संगम की यादें

An unplanned life event is preventing me to join the Sangam Hungama.  I am sure there will be a lot of stories that I am going to miss hearing. Many of the memories after four decades still linger in my minds and stir up emotions from time to time.

I arrived at MIT on Labor Day in 1973. On day 4, I was greeted by our dear friend V.V. Bharatiya outside the entrance of my dorm (Ashdown House) and was introduced to Sangam.  The new Sangam Executive took charge soon after and Bharatiya inducted me into his Committee.

Sangam was indeed a very active student organization with multifarious activities. Plenty has been said about screening of movies that was the main activity and it required a great team work. No doubt we fostered very close relationships during the Sangam days. Through Sangam events we interacted with the Greater Boston Indian community.  Sangam organized classical music concerts of top level artistes. I also recall going on a Sangam picnic during the summer.

As a special Sangam activity, we made a proposal for a radio show on WTBS (yes, it was called WTBS before Ted Turner bought the call letters in 1979).  WTBS accepted the proposal and a 3 hour show of Indian music began to air on FM radio. Nalini was our presenter and I did the production.  We started the show with our personal music collections but sometime friends helped.  We occasionally borrowed new LPs from G. Rama Rao and India Tea and Spices located in Belmont. I left Boston in 1976 but the show continued for many years hosted by Nalini.

A NOTE OF GRATITUDE

In just a few days friends will gather once again to relive and reminisce wonderful Sangam days. No doubt I am overcome with emotions. I am so thankful to so many friends for the love I have received from them during my stay at MIT and thereafter. The following a rather amateur effort to express my feelings in a poem.

In my short stay in Cambridge, I enriched myself with precious memories.  Some of them were preserved in photographs.  I consider each person in a photograph to be the rightful owner of that memory.  I have carried this debt for over four decades and now it is time to free myself from this debt. Sangam Hungama has provided the perfect avenue to share the pictures I have. Some have already been shared such as the Ravi Shankar concert of 1976.

Almost all pictures were digitized from 35mm negatives or slides.  I had only a few prints available with me and even those had faded with time. Some of the negatives/slides have deteriorated due to baking in the desert heat of Kuwait for over a year after the Iraqi invasion.  I also lost many pictures when our home was ransacked.  By the way, I have to give full marks to Kodachrome slides and processing by Kodak that have preserved the color and sharpness the best.  I am yet to organize these pictures and will work with the Hungama team to upload them on the wonderful website setup by them.

Finally, through this message, I send my sincerest wishes for a very successful reunion.  I hope the Hungama will reinvigorate the bonds we have among ourselves.  I also hope that the newly created website will provide a medium to share our news in future.

Waris E. Warsi
Houston, Texas
August 2018