Purposeful Music: The Blog

कह दो

2023-08-01T00:43:00.002-07:00

तुम बिन कौन लेत खबर मोरी

2022-05-21T22:56:00.004-07:00

An enjoyable rendering, and a powerful appeal to God, of a Shivranjani composition of only four lines of lyrics. Rough translation:

"Who else is concerned about me,
You are the lord — Swami — of everyone, in everyone.
My boat is stuck in a vortex
Please get me out to a shore, God."

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नाम गुम जाएगा ... मेरी आवाज़ ही पहचान है — Lata Mangeshkar (1929-2022)

2022-02-08T17:02:00.003-08:00

Bharat Ratna Lata Mangeshkar is no more. It is unfortunate that she succumbed to COVID-19. Of the several thousands of songs she sung in her career, this particular song stands out in my mind as a unique memory of Lata Mangeshkar.

नाम गुम जाएगा ... मेरी आवाज़ ही पहचान है

Approximately translated: "Name will be forgotten ... my voice is the only identity". (This video is pictured on Jeetendra, Hema Malini and Dharmendra, but the meaning is applicable to Lata Mangeshkar's life as well, it seems to me).

She has provided the world with evergreen songs and singing ... May her soul rest in peace.

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याद किया दिल ने कहाँ हो तुम

2022-01-11T21:10:00.000-08:00

Very easy to understand lyrics:

याद किया दिल ने कहाँ हो तुम

...

प्यार से पुकार लो जहाँ हो तुम

Sentiment ordinary people can relate to.

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ಸಗ್ಗದ ಸಿರಿ ಬಂತೊ ನಮ್ಮೂರಿಗೆ

2020-07-28T19:29:00.002-07:00

A song welcoming the Spring.

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तेरे बिना ज़िन्दगी से कोई शिकवा

2018-11-01T04:22:00.000-07:00

A particular phrase in this song caught my attention as I listened to it recently (I first listened to it when the movie got released, in 1975, when my knowledge of Hindi was a lot more rudimentary than what it is today):

तुम गर साथ हो, मंज़िलों की, कमी तो नहीं

The lyrics describe how a human being can feel empowered in another's presence, a powerful sentiment: "If you are with me, there is no limit to where we can go".

Considerable background to this song is provided in a blog post on the Internet: TERE BINA ZINDAGI SE KOI SHIKWA LYRICS AND TRANSLATION: LET’S LEARN URDU-HINDI

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फिर भी तुमको चाहूँगा

2017-05-17T23:41:00.000-07:00

Bollywood lyricists are good at making use of metaphors and similes. Observe what male sings:

You are as important to me as air is to breath (life)
I look for you as the feet look for the ground (for stability)

If you take the meaning in a literal way, you can run into trouble!

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ज़ालिमा

2017-01-24T19:17:00.000-08:00

Good melody. If you catch on to the melody once, you feel like listening to it over and over again.

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आज जाने की ज़िद न करो

2016-12-24T11:42:00.000-08:00

A powerful, and deep, sentiment is expressed in this song. It appears that the female lover is pleading that the lover must not leave ... but, the pleading can be between any two human beings, particularly if the intensity of the sentiment is very strong and deep: ... हाय मर जाएंगे, हम तो लुट जाएंगे ... (I'll die if you leave, I'll be devastated ...)

Lyrics are rendered with almost every word getting its full import by the manner in which it is sung.

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सनम रे

2016-02-26T23:08:00.001-08:00

Nice lyrics through which the male lover describes his love. Arijit Singh's voice seems to add a special touch; equally pleasant is the tabla accompaniment.

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ಕರುಣಾಕರ ನೀ

2016-01-26T23:26:00.000-08:00

This is another composition by ಪುರಂದರದಾಸ that starts off with cynicism [about God], but ends up accepting God with surrender. (The other cynical composition is ಸತ್ಯವಂತರಿಗೆ ಇದು ಕಾಲವಲ್ಲ).

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जलते दिये

2015-12-15T08:44:00.002-08:00

Nice love song that has in it some irony: The girl wishes that she is with her lover; but, the boy seems to disagree. (As of this blog post, I have not seen the movie).

The lyricist has used the lamp's light metaphor to describe the female's love; the male uses the same metaphor to point out that the flames of a lamp can also burn, create stains, ...

Beautifully woven lyrics.

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गेरुआ

2015-12-07T10:25:00.002-08:00

This song portrays love with several metaphors, some of which are highlighted below:

"... wherever we met, time stood still." Time stood still is a sensation many poets have written about; the particular manner Deepak Chopra describes this feeling regarding love comes to mind.
"Forgetting the [rest of the] world, I have met you. This wish has come forth of my heart ... that you give me — i.e., my life — the gerua color ...". Color is how many people describe liveliness, equating colorlessness with lack of life.
"... I am the caravan, you are the destination to which every path leads." Bollywood lyricists equate the state of love to a desirable destination including, of course, the ultimate destination of reaching God.

Nice music, invites repeated listening.

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ನನ್ನ ನಿನ್ನ ಉಸಿರೊಂದಾಗಿ ... ನಾನುಸಿರಾಡಿದೆ

2015-12-05T11:02:00.000-08:00

This is a Kannada adaptation, by one of my friends, of the song साँस में तेरी साँस मिली तो from the Yash Chopra movie, जब तक है जान.

Try singing the Kannada lyrics to the tune of the Hindi song.

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भर दो झोली मेरी

2015-12-05T10:53:00.000-08:00

A fervent appeal, as most such appeals are, to God. भर दो झोली is used as a metaphor for achieving unity with God, although in the form of a more mundane gratification.

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हमारी अधूरी कहानी ...

2015-08-07T23:26:00.002-07:00

A nice adaptation of this song appears in an Indian soap opera — कुंकुम भाग्य — which is where I first heard the song.

The feeling imparted by Arijit in his singing is immensely felt by the listener.

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कैसी पहेली ज़िन्दगानी

2015-05-29T19:34:00.004-07:00

When you watch Aratrika Dey present this song on Sa Re Ga Ma Pa North America 2015 to become the winner, one of the thoughts you would get is to find out about the original track.

The original is a song sung by Sunidhi Chauhan, and pictured on Rekha, in the movie Parineeta. (Hyperlink for the original is with the button below).

For a teenager, Aratrika does an excellent job of presenting the song, very reminiscent of the original.

Bollywood certainly has a style of presenting life's philosophies in unexpected places: in a night club, in this case.

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पन्ना की तमन्ना है के हीरा मुझे मिल जाए

2015-04-22T01:03:00.000-07:00

This song is a memorable one for its lilting tunes that an R D Burman and Kishore Kumar combination used to bring out in the 1970s.

Of course, if you know the story, you can detect the double entedre too.

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याद किया दिल ने, कहाँ हो तुम?

2015-04-21T23:29:00.000-07:00

In this song, the female lover expresses her feeling thus: ...

... मतलबी जहां, मेहरबान हो तुम

Don't we all value selfless behavior, romance or otherwise?

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ज़िंदगी प्यार का गीत है, हर दिल को गाना पडेगा

2015-03-28T22:07:00.002-07:00

Another weaving of a sad context with lilting music, Bollywood style. It is quite philosophical in every stanza, showing the two different sides of life, the good and the not so good.

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ಕೃಷ್ಣನಾ ಕೊಳಲಿನಾ ಕರೆ

2015-03-01T22:36:00.000-08:00

The mesmerizing sound of Lord Krishna's flute is described through the act of a housewife running towards the source of sound, abandoning the all-important house work ... That the raga ♫भैरवी, or ♫ಸಿಂಧು ಭೈರವಿ, has been chosen to bring out the lyrical essence visualized by the poet, ಪು ತಿ ನ, is noteworthy.

Acknowledgments are due to my dear friend, Alamelu Iyengar, the poet's daughter, for helping me present the correct lyrics. (Disclaimer: If mistakes still exist, you can attribute them to me, the blog post author).

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चिंगारी कोई भड़के, तो सावन उसे बुझाए

2015-01-31T09:10:00.002-08:00

When you discover some good characteristic about a matter than you knew previously, there is a certain immense pleasure.

I first heard this song nearly four decades ago. Even though I liked the song, and even hummed it on occasion, I didn't know that it is in Raag Bhairavi; neither did I know it projected a certain sadness by invoking the ideas in proverbs such as the Fox Guarding the Hen house.

There is a Kannada proverb with a similar import: ಬೇಲಿಯೇ ಎದ್ದು ಹೊಲ ಮೇಯ್ದರೆ

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आगे भी जाने न तू, पीछे भी जाने न तू

2015-01-24T00:33:00.001-08:00

When you hear an instrumental of this song, as I did tonight, it seems to be more poignant in reaching you. It is true, isn't it, that you don't know what the future holds, and you don't quite know why certain things happened in the past? This song reminds you that all there really is, is the present. The song exhorts that listener "to seize the present to fulfill the wishes'.

A Bollywood version of Carpe diem.

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सुमिरण कर ले मेरे मना

2015-01-10T01:38:00.001-08:00

A moving rendering of the Guru Nanak composition by Pt. Jasraj. The Guru exhorts:

"Meditate on the Lord, Oh my mind,
Otherwise, your life will be over without the Lord's name."

The first video (1988) is a concert to present, along with Smt. M S Subbulakshmi, Mahatma Gandhi's favorites. This particular number starts at 10:15 in the video.

There is another rendering (2004) Pt. Jasraj has provided along with Kavita Krishnamurthy and Dr. L. Subramanian.

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कैसे कहें हम प्यार ने हमको ...

2014-11-03T03:37:00.001-08:00

Kishore Kumar brings out, very powerfully, the despair of a lover.

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