Gotta love life eh? Just when you're down, it'll kick you in the teeth. Just to make the experience more unforgettable...
And right about now, the song on the radio says "One love...I will survive...". Ugh. As if I wasn't in enough pain already.
In the 80's, it was very cool to ask "What's your sign?". It was a while before I learnt that showing the finger was not considered the appropriate response. Apparently the "sign" was not a cool gesture you made with your hands / fingers (oh silly me, what was I thinking...). The "sign" apparently has something to do with Linda Goodman's legacy to impressionable teenagers, giving them their first taste of obsession. Yes, like Scorpio and Virgo and the rest.
Round about the time I was the age it was cool to ask "what kind of music do you listen to", the top 4 responses among those polled were 'heavy / death metal', 'raack', 'anything', and 'old hindi songs'. I'm itching to talk about the kinds of people who said the first 3 things, but today, it will be the oldie fans. These people tended to be of a few types - some who really enjoyed the lyrics and the music, some who never heard anything else, some who only said so because they thought it was cool, and some who didn't understand 'raack' and chose the safe option.
Now, I had my own opinions on these kinds of people, but from that time to this, every so often, I re-discover my own love for some of the 'oldies'. I only have a handful of favourites, but these are songs I keep coming back to. The simplicity of the music, the language, the meaning, and the rhyming patterns. Of course, the best songs are basically poetry, converted to songs by absolute masters of the art. Ya gotta admit, there just aint no language in the world to match Urdu, when it comes to sheer imagery, and expression of love and pain.
I have been really tripping on a few for the past couple of days, singing and playing them again and again and again...it's amazing how the words just roll off the tongue and leave such a wonderful aftertaste.
"Waqt ne kiya kya haseen sitam, tum rahe na tum, hum rahe na hum..."
"Aasoon bhari hain yeh jeevan ki raahein, koi unse keh dein hamein bhool jaayein..."
"Woh shaam kuch ajeeb thi..."and I am always floored by the music of Mughal-E-Azam.
Songs like these always take me away to beautiful places and mindspaces...
...and I am rudely brought back by the radio playing
"maine sykal se jaa ra tha, une motar se aari thiii..."Oh the pain, the
pain!
^
