Every song, every album has a
memory attached to it – it may be the first time I heard the song, it could be
the song I sang to my loved one, or it could just be a song I heard with
friends over a drink. Given my really bad memory, I don’t remember a lot of
things, especially my past. But these songs take me back – take me back to that
time and usually I have an emotion attached and sometimes, miraculously I even
feel that emotion… I made a playlist for a party and I included Let’s Enjoy, The
Namesake and the Night Song in this playlist. I have
NO idea who stars in this Bollywood movie Let’s Enjoy, but for those who don’t know, it has a fabulous soundtrack.
Some of you may have heard Dhol Wajda; and trust me that’s the most mediocre
song in that album – there are some good fusion numbers by Midival Punditz and
a couple of good numbers by Ankush Tewari. You would have guessed that these
three albums have a fusion influence – and it was supposed to be a Indian fusion
playlist.
The
playlist being on shuffle I heard Let’s Enjoy first, then Namesake followed by Night
song, these albums have a slightly different chronology in my life (ofcourse
relevant to their releases). Night song reminds me of Namu’s apartment in
Colaba – a bunch of 18 year olds architecture students (me being the only
Accountant amongst them) listening to Nusrat Fateh Ali. This was one of the early exposure to fusion music. The Night song reminds me of days and nights spent in
‘town’, J.J. school of Architecture, trains to VT, rain dance party’s at US
club, and a teenager life – something which I thoroughly enjoyed… every bit of
it. Let’s Enjoy takes me to a 24 yr old boy, driving home every night from a
dream job in investment banking in a brand new car his father bought him for
becoming a Chartered Accountant; and every night trying to beat his own time of
driving from Churchgate to Prabhadevi. The Namesake happened
only 3 years later, but this time it was a 27 yr old man. And one thing which
The Namesake’s soundtrack reminds me of something I blogged about 5 years ago
- about how we try to live our 'lives' in this foreign land (and shown in the
bengali parties in the movie), celebrating festivals in complete fanfare (to
the extent of playing holi with colors & water), having elaborate weddings,
having the cricket or bollywood gup over booze or chai, only to realize that
once its time to go home, we have to take our large coats, drive out in left
hand drive cars and eventually sleep on spring mattresses!
And
while I type this another of my FAVORITE song plays in the background…
Waqt ki qaid mein zindagi hai magar
Chand ghariyaan yehi hain jo aazaad hain
Inko kho kar meri jaan-e-jaan
Umr bhar na taraste raho
