A lovely song-Sapno ke Saudagar- Forgotten melody -2

 

I thought of sharing a song from an old Hindi movie (Dil Hai ki Manta Nahin, 1991). This song is from a movie which has very melodic songs, sung by the singer Anuradha Poudwal, whose devotional songs of God were the ones I grew up listening to... Her voice is very unique and melodious. The reason I posted this particular song is that its comparatively lesser-known song from this movie, and I was always captivated by this song from my childhood....

First, the song, it can be heard here:

O Mere Sapnon Ke Saudagar (Full Song) | Dil Hai Ke Manta Nahin | Aamir Khan, Pooja Bhatt | T-Series

 The lyrics of the song are so simple and beautiful, and the song itself is very simple and beautiful. I wonder now how they created such cinematic masterpieces in that era as songs of this era or even some of their videos are replete with vulgarity or fakeness..

The song is actually a dream which the actress (played by Pooja Bhatt) has when she misses her bus (as she was running away from her house) and is resting by a tree and drifts off to sleep...The whole visuals of the song are one beautiful dream. What I found particularly fascinating was that she sees some man (but in a typical western outfit) on a white horse but we are not shown the face and she is confused and decides to follow and has to row her boat herself all the way in the lake, and when she finally reaches a cave, which is shown as some heavenly place with angels welcoming her and helping her to find her Prince she is dreaming of...And almost finally her patience is giving away, and she is saddened and sits on the edge in despair, and all of a sudden the magic happens and a beautifully dressed man appears (in an Arabic looking attire), radiating purity, and we are not shown his face (and this person is NOT the same person on the horse who led her to that long journey)...The specific shots from the song are here:

The lyrics of the song were what I found equally beautiful, as she asks this merchant of her dreams to take her to a place where there is only love. The lyrics are as follows:

O Mere Sapno Ke Saudagar Lyrics Translation | Dil Hai Ke Manta Nahin | Hindi Bollywood Songs

From the words of the song, it's clear that the actress asks this merchant of her dreams (the prince) to sing along with her, hinting that they both are singers or gifted with music...and then she talks of the moon and the stars reference which is very sweet...and it appears she desires heaven (or the Jannah) as that is the only place where there is nothing but love and angels sing/ or sing of praises...

The funny part is that when the actress wakes up from her beautiful dream in the movie, she misses her bus, but bumps into the actor of the movie (Aamir Khan), although he is no way a comparison to the enigmatic and shrouded person shown in the song...:)

Anyways, the purity, beauty, simplicity, and the melody and lyric of this lesser-known song are worth posting about here...

Keep dreaming...

Poem published: Nassau County Poetry Laureate Society (NCPLS) 2017

 

Sharing one of my poems that was published in the Nassau County Poetry Laureate Society (NCPLS) in the year 2017. The poem is as follows:

This poem was written  from a place /state/ feeling of complete darkness and feeling the heavy burden or suffocation if I may say from the world and its turbulences ( the waves), hence I  personified the pearl in the shell that is typically at the very bottom of ocean bed, ( and the fact that there is layer of shell locking it or imprisoning it already)

For some reason, I felt a resonance to the idea that is in one of the verses from the holy Quran (Surah An-Nur 24:40), that actually mentions about the deep darkness at the very depth of ocean and waves below waves (internal waves and turbulences) , and they liken that to be state of a disbeliever who longs for light...

I was in awe of this as I actually did not know about this verse when I composed my poem...but somehow the themes resonated.

Interestingly, I also stumbled upon a piece of music (see below the link) by a new age artist, but that for some reason evoked same emotions as my poem, hence I decided to share, the music is here:

Elijah Siegler - All the places I will never go 

Poem published: The Hands We Hold 2019

 

Sharing one of the poems I penned, that was selected for publication in the "The Hands We Hold", a poetry anthology in Long Island, in the year 2019. The criteria for submission of the set of poems were that that the poems had to be based on the theme of illness/cancer.

Anyhow, I initially was not sure if I want to post it (although it was already selected/ published) and as it's a sensitive topic on which I wrote and due to privacy reasons, I do not want to provide interpretations/ analysis. 

 I decided to post as ultimately it talks of inspiration and to keep the faith in God, no matter whichever form or faith...

Here is the poem:

The Twin Balance

"My dear twin sister

I always wished Lord Christ

to come and live inside my heart,

But instead, He gave me a

hole in my heart-

a congenital heart condition:

ventricular septal defect,

a small chunk of tissue

missing from the place.

And look at you,

your left breast closest to

your own heart

a small chunk of tissue,

overgrowing voraciously-

a diagnosis of invasive breast carcinoma.

 

An imbalance, a terrible mistake,

an aberrant error of nature

or a planned coincidence?

one in need and one in excess,

the misaligned balance -

a twisted infinity.

 

I visited you in the hospital the other day,

after your last chemotherapy,

with a soft bunch of synthetic hair

the color you like- dark brown,

you asked me to arrange to offer flowers to

Lord Shiva in the temple on your behalf,

Like the crescent moon adorning Lord Shiva's head

beauty is that which is not full but cut out,

like the breast in mastectomy, you had suggested,

and I asked you why you still

worshipped a God who could not be one with

his ardent devotee in times of pain,

Perhaps, Lord Shiva should also go through

human sufferings like my Lord Christ went,

and should understand pain of cancer

and feel like how it is to lose His hair

at which you remarked with a broken smile-

If Lord Shiva lost His hair

where would the holy Mother Ganges go,

who is held in Shiva's long locks,

whose gushing pure waters quench

mankind’s thirst on the earth?

Perhaps, if Mother Ganges got cancer

she would not need to worry about hair

and no one would identify her tears

for they would be mixed with the waters

which will flow through Shiva’s hair

adorning his beauty as well.

Shiva is keeping one mother safe

In His long locks just as Christ is keeping

one sister safe in the palm of His hand

Which has the hole from the cross…

Both of us are held by the highest God

In different ways, I realize now,

Let us remain united in faith,

A common cord connects both

Of our hearts even now…."

-Shilpi Goenka

 

A very beautiful Sufi Kalam....Vairagya

 Sharing a Sufi Kalam, which is very recent and was posted by the Rumi Rythm channel. This song and its lyrics were so profound that I had to post about it.

First, the song can be heard here: Vairagya | ویرَگ | Heart Touching Sufi Kalam – Ishq ka Sajda

What I found intriguing about this particular song is that although it is a Sufi song, it has themes of Vedic knowledge and Hinduism, moreover, the title "Vairagya" is actually a Sanskrit word that means detached/ without passion / colors...a state of mind which the Hindu religion teaches. The metaphors of the lotus and about the boat in the ocean and to be like the water that just flows without any attachment, are indeed what are the knowledge given in Hindu scriptures (Gita)...

Each line is so beautiful that again it felt like the lyricist/poet just wrote what one needs to hear...Somehow what I find amusing is that one of an earlier Sufi song (Chiraag bujhaye kaise) that I posted talked of the dilemma of the person how to go back to the world..and somehow, this song gives the answer to that question...

It talks of the detached attachment...and to just flow..and while in the worlds' affairs, keep the Beloved in the heart..

The lines I found too deep are 

"haath kaam main ho, aur dil yaar main

yehi tareeqa hai , is bazaar main."

*One interesting thing I noticed was the YouTube video has a single scene ( I posted the snap below) of a man almost in prayer or remembering or in introspection...in a farm with so many sheep around.For some reason it reminded me of Jesus Christ (as the man even bears resemblance somewhat) as the one thinking of his 1 lost sheep, while the remaining 99 were near to him in the group (I think even the number of sheep shown in the photo are perhaps totaling to that number :))

                                                  Scene from the song

The soulful lyrics of this song are not available online; hence I have typed them here:

"keechad main khilta hai jaise kamal ka phool

waise hi reh tu, mat kar dunya qubool

rehna hai yehi magar dil kahin aur ho

bheed main bhi badi khamoshi ka shor ho...

paani main kashti ho

kashti main paani na ho

dunya main hasti ho

hasti main dunya na ho

yeh vairagya nahin

ki jungle bhaag jaaye

vairagya vo hai ki 

ghar main hi jaag jaaye

haath kaam main ho

aur dil yaar main

yehi tareeqa hai 

is bazaar main.

na kisi se nafrat na kisi se moh

bas behta ja, jaise nadi ka pravaah

saqi ne sikhaya rang main berang hona

sabke saath hokar bhi bas apne sang hona

udta parinda hoon, 

zameen par na paanv hain...

teri panaah hi..

ab meri chaanv hai...."

A beautiful song on Khuda- A forgotten melody-1

 

Sharing a song which I only recently came across, that comes from a very old Hindi movie (titled: Abdullah, released in 1980). The song can be heard here:

(130) Aai Khuda Har Faisla (Official Lyric Video) - Kishore Kumar | Sanjay Khan, Zeenat Aman | Abdullah - YouTube

The song is way too divine. First, due to the heavy use of the instrument rabab which is the soul of this song. Next, its lyrics (see below) are actually very sublime because they talk of the person (the actor here) who is beseeching and praying to God, but who starts with a total lack of hope. I found it interesting that he says" har dua meri kisi deewar se takra gayi, be-asar hokar meri faryaad wapas aa gayi" hinting his prayers remained unanswered/ returned..and he then reasons that his hopelessness and unanswered prayers are because perhaps, the heaven is indeed too far from the earth...

As song progresses, there is hope that replaces the earlier lack of hope. This is because he says about the loss of his son (in the movie) who is considered the light/ lamp/ chiraag of one's life...but then he accepts that God is the Light of the whole world whose noor/ light is so majestic and limitless that the light is still burning and lighting and he accepts the will of God.

Overall, in the song, the person is accepting of God's will and the way the poetry/lyrics go is very beautiful in my view.

lyrics from: Ae Khuda Har Faisla Tera - ऐ खुदा हर फैसला तेरा

Is ibaadat ka yahi dastoor hai-- a beautiful song "Noor"

 

Sharing a song (titled Noor) from an old Hindi movie called Delhi-6 (2009), this song is lesser known (a forgotten melody, if I may say so), and I find it to be short yet summarizing the gist of the purpose of life...As this song is almost having Sufism at its core in meanings, I was not surprised it was composed by AR Rahman...

The song is barely few lines poetry and is one of the few songs that is sung without the use of any musical instrument.

The song can be heard at this link:

DELHI 6 - NOOR (FULL SONG) - LYRICS

And the beautiful lyrics (with English translation) are available at this link: Noor Lyrics Translation | Delhi-6 | Hindi Bollywood Songs

These are the lyrics:

Noor Lyrics Translation | Delhi-6 | Hindi Bollywood Songs

Leyla and Majnoo story: a beautiful dialogue from a Hindi movie..

 

Sharing a particular scene from an old Hindi Movie that is based on the tragic story of the Persian/Arabic folk tale of Leyla (or Laila or Layla) and Majnoo. I was particularly captivated by the beauty of the dialogues and what Majno was trying to convey...The scene is available to watch here at this clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdcpY1EEV1A

The lines where Majnoo says: 

And its English translation:

The lines spoken are very sublime, and I was reminded of two different poetries of Allama Iqbal with similar thoughts:

 "tere sajde tujhe kaafir na kar de Iqbal,

      Tu jhukta kahin aur hai aur sochta kahin aur hai.."

 "Ragon Mein Woh Lahoo Baqi Nahin Hai

       Woh Dil, Woh Arzoo Baqi Nahin Hai.

       Namaz-o-Roza-o-Qurbani-o-Hajj

        Ye Sub Baqi Hain, Tu Baqi Nahin Hai"

As the folk story goes, the love which Majnoo had for Leyla was so profound that he lost himself in it completely (turned into a Deewana- which translates to a madman), and in that state, he did not have any awareness of any other worldly thing or the rituals of religious practices...His love has often been compared to the love which the Sufis seek for the one Beloved...so much so that even the regard of so many traditional practices lose their charm or importance...all the lover (the Sufi) knows is continuously longing for the one. And in that he is often regarded as mad by the world...