तुम आ जाना भगवान

A simple composition that seeks God.

ದುರ್ಗಾ ಆಪದುದ್ಧಾರಾಷ್ಟಕಂ

This presentation is the result of a request from a friend. The Kannada script is presented by transliterating from a Devanagari script.

Any help you, the reader, can give to make the words correctly presented will be greatly appreciated.

जीने लगा हूँ, पहले से ज़्यादा

A refreshing love song. Shreya Ghoshal excels.

सुन रहा है न तू? (Female voice)

I have not seen the movie आशिकी 2, but the adaptation of this song by a TV serial — पवित्र रिश्ता — is impressive.

हम बेवफा हरगिज़ न थे

Recently, I heard this song again, and noted that the first couple of lines were intriguing:

"I was never unfaithful,
Yet, I could not be faithful ...".

And, of course, the fact that this is in Kishore Kumar's voice is a perennial attraction.

तू जहाँ जहाँ चलेगा, मेरा साया साथ होगा

This is a song that, I learnt recently, has been dedicated by Lata Mangeshkar to Sachin Tendulkar, the cricket maestro who retired yesterday from test cricket after his 200th appearance.

If you want to listen to all the four stanzas, use the audio track hyperlink.

ಓ ರವಿಯೆ, ನಮ್ಮ ಕುಲಪತಿಯೆ, ...

When you witness a musical production such as Jaya Jaya Vijayee Raghurama, presented under the auspices of One School at a Time (OSAAT), with a string of songs each of which is composed in a raga to suit the mood portrayed by the song, you will find yourself humming, or recalling, that one song over and over again. The following song is one such in today's presentation in Los Altos Hills, California:

रसके भरे तोरे नैन, सावरिया

Male lover pleads to the female not to make him restless, by describing her eyes as full of रस, love.

बड़े अच्छे लगते हैं

Simple lyrics, describing what seems to be a certain separation. (I haven't seen the movie).

The lyrics are so simple that it looks like they can be adapted,  to several different situations — husband-wife, brother-sister, father-daughter, grandfather-granddaughter, etc. — in real life.

Any takers?

न जाने क्या हो गया है तुम्हे देखकर

Lilting tunes are a specialty of this song while it expresses feelings of romantic love.

आजा रे परदेसी

This is a second song I have encountered recently that uses the phrase पंथ निहार to describe the act of waiting for someone by looking at the road on which the expectant person would come. The first one is मेरे जनम मरण के साथी.

ನಾ ನಿನ್ನ ಧ್ಯಾನದೊಳು ಇರಲು ಸದಾ

A devotional composition by ಪುರಂದರದಾಸ.

The lyrics on the web are somewhat conflicting and I have, therefore, not provided any links to transliterations and have provided my own transliteration from listening to Bhimsen Joshi's rendering.

Another ♫दरबारी कानडा feast.

मेरे जनम मरण के साथी

A devotional बंदिश, a Meera Bhajan, composed by Meera Bai, a 16th century, famous, devotee of Lord Krishna. Another ♫दरबारी कानडा feast.

तुम ही हो

Nice melody. Declaration of love.

मेहँदी है रचनेवाली, हाथों में गहरी लाली

The video you see is an illustration of how to dance to the song, by the famous Bollywood choreographer Saroj Khan. It is sung to a new bride — बन्नो — as she prepares herself for the wedding.



The original picturization of the song on Karishma Kapoor, however, has a somewhat different melodrama woven into the song.

देवन के पति इन्द्रा

A lovely composition by Swathi Thirunal that is designed for Raag ♫दरबारी कानडा, as you will note from the line

राग पति कानडा,

and enumerates all the 'head's of various important life's larger-than-life ingredients.

मुहब्बत की झूटी कहानी पे रोये

This song came to my attention when I looked for some Bollywood songs in the raag ♫दरबारी कनाडा. I had just previously blogged on मनो बुद्धि अहंकार by Pt. Jasraj, and you can feel the intensity of the emotion in both the songs, thanks to some unique property of the raag (that I don't know).

मनो बुद्धि अहंकार ...

It is an ecstatic treat to listen to Pt. Jasraj render the निर्वाण षटकम्, written by Adi Shankaracharya. I had occasion to attend The Music that Swami Vivekananda Loved today, on the occasion of the 150th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda, where Pt. Jasraj introduced this song as one that Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa used to sing, and the one that Swami Vivekananda liked.

मैं शायर तो नहीं

An interesting description how romantic love can trigger other actions. In this case, the poet describes the male lover as having become a poet (शायर), a lover (आशिक), a friend (दोस्त), a respecting (बंदगी) person, etc.

There is a subtle double entendre in this song; for a cursory observer, it might appear that the dancer is the object of the male lover; not so, and he is referring to another girl; this fact becomes evident if you know the story.

Bollywood excels in weaving hummable music into stories somewhat unique to the times.

ಕೃಷ್ಣಾ ನೀ ಬೇಗನೆ ಬಾರೋ

This song is a very popular song in Karnataka, and other parts of India. It captures the cry of a God-seeking person. God is personified as Lord Krishna in this composition.

You will find slight variations in lyrics on the web, but I have provided here my interpretations of Yesudas' rendering.

इन आँखों की मस्ती के

You sometimes hear a song that fleetingly gets your attention, but you really don't pay serious attention to it until you become aware some characteristic the song has. I learnt recently that this song is, for the most part, in raag ♫भूपाली.

I am a student of this raag and, naturally, had to explore its lyrics: Bollywood's lyrics are sometimes amazing.

ಕಲಿಯುಗದಲಿ ಹರಿನಾಮವ ನೆನೆದರೆ

Simple lyrics to remind us — any of us with whatever failings — to recall, reflect and realize God. Purandara Dasa is no match to anyone, when it comes to crafting lyrics that even a layperson can relate to.

[Note: In the MS rendition linked to this post, the second stanza is not presented].

ज्योति कलश छलके

The raag is what attracted to me to the song first, and I subsequently discovered that it celebrates the onset of morning.

ओ सजना, बरखा बहार आयी

The female lover declares her love through singing in the rain. You can, however, sense a certain pure innocence in her singing.

(This drab translation doesn't do justice to what is behind the song. If you click on below, you will visit a blog post that gets into greater details).

Fevicol से

Funny song, with good rhyme crafted by mixing English and Hindi. Fevicol is an adhesive brand available in India; sort of like Krazy Glue in America. The girl suggests that her photo be kept near the chest [of any desirer] safely, by using the Fevicol adhesive (so as to ensure that it will stay put).

Kareena Kapoor is definitely a treat to watch.

'Missed-call' is a concept unique to those parts of the world where mobile operators only charge for outgoing calls; if some one calls you, you don't get charged; and, if the callee misses the call by not answering the call, neither is the caller is charged. This fact, the missed call, can be used as a signal to trigger some action, with prior mutual understanding.

अंडे का funda

Funny song, with good rhyme crafted by mixing English and Hindi. Supposedly, to teach the funda[mentals] of the [chicken and the] egg. Funda is a diminutive of the word 'fundamental' that is more frequently seen in usage in Indian college campuses.

पटना (Patna) and बठिंडा (Bathinda) are two cities in India.

या रब्बा ... प्यार है या सज़ा, आय मेरे दिल बता

Nice collage of stories of several heartbroken lovers.

ಮನಸೇ ಒಂದು ಸಾರಿ ಕೇಳು

Although there is not yet a full music video of this song on the web, you can understand that the lovers are trying to express their love for each other. The girl is so confident of the boy's love that she even declares, translated:

... In every birth, I'd pray to God that you be my lover ...

Happy Valentine's Day.

मेरा दिल एक खाली कमरा

Declaring love during a student reunion. Bollywood style.

जलते हैं जिसके लिए

Nice song to listen to. Wonder what the male is singing about ... since the 'song' he has brought ought to appease the female ...

ये रातें, ये मौसम, नदी का किनारा, ये चँचल हवा

Kishore Kumar's rendering of

ये बाहों में बाहें, ये बहकी निगाहें
लो आने लगा ज़िंदगी का मज़ा

is a treat to listen to. Bollywood seems to excel when producing rhythmic music capturing romance.

ಸತ್ಯವಂತರಿಗೆ ಇದು ಕಾಲವಲ್ಲ

This song is a somewhat cynical view of life, as seen through the eyes of ಪುರಂದರದಾಸ, the 16th century poet & philosopher. The title of the song can be translated literally as:

This is not the time for truthful people ...

The song elaborates on how unrighteous people end up enjoying comfortable life, and the righteous end up suffering in their life. Perhaps this situation was more seen frequently during his lifetime, and produced the cynical outlook captured in this song.

The song's special significance for me is that I used to hear it, quite regularly, from my late paternal grandmother.

(It appears that this song can be rendered in different ragas; the video by D K Pattammal is in ♫भैरवी).