September Hoax

It is the last day of September 2020. The heavy downpour still continues, unrelenting. It rained heavily, incessantly all through the month. Lakes and rivers have swelled up to alarming levels. The meteorological experts have predicted more rains throughout the next week. Don’t know what devastation is waiting to wreak its anger on the city which is already reeling from the deadly Covid19.

It brings back memories of fifty years ago when the city faced unusually heavy rains almost reaching the level of floods. It rained incessantly without any respite all through the month. And then, someone decided to play a cruel joke on the hapless citizens. It was 24th of September in the year of 1970, the year I just joined college after finishing higher school.

I was at the general market shopping for new shoes. Those days, I was quite fond of ankle high boots. The kind the cowboys wore in the western movies. It usually needed enough time to hunt around to get what I was looking for. After hours of hopping around footwear shops, I finally found what I was looking for, a tan colored pair of beautiful boots. I was thrilled and quite exhilarated. I loved those boots!

As I was walking home, swinging the shoe package, I suddenly felt a commotion all around. People were hurrying up. They were actually running hither thither as if chased by someone or something. And then a group of men ran screaming “bhaago, Gandipet ka katta toot gaya, bhaago, paani aaraha hai (run, Gandipet bridge has crumbled, run, water is coming)”. It did not make much sense to me. Gandipet Lake was nearly 25 kilometres away from the city. Even if the bridge collapsed, how can it be a threat to the city! As I looked around, I got the answer.

Men in groups were looting shops that were still open or were in the process of closing. They just grabbed whatever they could lay their hands on and ran. They did not even spare the poor street hawkers, selling fruits, toys and general household wares on their push carts. I knew beyond any doubt that what was happening around was a scam, a hoax being played on gullible people. 

The looting men could have been part of the scamsters who created the hoax or they were taking advantage of the confused situation. I couldn’t take it any more of the looks of fear and desperation on the faces of the shopkeepers. They were caught in a helplessness, not knowing whether to run for their lives or to save their shops.

I hurried home wondering what could be the situation at home. As I neared my house, I saw my dad standing outside our house with a worried look on his face. My uncle was standing in front of the house, with his hands on his hips, glaring at no one in particular. When he saw me, he screamed “where have you been, the whole city is in fear, people are drowning and you are roaming around”. 

I have never seen my uncle so angry or heard him talk to me with such anger and rudeness. His eyes were blazing with anger and I could almost feel smoke coming out of his nostrils and ears. I blurted out “I was at the market and I did not see any water. I only saw men looting shops”. That made my uncle more mad. He screamed at me to go inside the house. When you are an elder, anything and everything you say is right! It has to be right! That is life!

As for the chaos and mayhem, when you get possessed by fear, the power of reasoning, education, everything goes out of the window. The scamsters who played the hoax understood that fact. But I wonder if they even expected that the hoax would work or even imagined the magnitude of chaos they would create with their evil scheme. And oh boy, did it work! It was a very successful hoax.

Later I came to know that many people had abandoned their homes after packing whatever personal belongings they could gather and proceeded towards the hills and higher grounds. There were also reports of many houses being burgled. 

I do not know how many people really fell for the scam, but it was one of the most cruel, sad, embarrassing hoaxes ever played on the people of the city of Hyderabad. I want to believe that people have become wiser after that cruel joke. But you can never be sure. People might still be falling for bigger hoaxes, of different kinds, played by master scamsters in the garb of well wishers.

Anyway, it was an unbelievable incident that I happened to witness. That unforgettable incident from my past was brought back to life thanks to an article in one of the local media houses ("paani aaya bhago").

Farewell SPB

It is very rare that greatness and humility come bundled together. I found this rare combination in one of the greatest singers of India, S. P. Balasubrahmanyam (SPB).

As for greatness, it would not do justice for a simple and insignificant person like me to sing praises of this greatly talented, dearly loved singer. The world is witness to his glorious, illustrious singing career.

I grew up listening to some of the male singers from Bollywood, Mohammed Rafi, Mukesh, Talat Mahmood, Manna Dey, Hemanth Kumar and also Ghantasala, Yesudas, T. M. Soundararajan from the south indian movie industry. These singers were the finest, extremely talented and above all, most humble human beings. Between them, these singers gave unforgettable songs to the music lovers. They sang songs of almost every genre, ranging from sad, happy, romantic, soulful, melodious, to classical.

Then came Kishore Kumar in Bollywood and S. P. Balasubrahmanyam in the south. These two added a new dimension to film songs. They added pep and a new kind of energy to the songs that made them quite popular with the masses.

I have enjoyed many of SPB's songs. But my all time favourites are “Shankara…. nada sarira para….” from telugu film “Shankarabharanam” and “Kadhal rojave…” from Tamil film “Roja” and “Mere Rang Mein Rangne Wali….” from hindi film “Maine Pyar Kiya”.

I personally witnessed SPB’s humility when he came to a live musical show in the Middle East many years ago. As SPB was introduced to the hooting and excitedly screaming crowd, he took the stage and after the greetings and other pleasantries, he narrated a personal story from his life. This he did even before he started his singing. That was really the humility and greatness of the man. He paid his respect to someone who inspired him to become a singer.

This is a rough account of the story he narrated. During his college days, when he was studying for engineering, he used to go to the college on his bicycle. One day, as he was passing by a roadside tea shop, he heard a Hindi song playing on the radio. The song had some kind of a mesmerizing effect on him. He stopped the bicycle and started listening to the song. 

As he was listening to the song, his eyes closed and tears started rolling over his cheeks. When the song completed, he was completely overwhelmed by the effect the song had on him. The same thing happened for three continuous days. 

Later, after many days, as he stopped at the tea shop, the tea seller asked him curiously why he was crying while listening to that particular song. SPB simply answered he didn’t know why he cried. The song that had such an impact on him was “Deewana hua badal…..” from the Hindi film “Kashmir Ki Kali” and it was sung by none other than the great Mohammed Rafi. There was a thunderous applause in the amphitheater in response to the humility of the great singer.

As he finished narrating his story, SPB confessed that it was Mohammed Rafi who inspired him to take the path of singing. When he heard that particular song, it fueled up his passion for singing. After that he never looked back. And what an incredible, successful and illustrious musical journey that has been. 

It really takes a lot of guts and humility to praise someone else in front of a huge audience, to give credit to someone else, fanother contemporary singer, for being the inspiration for your success. And I believe that humility, and sincerity brought laurels to this great singer.

Success can easily turn a person into an arrogant egomaniac and a tyrant to other contemporary and junior singers. Bollywood saw the emergence of many new singers, who in a short time achieved popularity. What is sad about some of these singers is the way they showcased their arrogance and hatred in public. 

The ability to sing is a great gift from God and it is supposed to bring all the good human qualities in a singer. On the contrary, it is so appalling to see how hateful, self centered and arrogant some of these musicians turned out to be in recent times. Many of them lost their souls in their unquenchable thirst for power and lucre. They lost all sense of right, humaneness and humility. Worthless people like this may come and go, their music may last for a short period. They and their songs may end up in the trash bin of music history. No one will even remember them or their drab music. 

When it comes to quality of singing and character of integrity, these bunch of self centered riff-raff can in no way match the great singers of yesteryear. The songs of Mohammed Rafi, Mukesh, Talat Mahmood, Manna Dey, Hemanth Kumar and also Ghantasala, Yesudas, T. M. Soundararajan, SPB will be remembered forever. Not just music, these men will also be remembered for their humility and integrity of character.

It is quite sad that S. P. Balasubrahmanyam is no more. The country has lost yet another gem from our midst. But it is heartening that his songs will last forever. May his soul rest in peace!