Phaili Hui Hai Sapnon Ki Raahen

A melody that keeps me haunting since when I do not know. All that I remember is our 'Cosmic Radio' which my father was so fond of. Every day he'd  come back home from office, have a shower followed by a cup of tea and snacks after which it was his time to listen to the radio. The radio used to be in the sitting room, but he had an extension from it, in form of a speaker attached to a long wire which used to help him carry the same in the other rooms .By the time he was completely relaxed with his radio on and the day's newspaper in hand, we brothers too would be relieved from our studies and homeworks and it was time for us too, to go and lie down beside father and listen to the radio.Perhaps that was how chatterbox got into my blood and would be taking up as a profession much later.

One such evening, I remember, father came back home completely drenched. It was raining heavily that day. It was so fun to watch him completely drenched. It was a matter of envy too for us, knowing no one would let us go out in rain and get drenched like him. Felt, being a grown up was so good.

That very evening, after father had changed and had his tea, as usual he switched on the radio. The song which was playing then was "Phaili hui hai sapnon ki baahen   " and that was the frst time I had heard the song. I was just a kid who was 12 years old. Do not know why...a strange feeling ran through my entire body. It was a unique song to me. Why, I didn't know...but yes...since then I never forgot it. Neither the song, nor the moment. The rain...an evening....father sitting beside the radio...sorrounding him we two brothers...and the song...

"Yaadon Ki Baraat Nikli Hai"

An evergreen number which takes me back to the year 1974, when we had just shifted to this small industrial town in Haryana, called Bhiwani. The town had three textile milss and in one of which my father had just joined. Bhiwani wasn't so great for us (at least for me and my younger brother). Quite natural for a 10 years old who has been uprooted from his birth place where he has left behind his school, his friends and all that a 10 years could long for.
Coming during a mid-session had also kept me and my brother in a home confinement since the admissions for the new session would take three more months. This part of northern India had an extreme sort of climate. With scorching heat during summer and chilling winters the only place to be was to be indoors. Being landed up in a new place, we hardly had any friends and thus only friend who you could bank upon was the radio.
It became a regular habit to switch on to radio ceylone in the morning (as early as 7.30 in the morning), and keep listening till 9.oo am at least. the 7.30 - 8.00 am was a slot called 'Purane filmo ke geet' and 8.00 to 9.00 in the morning the programme was called 'Aap hi ke geet'. It used to be a very popular morning prime time show which played all the new numbers. It is in this show I had heard a song from the then newly released movie called 'Yaadon Ki Baraat'. And the song was the title number of the movie.
This song always reminds me of Bhiwani and that small flat, provided by the company, where we lived in. A cold december morning, thickly wrapped in fog. A room heater sorrounded by all in the sitting room. radio in the other room and the song on-air 'Yaadon ki baraat nikli hai aaj dil ke dwaare...'

"Phoolon Ka Taaron Ka" - Kishore Kumar

This song again takes me to the early childhood days in Faridabad. One fine evening me and my younger brother were studying in the sitting room when at around 8 in the evening, Baba came home. He was late to return from office since in the afternoon he had gone to Delhi (just an hours drive from Faridabad) with some work. When he entered, we both the brothers saw a shopping bag kind of a stuff in his hand and we were naturally curious to see what was in it. Both of us dashed from our study table to snatch it from his hand to see what was in side. What he pulled out was for a second not something very appealing to us. It was a bunch of 45 r.p.m.music records. In the whole lot there was one album which drew our attention. The album of the movie Hare Rama Hare Krishna. Since the rest were all bengali records, we were more interested in listening to this movie stuff.

The album had four songs. Side A had Phoolon Ka Taaron Ka by Kishore kumar and Kanchi Re Kanchi Re by Kishore Kumar & Lata Mangeshkar. The side B had two more songs Dum Maro Dum by Usha Iyer (today's Usha Uthup) and again the female version of Phoolon Ka Taaron Ka by Lata Mangeshkar. My favorite number of that album was Phoolon Ka Taaron Ka by KIshore Kumar. I remember playing the song for maybe 100 times each day and still found it fresh whenever I played it next.

Later on I would be seeing the movie and the situation would make the song more appealing. Much later I would be going to Kathmandu with a job and would be staying there for about seven years. Phoolon Ka Taaron Ka then would get more closer to my heart.

When first I had heard the song, did I ever dream that I would once go to the city where it was shot ? Starnge. But the fact is, whenever I hear the song, it reminds me not of Kathmandu or the movie, but my home in Faridabad and the room where one day Baba had entered with a packet. The packet which had a brand new album of the record "Hare Rama Hare Krishna".


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"Naam Ghum Jayega" - Lata Mangeshkar & Bhupinder Singh

City of the Holkar kings...Indore, Madhya Pradesh. The year was 1975...or was it 76 ? A speeding auto with two schoolchildren, from Snehalata ganj, was heading towards St. Paul's H.S. School on Boundary Road. Suddenly it comes to halt on Yeshwant Niwas Road near Lantern Hotel. The reason was a traffic jam in front of the hotel. A film crew with a few stars from bollywood, who had been staying in this hotel, were leaving and were heading for Mandu, a small historical town perched on the vindhya ranges, about a 100 kms from Indore. They were going to shoot a movie with Mandu Palace in the backdrop.

The older of the two kids in the auto was eager to have a glance of a 'bollywood star' and he wasted no time in jumping out of the autorickshaw and dashing straight to the gates of Lantern Hotel. He managed to push through the crowd and the first glimpse he got was of a white kurta-pyjama clad man wearing spectacles. It was only a year later he got to know that this person whom he had seen in front of Lantern Hotel was named Gulzar and was the director of the movie named "Kinara" which was shot partly in Mandu. It was much later when he got to see this movie which had excellent songs. But the best one in his opinion was "Naam Ghum Jayega, Chehra Yun Badal Jayega...".

That kid was me.

Surprisingly in this case the song is associated with Lantern Hotel on Yeshwant Niwas Road of Indore. Though the Lantern Hotel experience had nothing to do with the song. Only that I had for the first time seen Gulzar Ji here who incidentally was the director of the movie, which there again had the song. Strange....and not only this, later on in my life in two situations I had the opportunity to meet Gulzar Ji and there too in this two cases, it reminded me of Hotel Lantern. Which actually makes sense. But how Naam Ghum Jayega got associated with this picture, I do not know. Even I dont remember the day when I first heard the song or the day when I first saw the movie. Wierd is the mind which behaves strange at times.

Even this day, when I hear this song, I see a misty morning in Indore...a small kid in the crowd....trying hard to get a glimpse of a bollywood 'star' without knowing that one day he would be a die-hard fan of this person.

"Chand Mera Dil " - Mohd Rafi

It was not before the year 1978 that I could prove that 'Hum Kisise Kum Nahin'. This was the year when I first got the taste of watching a movie all alone. Till then it was either through the school, a trip to watch a movie or going with parents / relatives to watch one.

In fact this also was the D-day when I first experienced smoking in public all alone. Though I know I looked ridiculous because everyone else, but me, could see only a young boy smoking.

The first movie which I went to see alone was "Hum Kisise Kum Nahin". It was all for that one simple song which still is on the top of my personal chart buster.

Perhaps that one movie brought Tariq & Kajal Kiran to fame. After which they were "Hum Mein Koi Dum Nahin". Jokes apart...

It was in Indore and it was an evening show I had gone for, though I dont remember the name of the theatre.

It has been years that I had been to Indore. not once after we left in the year 1980. Perhaps a shopping mall has come up in place of that cinema hall...maybe a four screen multiplex has come up in place of that theatre where they must be screening some Aamir Khan stuff today. : )

Hum Kisise Kum Nahin :

Directed by
Nasir Hussain
Produced by
Nasir Hussain
Written by
Sachin Bhowmick
Starring
Rishi Kapoor, Zeenat Aman, Amjad Khan, Kaajal Kiran
Music by
R.D. Burman
Cinematography
Munir Khan

"Raat kali ek khwab mein aayee" - Kishore Kumar

It was monsoon...monsoon of '72.

Location...1c/18, Nissen Hut, Faridabad.

This small house where we lived was called Nissen Hut. The whole locality had Nissen Huts. In fact Faridabad had quite a few such huts which were actually part of the military barracks created during the second world war, I suppose. The huts had six ft wall covered with a round tin roofs. From a distance they looked like semi-cylindrical structures placed in a row. The monsoons used to be fun because when it rained, the drops danced on these tin roofs and created a rythmic noisy concert. You could hardly hear each others conversation inside the room, when it showered heavily.

And on one such rainy afternoon I had heard this song by Kishore Kumar from the movie Buddha Mil Gaya..."Raat Kali Ek Khwaab Mein Aayee..." on a huge valve set which was proudly possessed by my father. It was called 'Cosmic'. A brand which was popular, a little before the Bush & Murphy age.

There is no reason for this song to have an association with the daypart when I had heard. It had neither anything to do with the season, nor the day it, but even this day whenever I hear this song it reminds me of that lazy monsoon afternoon in this town in Haryana.

We all know that the lead male role was played by Navin Nishchal. Can anybody say who played the lead female role ? Her name was Archana. Did anyone see her again on silver screen?

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"Dheeray dheeray machal" - Lata Mangeshkar

The earliest memory that I have of music is of a summer evening in a small industrial town in Haryana, where my father lived (with his small family) to earn his living. I dont remember how old was I, but I can say that I surely was a kindergarten kid then.

We all were sitting in the verandah and the radio in the sitting room played a Lata Mangeshkar number (Vividh Bharati ?). The song was "Dheeray dheeray machal ae dil-e beqarar, koi aata hai". Even this day, whenever and wherever I listen to this song, it reminds me of that particular evening in Faridabad (yeah, that was the name of this town where I lived...in fact was born too) and various pictures associated with it. Ma in the kitchen preparing dinner, my younger brother on my father's lap busy with a small piece of toy. Sen kaku and Baba, my father, sitting relaxed on cane chairs and talking to each other over a cup of tea.

True, that this is my earliest memory of any music but the fact is that each and every song that I grew up to, has a picture, a memory and a story attached to it.

Surprisingly, music also becomes an album, at times.