Of songs and memories

Last weekend I was listening to a song from Minnale called Ore Nyabagam and I felt this sudden urge to go hug V. Why, you ask? Well, this was “our song” during the four years of long distance (whole other story). The lyrics were as if someone had us in their mind… it was like this song was written just for us. So as I was listening to it, it took me back to those days when I used to spend many a weekend listening to this song and humming along wondering what it would’ve been like if I had my boyfriend right there with me and then I saw him sitting there on the couch reading the newspaper… and hence the urge to give him a hug!

That got me thinking… just by listening to a song, I was transported for a brief minute to our house in Hyderabad, my room, and even felt like I was missing V terribly… its true that some songs possess this magical quality of bringing back certain memories that I associate with them. Sometimes it’s the other way … when I think of some incident I always remember a song that was either playing in the background or that I was singing, etc. I wonder if there’s any one else out there who have similar connections with songs… Anyway I thought why not make a list with songs and the corresponding memories attached to it.

The earliest memory of mine is of a Malayalam lullaby called Omana thingal kidavo that my dad used to sing when I was about 3 years old. I still remember the tiny one bedroom house that we used to live in Trichur and me sitting on my dad’s lap, after dinner, my head resting on his chest and eyelids barely open.

My summer holidays were always divided equally a month at Chennai and a month at Kerala. Two completely different atmospheres –

Chennai was time for me to get pampered rotten as I was the only grandchild (then) and niece on my mom’s side of the family. My mom’s youngest sister was probably in her 12th standard at that time… and she listened to all “cool English songs” and then some Hindi. I remember one evening my aunt had rented a videotape of the movie Aradhna. I didn’t really understand too much of what was going on, however I was hooked on to the song “mere sapno ki rani”… I butchered the song royally and bugged the cr*p out of everyone… I sang it as “mere sappunon kee raanni kabbuu aayyee geetu” I always thought it was geetu - as in a name geetu and not ayegi and tu as separate words.

Kerala was the other end of the spectrum; it was my dad’s family house. A big house, lot of extended family, no shortage for kids, very little adult supervision, lot of pranks and mischief, plenty of land for us to run around and play, a massive pond where we used to spend most of the humid days lazing like water buffalos. One of the most interesting times used to be when some of dad’s cousins or nieces/nephews would get married. The actual wedding always happened at the temple in Guruvayoor, no matter what. But the fun stuff like the pre wedding party for all bride's relatives and the post wedding party for the groom’s side happened at the house. And for one such event, it was while we were getting ready, that a cousin of mine played the tape of Aashiqui… and songs like Nazar ke samne, Dheere dheere se always take me back to that very tiny room full of my cousins and second cousins with grand dresses, some trying to comb hair, some trying to apply lipstick, smells of all kinds of perfumes and all of us sharing just one mirror. I associate lot of Malayalam songs with those carefree times, but the list is just too long!

Roja was the talk of the town when it came out, Mani Ratnam movies were always my mom’s weakness… added to that Roja offered a refreshingly new type of music. So off we went, my mom and I for watching Roja one afternoon. When we got out of the theater after the show, it was pouring cats and dogs… and as I was waiting in that crammed bus stop, I was humming in my head... “chinna chinna aasai..” To this day when I hum that song I remember standing soaking to my skin in that bus stop.

Then came my glorious college days… three years of full of fun... there are just way too many songs for me to pick. The one incident that makes smile always is… a night after an event at the college, all of us camped at a friend’s house, we were all lying on the floor half of us asleep… my friend A & I we sang in total rhythm in hushed tones all the songs of Dil to Pagal Hai.

Dil Se was another movie that we had all waited eagerly for and we were so disappointed angry and totally pissed when we heard that they played only the tamil version (Uyire) in Tamil Nadu. We had planned a class “field trip” to the theatre to watch Dil Se. I pity the others who had to watch the movie that day through all the noise we made. The best part was that every single song of the movie, there was a group of us singing Hindi version out loud, really loud.

All songs however don’t bring back wonderful memories… a song that I really dread is “akhiya milaoon kabhi akhiyan churaoon”, this was the song I was asked to prepare and sing for trying out for the music group at college… I have never sung a song so bad and out of tune and my voice never sounded that horrible ever before. To this day, this remains one memory that I want to wipe off my head.

Aaye ho mere zindagi mein, was a song I used to love, until I sang it so many times that I completely detest it. But if I dig deep within, I remember fondly the first time I sang this song for a group of friends… We bunked our afternoon session of classes and a group of us piled up in two cars and drove to Kotagiri, a place famous for tea plantations… a friend of ours knew someone there taking care of an estate. It was one of the best bunking college memory I have. God knows how long we sat on a rock overlooking the beautiful lush green estate that stretched as far as the eye could see and that was when I sang the song…It was a wonderful feeling; being with friends, no one talking, all of us engrossed in our own thoughts…

Faza bhi hai from Nikkah always reminds of my room mate, Sanjivita.... Every evening when she got back from work, she would switch on her favorite collection of old songs... and that was the first time I heard the different but beautiful voice of Salma Agha... As much as I wanted to hear more of her voice, I was sort of disappointed that faza bhi hai was really the only one I liked.

There are many many more songs, like when I first listened to Carpenters or Cliff Richards, or how my aunt made me watch the video of Thriller, a class mate of mine rendering Hotel California with his amazingly awesome voice and his super skills with his guitar... so was the time he sang pyar ke pal by KK... anyway, I'll leave you with this last one - Kuch to hua hai, from Kal ho na ho… this song always brings back memories of my wedding… It takes me back to the last few months of hanging around at my parent’s home, reading books, watching TV, chatting with mom endlessly and day dreaming about my life ahead with V…

Short Story

Nalini was proud to have the car all to herself; she could listen to music that she liked without her dad yelling at her “focus, FOCUS, Nalini!” She felt independent, strong and confident.

Being an only child, Nalini’s parents were over protective about her. They’d freak out if she didn’t show up home on time, so she had to call them every time there was a plan change or delay at work. Tonight, was different it was all worked out. Her parents won’t be worried about her, as they knew she’ll be coming late and that a friend, Preeti would be accompanying her on her way back from the party. Preeti lived two streets away and that put everyone at ease. Everything was going per plan and for once Nalini was not worried about the time or calling home. Only, Preeti decided to stay back a while longer and have her boyfriend drop her home instead.

It was her very good friend’s wedding party. She had so much fun catching up with some of her old classmates. It was past midnight now and she was driving down East Coast Road (ECR)… she turned up the volume on the radio and hummed along “endrendrum punnagai” She was in half a mind to roll her windows down and let the breeze from the near by sea in, but she decided against it. She was approaching a shady stretch of road ahead. Lorry drivers and roadside shacks and lot of drunkards. She kept her cool, what can happen when she is inside the car. Her palms were getting a little sweaty as she approached the red signal smack beside a “Wine Shop”. There were quite a few drunken men making noise on the road… she was relieved when the lights turned green and soon she was back in civilized neighborhoods.

A few kilometeres ahead, there was an intersection, she was completely confused which way to go... She had taken down directions in haste and Preeti had forgotten to mention this intersection. Luckily there was no one behind her, so she could get her bearings back and think about this. The area looked so deserted an empty, except few men smoking in front of a shop on the side. They stared at her shamelessly and Nalini quickly made up her mind… she couldn’t ask them for direction, they didn’t look trustworthy at all.. So she went with her instinct and turned left… not a good idea, there were potholes all over the place, there were no streetlights and at one point it just became a narrow mud road and then a dead end. Great, now she had to turn around… the road was so narrow that she had to turn and reverse multiple times… and at one point, the car went in to a pothole and she just couldn’t get it to move ahead. Her anxiety was not helping either. She noticed a few men ahead, starting to walk towards her car and she didn’t feel comfortable at all. They were in lungis and smoking beedis and they looked very unkempt. If only she could just get the car to move… she tried again, neutral, start, clutch, first gear, accelerate… and it was not enough, the car would jerk forward and stop. From the corner of her eye she saw that the guys were close by and they were talking and making some sort of signs to her. She closed her eyes took a deep breath… ignored them… until she saw that one guy had bent down and was staring at her through her window. She screamed and burst in to tears…. The guy kept knocking on the glass… she wiped her eyes and looked up… and then realized that they were signaling for her to calm down and roll the windows down. She didn’t know what to do, she went ahead and took the risk, and she rolled down the window... the guy asked her in Tamil… “Madam, where do you want to go? Looks like you are lost..tell me I can help you”. She blurted where she was headed and the guy calmly said that she was supposed to go right at the intersection and then pointing straight ahead he said “Madam, go straight past the signal and then third signal after that you will see Ganapati temple on your left, take a left there and that should put you on Mount Road. You know the way from there to your house?” She nodded and miraculously at that point she was able to get her car out of the big pothole and she drove past the men.

Later, when she was lying down on her bed, she kicked herself for not having thanked them.