Here’s another attempt at providing temporarily relief to people suffering from “Mundane Existence Syndrome”
Arunabha arrived in Nagpur on Friday morning. Soon Ajay and Arunabha were lost in “ hamari pehli mulaqat” saga. Arunabha almost made it to Nagpur last year and I was glad that it worked out this time. I had my own Saga going on with Arunabha, which had the opposite flavor: “ham kahaan kahaan mile the”. After recently covering London and Toronto, we were adding another chapter in Nagpur.
The focus of the day was Prof. Ishtiaq Ahmed’s talk on the partition of Punjab. However we found time to discuss a variety of topics. Saee’s scrumptious recipes were dissected over lunch and regional food preferences were debated. I was wondering how Saee managed to cook the Brinjal Sabzi without the bitter taste that’s usually associated with them and she promptly explained that it had more to do with the selection of the vegetables from the market. “Til Ka Laddu” was a popular dish. When Prof. Ahmed asked if Kachnaar ki Sabzi is made in this part of the world, Arunabha replied with “Kachi Kali Kachnaar ki hai “ We inferred that its available in this region based its usage in a bollywood song. Ajay’s fascination for Lata and Lahore was debated. While the fascination for Lata can be explained, the one for Lahore seems a little out of the ordinary. I narrated my own theory to Ajay “If you travel back in history, Lahore was just your neighboring province. Aur hum puraane khayalaat ke log hain”
Prof. Ahmed’s seminar was in the evening. It was extremely well received by an audience of about 300. One of the topics that Prof. Ahmed didn’t get time to cover was about the Lahore Film Industry. We managed to draw attention to that topic over dinner. Given that the most prominent contributors to Hindi Films and Music were from Punjab, we were curious as to which part of the state they hailed from.
We also recounted a few Ajay narrated a fascinating anecdote he heard from his father “ When Bahareni Phir Bhii Aayengi magar ham tum judaa honge” was heard on the streets in Hyderabad, traffic halted to listen to it”
We started belting names one by one; OP Nayyar, Kurshid Anwar, Roshan, Dilip Kumar, Shyam Sundar, Rajinder Kumar and so forth and to our astonishment all of them were born in and around Lahore. The actors and composers from East Punjab paled in comparison.
Saturday stared with a feast of Methi ki Kachori. Ajay and Saee keept serving them liberaly till we got completely stuffed The kachoris were so good that we just cudn’t resist the extra servings and ended up skipping lunch. We then dropped Prof. Ahmed in the airport but not before coming to know of his singing skills. He sang a couple of Saigal songs during the drive and mentioned that he sings Mukesh during college reunions.
The big mehfil was in the evening. Ajay started by playing few of Lata’s earliest songs that included “ chidiya bole chhu, chuu chuu”, “ Piya aayega” and “paanv laaguun kar jorii re”. He also pointed out that the chronological sequence sometimes doesn’t match with the RPM record label numbers. He shared a fascinating anecdote where one of his record collector friends presented Lata with an RPM record of one her earliest songs at a function in Nagpur.
The next song had a long prelude but a few bars were enough before Arunabha nailed it as “sabze ki durfishani, phuulon ka shamiyana”. Ajay then pointed out that at the age of 18 Lata could sing such difficult songs with such maturity. “duur jaaye re” from the same year is another valid example.
Ajay then had a theme for us in which he was going to play songs from 1952 (and occasionally the ones before). Our task was to hear songs of 1953 when we go back home and come back with any differences. As per Ajay 1952 is the first cut off. The cut off on his fancy phone is 1957 although it’s not a hard stop and he does enjoy several songs even from the 70’s.
Ajay had a few songs in mind for his theme and one of the first was “Dukhiyaare naina dhuunde piyaa ko” We discussed the other songs of Nirmohi including “ ab gam ko banalengi jiine ka sahaara”.
I started requesting some of my favorites from 1952 including the following Anil Biswas ones. Ek mera dil ek unka dil and Idhar kho gaya. When the latter was being played we were reminded of the other “sitaara” from Do Sitaare which we promptly played. I am of course referring to “Meri aasmani ghodi”.
Sajjad was the next composer Ajay had in mind. He chose “wo to chale gaye ai dil” and pointed out that once the initial prelude music starts the table beats have a pause and we get the feeling that the song is going to start. However the music starts again. With Sangdil in the air how can Saiyyan be far behind. We picked “Kaali kaali raat re” from that treasure trove.
I suddenly said “Hyderabad Ki Nazneen” and walked towards Ajay who stood up and shook my hands. 1952 is incomplete without this Vasant Desai album. Jaao chamka subah ka sitara and kya kya na log chal base were thoroughly enjoyed. Inspite of our Nizam connections, we never spoke in Hyderabadi but I did recommend him to watch Farooq Sheik in the movie Lahore. ‘karna padta babu, ye bhi karna padta”. Being named after a place he is fascinated with, must be a good enough reason! Incidentally Ajay speaks flawless Hindi and chaste Urdu.
Saee now joined us and Ajay posed a quiz to all the three of us. He played a CR song and mentioned that its from 1952 and stars Madhubala and asked us to name the movie. When we all failed, Saee walked inside and immediately came back with the answer. Radha had nailed it with ease. That’s not surprising as a recent blood test revealed that Deshpande’s have 35 % Haemoglobin and 65% Lataglobin
By now Arunabha started flexing his muscles and nailed both Chakori ka chanda se pyaar (Daman) and Kaise tum bin kategi umariya (Gumasta) while the prelude music was playing. Ajay next mentioned about a lesser known song of Bhola Shresta and the moment Lata started, I was able to identify it as “Mujhko hai tumse hi pyaar kyuun”. I said to myself “Chalo, ab Ajay mujhe ghar se nahiin bhaga sakta aur blood exam ka bhi zaruurat nahiin” LOL ! (When Ajay started collecting, he had tough times with a few collectors. They used to think that some other collector must have sent him and wudn’t entertain him). The next set of songs we enjoyed were “aaj mere nassib ne” from Hulchul and “Jhulmi naina balam ke maar gaye” from Baawra.
If you make a list of the composers of the above songs, it reads K.Datta, Bhola Shreshta, Mohd. Shafi, Krishna Dayal. What’s common to them? They are lesser known composers with outstanding Lata songs. Taking nothing away from the composers, its remarkable to note this ability of Lata to take compositions to the next level. As Arunabha rightly pointed out, outstanding Lata solos by lesser known composers could be another aspect that leads credence to the 1952 cutoff.
As the next song was being played, a usually restrained Arunabha shouted “Waffaa !”. There was a point of time when I was obsessed with the songs of this movie and he was reminding me of that phase. We enjoyed “Apni apni qismat hai” and I pointed the similarity in its lyrics to “is dil ki haalat kya kahiye”
We briefly turned beyond the cutoff. The Shankar Jaikishan stunner “Hamko chheta hai dil” from Aas was handpicked by Ajay to highlight the accordion pieces. It was past 1 am and we finally broke for dinner ! This time around I made sure not to miss out on the delicious Kichdi !
Post dinner we had a singing session. Everyone was reluctant to begin and I promptly jumped in with “tum pukaar lo, tumhara intezaar hai”. Arunabha then sang “dekho vo chaand chup ke se kehta hai ye ishaare” followed by Ajay with a Talat number that is now evading me.
Finally it was Saee’s turn and she went inside and got her lyrics book. She then asked us if we like “tuu hamko dekh aur hamari nazar se dekh” and Arunabha started reeling off the lyrics. I grabbed whatever was left behind, i.e the stats and said to myself “Arunabha ke saamne izzat bachane ke liye aakhir kuchh to karna paDegaa !” ROTFL ! (My Lata bhakti has always been there but was more or less steady but Arunabha’s graph started the ascent ever since he switched camps from Asha. The turning point was when he was finishing his Phd dissertation about a decade back. I had given him the RMIM commemorative on Anil Biswas and that influenced him so much that both Anil Biswas and myself found a place in the acknowledgements. Ever since then, his presence makes me feel proud and attentive at the same time
I mentioned how I used to ask my family members to record songs for me from Vividh Bharati when I went to college and then used to consulate them and throw away old tapes which were repeatedly re-recorded. During one such session that I had discovered “tuu hamko ko dekh” in a old tape which I was about to junk.
“Zindagi Aur Hum Roshan” sach much Roshan ho gaye.
Mohabbat ek shoal hai followed and I then requested “aa phir se mere pyaar ki qismat sanvaar de”. It was Arunabha’s turn now but we all joined to sing “aa jaayen jaane waale, laut aai bahaare” . Meena Kumari was singing it for Sekhar in Chandni Chowk, but for us the “jaane waale” was Roshan. Ajay and Saee mentioned that their kids also watched this movie and we discussed a few other songs from the film before Arunabha looked at me “tumhara dialogue to suano” and I promptly got up and said “main vo balaa huun jo shiishe se patthat ko tod duun” . Jeevan keeps repeating this dialogue in the movie.
By now it was past 3 am and we decided to call it a day.
Sundays was set aside for meeting Vishwanath Chaterjee. We weren’t planning to stay for more than an hour but he regaled us with several anecdotes which made us sit for a while. The people he met and the efforts he put in the Geet Kosh compilations is remarkable. What amazed me was his incredible memory. Vishwanat ji has an uncanny ability to remember dates of events along with the day of the week. That last part was mindboggling.
It was evening by now and we had to leave soon to the train station. Saee made sure that we didn’t have to bother about dinner by packing “Pav Bhaji” for us. That along with boxes of sweets made us bring “deshpande hospitality” enroute and into our own homes.
We also had the good fortune of meeting Kalyan at the train station. I am a big fan of his sense of humor and he didn’t disappoint. We wanted to catch up over tea but figured that they weren’t going to allow us into the canteen without a train ticket. The canteen’s kitchen was facing the parking lot and Kalyan retorted “ If you want some excitement, jump through the kitchen. And if you want a ticket, I can just forward my sms ”.
That’s it folks. I hope that sookha bhelpuri tastes better now !
Arunabha arrived in Nagpur on Friday morning. Soon Ajay and Arunabha were lost in “ hamari pehli mulaqat” saga. Arunabha almost made it to Nagpur last year and I was glad that it worked out this time. I had my own Saga going on with Arunabha, which had the opposite flavor: “ham kahaan kahaan mile the”. After recently covering London and Toronto, we were adding another chapter in Nagpur.
The focus of the day was Prof. Ishtiaq Ahmed’s talk on the partition of Punjab. However we found time to discuss a variety of topics. Saee’s scrumptious recipes were dissected over lunch and regional food preferences were debated. I was wondering how Saee managed to cook the Brinjal Sabzi without the bitter taste that’s usually associated with them and she promptly explained that it had more to do with the selection of the vegetables from the market. “Til Ka Laddu” was a popular dish. When Prof. Ahmed asked if Kachnaar ki Sabzi is made in this part of the world, Arunabha replied with “Kachi Kali Kachnaar ki hai “ We inferred that its available in this region based its usage in a bollywood song. Ajay’s fascination for Lata and Lahore was debated. While the fascination for Lata can be explained, the one for Lahore seems a little out of the ordinary. I narrated my own theory to Ajay “If you travel back in history, Lahore was just your neighboring province. Aur hum puraane khayalaat ke log hain”
Prof. Ahmed’s seminar was in the evening. It was extremely well received by an audience of about 300. One of the topics that Prof. Ahmed didn’t get time to cover was about the Lahore Film Industry. We managed to draw attention to that topic over dinner. Given that the most prominent contributors to Hindi Films and Music were from Punjab, we were curious as to which part of the state they hailed from.
We also recounted a few Ajay narrated a fascinating anecdote he heard from his father “ When Bahareni Phir Bhii Aayengi magar ham tum judaa honge” was heard on the streets in Hyderabad, traffic halted to listen to it”
We started belting names one by one; OP Nayyar, Kurshid Anwar, Roshan, Dilip Kumar, Shyam Sundar, Rajinder Kumar and so forth and to our astonishment all of them were born in and around Lahore. The actors and composers from East Punjab paled in comparison.
Saturday stared with a feast of Methi ki Kachori. Ajay and Saee keept serving them liberaly till we got completely stuffed The kachoris were so good that we just cudn’t resist the extra servings and ended up skipping lunch. We then dropped Prof. Ahmed in the airport but not before coming to know of his singing skills. He sang a couple of Saigal songs during the drive and mentioned that he sings Mukesh during college reunions.
The big mehfil was in the evening. Ajay started by playing few of Lata’s earliest songs that included “ chidiya bole chhu, chuu chuu”, “ Piya aayega” and “paanv laaguun kar jorii re”. He also pointed out that the chronological sequence sometimes doesn’t match with the RPM record label numbers. He shared a fascinating anecdote where one of his record collector friends presented Lata with an RPM record of one her earliest songs at a function in Nagpur.
The next song had a long prelude but a few bars were enough before Arunabha nailed it as “sabze ki durfishani, phuulon ka shamiyana”. Ajay then pointed out that at the age of 18 Lata could sing such difficult songs with such maturity. “duur jaaye re” from the same year is another valid example.
Ajay then had a theme for us in which he was going to play songs from 1952 (and occasionally the ones before). Our task was to hear songs of 1953 when we go back home and come back with any differences. As per Ajay 1952 is the first cut off. The cut off on his fancy phone is 1957 although it’s not a hard stop and he does enjoy several songs even from the 70’s.
Ajay had a few songs in mind for his theme and one of the first was “Dukhiyaare naina dhuunde piyaa ko” We discussed the other songs of Nirmohi including “ ab gam ko banalengi jiine ka sahaara”.
I started requesting some of my favorites from 1952 including the following Anil Biswas ones. Ek mera dil ek unka dil and Idhar kho gaya. When the latter was being played we were reminded of the other “sitaara” from Do Sitaare which we promptly played. I am of course referring to “Meri aasmani ghodi”.
Sajjad was the next composer Ajay had in mind. He chose “wo to chale gaye ai dil” and pointed out that once the initial prelude music starts the table beats have a pause and we get the feeling that the song is going to start. However the music starts again. With Sangdil in the air how can Saiyyan be far behind. We picked “Kaali kaali raat re” from that treasure trove.
I suddenly said “Hyderabad Ki Nazneen” and walked towards Ajay who stood up and shook my hands. 1952 is incomplete without this Vasant Desai album. Jaao chamka subah ka sitara and kya kya na log chal base were thoroughly enjoyed. Inspite of our Nizam connections, we never spoke in Hyderabadi but I did recommend him to watch Farooq Sheik in the movie Lahore. ‘karna padta babu, ye bhi karna padta”. Being named after a place he is fascinated with, must be a good enough reason! Incidentally Ajay speaks flawless Hindi and chaste Urdu.
Saee now joined us and Ajay posed a quiz to all the three of us. He played a CR song and mentioned that its from 1952 and stars Madhubala and asked us to name the movie. When we all failed, Saee walked inside and immediately came back with the answer. Radha had nailed it with ease. That’s not surprising as a recent blood test revealed that Deshpande’s have 35 % Haemoglobin and 65% Lataglobin
By now Arunabha started flexing his muscles and nailed both Chakori ka chanda se pyaar (Daman) and Kaise tum bin kategi umariya (Gumasta) while the prelude music was playing. Ajay next mentioned about a lesser known song of Bhola Shresta and the moment Lata started, I was able to identify it as “Mujhko hai tumse hi pyaar kyuun”. I said to myself “Chalo, ab Ajay mujhe ghar se nahiin bhaga sakta aur blood exam ka bhi zaruurat nahiin” LOL ! (When Ajay started collecting, he had tough times with a few collectors. They used to think that some other collector must have sent him and wudn’t entertain him). The next set of songs we enjoyed were “aaj mere nassib ne” from Hulchul and “Jhulmi naina balam ke maar gaye” from Baawra.
If you make a list of the composers of the above songs, it reads K.Datta, Bhola Shreshta, Mohd. Shafi, Krishna Dayal. What’s common to them? They are lesser known composers with outstanding Lata songs. Taking nothing away from the composers, its remarkable to note this ability of Lata to take compositions to the next level. As Arunabha rightly pointed out, outstanding Lata solos by lesser known composers could be another aspect that leads credence to the 1952 cutoff.
As the next song was being played, a usually restrained Arunabha shouted “Waffaa !”. There was a point of time when I was obsessed with the songs of this movie and he was reminding me of that phase. We enjoyed “Apni apni qismat hai” and I pointed the similarity in its lyrics to “is dil ki haalat kya kahiye”
We briefly turned beyond the cutoff. The Shankar Jaikishan stunner “Hamko chheta hai dil” from Aas was handpicked by Ajay to highlight the accordion pieces. It was past 1 am and we finally broke for dinner ! This time around I made sure not to miss out on the delicious Kichdi !
Post dinner we had a singing session. Everyone was reluctant to begin and I promptly jumped in with “tum pukaar lo, tumhara intezaar hai”. Arunabha then sang “dekho vo chaand chup ke se kehta hai ye ishaare” followed by Ajay with a Talat number that is now evading me.
Finally it was Saee’s turn and she went inside and got her lyrics book. She then asked us if we like “tuu hamko dekh aur hamari nazar se dekh” and Arunabha started reeling off the lyrics. I grabbed whatever was left behind, i.e the stats and said to myself “Arunabha ke saamne izzat bachane ke liye aakhir kuchh to karna paDegaa !” ROTFL ! (My Lata bhakti has always been there but was more or less steady but Arunabha’s graph started the ascent ever since he switched camps from Asha. The turning point was when he was finishing his Phd dissertation about a decade back. I had given him the RMIM commemorative on Anil Biswas and that influenced him so much that both Anil Biswas and myself found a place in the acknowledgements. Ever since then, his presence makes me feel proud and attentive at the same time
I mentioned how I used to ask my family members to record songs for me from Vividh Bharati when I went to college and then used to consulate them and throw away old tapes which were repeatedly re-recorded. During one such session that I had discovered “tuu hamko ko dekh” in a old tape which I was about to junk.
“Zindagi Aur Hum Roshan” sach much Roshan ho gaye.
Mohabbat ek shoal hai followed and I then requested “aa phir se mere pyaar ki qismat sanvaar de”. It was Arunabha’s turn now but we all joined to sing “aa jaayen jaane waale, laut aai bahaare” . Meena Kumari was singing it for Sekhar in Chandni Chowk, but for us the “jaane waale” was Roshan. Ajay and Saee mentioned that their kids also watched this movie and we discussed a few other songs from the film before Arunabha looked at me “tumhara dialogue to suano” and I promptly got up and said “main vo balaa huun jo shiishe se patthat ko tod duun” . Jeevan keeps repeating this dialogue in the movie.
By now it was past 3 am and we decided to call it a day.
Sundays was set aside for meeting Vishwanath Chaterjee. We weren’t planning to stay for more than an hour but he regaled us with several anecdotes which made us sit for a while. The people he met and the efforts he put in the Geet Kosh compilations is remarkable. What amazed me was his incredible memory. Vishwanat ji has an uncanny ability to remember dates of events along with the day of the week. That last part was mindboggling.
It was evening by now and we had to leave soon to the train station. Saee made sure that we didn’t have to bother about dinner by packing “Pav Bhaji” for us. That along with boxes of sweets made us bring “deshpande hospitality” enroute and into our own homes.
We also had the good fortune of meeting Kalyan at the train station. I am a big fan of his sense of humor and he didn’t disappoint. We wanted to catch up over tea but figured that they weren’t going to allow us into the canteen without a train ticket. The canteen’s kitchen was facing the parking lot and Kalyan retorted “ If you want some excitement, jump through the kitchen. And if you want a ticket, I can just forward my sms ”.
That’s it folks. I hope that sookha bhelpuri tastes better now !
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