This is one of my favourite songs by Dula Bhaya Kag. Our teacher used to set tunes to the poems we studied and we would all sing together. Such memories. I mentioned this song in a recent column and I regret that I wrongly attributed it to Jhaverchand Meghani, another great Gujarati poet.
હે જી તારા આંગણિયા પુછીને જે કોઈ આવે રે, આવકારો મીઠો…આપજે રે જી…
હે જી તારે કાને સંકટ કોઈ સંભળાવે રે, બને તો થોડું… કાપજે રે જી………
માનવીની પાસે કોઈ….માનવી ન આવે…રે……(૨)
તારા દિવસની પાસે દુ:ખિયાં આવે રે -આવકારો મીઠો…. આપજે રે….જી…. ૧.
A man in a khaki shirt with a bright red jacket balances a butterfly net on his shoulders and flicks his muffler in place as he walks to wild yellow flowers. A red chiffon stole coyly sneaks into sugarcane bushes. With a cerebral twitch that he made into a style statement and his signature tilted hat, he continues looking for his lady love. He finds her after she hits him with a twig and jumps down to him from her perch on a haystack, skinning sugarcane with her teeth. Meet Bollywood actors Dev Anand and Waheeda Rehman as they take romance to another level in the song ‘Shokhiyon mein ghola jaaye’ from the 1970 Hindi film Prem Pujari:
Mix the youthfulness of flowers with these playful moments And top the blend with some wine, The intoxication that would result, Is love.
He nods as she moves away from him and walks from haystack to haystack. Her stole falls on the golden pile and the camera zooms on it to pan to Dev Anand who waits with a smile. She hides her face behind the sensual chiffon cloth and then drops it, Dev Anand catches it. Without the drape covering her slender body, with the feeling of freedom that every young woman in new love feels, Waheeda begins to climb a haystack on a makeshift wooden ladder as she sings:
It was a laughing childhood; it’s a tempting season now, If not dealt with carefully, it’s a ball of fire If you touch it gently, it is dew (2) In the village, in the fair, on the road or when you are alone: The one you remember again and again, Is your love.
Her beau throws the stole back to her, the fabric glides towards her, she catches it and flicks it on her shoulders with a laugh. Then she glides down the stack and is surprised that he is not in sight. He sings from his hiding place in hay and she bites a dry strand of grass while looking for him. But, she doesn’t look for long. As if she’s confident he’ll walk back to her, she rests on a stack. The camera zooms to the red heels she dangles, then we can see her man walking towards her. He comes close, she doesn’t mind the proximity. He tells her how beautiful she is:
Gold melts in your complexion, Nectar oozes out of your body as if A note is being softly played at night, The one who waits for you in the sun, in the shade or in the dancing winds, That is your love.
Butterflies fly out of the net in a whirlpool of air and flutter by the lovers. They then run in the fields. She almost stumbles once, and that adds to the romantic simplicity of the visuals. They celebrate their love again:
If I remember him, my loneliness vanishes, It feels like someone has started playing the wedding flute in a desolate town, The pride that doesn’t fade whether you are uphill, downhill; any time of the being, That is love.
‘Shokhiyon mein ghola jaaye’ penned by Majrooh Sultanpuri blends innocence with longing and intense courtship with playful patience: something almost extinct in these days of speed-dating.
A diva of romance and with a career as an actor, director and producer spanning close to 60 years, Dev Anand died at the age of 88 in December 2011. He still makes hearts flutter. Kishore Kumar’s voice complements Anand’s charisma well, the playback singer had a knack for matching his voice with the persona of all the screen characters he sang for. Kumar developed his own distinctive style of yodeling, blending classical notes with the funky, the mischievous and the sensual as and when it called for. His greatest hits were with music directors Sachin Dev Burman, who also composed this song, and his son Rahul Dev Burman.
Waheeda Rehman (born 1936) has aged gracefully. She still plays character roles, the more recent performance was in a film called Delhi 6. Lata Mangeshkar (born 1929) has sung 'Shokhiyon mein.' She still sings, her next song is for a film that is expected to be released in 2012.
-Gauri Gharpure March 26, 2012
This was for John Bennet's magazine-writing assignment. Long shot, because the Indian dancing-round-the-trees routine seems very lame to the Western audience. That said, I adore this song and went ahead with the unusual choice. Also read this book review that I submitted as a backup.
Today was a day full of learning. Learning to deal with emotions of people close to you, learning to empathise with emotions of those you have just met. Learning in many different ways.
My calling is such that puts me in touch with people from varied backgrounds. Today, I met three special women. All of them strong in their own special, God-sent ways.
It will take time to digest what I heard at the first meeting. Evening gloom has set in and I wonder what might she be doing now in her dingy room? She would most definitely be in the same pain she walked in when I first saw her...
This is a pessimistic song by the 13th-century poet Amir Khusro. Sad that hundreds of years later, at some point in time, most of us may have had this thought.
Attempting to translate part of the song:
You have done this once, don’t do so the next time;
Don’t make me a daughter again.
What is this fate that each girl gets?
The ones she believes her own turn out strangers instead…
She leaves her father’s abode, her mother’s bosom
To become an innocent bird caught in snares;
Only to be counseled at the top of it all:
“Don’t complain.”
Discarded like a child throws away a new toy after his fancy flies,
Where do we go?
You have done this once, don’t do so the next time,
Don’t make me a daughter again.
If I have the same parents and the same friends, I would like to be born a woman again. May be even if that's not the case. But does she, in her dingy room, think the same?
Gani Dahiwala, born August 17, 1908 was a Gujarati poet with numerous soulful gazals to his credit. I heard this particular gazal being hummed by my father when quite a child. Baba even met Mr. Dahiwala at his residence in Surat sometime in the early 70s (Dahiwala died on March 5, 1987). Recently, the lines from Divaso judaai naa were quoted by a friend on a social-networking site. Years show things in different, if not better, light and now I could appreciate the melancholy of the song much better. What's more, on You Tube, I found it sung by Md. Rafi...
It has been immensely challenging to even attempt a translation and I have been putting away the idea for a good few months now. Last evening, though, things started moving and today, I have here with me an English translation. It is not literal, and it is in a way in which the words make meaning to me.
The stanza "Tame raank na chho ratan..." was particularly hard. I asked my father for help but I could not relate to his interpretation and so, here it is in the form that makes sense to me.
This translation is a super-micro effort to make Gujarati poets / works more accessible on the net. It was disappointing that there aren't many online archives to document Gujarati poets and authors. This observation, though, I admit, is limited to the Google search I did for Dhoomketu, Gani Dahiwala and Kavi Kalapi... But I take the risk of assuming that yes, database on Gujarati works is limited — translations rarer.
Here goes the translation:
Divso judaai na jaye chhe Ae jashe jaroor Milan sudhi Maro haath jhali ne lai jashe Muj Shatruo j swajan sudhi
I am certain the days of separation will lead to union; With my hand in theirs, my enemies will lead me to my loved ones...
Na dhara sudhi na gagan sudhi Na unnati na patan sudhi Fakt aapne to jau hatu Ek mek na man sudhi...
I didn’t aim for the earth or the sky, Nor did I want to witness the abyss that comes after a pinnacle. All I wanted was for us to know each other’s hearts.
Tame raank na chho ratan samaa na malo ey aansuo dhool ma Jo araj kabool ho aatli to hriday thi jaao nayan sudhi
You are like a jewel desired by the destitute, (so) those tears of disappointment are vain... If only you could accept this little request, try knowing first by the heart and then with eyes...
Tame raaj rani na cheer sam Ame rank naar ni chundi, Tame raho tan par ghadi be ghadi Ame saath daiye kafan sudhi...
You are like the attire of a queen, I am the rags worn by a tramp. You stay on the body but momentarily, I accompany till the grave.
Jyare hriday ni aag wadhi Gani, Khud Ishware j kripa kari Koi shwas bandh kari gayu Ke pavan na jaye agan sudhi...
When it became too unbearable, God himself came to my rescue, Someone cut off my life breath, or no one’s stoking my desires any more...
I heard 2441139 by chance on the radio. While I feel shy to speak in Bangla, I understand a fair bit and this song was beyond marvellous. Listen to this song first, even if you don't understand Bangla. Listen first. I have given the English translation below...
Picture this. A yellow phone booth with loud, bold black letters reading STD, PCO, ISD. Or if you want, picture a coin-phone, the large rectangular black box that used to stand silently by paan shops and was witness to many a life-changing conversations of love and denial long before the cellphone bug hit. Have we got the imagery right? Now picture a youth dialling a number and asking for Bela Bose. Here's what he says...
I have got a job Bela, are you listening? No one can stop us now. You can send back that proposal and tell mother you are not marrying.
I have indeed got a job. Just a few more months (of wait) They will pay 1100 now, Confirm the job after three months... Bela, why are you silent, why don't you say something?
Hello... 'Is that 2441139?' Bela Bose are you listening? I have got you after a dozen wrong numbers I will not lose you now at any cost...
Hello... 2441139?' Please call Bela Bose, just once. Meter's running on this public telephone this an important, very important matter...
This time our dreams will really come true After all this long wait We have spent many a days in dusty dingy cabins by the road Waiting with heavy breaths...
Just a few more days Bela, then freedom. That blue-walled house in Kasba (will be ours) In this white-black, trouble-ridden, bitter-sweet city (We will start) our colourful life...
I have got a job indeed Those times of sobs, of brawls are gone now Hello... Can you hear me or not?
Bela, why are you crying silently? I have indeed got a job Those times of sobs and brawls are gone Hello... Can you hear me?
Hello? **** Hello? 2441139, 2441139
I feel Bela has accepted a proposal and is all set to marry...The call came too late. The song, for me, is an ode to young love in a middle-class Indian background that strives and strives to set things right.
I could write a lot more about this song, and two other favourites by Anjan Dutt.. But may be, on some other post.
PS My computer speakers don't work. Let me know if you find any other better video of this album..
