OUR FAMILY FAVOURITE SONGS OF YORE

 

Writing about Lata Mangeshkar, I recalled that Mataji, my Nani, used to hum ‘Aaj Phir Jeene Ki Tamanna Hai’. But that was only from mid-60s. If I go back one moment in time, the song which she used to sing frequently in my childhood went: 

‘Jal jaane do, jal jaane do, jal jaane do is duniya ko, 

Jab jug mein sachcha pyar nahin, 

Aur sab matlab ke bande hain aur koi kisi ka yaar nahin.’

Mummy was very fond of Talat Mehmood and her top favourite was-

‘Ae dil mujhe aisi jagah le chal jehan koi na ho,

Apna paraya meherban-na, meherban koi na ho….

Ja kar kahin kho jaoon mein, neend aye aur so jaoon mein, neend aye aur so jaoon mein,

Duniya mujhe dhooden, magar mera nishaan koi na ho.’

Mummy was very fond of her afternoon siesta of two hours plus and therein hangs a tale. Pitaji, my Nana, used to tease her about the line ‘neend aye aur so jaoon mein’ for his own reasons. He Wasu very fond of Contract Bridge and had taught us all the basic fundamentals of the game. He would be anxious to start playing post-lunch after just a short power nap. Mummy was needed as the fourth to join grandpas and me but she would be locked up in her bedroom with Pitaji getting increasingly impatient. The game itself was comic. Pitaji would read a lot of books on Bridge and would be very knowledgable about Ely Culbertson convention and all and would apply the principles in his bidding with the others clueless about them. Mataji was completely off logic and could easily be egged on to bid 6 no-trumps with a couple of aces and little else in her hands. The fact that she would go six-down made her laugh but drove Pitaji up the wall!

Shashi Mama was not so much into singing as in dancing. In parties particularly on ships, it wouldn’t take long to have him swinging on his feet with lovely facial expressions and hand movements to the tune of ‘Balma ja ja ja, balma ja’ or ‘Sakiyan aaj mujhe neend nahin ayegi, suna hai teri mehfil mein rut jaga hai.’

Vinnie Mama was the singer of the family. His favourite was Pankaj Mullick and he knew all his songs. The ones I heard him sing most often were ‘Yeh kaun aaj aaya savere savere…. Kaha roop ne chand hai, chaudhvin ka, magar chand kaisa savere savere’ and ‘Aayi bahar aaj, aayi bahar aaa bahar aaj, ayi bahar bahaar,  gulshan mein liye, phoolon ike haar, bahar, aaj aayi bahar bahaar’.’

A poor warbler, I would at times attempt Pankaj’s 'Maine aaj piya piya aaa, honton ka pyala’ but mostly be content to join Vinnie Mama in ‘Sunday ke Sunday, aana meri jaan meri jaan, Sunday ke Sunday’ and ‘Gori gori, o baanki chhori, kabhi meri gali aaya karo’. 

And then, Vinnie Mama joined the Navy and sang, ‘In her hair, she wore a yellow ribbon…And if you ask, oh why the hell she wore it, she wore it for a sailor who is far far away.’

That was enough to lure me into becoming a sailor but the yellow ribbon….?!