A Hundred Days Of This - Day 97

 Since childhood, I was not very good at dealing with silence. I need a constant BGM running in my life, and that is how music has become a huge part of my personality. Add to that my amma and her obsession with the radio. Over the years, I have come to appreciate the words better and have a newfound respect for lyricists. I practically grew up on the elixirs brewed by Veturi, Sirivennela, Gulzar and Javed Akhtar. 

 Vividha Bharathi has a program specially dedicated to the Indian Armed Forces - Jaimala, and I would listen to it on the weekends while finishing up my homework or studying for a test. Back when I was a kid, there was one song that would be played on that show consistently. Ghar Kab Aaoge from Border. Maybe it was the repetition or the lyrics or the tune or just Sonu Nigam's magic, but that song is still fresh in my memory. Our home in West Marredpally is pretty close to the Army Ordnance Corps Centre (AOC Centre) of the Secunderabad Cantonment, one of the largest Boards in India. For decades, I have seen young lads enter the premises for training under the Army and leave those gates as men who were ready to face life in any circumstance. We do not realise how much easier it is now with mobile phones, and how in earlier days communication was a whole different task, done entirely through letters and postcards. So, Ghar Kab Aaoge is not just any other song made for the movies. It was poetry that told us many stories. 

 I was a bit hesitant to listen to the new version of that song made for Border 2 because I did not want anyone to ruin it and what that song meant to me. I kept avoiding it everywhere possible until Spotify decided to push it on my Daily Playlist. I almost skipped it, but I did not. And I was a child again, listening to the jawans' requested songs on the radio and walking down AOC, watching the jawans play football on the field or clearing up the lawns at 6 am on a crisp winter morning. Would you believe me if I told you that they would build huge walls and set up gates overnight and demolish them whenever required, and make it look like it never existed in the first place? You had to be there! Thank you, I guess, for all the artists of the song (especially Sonu Nigam) for preserving it the right way. What did Dumbledore say? "Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic." 

 Before I end, there is another set of lyrics that made me stop in my tracks last week. Now, many have noticed how beautifully Sirivennela had summarised the entire conflict of Athadu in the verses - sudigaali lo theliyani parugulu theesthunnaa, jadapoola tho chelimi ki samayamu dhorikena; yedharemundho thamarini vivaramulu adigaana, yedha emandho vinamani tharumuku raalena. How does one top this?

 In the same song he also wrote - thelisindhe adagaala, adagandhe anavela, chevilo ila chebithe chaala, avunu nijam nuvvante naakishtam, ee nimisham gurthinchaa aa satyam. I was walking back from my classes to home when this was playing and had to sit down after these lines hit me. That, my reader, is the essence of all the men I have ever met in my life - quick to scold but when it comes to expressing their feelings, they would rather chew glass. Oh my god! How can all that frustration I felt for so long fit into a few simple lines and sound so soothing? Alexithymia ni allam pacchadi chesi idli tho kalipi thinnaaru aayana. I can never stop being in awe of that man. Time to listen to these songs again and hope for better lyricists to weave their magic in the future.

And that's Day 97 for you!