine will be the same'.     That would earn me another thump on my back!

Another fun song, 'Daisy, Daisy....I am half crazy all for the love of you,                                                              It won't be a stylish marriage, I can't afford a carriage,                                                                 But you'll look sweet, upon the seat of a bicycle built for two'.                                                         But Daisy wasn't convinced. 'Michael, Michael.... I'm not crazy over the likes of you.             If you can't afford a carriage, forget about a marriage,                                                              'Cause I won't be jammed, I won't be crammed, on a bicycle built for two.'

At Christmas time, after going through the usual 'White Christmas' and 'Silent Night, Holy Night', we loved to sing the Chipmunks' 'All I want for Chriffmus is my two funt teeth...so I could whiff you, a ferry merry Chriffmus.'

For remembering old friends, there was 'Heart Of My Heart' which                                                   'Brings back a memory, when we were kids on the corner of the street,                                       We were rough and ready guys, but oh, how we could harmonise,                                                         Heart of my Heart, meant friends were dearer then, too bad we had to part,                                   I know a tear would glisten, if once more I could listen,                                                                      To that gang that sang Heart of my Heart'.                                                                                                              

Our sessions usually ended with Vera Lynn's famous signing off number:                                                            'This lovely day has flown away, the time has come to part.....                                                     Auf weiderseh'n, sweetheart'.

Postscript: An incident to recall his love for singing. During Shumita's wedding reception in January 2007, he said to me, "Let's go up to the stage and have a singsong". I said it wouldn't be feasible with people crowding around to wish the newly married couple and all the noise. I got busy and after some time, looked for him. Not to be denied, he had gathered some family members and friends and was sitting in a corner of the hotel lobby singing his Pankaj Mullick evergreens.

I wish I had let him sing on the stage!

DILIP KUMAR-BIRTH OF THE TRAGEDY KING

Dilip Kumar passed away on 7 July at the age of 98. He was a living legend and the media is full of his obits. But to me, there appears to be a noticeable omission. Not enough has been said about his early big hit of 1948, 'Shaheed', which I believe marked the birth of the 'Tragedy King'. I saw the movie as a nine-year old in Bharatpur and it had such a profound impact on me that I remember it vividly even today, 73 years afterwards. Dilip Kumar played the role of Ram, a young freedom fighter, who defies his father and the authorities to fight for an independent India. In the end, he attains martyrdom and the finale of the movie is his funeral with his body draped in the national flag and the emotional, patriotic song sung in slow tempo by Mohd. Rafi, 'Watan Ki Raah Mein Watan Ke Naujawan Shaheed Hon'. The movie was the biggest grosser of 1948 and the song remains popular to this day. Dilip Kumar's charismatic, tragic role, set him up for being the 'Tragedy King' in future and he would surely have run away with the Best Actor award but for the simple fact that no awards had been instituted upto that time. He followed up with 'Andaz', also a personal favourite of mine, 'Deedar'  and 'Daag' by which time the Filmfare Awards had been institutionalised and he duly won the first Best Actor award for the last named movie in 1954. By this time, he had earned the title of the 'Tragedy King' with many more films like 'Devdas' and 'Mughal-E-Azam' to follow.

Dilip Sahib's body was wrapped up in the tricolour for his funeral. Maybe the authorities remembered 'Shaheed'!

RIP Yusuf Khan a.k.a. Dilip Kumar 'Shaheed'.

A BRIEF SPELL AT ARMY HEADQUARTERS

On arrival in Delhi mid-March 1980, we were put up in a Mess in Delhi Cantt. The next day I proudly put on my new pair of Captain's stripes and reported to Brigadier Arjun Verma, Director Signals Intelligence (DSI) in Army HQ. This was the fifth time I was joining an inter-service organisation, at least one in each rank. As a Lieutenant, I had served in the National Defence Academy followed by the National Defence College, as a Lt Cdr attended the Staff College at the DSSC Wellington and then joined the staff there later as a Cdr, and now, as a Captain,  I was in the SI Directorate manned by personnel from the Army, the Navy and the Air Force. The work was interesting with daily afternoon briefings with uptodate inputs from units of the three services. Brig Verma was a fine person to serve under and for colleagues, I was glad to have Lt Col Satyendra Sain, my coursemate and good friend back from the NDA days when we were together as cadets.

On the home front, although the Cantt Mess was good accommodation, it was far off and lonely and soon we shifted to one of the outhouses in Kotah House. I was on the lookout for something better and heard that the government was considering allotting flats in a newly developed colony called Pragati Vihar, just off Lodi Road, to the Defence Services. The Pragati Vihar complex was constructed for a UNDP conference and the fully furnished accommodation consisted of a bedroom with attached bathroom, a living-cum dining room, a kitchen and a balcony. To top it all, the complex was readied only after the conference was over and so the first allottees would walk into a maiden apartment with brand new furniture!

I was hooked on to the idea of moving in there and traced the file in the Ministry of Works and Housing. To expedite matters, I personally took the file from official to official until the final approval and handed it over to the Central Administrative Officer who was responsible for allotting the apartments. Thus I became the first defence services officer to be allotted and move to an apartment in Pragati Vihar.

It was worth the effort and we spent a very comfortable and happy ten months there before we were allotted our proper entitled accommodation. My favourite spot was the balcony from where we watched the coming up of the Nehru Stadium being built for the 1982 Asiad Games. In those pre-TV days, the balcony provided a sound place to listen to the radio and I remember sitting late into the night following the epic Wimbledon '80 final between Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe which the former won after a 5-set see-saw battle..

Ruchir was able to get admission in the nearby Delhi Public School, Mathura Road, and Shumita in the Naval Public School, Chanakyapuri, both close to Pragati Vihar, and life settled into a comfortable routine. 

One aspect of my appointment was the satisfaction of 'the happy wanderer' spirit in me by extensive touring of North India. But for that, this salty seadog would never have been able to see exotic places like Dalhousie, Kud, Patnitop and Dharamshala, home to the Dalai Lama.

I was in fact looking forward to see a lot more of India when my plans were aborted by an early and unexpected end to my tenure as DDSI in less than a year. I received transfer orders to move as Director Naval Signals (DNS), Naval HQ. Cmde L Ramdas, then DNS, was being promoted to Rear Admiral and a replacement was needed. DNS was a senior appointment generally for Commodores and there were many senior Communicators who could be considered whereas I was just a junior acting Captain. In due course of time, I learnt the background story behind my appointment. The Personnel Directorate put up the name of a Commodore which was not acceptable to the CNS, Admiral Ronnie Pereira. Hoping to get their man accepted, the Chief of Personnel told the CNS that no suitable person was available and if they had to nominate someone else, they would have to dig deep down to Ravi Sharma. Ronnie P, who knew me well as I had been his Fleet Communication Officer when he commanded the Eastern Fleet, said fine, go get him! And so I moved to become the juniormost Director in the NHQ.