Kabhi aana tu meri galli

Life is most interesting when the facade comes off.
When we human beings stop being what life has made out of us, and start being what we really are.
Or we really were, at least till the lack of time responsibilities hit us.
So yesterday I was witness to an event where facades really came off and left a certain section of the audience wondering ke ye kya ho raha hai?
Euphoria was playing at the Bandra festival yesterday and as luck would have it I was there.
It was ten minutes into the concert, and Pallash Sen (the lead singer of the band) was already in the mood, and was going about his trademark jump act.
He suddenly stopped and said “ye anup jalota ji ka bhajan concert nahi hai. Kya aap log sab baith kar isko dekhne waale ho?”
So within next ten minutes everyone was standing and watching concert. And by the time the band started singing Mai Ri, probably there most famous number till date, everyone was up and standing on chairs and grooving with the band.
A large section of the audience included young couples who had come with their two, three and five year old kids.
It was a funny situation. The kids were all sitting on the chairs. And their mothers, who thankfully were not wearing sarees like their mothers would have but jeans, were standing on top of chairs and dancing, singing and grooving away to glory.
Songs like dhoom pichuk dhum, kabhi aana tu merei galli, ab na ja, probably reminded them of the days that were.
When life was about going to school and college, and coming back home and having food with your mother sitting next to you on the table.
It was definitely not about taking the 6.45 Fast from Churchgate to Andheri and getting home to a weeping kid who refuses to do his homework, unwashed dishes because the maid did not turn up and a mother in law who hates the fact that you work.
When life was about the first crush that got crushed and not about the permanent husband now, who really hasn’t turned out as she had imagined him to be.
The songs went on. The mothers were dancing and singing at the top of their voices. The kids, sitting on chairs were quite bewildered and seemed to be wondering ke mummy ko aaj kya ho gaya hai ke wo kursi par chhadh kar naach rahi hai....
That’s what happens when you go back to what was a part of growing up!
Some day the kids will understand why on that random day before that random band performing at the Bandra Kulra Complex, their mothers stopped being mothers, and went back to being girls that they always were.

Do you know Zaheer Aalam?

Not everybody who creates history becomes famous.
Like, do you know Zaheer Aalam? Or do you know Mohammed Shafi Niyazi? Of course, you don't.
Over the weekend I rediscovered one of the biggest superhit songs of all time, that Aalam wrote and Niazi composed: “तुम तो ठहरे परदेसी साथ क्या निभाओगे”
Nobody knew Aalam even after the song became the biggest superhit of the mid nineties, though its singer Altaf Raja, whose guru Niazi was, became a household name. Life, as they say, is like that only.
Browsing through the compact disc (CDs) at Rhythm House (Mumbai's most famous music shop. Oh Yes, I still buy CDs) late on Saturday evening I suddenly came across this familiar looking cover in blue and yellow with pictures of Aamir Khan and Karishma Kapoor on it.
It took me no time to realise that I had rediscovered “तुम तो ठहरे परदेसी” the album, after all these years.
My mind went back to a day in 1996, when standing outside G.E.L Church Shopping Complex( the closest Ranchi had to a shopping complex) I first heard a paanwaala play the song full blast.
“एकदम superhit गाना है सर. पच्चीस रुपैये का cassette तीस रुपैये मैं black कर रहे हैं” he told me.
On that day, I was lucky to have some money in my wallet and I convinced the guy to part with the last piece that he had for twenty five rupees only.
Over the next two days I played the song full blast at home on the National Tape Recorder that I had, much to the irritation of my mother and sister. Like most females, they were firmly of the opinion that the song was clearly meant for autowallahs and rickshawallas, not for gentry like us.
The superhit song ensured that the album went onto become the biggest selling non film album of all time in India. It sold around 1 crore copies back then. A huge number. And clearly, everybody who bought the album couldn't have been an auto or a rickshawalla.
What is amazing is that the album when it was originally released had been named “पंगा ले लिया" based on another song in the album and possibly the worst song in the album.
The producers of the album Venus Records and Tapes quickly realised after the release of the album that another song in the album had become a big hit. And that song of course was “तुम तो ठहरे परदेसी साथ क्या निभाओगे”
It took them no time to repackage and relaunch the album with the name “तुम तो ठहरे परदेसी” And the rest as we all know is history.
Altaf Raja over the next few years released more albums, and even starred as himself, in a whole lot of Mithun Chakraborty movies, including one called “चंडाल,” in which he sang the superhit qawali “इश्क और प्यार का मज्जा लीजिये थोड़े इंतज़ार का मज्जा लीजिये”
Even with all the success he saw, “तुम तो ठहरे परदेसी साथ क्या निभाओगे,” remained his biggest hit. And as normally happens with such huge successes, once the impact of his original hit died down, he also disappeared from the scene.
Aalam and Niyazi of course must have continued with their lives, I assume. The Wikipedia entry on Raja tells me that Niyazi is now dead. Aalam, if he is still around, must be continuing with his nondescript, unassuming life, I guess. Given that India has very weak royalty norms, I have my doubts on how much these guys would have really gained out of the song becoming a huge superhit.
But what I will always remember Aalam for is one of the many couplets that keep popping up in the “तुम तो ठहरे परदेसी साथ क्या निभाओगे”

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