My head bobs lightly to the strings of "O sanam" sung in the chocolate voice of Lucky Ali.This guy's voice is so chocolaty , listening to him for too long can get you cavities in your teeth.But this is a blissful time.Past midnight.A hot cup of coffee. No one planning to beat me up. A Swiss chocolate bar lying on my table. And my name managed to crop up in the passing list of CA Final a couple of days ago .And even though the playlist has started with "who let the dogs out" after kicking out "O Sanam" , life is fine right now.
The media player on my computer must be ready to file an over exploitation petition by now. I study, and it plays. I sleep , and it plays.I am in the bathroom , and it plays.I watch TV, and it plays. If media player had fingers , all ten of them must be pointing towards the cross on the right hand top corner of its face by now.
But to be honest , if lack of knowledge of music is a handicap , I am paralysed with both my arms and both my legs missing. You need to understand my upbringing. No cable connection at home, till 1995. My dad, 9s the type of person who would wonder if K.L.Saigal, which sounds a familiar name , is the name of one of his clients . Mom only listened to “Akashwaani” on radio. And if asked on a bad day , they may even identify Elvis as being the president of
So all I had even remotely related to music was 6 audio cassettes of Jagjeet singh ( Dad's music "collection") , chitrahaar and Rangoli and some other Countdown shows on doordarshan , and a radio -cum-cassette player which , with its perfectly rectangular face and the plastic handle on its top , looked like a little suitcase.Of course , dad used to sing in the Bathroom , that too only on Sundays , but lets not count that.
So i grew up with minimal exposure to music. The early years were fine.Little kids anyways sing only "Jack and Jill" and something like 'Ring-a-Ring-a-Roses" , If I remember right.But by the time I stepped into the teens , Cable TV had entered most Indians home , with our home being a silent exception. And my classmates had begun to watch MTV and such things. Suddenly , humming to the tune of "Sardee Khansee na Malaria hua , Lovaria hua " from "Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman" was no longer "cool". When I was in class 11th , a girl in my class asked me if I listened to Bryan Adams. I told her I listen to my mom only. During the school farewell we gave our seniors, a bunch of boys got terribly excited. They formed a little huddle and shouted "Alice.Alice.Who the f**k is
Later in college, I got a computer. The old radio-cum-cassette player was given a proper burial and the gleaming new HP pavilion was unveiled to me in a dramatic fashion. The two speakers standing on either side of the screen seemed to blaring to me "La la ...of your ignorance this is the end , listen to music my friend..la ra ra".
It sure ushered in a little music revolution in my life. But I was like getting on a bicycle when most others were driving a car .So now when others are flying around in planes , I am driving the car. I am still very much "Desi" in my musical habits. Lucky Ali. Pritam,
So I keep reverting back to Hindi Music. While the room to my left blares 'Shaggy' and the room to my right drools 'Aerosmith' , it’s a ignorant and confused Hrithik Roshan asking questions about love and then crooning "Na tum jaano na hum" from the movie "Kaho Na Pyar Hai" in my part of the world. And its all right this way. But if someone asks me "Hey , how do you find Black Eyed Peas ? " ( Its another music band ... I think) , you may just hear me saying "Cant say ..never eaten them ..u like them, why are they called black eyed ?".And I am still confused if its Led Zeppelin or Zed Leppelin.
2 comments:
I always knew you didn't like international music, didn't know you felt the need to justify it... Also not being exposed to music during childhood [even if you were just trying to be funny ;)] isn't the reason you don't like international music...
Oh my god,
Didn't know this. Even I experienced something of this sort in my teens. During my school socials when "all cool gals and girls " knew the conventional dance steps of "Mysterious girl" and "Makarena." I was familiarising myself to these Greek lyrics
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