Canto-I
If I ask you do you listen
to music, most of you would be furious. What a silly question. But if I ask what kinds of music you like,
then perhaps you would pause and say, well…well… songs only, wait I like
instrumental too…and a bit classical…but, of course, a lot of filmy songs. Well, I know, you know, most of us like this
or that kinds of songs, music etc. What differs from person to person is type
of songs.
But has it happened ever that you
have fallen so madly in long with a particular song that you have kept
listening to it again and again? So many times, that people around you got
irritated and declared you a maniac.
It might have happened with many of
you.
Also, has it happened with you that your
choice of songs have kept changing with the passage of time and different
stages of you life? The kind of songs you used to love once, you started to
hate or avoid after some years or after a particular age?
May be that would be the case with
some of you.
If it is not clear even now, what I
am trying to say, then I must present my case before you. I remember there was
a time, and that was at a very tender age, when I had nothing to do with
melancholy or nostalgia or love and separation, I had fallen in love with
Mohammad Rafi and Mukesh. Their sad songs soothed my heart. One of my friends,
used to say I had grown old without passing through teenage and adulthood.
Later, I came to a conclusion that perhaps it had to do with my sad and sick
childhood.
But that phase didn’t last long and
was soon overtaken by Kishore Kumar ‘jabbhi koi kangana khanke payal chanak jaye…’ and ‘Samne wali khidaki
main…’ He is superb. I still love him. But that time, it was perhaps impact of
a damsel in my high school, the seed of romanticism had been sown. And soon
Kishor da was overtaken by Udit Narayan, Alka Yagnik and Shabbir kumar.
Then the place changed: I migrated to Delhi and language also changed.
One of my friends introduced me to Bryan Adams. Not to singer but to his songs.
It didn’t take long, I was listening to his each songs ten times a day ,’
Whatever I do, I do for you,’ ‘Summer of Sixty nine.’ I remained almost one year under his spell,
when I suddenly fell in love with English country music.
Wait, I missed something. I don’t
think any of you have forgotten Titanic and how your heart went with it, with
magical voice of Celine Dion. She was a discovery for me, and later on I found
out she sings in French too. In fact, she is a Canadian singer from Quebec, a
French speaking region. It was during this period, one night I heard on TV, a
singer, named Barbara Streisand. What a magical voice!
Well, I said I had fallen in love
with country music. It started with Bob Dylan (Butterfly kisses) and my list
started getting longer and it became so long, perhaps it would not be possible
to mention everyone here. But Kenny Rogers (You decorated my life), Allan
Jackson (Pick Up Man) and Robbie Williams (Angels) had made huge impression on
my mind.
But I had yet to discover a very old
song that I would keep singing throughout 300 kilometer long bus journey to my home
town.
To be continued…
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