Pareshaan Raat Saari Hai

Pareshaan Raat Saari Hai

Posted by Nerdyy

This is dedicated to all those long nights (and we know them very well) when sleep insists that she wants to remain a stranger. Here's to Le Doloure Exquise - the exquisite pain.

pareshaan raat saari hai sitaron tum to so jao
sukoot-e-marg tari hai sitaron tum to so jao

(sukoot = silence, marg = death, tari = happening/prevailing)

humen bhi neend aajayegi hum bhi so hi jayenge
abhi kuch bekarari baaki hai sitaron tum to so jao


There is also a Chitra Singh version that is equally good ...

tumhen kya aaj bhi koi agar milne nehin aaya
yeh baazi hum ne haari hai sitaron tum to so jao.

(To all of us that lost our baazis at some point of time, be it 24 years ago or a time more recent or any other time, here's to us :D)

Woh Kagaz ki Kashti - Chitra and Jagjit Singh

Woh Kagaz ki Kashti - Chitra and Jagjit Singh

Posted by Nerdyy

Every once so often I will have this craving for music - while I'm driving. This can turn out to be a somewhat unsafe endeavor, it is not easy to choose a "manpasand" album from among the many CDs I have in my car without causing an accident! Thus, for a while now, I just tend to pull out some album any album and insert it in my player. There is that anticipation between the time I put it in to the time it starts playing - What will it be?

Last week I inserted a CD of Jagjit/Chitra ghazals, and it's been a while since I have listened to these songs. I was completely mesmerized, and here are a few of them (one at a time obviously). The first one, memories of a nicer time in the past!

yeh daulat bhi lelo yeh shohrat bhi lelo
bhale chheen lo mujhse meri jawaani
magar mujhko lauta do bachpan ka saawan
woh kaagaz ki kashti woh baarish ka paani

The Rhythms of Summer

The Rhythms of Summer

Posted by Nerdyy

The warm winds have been slowly creeping back and finally it is a joy to sit outside on my deck, sipping a cup of coffee or a glass of chilled beer/wine depending on the time of day. Part of the bliss of summer for me is imbibing the various sounds and smells around, while I lounge out there, as I am doing right now with coffee!

There are the sounds of the neighborhood kids playing, birds chirping and singing songs to each other, the occasional bee venturing near me and buzzing around my ear just to remind me to beware of stepping into their natural domain, the dogs barking at squirrels or each other or sometimes after spotting me on the deck. The ice cream truck bells jingling, the trees swishing around while the winds waft through their leaves, the tomato plants on my deck swaying to these winds, the fragrance of my jasmine that has finally gone crazy, the lilac from the neighbor's garden. The jangling and clanging sounds of the garbage trucks in the alley, and the familiar buzzing sound of grass being mowed and trees and plants being trimmed.

Summer has been, over the last few years, when I've retreated into my solitude after many months of beautiful and never ending conversations that warmed my soul over the dark winters and early springs; yet it would be filled with the glorious anticipation of a forthcoming reconnection, inevitable in the past like the flow of a river through the plains fed by melting snow.

Summer has also been a time for catching up with family, sometimes long and sometimes short road trips, and almost every year a trip to the wonderland of Europe. Summer has always been synonymous with travel, of being away, of exploring new towns and new vistas.

But not every summer has to be exactly the same; and this summer and this year seem very different. This summer, the musical notes are distinctly off-key.