Song 18: 3 April 2013
This song too brings on so many memories. I was in my teens or maybe younger and most of our summer vacations were spent at my maternal grandfather's house in Jalandhar. It was a beautiful sprawling house with a fragrant lawn with mango trees that we loved climbing and the sweet fragrance of frangipani and 'Raat ki Rani' that scented our dreams. There would be almost 20 cousins in all, ranging from 4 to 18 and the whole day would be spent planning the next prank or fun thing to do. My mom's family was a very musical family with a harmonium, tanpura, sitar and tabla pretty handy for whenever the sudden mood to sing would set in! Often there would be an impromptu mehfil in place with great showing-off of vocal chords or lung power depending on which side of the talent scale you happened to have inherited your singing capabilities from.
I used to of course, worship my cousin Bitty Didi who was in college while we were in school still! She was the queen and we her humble followers. We would run errands for her and wait on her, hand and foot for the promised treat of being allowed to accompany her to 'college' some day in a rickshaw where she was a student of classical Indian music! There probably she would let us have a coke in the canteen and we would get to meet her myriad handsome, male admirers in class. We would follow her doggedly all day and come back very triumphant. Bitty Didi's room that summer had been transformed slightly. Slowly the typical classical notes and inspiring pictures of ghazal maestros were off, to be replaced by huge posters of this stunning beauty with sparkling eyes and a thick mane of lustrous black hair called Nazia Hassan. She was a superstar at 15. One evening Bitty Didi even let us listen to her LP in full blast while we tripped on lemonade and danced the evening away. I guess that was our first rave party that I can remember. Life was good. Youthful music has no play-by date! RIP Nazia Hassan! For us you will be 15 forever!:-)
This song too brings on so many memories. I was in my teens or maybe younger and most of our summer vacations were spent at my maternal grandfather's house in Jalandhar. It was a beautiful sprawling house with a fragrant lawn with mango trees that we loved climbing and the sweet fragrance of frangipani and 'Raat ki Rani' that scented our dreams. There would be almost 20 cousins in all, ranging from 4 to 18 and the whole day would be spent planning the next prank or fun thing to do. My mom's family was a very musical family with a harmonium, tanpura, sitar and tabla pretty handy for whenever the sudden mood to sing would set in! Often there would be an impromptu mehfil in place with great showing-off of vocal chords or lung power depending on which side of the talent scale you happened to have inherited your singing capabilities from.
I used to of course, worship my cousin Bitty Didi who was in college while we were in school still! She was the queen and we her humble followers. We would run errands for her and wait on her, hand and foot for the promised treat of being allowed to accompany her to 'college' some day in a rickshaw where she was a student of classical Indian music! There probably she would let us have a coke in the canteen and we would get to meet her myriad handsome, male admirers in class. We would follow her doggedly all day and come back very triumphant. Bitty Didi's room that summer had been transformed slightly. Slowly the typical classical notes and inspiring pictures of ghazal maestros were off, to be replaced by huge posters of this stunning beauty with sparkling eyes and a thick mane of lustrous black hair called Nazia Hassan. She was a superstar at 15. One evening Bitty Didi even let us listen to her LP in full blast while we tripped on lemonade and danced the evening away. I guess that was our first rave party that I can remember. Life was good. Youthful music has no play-by date! RIP Nazia Hassan! For us you will be 15 forever!:-)
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