I remember one of my cousins visiting us in Bombay and showing us his newly acquired taste buds, particularly his love for the then popular English pop bands.
I was about 13 then was not used to anything other than cricket and Hindi movies. It was a good experience listening to all the Phil Collins and George Michael that my mom and cousin fed me with. In addition to all such music I have also grown up on a healthy diet of Rabindra Sangeet. A characteristic heart breaking tune followed by some haunting way of doing the vocals- that was Rabindra Sangeet for me as I did not understand one word of what those howlers meant. It was somewhat like the French Opera for me and went like OOaaaaahhhhh eeeeeeeaaaaaooo. God knows what it means and how it had this ability to make listeners sway gently with wet eyes.
Any ways coming back to my cousin- he had a particular liking for Sad Songs sung by Kishore. Listening to those from morning to day certainly drove me out of the house. As if the existing sadness of financial difficulties in my spaceless Bombay flat wasn't less and here I am being fed with sad songs of kishore. I went with mom to buy a new album released by Pet Shop Boys and to generally check out the best in English Music scene. The only shop that time was a small 30 sqft shop inside a shopping centre outside Borivili railway station. After me and mom reached the shop I bumped into a crowd frenzy going through all the cassette volumes from old hindi movie singers and boy o boy it was selling like hot cakes. I asked the gujarati shop owner which is the best selling Item and he poured heaps over us all cassette volumes of all the sad songs of mukesh, sad songs of kishore and sad songs of rafi.
The frantic music lovers scrambled all the volumes of these cassettes and even enquired about some sad songs which were not featured. I wondered while watching their sadness enticed stupor, how can these people remember so many sad numbers belted out by the singers. Songs on moments that are commentary on sad emotions, socio economics, broken hearts, friendship, life being a bitch and so on and so forth. Movies and literature in this country flourish on sadness. Sadness is a hit here and I am trying very hard not to remain sad in life. Like in the movie Transporter the French inspector says that all Russians are lovers of sad literature quoting Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Gogol and more. Similarly I realise the Indian literary scene is induced by sadness. Scores of Bengali novels read out to me have a terrible tragedy to narrate.
Pather Panchali- A movie trilogy inspired from the works of Vibhuti Bhushan Bandopadhya, speaks of a family effected by famine and hunger. Sharat Chandra Chattopadhya made a drunk character famous by killing this character in the end. Similarly there are scores of literary works available in this land that speak of terrible sadness. I wonder where this sort of appreciation of sadness comes from. Some of my favourite sad songs include only hindi numbers. My favourites include kishores koi hota jisko apna hum apna kehe lete yaroo, then the famous amar prem song- kuch to log kahenge, logo ka kaam hai kehena. The song though a commentary on the sad nature invariably brings a smile on my face. The song twists and turns as you go through the painting of the lyrics. It goes- Tu kaun hai tera naam hai kya, Sita bhi yahaan Badnaam hui meaning who are you bye the way to ponder so much on society, as such this wretched society had not spared none other than mother SITA.
The movie Anand and all of its songs remain my favourite despite churning up emotions of sadness and hope every time I watch it. Appreciate all the works which give me goose bumps and make the Indianans inside me more profound as thanks to all their works I am at least able to identify with the Indian flavour of sadness. Essentially all such works are in either Hindi or Bengali but none in English.
So much so for all of us embracing the English, I thing all of us must not loose touch with our mainstream. One thing for sure, crying thoughts are always in Bangla for me.
