AAP SA KOI HASEEN

Arabian Nights in Hindi movies were oh so fascinating. With promises of bewitching veiled houris and belly dancing, belly glancing and belly prancing. Opulent sets creating mystique. Gallant bearded men with great physiques. Romance and rubaiyat. Dilruba and dilbar. Mehjabeen and habibi. Parveen Babi in harem pants with slits. Pearl strings caressing her neck. Why fret? Why brood? Why give up restlessness for peace? All's well with the world in Hindi movies. Be Marrakesh or 'Middle East'!  https://youtu.be/BU-A6DKD-kA

TU HAI WAHI DIL NE JISE

Song 104:

So what if he had sung the same song of love with someone else years ago? The singing dancing diva took it in her stride, pondered over it with equanimity. He had a past and that was that. Was his past his true love indeed? Or more a folly of youth that he chose to humour? There was no way to know that.

Yet every love was similar in many ways. Every woman was the same woman, wanting love, security, stability, caring and comfort. So who was the perfect match for him, the soft, simple and borderline 'bhenji-ish' Poonam or the definitely more chic and with-it  but scarred and angst-ridden Tina he met later (from yesterday's version of the song pasted below)? Poonam lacked that certain 'je ne sais qois' but you could see he encouraged her to perform well. She seemed more submissive too while Tina had a spark.

Did both soothe his senses in the same way. Who made his heart race madly? Who cooked warm dinners for him? Who was an honest critic of his work? Who nursed him when he was unwell? Who fought with him over trifles? Who waited anxiously when he was gone? Who went to temples and asked for mannats for him? Who got annoyed if he forgot an important date?

Could one be a substitute for the other? Could the new ever make him forget the old? Or then maybe Poonam and Tina were one and the same. They were the same woman. The way every woman was the same, with the same needs and wants, same quircks and idiosyncracies, same moods and insecurities.  Or maybe Hindi film style, they were plastic surgery ka kamaal, where somehow the pretty but dumbish Poonam evolved into the hot and happening Tina? 




Yesterday's song:

Asha and Kishore were always a riot together. When they sang, it was as if time stood still, it was as if youth and exuberance were caught in abundance and bottled for posterity. Their feelings were spontaneous, their needs urgent, their wants expressed and fulfilled.

Theirs were the songs of evergreen love, anxious and waiting. Every parting was filled with promises to meet again soon. Restlessness, zeal, anticipation, ardour defined them. They were inseparable, two peas in a pod. All they did all day was to plan and plot, ways to be together. It was almost cruel to let go. Lazy afternoons morphed into golden sunsets. Dusks embraced mysterious twilights. Amber dawns evolved into naughty noons. She dressed to ensnare him. He understood the meaning or logic behind so many different colours by observing the effect they had on her moods.

The connection was so deep and true that it needed no outside validation. They were meant to be. The whole universe had conspired to get them together, come calamity or blue weather.

When Kishore and Asha sang, you just listened and believed in eternal love.

VAADA TO NIBHAYA

Song: 103

The famed Nalanda University has reopened today after 800 years. Isn't that a truly momentous occasion? Situated in Bihar's Rajgir district, Nalanda University started its first academic session yesterday, nearly 800 years after the ancient education institution was destroyed. Students attended four sessions on the first day, 9am to 1.30pm.

Congratulatory messages poured in. Nobel laureate and NU chancellor Amartya Sen was the first to call and wish the students. Members of NU governing body, Wang Bangwei, Wang Gungwu, NK Singh, George Yeo and Anil Wadhwa, too, sent laudatory wishes to the students and faculty members. "Congratulations. Indeed a moment of great satisfaction," Singh's message read.

In 1193, the Nalanda University was sacked by the fanatic Bakhtiyar Khilji, a Turk; this event is seen by scholars as a late milestone in the decline of Buddhism in India.

The complex was built with red bricks and its ruins occupy an area of 14 hectares. At its peak, the university attracted scholars and students from as far away as Tibet, China, Greece, and Greater Iran. The great library of Nalanda was so vast that it is reported to have burned for three months after the invaders set fire to it, ransacked and destroyed the monasteries and killed or drove the monks from the site.

As historian Sukumar Dutt describes it, the history of Nalanda university "falls into two main divisions—first, one of growth, development and fruition from the sixth century to the ninth, when it was dominated by the liberal cultural traditions inherited from the Gupta age; the second, one of gradual decline and final dissolution from the ninth century to the thirteen—a period when the tantric developments of Buddhism became most pronounced in eastern India."

In 2006, Singapore, China, India, Japan, and other nations, announced a proposed plan to restore and revive the ancient site as Nalanda University and all one can say is unhone 'Vaada to Nibhaya'! Well, all’s well that ends well.

So while this Asha Bhosle song is a typical situational Bollywood number, albeit featuring two of the greatest stars ever, my point in putting it up today is simply that it is shot in the beautiful and aesthetic environs of Nalanda. The expanse of the campus will give you some idea about the illustriousness of such a University centuries ago. There’s something about institutions with great ambience and aesthetic appeal that pulls you like a magnet every morning to visit them and dedicate yet another day to learning and evolving. May education evolve and flourish and never be destroyed by anyone.

SAARE JAHAN SE ACHHA HINDOSTAN HAMARA

Song 102:

Asha Bhosle, contrary to popular belief sang many solemn and serious songs. She could charm with pristine innocence as in this song, her voice befitting a child. This song is a wonderful alternate rendition of the enduring patriotic poem of the Urdu language. Written for children in the ghazal style of Urdu poetry by poet Muhammad Iqbal, the poem was published in the weekly journal Ittehad on 16 August 1904.

Recited by Iqbal the following year at Government College, Lahore, it quickly became an anthem of opposition to the British rule in India. The song, an ode to Hindustan—the land comprising present-day Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan—both celebrated and cherished the land even as it lamented its age-old anguish. As Tarana-e-Hindi, it was later published in 1924 in the Urdu book Bang-i-Dara.

Iqbal was a lecturer at the Government College, Lahore at that time, and was invited by student Lala Har Dayal to preside over a function. Instead of delivering a speech, Iqbal sang Saare Jahan Se Achcha. The song, in addition to embodying yearning and attachment to the land of Hindustan, expressed "cultural memory" and had an elegiac quality. In 1905, the 27-year-old Iqbal viewed the future society of the subcontinent as both a pluralistic and composite Hindu-Muslim culture. Later that year he left for Europe for a three-year sojourn that was to transform him into an Islamic philosopher and a visionary of a future Islamic society, which in fact was his prerogative.

In spite of its creator's disavowal of it in his later years, Saare Jahan Se Achcha has remained popular in India for over a century. Mahatma Gandhi is said to have sung it over a hundred times when he was imprisoned at Yerawada Jail in Pune in the 1930s.The poem was set to music in the 1950s by sitarist Ravi Shankar and recorded by singer Lata Mangeshkar. Stanzas1, 3, 4, and 6 of the song became an unofficial national song in India, and were also turned into the official quick march of the Indian Armed Forces. Rakesh Sharma, the first Indian cosmonaut, employed the first line of the song in 1984 to describe to then prime minister Indira Gandhi how India appeared from outer space. Saare Jahan se Achcha, indeed! And somehow I find this gentle Asha Bhosle version so much better than the many other more military versions.  

TORA MANN DARPAN KEHLAYE

Song 101:


Asha Geeta could get spiritual and how! When they applied their mind and voice to it, they could transform into treasure troves of calmness, peace and wisdom. The words were gems of learning, the mood was ethereal(in a different way this time), the tunes soared and took home right in your heart. 

For there is no love greater than the love of that supreme being who is the ultimate, omnipresent, omnipotent power. Call him God or a manifestation of our own mind. It is true that we can escape any jury in the world, we can escape God too but we can not escape the verdict of our own heart. 

This song for instance places abundant power in the human mind. More than any God or scriptures or rituals, it is our own mind that governs us. The mind is the mirror that shows us the path to right or wrong.Whenever one is in a dilemma about right or wrong, it is best to look into your heart and listen to what it says. It will not lie to you.

It is a bhajan but it rises above mere idol worship. It delves deeper into the psyche and the God within all of us. Written beautifully by none other than Sahir Ludhianvi, put to music by Ravi and sung oh so beautifully by Asha Bhosle. Have a nice day!

AYE KASH KISSI DEEWANE KO

Song 100:

Reached a giddy 100 in this incredible journey, unfathoming so many emotions, moods and situations. From pure romance to fun, frolicky numbers, from sad tomes of dejection and pessimism to bouyant songs of hope, we travelled many ups and downs.   

Asha and Geeta never failed us. Each song opened a new chapter of anticipation and yearning. We communicated unwittingly. We reached each other's deepest core of feelings and fears. At the end of the day love remained a mystery. As long as you don't have love you wait for it anxiously. You dream of rosy pictures. You feel yes, this time I will do it right, I will make it work.

Once you do find love, there start a new set of problems, issues, desperations and frustrations. In this journey of finding different facets of love, one wisened to the fact that it is best to savour and value what you have. Feel fortunate that you met love, lived love and felt love so deeply, it touched everything you did. You embraced the agony with the ecstacy. You wallowed in misery when he was gone but just the thought of him was enough to make you happy. You looked on at novices in a mature, know it all manner, finding amusement in their foolhardy quests for love. You had been there and done that. You were wiser, saner now. You could take love with a pinch of salt or maybe with a shot of vodka.

Would you have it any other way? No. Would you feel the same for anyone else? No. Would you do it all over again? Perhaps yes! I am celebrating this century with this beautiful duet by Asha Bhosle and Lata Mangeshkar where they thoroughly thrash out all about longing for love and longing for your loved one!

ZARA HAULE HAULE CHALO

Song 99:

He was a wild one. He liked to explore unchartered territories, throwing caution to the winds. He loved his work and often got so engrossed in it that nothing could stop him when he wanted to go on his adventurous recce.

He could compartmentalise love, career, duties, responsibilities. Work was work and nothing could really distract him away from his goals.

While the singing dancing diva liked this quality about him, she often took it upon herself to remind him of some good things in life. She was following him for one. She was waiting for him. She wanted him to be successful in his endeavours but she also wanted him to know that there was no getting away from her.

The rhythmic trot of his horse became the beat of her wistful song. The beautiful environs gave just the right ambience for a tete a tete. He was silent, yes. Not betraying any emotion, resolute and focussed.

But in her heart she knew he loved her song. For in the endless twilight of mysteries lurking behind every rock and cranny, the only thing steady and constant was her love for him. On cold, bitter nights, her song lit up his body with a glowing warmth. It reminded him that there was a golden morning, not too far away from wherever he was, a light at the end of the tunnel of night's own sordid longing for peril.

O P Nayyar's music, Asha Bhosle's voice and Sharmila's dimples are enough to enjoy this song on this rainy night.