Songs, a time machine

Songs have a unique quality. To different people, a song can bring about memories of different times or places or events. Here are some from my list...

Papa Kehte Hain from Qayamat se Qayamat Tak. When the movie released, this song was a rage. I was quite young at the time (seriously! I was young, once upon a time :-)) and the first time I heard this song was my cousin humming it. The tune was catchy and for a long time, I couldn't really figure that Aamir said "Really, I mean it".

Aashiqui's songs are still hummable. The first time I heard it was in our school van. I was part of the school band (used to play the bugle). We'd just won the first place in the district level competition and qualified for the state competition. We were returning from the Kanteerava stadium when our Band Master and PT teachers treated us to some goodies on the way. Our van driver treated us to Aashiqui's songs all the way back to school.

Jaadoo Teri Nazar had totally blown away another cousin of mine. Whether it was the 'cos of song, or the person who featured in it can be questioned :-) Nonetheless, it used to be top of the charts for weeks on end on a music show on TV that played every Sunday. It so happened that we missed the start of a movie 'cos this cousin of mine wouldn't budge till he watched the song on the programme.

Anytime I hear Aane waala pal or Hamen tumse pyaar kitna, the scene is of our first year in engineering with the rickety National Panasonic player I'd described elsewhere. We had all of 4-5 tapes of which the Hits of Kishore Kumar and Hits of Mohd Rafi would inevitably play at least once every day.

My buddy Hari used to have a unique taste in music -- the Bappi Lahiri types. He'd never miss an album of the Mithunda-Bappi-Usha Uthup generation. To this day Mumbai Sheher Handson ka Sheher hai rings back 3rd year engineering memories (not that it plays all that much either).

My friend Promodh was a Delhi return. Delhi, in the mid-90s boasted of Times FM. Promodh never let go of a chance to show off his "Western" music knowledge. One of the best albums he'd bought in Mysore was "Now, thats what I call Music" or somesuch. It had awesome tracks like Wet, Wet, Wet, 25 minutes, etc. At the time, MLTR was to me, the greatest band in the world :-)

Another significant album at the time was one that Promodh got as a gift from a family friend. Funnily enough, it was called "RB Tone Sangeet Mala", 'cos it was a compilation a drug company made to gift doctors. It had some of the evergreen songs of the 50s and 60s, including Beqarar karke hamen, Dil ka bhawar karen pukar, and even a KL Saigal number, that, Promodh and Hari decided was my favourite song of all time!

Whenever songs of Main Hoon Na or Veer Zaara play, the scenery is of the freeways of New England. Those were the only two CDs that my rented car could play.

What are yours?

Living from story to story

Sorry Shah Rukh, your time in the limelight is up. You are no longer 'hot'. 9 people died in a bomb blast in Pune. That many more would die in single road accidents, or in building collapses elsewhere, is of no interest. They are victims, of a different malaise -- of the terrorists who devour money when nobody is looking to sign on the dotted lines for licences to drive and to build when the people who end up getting them aren't capable of either.

Rest in Peace, Departed Souls. As I write this, your untimely, unnecessary death has caused the 'News' channels to rehash the same debates you were privy to, after the Parliament attacks, the Mumbai bomb blasts, Akshardham, 26/11, .... Further, it has helped strengthening one aspect of our National culture -- we are really getting good at the "All talk, no action" doctrine. You have also provided fodder for the 24x7 'News' Channels. Thanks to you, they can survive a few more days. But, I am sorry to report, there aren't too many mentions of who you were.

I am more sorry that you'll be completely forgotten as soon as a new 'hot' topic comes up. Talk about living story to story... the Indian News media thrives on it.

Bandipur

Life had gotten very busy this new year, and when an opportunity presented itself to combine work with some weekend adventure, I jumped on the idea. I went to Bandipur last weekend with a bunch of people at work. It was, to say the least, a wonderfully wild interlude.











The Bandipur-Nagarhole-Madhumalai belt is supposed to have one of the highest concentration of Royal Bengal Tigers. We hoped to catch a glimpse of one during our 3 hour safari. At one point, our driver heard a 'warning call' from a langoor -- indicating that a predator was nearby. But we couldn't sight one. Further in the forest, we came across a nuclear family of elephants -- dad, mom and calf. The calf was never allowed to wander from between the dad and mom. Scouting around, we saw a small herd of bisons running up a slope, away from dense bushes. The guide said there possibly is a tiger in the bushes. We waited for about 20 minutes, enough to instigate the elephant dad to make some aggressive moves to ward us off, but the tiger was nowhere to be seen.











That we did not sight a tiger comes as no surprise. Later that evening, I was chatting with one of the guards at the camp. Just the previous week, a tiger census was conducted and they could find 30 tigers in the area surrounding the camp. Further, it was found that there are all of 1411 tigers in India.

It is sad that in a few decades, people may have to talk of tigers in the past tense. The national animal is in danger of becoming a relic of the past.