Musician & Composer: January 2012

Thursday 26 January 2012

Shaharpara

In 1981 in an inspiring meeting with Bangladeshi artists in London which is one of the most diverse and cosmopolitan
city, in the World. Runa Laila, Goni Sorkar, Abdul Jabbar, Indo Mohan Rajbanshi, Sadeque Ali the Tabla player who is one of the sons of late Ustad Mubarak Ali, late Shefali Ghosh, Fatema Johora, Fakir Alamgir, Baby Naznin and featuring many more artists via the famous promoters late Md Turab Uddin and Md Aroj Ali the great inspirational showcase in the 80s.

My first job at a clothing factory as an apprentice in 1981 under the famous promoter Aroj Ali's management and later in the year I became a sewing machinist and started earning more money than before about two hundred pounds a week. I used to work overtime- hence made me earn more money but I also enjoyed the work!

Later in the year 1983, he sold the factory to two Greek men who were also the brothers Mr Andrew & Mr Peter and their company name was a Dorin of London Ltd, and I was working for them. Since doing that job which paid off my food, shelter and continued with music training, buying and replacing instruments
as well as teachers payment until (1990).

The factory had a tradition of playing National Radio and special records of Indian as well as Bangladeshi and Greek music every day, this directed me to fusion music.

My elder maternal cousin Yousuf Bhaiya was involved in a local drama group before my arrival and they also did a few stage shows around London and Birmingham.

Sometimes he has stored musical instruments in the house of number 39 which is also on Princelet Street, which encourages me to play the musical instrument especially the Dhol, but when they are not at home. Also, I was the captain of the Royal Bengal football team from the beginning of (1978-1981).

We played in Birmingham with a Pakistani team in (1980), arranged by Mr, John Newbigin OBE, who was a renowned youth worker. He drove us with the minibus to Birmingham with Caroline Adams
and played the songs of Qurbani Indian film on a portable tape recorder.

John Newbigin is the chair of Creative England- a national agency that invests and supports creative ideas, talent and business in film, TV, games and digital media.

As well as a cultural entrepreneur and writer, John Newbigin also happens to be the Chairman of the cultural web publisher of both Culture24 and Cinema Arts Network. Also, he is on the boards of the Battersea Arts Centre. First Light and the British council's advisory board for Arts and Creative Economy.

Furthermore, MR. Newbigin was closely involved in the UK government's first policies for the creative industries since he was Special Advisor to the Minister of Culture. John's career sky-rocketed after becoming head of Corporate Relations for Channel 4 Television and executive assistant to Lord David Terence Puttnam Being the policy advisor to the Leader of the UK Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition, he had the duty for environmental/cultural issues (and amongst others of course).

For 6 years, John Newbigin was a youth worker in East London as well as a writer-in-residence for Common Stock Theatre.

His late friend Caroline Adams (who was a renowned author, youth worker, cultural activist and co-producer of Hason Raja) with both of their guidance, we won the game by 2-1 us. Our manager, Amalendu, cooked his beautiful mutton chop which we ate in Birmingham and celebrate the victory. We used to practise playing football at Buxton Street park without the use of a goal post instead, we used our coats as a goal post. John & Caroline provided us with a small bamboo sized mobile aluminium extendable goal post. Caroline Adams loved us like her own children.

I still remembered the time into the beginning of 1978 in East London I sat on someone's lap who wasn't my mother, and that person was Caroline Adams. After graduating in politics from the University of Kent, she went to Calcutta, where she became a volunteer in the Cathedral Relief Service and was involved in the care of refugees during the war which led to the recreation of Bangladesh in 1971. She set up play facilities for the children, and, after the conflict, visited many of the families she had met in their newly independent country.

She was a very close friend of Ms, Valentine Harding whom I accompanied with Tabla at the Goldsmiths University of London for her PhD in music. Ms, Valentine Harding was a nurse during the Bangladesh Liberation War. The Women's Profile - CLYD. The Legacy of women's contribution in 1971

Amalendu Chakraborty was my schoolmate and a best friend from Calcutta. He became the team manager 1978-1981, players at that time were Sundor Miah, Yeor Ali, Muhib Rahman, Ana Miah(1), Ana Miah(2), Abdul Shubahan, Debu Chakraborty, Abdul Kadir(1), Abdul Kadir (2) Abdul Korim, Shahar Ali and many more 1978-19781. In 1982-1985 I joined the organisation called Overseas Youth Organisation OYO once again. Amalendu Chakraborty became the manager and I was the captain with the local anti-racist group namely Aroj Ali, Motin Bhai, Islam Bhai, Amir Ali, Sunahwar Ali and half of our ROYAL BENGAL team and also many more students of Robert Montefiore Secondary School.

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His flat in Scott Street (off Brady Street opposite of the Cemetery Codington House) was an extra congregational place for us. Regular meetings were at Amalendu Chakraborty and his younger brother Debu or Dev Chakraborty's room in Arthur Deakin House on Hunton Street, Chicksand House, Monthope Road and Rickman House. Amir Hussain Bhai went on a vacation to Bangladesh and got married. He stayed for a long period of time where Aroj Bhai used to live in his flat on the top floor of Celia Blairman House Folgate Street off Commercial Street where was the regular meeting took place as well as for our group gathering.

In 1985-1986 our friends formed a team which was called Aldgate United and hired the team course (trainer) from the local professional league, which was cost us twenty-six pounds per hour for two hours of practice every Sunday in Weavers Field off Bethnal Green Road.

Again from 1986 to the beginning of 1990, a local organisation in Shoreditch is called Weavers Youth Forum (WYF) 232 Brick Lane E2 7EB, United Kingdom, where I have been joined with the whole team and built a new team, again and I was also designated as a captain of the team, and later became an executive member and then finally I was the director as well as Vice-Chairman of the Organisation.
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Tilak Shaharpara

Tilak, also spelt Tilok is a historical Hinducised village the name received from Tilaka is generally made on the forehead or there is another meaning of Tilak (the tilak-mark of kings).

By rising up on her lap and listening to their music at every sunrise as well as the sunset and also special ceremonies on other occasions, they simply use their musical instruments and harmonic voices to serve their purposes.

During the Bangladesh Liberation War on (31st August 1971) Mass Killings in Sriramshi (village) where the rotting corpses were floating around the Duwalabone or Dowalabon or Daulahbone (paddy field of Prince) that lies on the north-west part of Shaharpara. It smells beyond the description of words. After the Independence of Bangladesh, the paddy field was full of ripened rice and harvesting was taking place everywhere around the village.

Especially in my house's verandah and the courtyards were full of rice crops from Buraya. The paddy field lies on the Southern part of Shaharpara. At night, the harvesters are busy doing threshing, separating the stalks and sorting out the grains as well as they tell a fascinating story by singing songs without musical instruments.

In the year (1973) on the way after the prayer of Maghrib (just after sunset) with my Babasab (Dad), I asked him why the Hindu people play musical instruments during our prayers, and he replied they are doing their prayers too.

"Three modest men story was told by my dad”

An encounter between three modest men at the mouth of a three-way dirt track. They asked each other their destination. All three of the answers were for work and a better future.

They saw a tree in the distance after walking a long way under the hot sun. They decided to rest in its shade. At rest, they ate some food and fell into a deep sleep.

The first man woke up and saw a twig on the ground. He started curving the branch and created a beautiful female sculpture and placed the sculpture under the tree with his name on it.

Then the second man woke up and saw a sculpture of a beautiful female figure, he started to make a dress for the statue out of leaves and left the sculpture under the tree with his name on its dress.

Then the third man woke up and saw a beautiful figure dressed in beautiful clothes. He started making jewellery from tree bark and placed the sculpture under the tree with his name on it. Finally, the sculpture of the beautiful female statue was fully decorated and embellished, and the artists placed it under the tree and disappeared.

This story tells me to judge or recognise people by their deeds or actions, not by their faces. Knowledge never ends and hope never ends; therefore, creativity never ends in the lifetime of a man or a person, just as a true artist or true man never dies, they remain in history without reinventing themselves.

The first man was a sculptor who made a living by carving sculptures.

The second person was a dress designer who made a living by making a dress.

The third person was a goldsmith who made a living from making jewellery.

Those who were self-deprecating were confident in their work and their abilities!
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Wednesday 25 January 2012

Dilly Meah

I arrived at Heathrow Airport and landed in the dreamland of Yorkshire, England, for a beautiful future and a better life. In 1976 it was the hottest summer of the year in the UK almost like Bangladesh. Later at the end of December 1976 or at the beginning of January 1977, I moved to London the largest historic and oldest city in the World, to join my maternal cousins Faruk Ali and Yousuf Ali in an upstairs flat at 39 Princelet St. East London flourished through the rag trade of Jewish-controlled clothiers and tanneries, which were later adopted by the people of Sylhet as they worked hard and long hours in the textile industry. The Asian people walking alone in East London were an easy target for the racist attacker so the Asiatic people had to make a group and then walk to the bus stop and underground train station. Racist attacks on Brick Lane were regular, especially at the Sunday market. The Eastern teddy boys group gathered in Sunday market to vandalise the front of an Asian shop and Sylheti grocery store in Brick Lane, breaking glass bottles of alcohol and throwing pebbles through the windows of Asian houses in Cheshire Street, Sclater St, Hanbury St, Princelet St. Where some of the vigilante groups of Sylheti/Bengali youngsters fought back, such as Noor Miah from Shaharpara, Reyasat Ullah aka Faruk Bhai from Bishwanath Upazila and Azad Bhai from Balaganj Upazila now Osmani Nagar Upazila were renowned to the local Bengali community for defending the victims from the racist attacks.

And every Sunday Bangladeshi people and even white and BME (black and minority ethnic) activists from all around London came to gather in Brick Lane's Indian, Pakistani, Sylheti, Bengali and Bangladeshi cafes to protest against the racism and sometimes fought back against the attacker (who was known to be a skinhead) alongside the community's brave youth and adults. The original skinhead subculture started in the late 1960s and had heavy British mod and Jamaican rude boy influence-including an appreciation for the black music genres ska, soul music and early reggae.

The identity of skinheads in the 60s was neither based on white power nor neo-fascism, but some skinheads (including black skinheads) had engaged in "gay-bashing", "hippie-bashing" and/or "Paki-bashing" (violence against Pakistanis and other Asian immigrants).

Vigilance groups were formed before the racist killing of Aftab Ali, but it was not heard by many, and some people were against this vigilance group as it could make things worse. Those youngsters were Noor Miah of Shaharpara of Jagannathpur, Reyasat Ullah commonly known as Faruk also spelt Farooq Miah of Bishwanath, Azad Miah of Balaganj presently Osmani Nagar and many others from Greater Sylhet. Many times, Noor Bhai was stabbed by racists and Farooq Bhai, but it did not stop them from helping their Bengali friends.

The assassination of Altab Ali on the 4th of May 1978, united Bengalis and united the voice of the war against apartheid. Many Bengalis were killed and maimed by racists' knives before Altab Ali, but Altab Ali's killing became a trumpet call that was hard to ignore. Hence, Altab Ali's name is an important one for the Bangladeshi diaspora Altab Park is the only park in London named after a Bengali. Formerly known as St Mary's Park, it is the site of the old 14th-century white church, St Mary Matfelon, from which the area of Whitechapel derives its name.

The Shaheed Minar "Martyr Monument" was erected in the southwest corner of Altab Ali Park to commemorate the Bengali Language Movement demonstrations of 1952 in back then, East Pakistan. We always used to come to Brick Lane after work especially Cafe Nirala, Sweet and Spices, Sweet Mart, Sonar Bangla Cafe, and Nazrul Restaurant and would wait there for friends or other Bengalis. Because we were unsafe from racist attackers, we had to gather many people before going to the underground station or bus stop.

Every Sunday Bangladeshi people and even white and BME (Black and Minority Ethnic) workers from all over London would come and gather at the Pakistani Cafe and the Bangladeshi Cafe on Brick Lane. When activists heard the skinheads heading past the Brick Lane traffic lights towards Whitechapel Road, they smashed Bengali shop windows and house windows with pebbles, beer glass bottles and sticks. Agitators quickly mobilised to protest and were sometimes beaten by skinheads. It was a regular Sunday routine for skinheads.

The Whitechapel district, along with the surrounding districts of Spital Fields and Stepney, was home to Bengali immigrants who lived together as much as possible (basically lived in cramped conditions) This was to save money to send back home and keep us safe from racist attackers in Tower Hamlets. Many of the dilapidated leather manufacturers and clothing shell-making factories in Spitalfields had small damp rooms with broken windows and frames and these holes were sealed with cloth and hardboard in Bengali-owned rented factories. Working in the winter season was especially chilly in the early morning. Every morning on the way to work we passed through a horrific situation where 'Paki' was heard, we were verbally abused, spat on, slapped, and kicked by racists.

It's hard to find a person living in the 80s without being insulted by racists in Tower Hamlet, even professionals like doctors and lawyers. We've all been insulted by racists at least once. Now the situation is changing we are living happily in the UK. Our children are doing well in school and college. Some work in a modern office building in what is called a white-collar job. Along with the fried chicken shops, the curry house business also became quite popular across the UK. Bengalis have made some contributions to Britain's Apparel Industry. I would like to thank the activists, the media, and the UK government for their hard work to eradicate racism in this area.

And then I moved to opposite the newly built flat 1/48 Princelet Street at the heartland of Brick Lane also later known as (Banglatown) which is famous for its restaurant and multicultural musical expression as well as culturally diverse vibrant surrounding areas.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Baishakhi_Mela_2009_2.jpg

Learning the Tabla, as well as singing one-to-one and workshops under the guidance and love of many known and unknown students musicians teachers as well as internationally renowned maestros and also a devotional inspiration from Mother Nature (Kudarat) imminence veneration of its beauty and power.

It was the generosity of my maternal cousin brother Yousuf Ali bhaiya's act that made me a founder of the organisation and he had also paid my membership fees. I had my own flat on the 18th Dec 1989 by the local Housing Association which initially called Co-operative and was established by the Sylheti Bengali Shaharparian man named Fakruddin Ahmed. There is also a street called Fakruddin Street, London, E1 5BU, in honour of his name, and also there were many more local Sylheti people (Sylheti Zaati) who were involved in creating the housing association which was called Co-operative. Later their association name has been changed into Spitalfields Housing Association Ltd.

Flat 1/48 Princelet Street, where I lived and set-up a voluntary, community Jalali Music School also commonly known as Jalali from the end of (1989-2000) and the project was founded by myself and now some of the pupils are renowned to the music industry of Bangladesh. The teacher such as late Kondukar Emdadul Hoque Manna as well as my mentor, who was a ''Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra'' radio program producer /composer/singer/ teacher and was trained under the maestro Shyamal Mitra) and also was a freedom fighter of Bangladesh and the music teacher at Stewart Headlam school in East London.

Ustad Fida Hussain Khan accompaniment with the Ustad Alla Rakha Khan or Ustad Allarakha Qureshi of Punjab Gharana (29 April 1919-3 February 2000) popularly known as Alla Rakha for twenty-four years he plays the Lehra on the Harmonium (solo performance for the Tabla and dance) and Nagma (melody) in various Taal (rhythm). Maestro Deboo Chowdhury the Tabla master (trained under the legendary Tabla Maestro Pandit Radhakanta Nandi of Benares Gharana), and also I was included as a pupil of that Gharana (school) of Benares.
http://dillymeah.blogspot.co.uk/2012/0dillys-works.html
http://dillymeah.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/dillys-family-legacy.html

Wikipedia

Thursday 26 January 2012

Shaharpara

Tilak Shaharpara

Wednesday 25 January 2012

Dilly Meah