Thursday 30 December 2010

kabhi kabhi

aankhon ne mere unko diye shabaab kabhi kabhi
patjhadne khilaya tanha gulaab kabhi kabhi

naqaabil hoon par yun na gairat se dekhiye
boondon se bhi aata hai sailaab kabhi kabhi

minnat-e-chakor jab had se guzar gayi
zameen pe bhi aata hai wo mahtaab kabhi kabhi

humne mana ke jahannam dekha nahi koi
unki furqat dikha gayi ye azaab kabhi kabhi

sunne ko jab koi na mila haal-e-bisaat-e-yaar
khamosh ajnabi diye hain jawaab kabhi kabhi

har pal kyun betaab hai ay baaghi-dil Faiz
aata hai duniya me inqilaab kabhi kabhi

Thursday 9 December 2010

A man, a human

Sometimes, rarely, once in a blue moon, we meet someone. A man, not by the physiology but by nature. They touch your soul and create an everlasting echo which rings fresh in your memories even after decades. Sometimes they pass us during the busy office hours on the street or sit next to you in the train and we still don't come to know. We are,on the contarary,expect so less from another human being that when someone behaves like a human, we try to rub our eyes, "iska sala irada kya hai?"

It was our first trip to the city of the nizams, Hyderabad. We had a fun-filled but rather hectic Rafi holiday(don't ask me what is this, an yearly meet of Rafi bhakts in short) for 2 days.We were left with only one day to see the Chaarminar. And we were returning from Charminar and a bit late. We were in the bus, it was 9:30 by my mobile and We didn't know how to recognize the stop where we were to get down. Little uncomfortable, I asked the the person sitting next to us, will you go as far as Lingampalli? He said no, I wud get down 3 stops before that. Where are you going? Lingampalli, I told him, and hesitantly added, see this is our first time here in Hyderabad and we are little diffident about how to get down at the correct stop.
He pondered for a moment and said, ok then I shall go with you till that stop and take a return bus. Will that be ok for you?
Taken aback by this (as I said earlier, we are not habituated to expect much from another human nowadays), I said, no sir, that will be just too much, We can go of our own. He said "no no plz sir, I insist. Its my duty to you coz you are new here."
After then He sat still, not blabbering about himself, not taking my awed expression as a chance to inject me with his past humanitarian deeds nor telling me how bad the world is (thus proving himself a better than the most person), nor advicing me how important it is to be like him. On the other hand, when I asked him about his background he talked about his job, family, his posting at Kolkata for few years.
When we got down He hold my hand and said, please go home sir, you are very late. He denied my earnest request to give him company till he can find the return bus ,saying, its nothing for me, I can go by myself. When I objected to his use of 'sir' as I am as old as his son may be, He replied, but you are also a human being. I must respect that.

I know none reads my blog but still i want to shout this loudly, yes coz of people like you Mr Srinivas Rao, this world is still worthy of living. You have touched me. One people like you can heal the wounds created by a thousand. You make this world lovely and 'cause people like you are still not the part of fables exclusively, every morning I open my eyes and can wish good morning.

I know you will never ever read this blog and I know you have already forgotten me 'cause for people like you this incident is never a big deal but I shall remember you. Faiz doesn't bow easily, he is very very finicky about it but to bow infront of you doesnt need any effort.
I salute you Mr Srinivas rao, with bowed head and heart.

Friday 16 July 2010

Dil Ne Pyar Kiya Hai

Translation of "Dil Ne Pyar Kiya Hai"


My heart, is in love with
an unfaithful
How I regret it!
u took my heart
u made it hurt
tore it apart

Those promises of last evening
where are where are where are those words
The oaths we took together forever
Why Did why did u break afterwards
dont shy away, dont smile 'n play, face me today

O gorgeous, I worshipped you once
Remember, that heavenly lovefilled night?
You seeked and touched my deepest secrets
Today is but a new tale and sight
Why is this, what is this, tell me please

My heart my love, u were my Mumtaz
I built a Taj in lover's eden
Who got jealous, who burnt it down
I adorned it and saved it till then
Gone is cheer, robbed off prayer,look I'm here

listen to the original here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrgquXE6JQg

Tuesday 6 July 2010

Yeh Duniya Yeh Mahfil

Sitting alone I received this request to translate a masterpiece into English. Hesitatingly, I started, stumbled,groped and finally formed this. No reward to guess that the masterpiece is Yeh Duniya Yeh Mahfil, sung by Mohammad Rafi the great and penned by Kaifi Azmi. A sincere apology to Kaifi sahab for daring to touch his immortal work.

this world and its celebrations
doesn't worth a thing,doesn't worth a thing

who cares for this tale of love sordid
life is failing too,like in love i did
make me forget those days of my glory
the celebrations when the funeral proceed

neither a trace of myself nor a news of her
save my enemies too,from such utter despair
may they meet God who seek thyself
all i want is just a glimpse of her

the vast desert couldn't soak my tear
how to hide this pain and my fear
how can i praise this world
the heart still longs for my lover
i lost the winning stake once
now i search her forever

far from somewhere,a gaze breathes my name
how can i not go,for her i feel the same
kill my regained hope again
or heal my broken heart again
those hills shall pave my way
the thorns shall adorn the path again

this world and its celebrations
doesn't worth a thing,doesn't worth a thing

Sunday 14 February 2010

Rafi Nayyar rediscovered

What will happen if an arrogant genius meets the humblest king? Listen to Puakarta chala hoon main or aanchal me saja lena kaliyan to realise. Now everyone might guess its none but OPN ,the great omkar prasad nayyar n Mohammad Rafi I am talking about. If Naushad was the finicky perfectionist, SJ were the all-rounder than OPN must be a careless arrogant genius and who just loved to prove his critics wrong and his weapon was again and again our very own Rafi sahab. Can you, in your wildest nightmare forget Mere Sanam, Ek Musafir Ek Hasina, Naya Daur. None of us can.
This duo has been discussed enough and and by experts.Why am I writing this article? Another one out to prove his musical knowledge or expertise. That is hardly my intention. I just want to recollect a few forgotten (well,at least semi-forgotten) melodies and stop typing. But in case I get published, the first few formal words.

OPN was known for hoofbeat music,although I call it offbeat music. He was banned in AIR as they thought his music may have bad effect on youngsters. But have you heard aanchal me saja lena kaliyan for example or fir tere shahar me lootne ko chala aaya hoon? Any keen listener ever found a hoofbeat? Or for that matter in aapke haseen rukh, which I never could imagine to be a OPN creation until I learnt that from relaible sources.
He was considered musically illiterate so he took the challenge and composed songs of Kalpana.Wouldn't Tu hai mera prem devta have made Naushad or SJ or SD proud?
And last but not certainly the least, This man never used the voice of Lata.
Wasn't he a genius? Or perhaps the greatest genius? The mad scientist u see in those English movies?
He was,period.
His association is much discussed with Rafi sahab,as I earlier said(and also his rift, sadly. I don't know why we love negative news more) but its based on those superhit Rafi Nayyar songs. May be 50-60 songs. His films with Joy Mukherji, Biswajeet, Kashmir Ki kali, Naya daur. Lets search the remaining 150 songs for some more gems.

One song, which i personally will rate among my top 5 Rafi Nayyar ever is a duet with Asha from the dev anand-madhubala starring Jaali Note. The song Chaand zard zard hai makes me sway in stupor whenever I hear this song. My mother, who is an ardent listener of rafi sahab,also missed this song until one day i dug it out and made her listen to it. She confessed, the 'Nasha' created by this song is beyond words. You just close your eyes, forget your surroundings, and sway in the rhythm of that OPN set and RS(Rafi Sahab) delivered. It starts with the sound of a whistle, humming of Asha ji, a drum..then RS picks up. And when he delivers the HAI, dragging it n with a wobbly voice to match the loose-neck Dev Anand on screen, you just wince in sheer delight. The piece in the interlude is just so much OPN-ish. The rhythm set in this song by OPN just makes u want “just don't stop for God's sake”. RS is in a soft mood and when he is soft, he can be astonishingly sweet.Listen to this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_W_Q_jf6X0

The second song coming to mind is, Title song of Mr Cartoon MA. Main Main Main Cartoon. OPN made sure RS sounds like a singer from the west. And what a throw RS performed in this song. The instrumentation is very much westernized (in fact i couldn't notice any desi instrument except tabla during the antaras). A very very prominent saxophone during interlude. Concentrate when RS is delivering the last rhyming word.Cartoon, Telephoon(telephone), moon, soon. Almost meaningless lyric(that is common for so many OPN songs, may be his inclination to use lesser known poets, but that is a different topic altogether).As I was saying,look at the throw of those rhyming words. RS made Asha a non-entity in this song. Can you imagine this tune, and this delivery in mid-50s and that too from someone who had no relation with west (English) till we can search. One reason this song got lost is I think, the song was ahead of its time. It cud have been a AR Rahman Hit Today.
On a personal Note, I made one friend listen this song and next thing he did was to make it his ring tone.
Listen to this here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9VRfOD5WXc


OPN silenced his critics with the song that is third on my list. Manna De sang many great numbers along with RS and mostly qawwalis or comedy songs . IMHO, they were the best male duet partners ever. Now look at this classical song they delivered together under a so called “musically illiterate” MD. Yes, talking about the Kalpana track, Tu Hai Mera Prem Devta. Manna da picks up impeccably in his own heavy MAJLISHI voice,what a timber. RS followed with with his softer voice. In the first antara when RS sings, 'ang lagao pyaas bujhao' his return journey is as smooth and as fast as his take off. With a slight filmi twist in the 'pyaas bujhao' portion. In the next antara its RS who is doing that aalap and that too not losing the sweetness of his voice. Too short for a semi-classical this song just makes u keep the player in repeat mode n forget. Pure Indian instrumentation, so much 'un-OPN-ish' but what a genius. You just cant stop looking up n confess the greatness of God.
Listen to this gem here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQKdL0PnHxw

Finally one song which RS sang for Shammi Kapoor under Nayyar ji BUT not from the much and mass discussed Kashmir Ki Kali. This film also holds the record for containing maximum number of RS song. Raste me ek haseen, from Basant, is melodious to say the least. Much different from all those peppy numbers that made OPN highly popular(most popular?) in 50s n 60s, which makes your foot tap, this is a soothing song,washing down your tiredness and makes you remember when you first saw 'her' and her first smile of appreciation and in that process leaving a trace of smile on your own face. When this song finishes, you feel you are in love again with 'her'. Listen to this cute romantic song at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jM9U0l7DmQc

Also I cant resist the temptation to put this link here, written by another ardent Rafian, Samarjit Acharjee from kolkata, who caught OPN-Rafi in a sublime mood.
http://spilledbytes.blogspot.com/2009/10/duo-in-disguise.html

This is a personal list and of course very much biased towards my personal choice. But I time and again felt, these songs were treated unjustly and thus didn't reach millions of Rafi lovers. This was a personal effort to bring these to the notice of the visitors of this website. I will love to see your comments.

Saturday 13 February 2010

Ab Aur

Kaafi nahin yaadein tere zindagi ko ab aur
Socha hai ke dhundenge ab jeene ka sabab aur

Manga tujhe shiddatse mujhe dikha jo bhi dar
Koi dikhaye mujhe naya darbaar-e-rab aur

Aawargi badnamiyat deewanapan wahshat
Tum na mile,mil gaya sila-e-wafa sab aur

Wo khuda kya,jo ishq o husn ko na milaye
Aaye koi,pesh kare aashiq ka mazhab aur

Jaag dil-e-nadaan,tujhe ab kiska wahm hai
Saamne wo hain, ro de na to royega tu kab aur

Saturday 2 January 2010

1 more idiot on "3 idiots"

3 idiots,another masterpiece from AK aka Mr perfectionist. He never seizes to amaze me. another mockery of cream de la cream indian professional institutions. I felt the urge to write this blog 'cause he reminded me of my MBA days. I got to a nominally good college and witnessed the farce firsthand. Assignments,uniforms, deadlines, but not freethinking,creativity n encouragement to think from a new angle. I was watching where AK defines Machine, n remembered how i defined marketing. Of course AK didn,t copy my incident but it happened that my marketing teacher asked me the definition of marketing and i answered "meeting others needs yet profitably" and expected he would nod in appreciation. Instead he said "i don't want definitions manufactured by u, give me the American Marketing Association(or something like that) approved definition." I could not recite that verbatim and i was shown the gate.I still remember how my days went,outside the classroom mostly, googling for knowledge and amazing at the paucity of my knowledge about this big vast world.
Attending disciplinary committees regularly,giving my father's no. to principal, were other major activities.

Will anything change? if AK makes this movie, or at a much smaller level i write this blog? Probably NO. But silence is not golden always. I suffered it, my next gen should not. Let him have all the time to dream looking at the vast clear blue sky. Let him go to forest than to memorize botany books. I am willing to take on this world to give him this chance, This blog carries my promise to him.

Once Aristotle(or was it Plato) was teaching maths, one student asked but how i earn with this knowledge? Aristotle took him away, paid him some money and asked him never to return. I wish we had a teacher like that.