BBG at 5 – the story so far and the road ahead

It happened approximately 5 years back. A usual day at office sparked off the idea of starting a FB page to share songs. Songs which I used to hear with so much as a kid and teenager, and I had not heard in recent past. The vision was very simple. Just share songs with friends which probably they also haven’t heard for a long time. There is something about songs that they are sweeter when you listen to them with friends and that was precisely the idea.

 

We grew and grew fast. People had memories with every song and those memories were shared and commented on. Slowly we had people who regularly commented on our posts and lot of us started interacting with each other also. By the end of year we had many more people in the admin team as well a community of music lovers.

 

But we were still a virtual group. In 2011 April, we had our first meetup. Music lovers in Bangalore gathered together and sang for 5-6 hours. It was almost impossible to stop and everyone participated in the event. This event was followed by similar events in other cities. These events helped us to transform ourselves into an offline community also.

 

The next step we took is when we organized a music event for elders at Adhar old age home in Borivili, Mumbai. The happiness we saw on the faces of elders gave us a new direction and motivation. We discovered our moto as an organization – Spreading Happiness via Music. And we continued doing music shows for various causes across the country touching many lives.

 

We have emerged as one of the largest music community on internet and it has become an extended family for us. We enjoy music together and music and purpose is what binds us together. We are fiercely non-commercial and we do things with love. We have also launched a music magazine TheSongPedia which reaches out to over 2 lac music lovers every month.

 

Nothing can be achieved by a single person. It requires a team. Over the years we have grown to a large multi-city family. When we meet, the topics discussed are mostly music and food. A common passion of spreading happiness via music binds all of us. Some of us have grown in our capabilities by organizing such shows, some of us have found happiness and purpose and beyond everything, we have found friends for a lifetime. It will be impossible for me to mention all of them but my heartfelt thanks to the entire team.

 

Just to summarize all our activities

1. We run a FB page  which reaches out to a large number of music lovers - https://www.facebook.com/BhooleBisreGeet. This works as a social radio.

2. We organize gatherings of music lovers where all of us sing and enjoy together in a very informal environment

3. We have done professional shows where we raise money for various organizations

4. We visit various NGOs and fill them with music

5. We visit bed ridden elders and do personal music shows for them

6. We run an online music magazine – TheSongPedia. We are writing lot of interesting content around music on this platform.

 

While past has been a happy one, we have challenges for future also. The love and affection which we receive from each one of you also puts the onus on us to expand our wings to spread happiness to more and more people. We are determined to continue on that path.

 

Few lines which always inspire.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

 

PS: Although first post was on 13th Jun we celebrate 18th Jun as our birthday as that coincides with marriage anniversary of one of our admins.