PACK A SONG FOR THE DAY

जिंदगी  के  सफर  में गुज़र  जाते  हैं  जो  मकाम 

वो  फिर  नहीं  आते , वो  फिर  नहीं  आते 

फूल  खिलते  हैं , लोग  मिलते  हैं 

फूल  खिलते  हैं ,  लोग  मिलते  हैं  मगर 

पतझड़  में  जो  फूल  मुरझा  जाते  हैं 

वो  बहारों  के  आने  से  खिलते  नहीं 

कुछ  लोग  इक  रोज़  जो  बिछड़  जाते  हैं 

वो  हजारों  के  आने  से  मिलते  नहीं 

उम्र  भर  चाहे  कोई  पुकारा  करे  उनका  नाम 

वो  फिर   नहीं  आते , वो  फिर  नहीं  आते 

ज़िन्दगी  के  सफ़र  में ...

आँख  धोखा  है , क्या  भरोसा  है 

आँख  धोखा  है , क्या  भरोसा   है  सुनो 

दोस्तों  शक  दोस्ती  का  दुश्मन  है 

अपने  दिल  में  इसे  घर  बनाने  न  दो 

कल  तड़पना  पड़े  याद  में  जिनकी 

रोक  लो  रूठ  कर  उनको  जाने  न  दो 

बाद  में  प्यार  के  चाहे  भेजो  हजारों  सलाम 

वो  फिर  नहीं  आते , वो  फिर  नहीं  आते 

ज़िन्दगी  के  सफ़र  में ...

सुबह  आती  है , रात जाती  है  

सुबह  आती  है , रात  जाती  है  यूँही 

वक़्त  चलता  ही  रहता  है  रुकता  नहीं 

एक  पल  में  ये  आगे  निकल  जाता  है 

आदमी  ठीक  से  देख  पाता  नहीं 

और  पर्दे  पे  मंज़र  बदल  जाता  है 

एक  बार  चले  जाते  हैं  जो  दिन-रात  सुबह ओ शाम 

वो  फिर  नहीं  आते , वो  फिर  नहीं  आते 

ज़िन्दगी  के  सफ़र  में ..

Ever wondered how a song that you heard in the morning stays with you for the rest of the day ?  Happens to a lot of people, just like me.

You get up on a Monday morning, sleepy eyed. ( That’s the way most of the world wakes up on a Monday morning , lets not bother about who cares to admit it). You go through the motions with your morning rituals mechanically, with your to-do list scrolling silently in your mind. And as you are taking the first sip of your morning cuppa , going over the headlines in the paper, either your neighbor or your dad switches something on, maybe a radio, a TV or the music system. A song starts its day almost unnoticed by the world around it , except perhaps by the person who played it.  You don’t exactly stop to listen to it , I mean who the hell has the time to listen to a song on a Monday morning ? But it still finds its way into your mind through the haze of your steaming coffee and the maze of that ticker-tape and the headlines. And then, it just decides to stay there , for the rest of the day. You find yourself humming it without even knowing it as you bathe, dress for work, even when you drive. More often than not, it’s one of the ones you have always liked, but not necessarily. It could even be a song you have not heard often enough to get to know it well enough but did find something about it that spoke to your depths. Its either the tune, the lyrics, the voice, or just a beautifully composed  piece of the orchestra. No matter what it is, it stays with you as inconspicuously as your shadow.

Personal experience tells me , because it has happened far too often to be a co-incidence, that the song generally matches your mood of the day. Or does it dictate your mood for the day ? I am not entirely sure either way, but if one is to believe in the law of attraction, I would rather lean towards the strong possibility of our mind attracting that song into our day, than the other way round. 

One such song kept me company for a whole day a few months ago.  It was neither played at my home nor by any of my neighbors. All I heard was the prelude of it as  somebody drove by my bedroom window playing it just loud enough. And I am completely convinced that the reason it chose me on the day, was defined by the mood that I had  sub-consciously been in since the evening before.

It was a song from “ Aap ki Kasam” , an oldie but a goodie from the 70s. Written by Anand Bakshi , composed by the genius of the one and only RD, and sang by the great Kishorkumar , whose voice blended in perfection with the masculinity and sensitivity this song demanded . The song speaks of the sands of time that  rotate in the same hourglass, yet are never the same, once passed. It speaks about  the very fiber of any relationship that is at once strong and vulnerable depending upon the amount of trust it contains or the lack of it. But most of all its about how some of the most beautiful , and the strongest relationships can go beyond salvage because of one careless word or a gesture. One tends to take relationships so much for granted, one loses attention from their own ego that is always at work in the background and deviously too. That leaves the relationship vulnerable to even the gentlest of winds. And when the deed, intentional or otherwise,  is done, the damage is so complete, that lifetimes go by just to clear the wreckage. The bruised ego invariably gets stronger and sabotages every thought of asking for or granting forgiveness at its very inception, and chooses to suffer even when deliverance is possible.

It was that sort of a morning for me , hence just a prelude of this song ,drifting through my window for just a couple of seconds, was enough for my primed mind  to latch on to. And needless to say it kept me company for the rest of that day. What it also ensured was that no effort was needed to do what I did that evening in order to make my peace with a certain relationship I was a fool to jeopardize in the first place.

The  poetry of this song is so perceptive , so compelling, I just had to give in to the urge of not so much as translating it,  but exploring the same feelings in a different language. I just followed the thread as the twine-ball rolled and here is how the cookie crumbled for me…

The milestones you left behind in the  journey called life, never come back.

They just never, ever come back.   

Flowers bloom, people meet, but …

The buds that withered away in the fall, No spring can make them blossom again

Once close, estranged now, and nothing can bring the beloved back again.

You beckon, you call their name, but they never come back

They just never, ever come back.

What you saw was maybe just an illusion, for doubt is the foe to friendships dear

Don’t let it ever to find roots in your hearts, lest it drive away the loves so near

Don’t let them go heartbroken, whose memories are sure to make you toss n turn

You plead, you beg, but alas, its too late, for they never come back

They just never, ever come back.

Dawn breaks, Night falls, the sands of time keep trickling away

Has it ever stopped for anybody, time just goes on and on anyway

Before you could even comprehend ,  the next slide is up on the horizon

The morns, the noons, the eves n the nights once gone, never come back

They just never, ever come back.

The milestones you left behind in the journey called life, never come back.

They just never, ever come back.  

Of course there is  no need to underline the message that this song carries. The poet doesn’t bother with subtleties and makes it loud and clear what our priorities should be when it comes to relationships. He asks us to live everyday as if it’s the last day of our lives. Being granted forgiveness may not be in our powers but asking for it surely is, and conversely,  being asked for forgiveness is not our prerogative but granting it without being asked just as surely is.

Buddha, the apostle of peace sums it up nicely when he says “ While asking for forgiveness never belittled anybody, granting it unasked is sure to elevate you to a higher plane”        

I know it needs no rocket science to deduce that my effort is haphazard at best , but  its just an attempt at being able to enjoy a piece of great poetry in more ways than one. It probably started out more like trying out your favorite jeans with a differently styled top, but the effort was aimed at making it not  too unlike enjoying a beautiful flower with your eyes as well as your olfactory glands, and thus, in more ways than one.

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