SONGS LONG FORGOTTEN

Our Jaipur house has no name, only an innocuous number. I was thinking of possible names... Retreat, Abode, Niwas, Bhawan, Hideaway....

And then my thoughts took a different turn! Wasn't there a popular song way back in the 1950s titled "Hernando's Hideaway" which I used to love but had slipped away from memory till this chance recall? With its distinct tango beat and intriguing lyrics, it topped Binaca Hit Parade on Radio Ceylon for a number of weeks. The song was about a fictional dark, secluded nightclub where lovers could meet in secret without fear of meeting someone who could recognise them like "your Uncle Max and everyone you know."  

"Just knock three times and whisper low

That you and I were sent by Joe

Then strike a match and you will know

You're in... Hernando's Hideaway."

Having recalled a song forgotten for many, many years, I challenged myself to think of others languishing in far recesses of my mind. A joke reminded me of the second one. 

First, the joke. Four guys were having a drink in a pub. One said that women with brown eyes had a record of being unfaithful and he was thankful that his wife had blue eyes. Another said no worries, his wife was hazel-eyed. A third said yes from personal experience as he had divorced his brown-eyed wife for taking on a lover. The fourth appeared restless and uncomfortable and said, "Gosh, I don't even know the colour of my wife's eyes. I better go and check" and rushed home. The house was dark with the wife in a flimsy nightie snoring in bed. The man took out his phone, opened one eyelid of his wife's and flashed the torch in the eye. "By Jove, it's BROWN" A man wriggled out from under the bed muttering sheepishly, "How did you know I was here?"

The 1951 song, "Beautiful Brown Eyes" had a different message. It was from the perspective of a woman who had been deceived by a blue-eyed man and she vowed, "Beautiful beautiful brown eyes....I'll never love blue eyes again." Maybe it is a gender issue!

Elsewhere, I have written about the 78 rpm discs which Vinnie Mama brought in his first visit home after joining the Navy. I named "The Rich Maharaja of Magador " and "Irene Goodnight" but forgot another sweet oldie, "My Truly Truly Fair". Lovely words especially about work-

"Some men plow the open plains, some men sell the brine

But I'm in love with a pretty little maid, for work I have no time

She's my truly, truly fair, truly, truly fair, how I love my truly fair

There's songs to sing her, trinkets to bring her

Flowers for her golden hair."

Mexico is one country that has been on my bucket list for long but remains elusive. I have been attracted to it since my school days when I first saw scenes of it in western cowboy movies. Over time, one came to know of Mariachi music, Tequila, cuisine, dresses with exquisitely embroidered jackets and trousers, ponchos and the large hat, Sombrero. The last reminded me of the movie of the same name which again goes back to the early 1950s. It was about three loving couples caught in a feud between two Mexican villages and starred the legendary Mexican actor, Ricardo Montalban. His movie character falls in love with a girl played by the fresh, sweet and dainty Pier Angeli who I imagined I was in love with! The girl's name was Eufemia and that was a super hit song sung by Montalban in a delightful way stretching the name Eu-u-u-u-femia a number of times. A song I was captivated with but had totally forgotten till now!

How about a couple of Hindustani songs! Folks of my generation and thereabouts would remember the 1949 classic, "Mahal", which apart from its own success, launched Lata Mangeshkar's outstanding career with "Aayega Aanewala". But how many recall a poignant song sung by the hero Shankar's wife who knew her husband left her every night to pursue his love interest? The song by then famous Rajkumari, was "Ghabra ke jo hum" which could pierce the stoniest heart.

"Ghabra ke jo hum sar ko takrayen to acchha ho....

Is jeene mein sau dukh hain

Mar jayen to acchha ho".

(In deep depression, it would be good if one were to strike one's head hard

Living like this has a hundred sorrows

It would be better to be dead)

I was not very fond of ghazals in those days but an exception was "Ulfat Ki Nayi Manzil Ko Chala" which is now flashing in my memory. With lyrics conveying heartbreak and pain, it was brilliantly sung by Iqbal Bano in a 1955 Pakistani film "Qatil" and became a hit in India. A few lyrics-

"Ulfat ki nayi manzil ko chala, tu bahen dal ke bahon mein

Dil torne vale dekh ke chal, hum bhi to kharen hain rahon mein....

Hum bhi hain vahi tum bhi ho vahi, yeh apni apni kismet hai

Tum khel rahe ho khushiyon se, hum doob gaye hain aahon mein."

(You are walking towards a new destination of love arm in arm with someone

Breaker of hearts watch where you go, I am also lying in your path....

I am the same you too are the same, this is our respective fate

You are playing with joy and happiness, I am drowning in sorrowful sighs).

My memory exploration will not be complete without recalling a song from Fr. Mackessack's singing class at St. Xavier's in the '50s. So here goes a gem, "My Old Kentucky Home" where "the sun shines bright"-

"Weep no more my lady, oh, weep no more today

We will sing one song for my old Kentucky home 

For my old Kentucky home, far away".

The Jaipur home is never far away. In fact, I am writing this sitting there! And let us just call it "Jaipur Home".

Tailpiece: Akhila spilt some liquid soap in the bathroom and asked me to tread carefully. So:

"Babuji, dheere chalna... zara sambhalna."

Geeta Dutt, "Aar Paar" 1954.

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