Tuesday, January 29, 2013

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.




Saturday, January 05, 2013

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).