JEEWAN DOR TUMHI SANG BANDHI

This is another breathtaking song from the same movie as that Lata-Manna Dey duet I had put up. It is the epitome of tranquility. What solace, what calm you get from meeting someone who understands you completely! Someone who maybe knows you even more than you know yourself. These connections are perhaps pre-ordained.

Both these songs do give an exalted status to the beloved but what I feel is, love is often what you choose to make it. You can either keep looking here and there aimlessly all your life and reach nowhere. Or when you feel you have found that special someone, you can put all your energies into making it the purest form of spirituality, your inspiration and your purpose. It will give you so much peace and so much to look forward to each day, take it from me.

The only line I take umbrage to is again the 'Charanon Ki Dassi' bit.  But I am ready to overlook that in the wake of a startling composition and an otherwise sublime song. I am sure men by now know that no woman's a sole-mate if you don't make her your soulmate. Shoe fetishes set aside, there's a whole lot of women who feel deeply connected to their Jimmy Choos and Laboutins spiritually and can live with them happily ever after. But then some poor man even got stabbed with a stiletto by his girlfriend yesterday! Hey Ram! What has this world come to. I say shoo away those gory thoughts and just enjoy this Lata melody. It's sure to put all your priorities right ! :)

A translation of this ethereal song:


I have tied the string of my life with you, take it.
How will the storms of this world break it?

We could never be together and whole.
We are two bodies and one soul.
Even if there is darkness all around
Even if dark clouds surround
And raging thunder pours.
I’ll be yours, I’ll be yours.

Stay close, stay absorbed in my life.
Like the kohl that mingles in my eyes.
Your image is in my mind making me thine.
Your name and my heartbeat intertwine,
Bolstering, strengthening, making way.
I hunger for your sight each day.

I am bestowed with this boon for infinity.
I found you as if I found divinity.
Now we will be together forever.
The colour of this mystic henna will never
Ever fade till the end of time.
I will be your soulmate and you mine.
I have tied the string of my life with you, take it….
How will the storms of this world break it?

 

TUM GAGAN KE CHANDRAMA HO

A lesser known Lata-Manna Dey duet, very touching, very earnest. The beauty of these songs and singers was the perfect ease with which they executed them. There were no gimmicks, no greed to out-do each other, each content and comfortable in his/her talent. The song too conveys a state of perfect syncronicity. Where is such commitment and depth of devotion today? Sometimes when I look at my parents' generation , I find their relationships so much more uncomplicated and easy. They had their roles etched out neatly and were happy within them. But we have to live with the curse of this age-competing, comparing and complicating. Yes, we as women are more emancipated today but this kind of humility too, as expressed in this song is so pure, so alluring. And fun is when it is reciprocated well. But such feelings should come from within, they can't be forced on anybody. Both the partners in a relationship have to work towards being worthy of such a beautiful and wholesome sense of respect, love and caring.

At the same time professional relations too are mired with cut-throatism today. One can just take inspiration from these maestros who loved not fame, name or money but their music more than anything else. These were the true stalwarts. They loved their craft passionately. They competed only with themselves. That is the reason these songs still resonate with purity. One of those Manna Dey songs that totally moved me when I stumbled upon it a few years ago while actually researching Lata songs. Laxmikant Pyarelal composition and written by Bharat Vyas. Touching indeed....

A translation of this sublime song!!

You are the moon that illuminates the skies.
I am the dust of the Earth that aimlessly flies.
You are the God of love, my paramour.
I am a flower offered in your splendour.

You are a prayer and I am the priest.
I am thirst and you the nectar that quenches it.

You are the limitless borders of an ocean.
I am a little wave on the jetty.
You are the notes of classical music.
I am an incomplete symphony.

You are the body and I am your shadow.
I am an error and you the power to let go.

You are the radiance of dawn.
The vermilion sun on the horizon.
You have been the echo of my breath from the start,
The joyous peacock that dances in my heart.

You are a prayer and I am the priest.
I am thirst and you the nectar that quenches it.