THE CHARMING DEMIS ROUSSOS

 

The other day, Ruchir sent me a video of Harry Styles performing in a concert. Ignorant as I am of the present music scene, the only Harry I know is in association with Tom and Dick while the last time I came across ‘Styles’ was in Agatha Christie’s first novel, “The Mysterious Affair At Styles” which I read 70 years ago, also my first read of that brilliant author of detective stories. The two nouns put together, Harry Styles, were totally Greek to me.

So I asked Ruchir who updated my knowledge of music by telling me that Harry Styles was perhaps the most popular singer of today and Ruchir had just attended an entertraining concert of Styles’ at Madison Square Garden, New York.

As is my wont, I returned to my own dream world and remembered a genuine Greek singer and not just as a figure of speech, Demis Roussos, one of my top favourites who I often listen to and watch videos of till date.

I hadn’t heard of him till I saw the movie, “Sholay”, and loved the song and dance scene of “Mehbooba Mehbooba”. Someone told me that the song was a copy of a number by a singer called Demis Roussos.  Indeed, recently I read that the Director of “Sholay”, Ramesh Sippy, confessed in an interview that when he and his wife attended a concert by Roussos in London, Mrs Sippy was so smitten by the song “Say You Love Me”, that she told her husband to incorporate it in his movie and he, like a good husband, obliged.

And so I got to learn of Demis Roussos and on listening to his songs, developed an instant liking for him. While his songs fell in folk pop and rock music category, he had a unique voice which was a bit feminine but smooth and appealing. His lyrics, though romantic and emotional, were optimistic and positive and the pace of music quick and flowing. The songs were often of separation and longing but not of heartbreaks and tears. His videos on TV show that he was well-built, bearded and handsome, usually dressed in an elegant kaftan. Wearing a smile, he projected a charming and likeable image, urging his audience to sing along and have a good time.

He was at his best in the 1970s though his popularity was undiminished till his passing away in 2015 at the age of 68. His solo career began with “We Shall Dance” which reached the top 10 in 1971 while “Forever And Forever” was his first number one on the charts in 1973, followed by many others. 

On to 6 of my top favourites and their heartwarming lyrics. Appropriately, we begin with his first hit, “We Shall Dance”, a song of blossoming love looking into the future:

“We shall dance, we shall sing, my dear love, oh, my spring, 

My love, good days will come….

We shall dance, we shall stay, with the children at play,

Lord, I swear when the time comes, we’ll pray.”

Love blooms and reaches a high in “Forever And Ever”:

“Ever and ever, forever and ever you’ll be the one,

That shines on me like the morning sun,

Ever and ever, forever and ever you’ll be my spring

My rainbow’s end and the song I sing.

You’ll be my dream, my symphony, my own lover’s theme,

Ever and ever, forever and ever my destiny will follow you eternally.”

“My Only Fascination” has a similar theme:

“You’re my only fascination, my sweet inspiration, everything I hope would be,

You’re the dawn that rises for me, my summer wind from the sea.

You’re my only fascination, my sweet inspiration, you’re my tender harmony,

If it rains it’s music I hear, only because you are near.”

“Lovely Lady Of Arcadia” has a touch of sadness as the singer had to depart. He misses his love’s kiss and smile and says that he is living to come back to her once more:

“Lovely lady of Arcadia, promise you will wait for me

In your arms I found my Shangrila

And it’s where I long to be, lost in love eternally.”

One of his greatest hits was “My Friend The Wind” which has distinctive lyrics with Greek words in the refrain leaving people to guess at their meaning. The words are ‘Helenimou’, 'Aghapimou’ and ‘Manoulamou’. ‘Heleni’ is a girl's a name, ‘aghapi,’ love, ‘manoula’, one’s loving female, and ‘mou’ meaning my. The theme is that the wind coming from and returning to the hills would convey the lovers’ messages to and fro. The video of Roussos singing on the hill in Athens with the Acropolis in the background and the wind blowing gently is delightful:

“My friend the wind will come from the north,

With words of love, she whispered for me….

My friend the wind go back to the hills,

And tell my love a day will soon come,

Oh friendly wind you tell a secret

You know so well, oh you know so well.” 

The refrain of the song is repeated in ever accelerating pace as in ‘Zorba The Greek’, exhorting people to dance the Sirtaki”.

“I’ll hear her voice and the words that he brings from Helenimou,

Sweet as a kiss are the songs of Aghapimou,

Soft as the dew is the touch of Manoulamou, oh oh oh.”

Our final number, “Goodbye, My Love Goodbye” sung in a hopefully temporary farewell to the loved one, is, for me, Roussos’ best song. The lyrics are extremely touching:

“Goodbye my love, goodbye, goodbye and au revoir,

As long as you remember me I’ll never be too far.

Goodbye my love, goodbye, I always will be true,

So hold me in your arms ‘til I come back to you.”

Can you ever forget a singer and a song like this!

 

MEMORIES ARE MADE OF THIS....

It's that time of the year when dormant memories rise. Glossing over the product of 7 and 12, the numbers are special to me as the significant period of my growing up.

Shifting from Muttra (Mathura) to Bharatpur, we, Pitaji, Mataji (my Nana and Nani) and I, moved in a house called Balbir Bhavan. Pitaji was settling down in a new appointment as a High Court Judge under the eccentric Maharaja. Pitaji was honest and sincere to the core and sometimes undue pressures made him worry if he could survive in the job. There were other factors such as keeping the Maharaja happy in the Club with Tennis and other activities. Then the Maharaja decided to declare Tuesday as holiday instead of Sunday. That too irked Pitaji as Sunday was the day for the weekly visit of a barber for haircut and shave followed by shampoo which Pitaji was not comfortable with on Tuesday, being a holy day. Somehow, he survived all that.

One day, Pitaji wanted me to have a haircut which I resisted. Pitaji gave me a very light slap which did not hurt at all but the rebuke stung as that was the only time he raised his hand at me.

In summer, we used to sleep in the balcony. Lying in bed, Pitaji would ask me to recount the lessons I had learnt in the day. I would start speaking and stop when I heard Pitaji snore. But the moment I did so, he would wake up with a start and ask why I had stopped.

Some other tidbits I recall. Shashi Mama on vacation catching high fever and fed up with being given just milk all the time, shouting, "Doodh Maharaj ki jai!"; my mixing Dalmoth with milk and horrifying a visitor; touching the fuse box with two fingers and getting flung off the staircase I was standing on; taking a paan for Chachaji, my great-grandfather, who did not want it and eating it myself not knowing it contained tobacco!

We lived in Balbir Bhavan for less than a year before moving to what was known as 'Control House' as it was an Excise Control Office before being allotted to Pitaji. It was fairly large with rooms all around an 'aangan' which became my favourite place in the house. By then, I had started following Cricket and being by myself most of the time, devised a way to play the game alone by bouncing a Tennis or rubber ball off the facing wall and batting on the rebound. 

Newspapers were the only way to read about Cricket and that's how I followed the progress of the Indian team led by Nawab of Pataudi Senior on the tour of England in 1946. I became familiar with the names of stalwarts such as Vijay Merchant, Mushtaq Ali, Lala Amarnath, Vinoo Mankad and Gul Mohammad but my top favourite was Vijay Hazare. I was thrilled to read about him and Gul Mohammad strike a record partnership of 577 runs for Baroda in the Ranji Trophy final of 1946-47 against Holkar. Mohammad scored 319 while Hazare made 288.

In the winter of 1947-48, the Indian team toured Australia which at that time was unbeatable with legends such as Don Bradman, Lindsay Hassett, Ray Lindwall and Keith Miller. The Indian team was thrashed 4-0 in the 5 match series but in the 4th test at Adelaide, Vijay Hazare made 116 and 145 becoming the first Indian cricketer to score a century in both innings of a test.

In 1948, Pitaji, Mataji and I went to Delhi and I witnessed my first test match with India playing West Indies at the Ferozeshah Kotla ground. West Indies rattled up a huge score with Clyde Walcott, Gerry Gomez, Everton Weekes and Robert Christiani scoring centuries but India managed a draw thanks to Hemu Adhikari scoring an unbeaten century and 50-plus knocks from KC Ibrahim, Rusi Mody and Lala Amarnath. Following on, Adhikari remained unbeaten in the second innings too and helped draw the match.

A troublesome fact about the 'aangan' was that it was home to many yellow wasps (tattaiyas) which stung me quite often. Then someone told me to avoid any movement if a wasp came close. One day, a wasp alighted on my arm. I just froze which was difficult as I could see and feel the creature crawling on my skin. But I held my nerve and soon the wasp flew off harmlessly. Funny enough, no wasp has targeted me after that!

In those days, I often suffered from malaria which made me very weak. Our family doctor advised that I should eat eggs. Now ours was a strictly vegetarian house where even onion and garlic were taboo. But Mataji cast away all religious and emotional reservations and put an 'angeethi' and required utensils aside in the verandah where she would boil two eggs and make me eat them every day.

Since most of the time I was alone, I invented company and had imaginary friends Pip, Peep, John and Beau, supposedly studying with me at New Zealand's Wellington University. I very much missed Mummy, who was studying at Allahabad, and used to count the days till she came home on vacations. Ditto for my Mamas. Vinnie Mama was adept at drawing cartoons and one I remember well was of his bedding, which he had forgotten in the compartment while changing trains, searching high and low for him.

Vinnie Mama was awaited anxiously for another reason: he always came with a collection of the latest Pankaj Mullick 78 rpm records which I was very fond of.

On Ganesh Chaturthi in 1945, my formal schooling started. Actually, an effort was made to put me in a school earlier but soon after joining, some friends persuaded me to bunk and go out and play with them.When someone came to pick me up, I was missing and it took a long time before I was found. That got me a sound thrashing from Mataji and Mummy and I was taken off school! Luckily, the school shifted very near the Control House and I was allowed to rejoin. 

I was a fairly good student and one memory I have is that of doing well in a Maths exam in Class V and coming home singing Pankaj Mullick's 'Aaj apni mehnaton ka mujhko samra mil gaya.'

Meanwhile, history was in the making. Independence was declared on 15 August 1947 amidst communal riots and tanks rolling in to quell any doubts in the Maharaja's mind about joining the Indian Union. Returning from school one day, I saw a dangerous bunch of people with spears coming my way. Frightened, I hid behind some bushes till they went past. Later I wondered what would have happened if they had seen me; I had no way of identifying myself as either a Hindu or a Muslim!

And then came Mahatma Gandhi's assassination. Mummy by then had finished her Masters degree and was teaching in a girls' school in Bharatpur. She had gone to a friend's house and heard the news on radio. I remember her frightened and shocked look when she returned home and told us about it.

On the lighter side, I was old enough to see movies and Mummy, who was fond of them, used to take me along. One of the earliest I recall was "Hunterwali Ki Beti" the main character of which had the screen name 'Fearless Nadia'. She was an Australian born actress who had moved to India with her Scottish father. Unbelievably, in an era totally dominated by males, she played a woman who would singlehandedly fight a large number of men. Nadia herself performed dangerous stunts like jumping from a roof and landing on both feet with a scornful laugh!  

Another memorable movie was "Anmol Ghadi" featuring Suraiya, Noor Jehan and Surendra. It was packed with 12 hit songs including Shamshad Begum's 'Udan Khatole Pe Ud Jaoon, Tere Haath Na Aoon' and one of my favourite 'bachpan' songs, Noor Jehan's 'Mere Bachpan Ke Saathi Mujhe Bhool Na Jana'.

'Bachpan' was a popular genre those days. There were many unforgettable numbers such as Shamshad and Lata's 'Bachpan Ke Din Bhula Na Dena' and Lata's solo 'Bachpan Ki Muhabbat Ko Dil Se Na Juda Karna' to go along with the older Pankaj Mullick and Pahari Sanyal's 'Kahan Woh Bachpan Ka Pyara Sapna' and Hemant Kumar's 'Bhala Tha Kitna Apna Bachpan'.

In the final year in Bharatpur, we moved into a new house called "Dev Kutir". Vinnie Mama had joined the Navy and came home on leave full of naval stories and his photos in smart, white uniform. I promptly dressed in whites, shirt, shorts, stockings, shoes and all, and put on his cap and Sub Lieut's epaulettes on my shoulders and got myself photographed. The photo was securely affixed in an album but sadly, I can't trace it now. Anyway, the seed of an idea of becoming a naval officer had been sowed resulting in my joining the NDA 6 years later. 

The summer of 1949 was extremely hot. Shashi Mama was on vacation getting bored confined to the house the whole day. At the end of the day, he would unfailingly shout out his one-liner, "Garaz Ke Kaat Diya Zindagi Ka Din Ek Aur." Mummy decided to escape the heat by taking me to visit Mansiji in Dehra Dun where Masarji was commanding the 5th Gurkha Regiment. Along with their family, we visited Mussoorie where I insisted on going to a skating rink with Mummy saying no. I set off on my own and got separated from Mummy which led to some anxious moments for all before we were reunited.

On return to Dehra Dun, we got the sad news of my grand uncle, Rameshwar Nathji's sudden passing away at the age of just 50 and Mummy and I caught the first available train to Alwar. He was the last male elder from my father's side and we used to visit him a lot. The fact that his wife was Mataji's elder sister was another reason for our frequent visits. Once, Mataji took me to Alwar to try and escape a mumps infection rampant among my schoolmates but by the time we reached Alwar, I was already down with the illness. A Hakim was called who used to paint my cheeks and throat with some black paste. I recovered without much pain within three days whereas I had seen my friends suffering for weeks in Bharatpur.

A halwai had his shop just outside the house in Alwar and used to make the most delectable and juicy 'imartis' I have ever eaten. Unfortunately, my grand aunt, who had no children of her own, moved to her step daughter's house and my visit to Alwar at the time of grand uncle's demise was the last time I went to that city.

Soon after, Pitaji was appointed Judge in the newly formed Rajasthan High Court and transferred to Udaipur. When moving from Muttra to Bharatpur, I had innocently muttered "Abhi to kahan kahan jayenge, Jaipur Vaipur". At that time, any further move was far from my grandparents' thoughts  and Mataji immediately shut me up with a harsh admonition, "Chup kar, kulachchni baat nahin kehte''. My words were now turning prophetic with the 'Vaipur' part coming true soon to be followed by 'Jaipur'.

I had entered my 12th year and grown out of 'bachpan'.

',  

13 LIVES

Every once in a while, there comes a movie that overwhelms you. "13 Lives" that I saw the other day was the latest to do that to me.

It is based on a real life incident that happened 4 years ago. Most of us would recall following the news on TV of a massive rescue effort launched to rescue 12 members of a Thai junior football team of boys aged 11 to 16 and their 25 year old Assistant Coach, Ekkaphon Chanthawong, trapped in an underground cave in Chiang Rai Province in northern Thailand. After a practice game on 23 June 2018, the 13 lads decided to go to the Thang Luang Nang Non cave to celebrate the birthday of the oldest team member, carrying cakes, eats and drinks. The boys parked their bicycles at the entrance of the cave and went in. When the boys were inside, it started raining heavily and they were trapped, unable to come out. The cave started flooding and the boys were driven further inside. Thereafter, there was no contact with them for almost 2 weeks. The only clue that they were in the cave was their bikes.

When the boys were reported missing, Thai Naval Seal divers rushed to the site but because of the flooding and currents, were unable to make progress inside the cave. Thai government contacted the British Cave Rescue Council which sent expert divers led by John Volanthen and Rick Stanton, key players in planning and carrying out the eventual rescue.

Till 2nd July when Volanthen and Stanton first made contact with the kids, it was not known if the kids were still alive. When found, they were in a calm but disoriented state and asked what date it was. Communication was also difficult as only one of them spoke English. They asked if they could get out straightaway but were told it would take some more time during which they would be supplied with food and essential supplies.

Back to base, the divers pondered over the problem of getting the boys out. Could they be taught basic underwater diving given that a few didn't know even how to swim (like me!), could a new entrance be drilled, could they wait out the monsoon period still expected to last another couple of months? In all cases, the answer was a big no. 

Stanton then got an idea for which they summoned Dr. Harris, an anaesthesist from Australia. The plan was fraught with danger and both Volanthen's and Dr. Harris' initial reaction was that it was crazy. But as Stanton said, "We do nothing, we'll be bringing out dead for sure. But if they die while we're bringing them out, at least we will have tried." The plan along with the risks involved was revealed to the Thai Provincial Governor who took all responsibilty and gave the go-ahead.

Meanwhile, public concern and commiseration for the young lads drove multitudes of people to the site to help in the rescue effort. It was reckoned that around 10000 experts and volunteers from 25 countries played a part in the rescue which finally ended on 10 July. India was also represented with technical experts from Kirloskar Brothers rendering advice on dewatering and pumps.

All this and more is brilliantly portrayed in the movie "13 Lives" directed and produced by the famous Ron Howard who also directed "Apollo 13" (13 a coincidence?!), and won the Oscar for "A Beautiful Mind". Here is a movie the end of which you know but not the complexities which made escape next to impossible. That is what holds you in a vice-like grip throughout the 140 minutes and keeps you riveted to the screen, at one with the trapped boys and the rescuers. You watch with bated breath as the desperate plan unfolds and keep your fingers crossed for it to succeed. The emotions the movie makes you go through are like a roller-coaster ride.

The acting headed by Viggi Mortenson as Rick Stanton, Colin Farrell as John Volanthen and Joel Edgerton as Dr. Richard Harris is natural and realistic, the underwater cinematography by Sayombhu Mukdeeprom super and the screenplay by William Nicholson tells the story like it is with no melodrama. The dialogue is crisp with a caustic sense of humour. For example, one of the divers discussing the rescue simplifies the plan by stating, "Act like delivery boys handling packages."

There is, however, one aspect that I felt deserved much more emphasis in the movie as well as the accounts I have read. The boys were kept hopeful, calm and disciplined for over two weeks with no contact with the outside world and with limited food and water under the supervision of Ekkaphon. How peace and tranquility was maintained was exceptional. There could have been total desperation, pessimism and mental breakdown but the boys were found in good spirits. When asked who would be the first to be evacuated, there was no rush but, not aware of the massive arrangements, a unanimous decision that he should be the one who stayed farthest from the cave as they thought he would have to cycle all the way back to his home.The boys said the assistant coach made them meditate, chant and pray and kept their hopes alive. He really deserved heaps of praise but ironically, there were some who thought he should be held guilty for leading the boys into the cave in the first place. He himself, an illegal immigrant, had pangs of self-guilt and expected to be blamed. However, to his pleasant surprise, the parents and the boys gave him full credit and no case was made out against him. To top it all, he was granted Thai citizenship.

Watch the movie; it's one of a kind.

P.S. Netflix is coming out with a limited series "Thai Cave Rescue" on 22 September. I eagerly await.