A special jazz and blues festival is planned for the Pujas at MusicWorld

This festive season brings cheerful strains for jazz and blues aficionados in town. MusicWorld, which pioneered large-format music retailing in Calcutta five years ago, is planning a fortnight-long festival of jazz, blues and western classical music at its Park Street mother store.

The focus will squarely be on these genres during the festival scheduled to begin in the second week of October. ?We are placing special import orders to beef up our rack repertoire and add some extra zing to the Puja celebrations,? the new regional manager-east, Music World Entertainment Limited, Chetan Arora, tells Metro.

The special jazz and blues import catalogue of EMI Virgin has been scanned and orders for a consignment placed. The international label has artistes like Miles Davis, Stan Getz and Duke Ellington under its fold. Import orders have also gone out to Universal, which owns the high-profile Verve label boasting names like Louis Armstrong, Mahalia Jackson and Billy Holiday.

?We are also getting a fair share of western classical stocks through Decca (part of the Universal stable), BMG (which has merged with Sony) and other labels. We know Calcutta has a special yen for classical, just like jazz and blues, and the effort is to create an ambience of excitement that would go with the carnival mood,? adds Arora.

There will be more than 1,500 titles in these categories on display during the festival, supported by danglers, posters and tabletops, as the Park Street store sets about shoring up its strength across genres. ?True, regional music remains our core competence and sharp focus, and there will be the usual rush of Puja releases of Bengali music, both contemporary and traditional. At the same time, we would like to cater to all kinds of music buffs and there shouldn?t be a marked deficiency in any category,? the regional manager says.

The ongoing VCD-DVD Mela has also elicited good response, the management maintains. Nearly 5,000 titles are on display, across regional, Hindi, Hollywood and concert videos. Discount coupons with CESC bills and a tie-up with Hyundai for a slogan contest and prizes like plasma TV and DVD player have contributed to the footfall fever.

Genre-specific fests would continue, says Arora. In December, there are plans to do a gospel spread to go with the Yuletide spirit, with special import consignments from the US and Australia expected. A Punjabi music carnival is set to follow in mid-January, with both Gurbani (devotional) and popular folk and bhangra titles on display.

The MusicWorld management is also keen to take some load off the mother store and spread its operations along other flanks. ?We are opening a 500-sq-ft Express store in the upcoming Gariahat Mall. Hunt for properties is on for three or four other stores of similar format,? Arora says.

Subhro Saha

Wonder years

He has over 20 years of journalism behind him. But his career as a writer of fiction is just one book old. ?And I?m very conscious of the fact that I?m a first-time novelist,? states Sudeep Chakravarti.

He has just published Tin Fish, ?an exhilarating ride through the wonder years of coming of age? (as the jacket reads) for a group of boys in an elite boarding school in Rajasthan.

?But it?s not a boarding school romp,? asserts Chakravarti. And neither is it a book only about Mayo College in Ajmer, where the story is largely based. ?That would be indulgent, and fit only for a Mayo newsletter,? he feels.

Instead, Tin Fish is about the 70s ? a ?very interesting decade? for India. ?I looked around and there was the Naxalite movement, Indira Gandhi and the Emergency, the first instance of a coalition government, a urine-drinking prime minister in Morarji Desai? and I was stunned,? Chakravarti recalls.

The idea of the book had come to him six years ago but it was only last year that he got down to writing it. ?I had this story to tell of a certain time and place but it was somehow never the right time.? Yet, the first draft with 70,000-odd words took only six weeks to pen.

The original title, suggested by Chakravarti, was shot down by the publishers. ?One of my characters says ?saaley, angrez ki aulaad?. I had then thought a literal translation, ?shitty sons of Englishmen? was very apt. But now I cringe a little when I think about that.? Instead, it was Tin Fish that got the nod. ?My mother would never say ?canned fish? or ?tinned fish?? it was always ?tin fish?. And that stuck.?

Chakravarti is also close to finishing his second novel, which is based in Goa (where he currently resides) and is ?more grown-up? than Tin Fish. He has plans to write a third, soon. ?The dam broke with Tin Fish and my hesitation with writing fiction went away,? he says.

His connection with Calcutta is through the few years as a student in South Point and a trip he makes to the city annually. ?But Calcutta is in my head, always.?

After over a decade in Delhi as a journalist, cooling his heels in Goa is a welcome change for the author, his wife and daughter. ?We live on this hill and when we see sunrise, my daughter says ?papa, what a beautiful day?. What else can one want?? he smiles.

Subhajit Banerjee

Latest lehnga look: Rachana goes glam

Tollywood actress Rachana Banerjee flaunts a bridal ensemble by designer Chandrani Singh Flora. The Italian crepe lehnga embellished with intricate threadwork, sequins gotah and mirrorwork has been paired with a brocade corset in red and blue. ?Usually women go for cholis with lehngas, but I wanted to give Rachana a very different and glamorous look, so I teamed it with a corset. In fact, corsets are catching on these days, and many of my NRI clients want to wear them with lehngas,? says Chandrani. Picture by Pabitra Das