Do you ever have a song, an idea, a storyline, or an image stuck in your head? And it just refuses to go away? For some time at least? I have this with music — it could be a song, an instrumental piece, a jingle, etc. That particular piece of music becomes my “now’” song, and the “nowness” (pardon my English here) could be for any length of time.
My “now” song is Ab ke baras bhejo bhaiya ko baabul from the film Bandini and sung by Asha Bhosle to music by S.D. Burman and lyrics by Shailendra.
In Ab ke baras… the singer yearns for the return of her childhood days and the song remains one of the most haunting Hindi film melodies to be composed. I have always loved this song, but right now I love it for a different reason — the emotions in the song capture my yearning for the monsoons to arrive in Mumbai.
It’s end June and the monsoons have been delayed for almost a month now. Yes, Mumbai’s had a few showers, but not of the monsoon variety. These showers have only increased the humidity and the heat, while cooling, drenching, traffic clogging, train stopping monsoons are nowhere in sight. I monitor the skies all the time, alert to change in wind pattern. But to no avail. The wisps of clouds floating in the sky mock me as does the bright sunshine.
Though the song makes a passing reference to the rains, and the context is very different, no other music captures my mood right now. And I have been humming it for a while now and also have it playing on a loop when I’m working.
Rain gods, weather gods, gods of climate change: are you listening?
PS: This post is a first of sorts. I typed, edited, corrected, linked, added media, published this post and then shared it on various social media platforms using a Dell Venue Tablet that has been sent to me as part of the “Dell Blogger Review Programme”. I’m not sure, if I can do my usual long posts from a tablet, but this short one has been surprisingly easy.
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But Sudha, the singer asks her father to send her brother to take her home in the month of sawan. And they have come, haven’t they? Maybe sawan will also come with them 🙂 I love this one and the other one, ‘O panchi pyare…..’ Have you heard it?
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I love all the songs of Bandini and in my opinion, this film has SD Burman’s best compositions. And it has started raining in Mumbai. Do you think it was because of my “now” song? 😉
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A beautiful song with soothing lyrics and beats, love the simplicity of words. Ah! U make me miss Mumbai even more:(
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Aww… then it’s time for you to visit Mumbai. And the monsoons have finally arrived here. So it is the perfect time to visit as well 🙂
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that is a very old song … hearing it for the first time
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Hope you liked it, Bikram. I listen to a lot of old Hindi songs and you would find quite a bit of them in this series.
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Hello Sudha ji,
Even I love this song. Also the song ‘Kale Megha’ from Lagaan is stuck in my head.
Glad that you have a new posting partner in your Dell Tab.
Do try long posts on that, will be waiting for more 🙂
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Welcome to my blog, Varsha. Thank you so much for stopping by and commenting. Kale Megha is a beautiful song as well.
I am just warming up to my new blogging partner, the Dell Tablet. The comments are being replied to from the tab and that is a new experience too !
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What a beautiful song! I also have a Dell tab that I bought recently and I love it! in fact I am commenting using the tab 😛
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