नाम गुम जाएगा ... मेरी आवाज़ ही पहचान है — Lata Mangeshkar (1929-2022)

Bharat Ratna Lata Mangeshkar is no more. It is unfortunate that she succumbed to COVID-19. Of the several thousands of songs she sung in her career, this particular song stands out in my mind as a unique memory of Lata Mangeshkar. 

नाम गुम जाएगा ... मेरी आवाज़ ही पहचान है

Approximately translated: "Name will be forgotten ... my voice is the only identity". (This video is pictured on Jeetendra, Hema Malini and Dharmendra, but the meaning is applicable to Lata Mangeshkar's life as well, it seems to me).

She has provided the world with evergreen songs and singing ... May her soul rest in peace.

तेरे बिना ज़िन्दगी से कोई शिकवा

A particular phrase in this song caught my attention as I listened to it recently (I first listened to it when the movie got released, in 1975, when my knowledge of Hindi was a lot more rudimentary than what it is today):

तुम गर साथ हो, मंज़िलों की, कमी तो नहीं

The lyrics describe how a human being can feel empowered in another's presence, a powerful sentiment: "If you are with me, there is no limit to where we can go".

Considerable background to this song is provided in a blog post on the Internet: TERE BINA ZINDAGI SE KOI SHIKWA LYRICS AND TRANSLATION: LET’S LEARN URDU-HINDI

पन्ना की तमन्ना है के हीरा मुझे मिल जाए

This song is a memorable one for its lilting tunes that an R D Burman and Kishore Kumar combination used to bring out in the 1970s.

Of course, if you know the story, you can detect the double entedre too.

याद किया दिल ने, कहाँ हो तुम?

In this song, the female lover expresses her feeling thus: ...

... मतलबी जहां, मेहरबान हो तुम

Don't we all value selfless behavior, romance or otherwise?

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.

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.

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).

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).

पिया बिना पिया बिना

A female lover sings that separation [from her lover] is unbearable. How much unbearable? Consider the effect of separation:

• Without my lover, the flute is unable to produce good music, my singing seems 'false' or 'incorrect' ...
• Without you, my lover, my world seems empty, the nightingale has remained silent, the peacock has forgotten to 'speak' [in the woods]

When a Lata Mangeshkar sings about the separation, there is a certain relishable quality even to the feeling of separation (for the listener, that is, and not for the person undergoing separation).

What do you say, dear reader?

कोरा कागज़ था ये मन मेरा

Today marks the end of an era. Rajesh Khanna: The death of Romance.

In memory of his contributions, I present this song that describes, in poetic manner, how lovers declare their love to each other.

लग जा गले के फिर ये रात हो न हो

Image Source: Wikipedia

This song is an interesting way to convey that the relationship has to end. My blogger friend Atul has a greater description of the context of this song.

I encountered this song in a recent episode of यहाँ मैं घर घर खेली. Looks like TV serial producers in India have been making use of past melodies from Bollywood films to suit their stories.

Good business for those owning copyrights on these old songs.

नीला आसमाँ सो गया (female)

This is the Lata Mangeshkar version that sings about lost love.

"The night got killed when the moon disappeared in [my] tears.
Loneliness is what fills in [the rest of my] life"

The music punctuates the narration of the story nicely to bring out the emotion. You can relish the male version here.

फूल तुम्हे भेजा है ख़त में, फूल नहीं मेरा दिल है

"I have sent you a flower in this letter, but it is my heart and not just a flower,
Oh, my dear, please write me, whether this [heart] is worthy of your liking."

This kind of poetic outpour is at least good to visualize, even if one is not able to express it to one's lover.

कांची रे, कांची रे, प्रीत मेरी साँची

Lovers argue why each should not leave the other ... The true meaning cannot be conveyed by a drab translation ... you have to experience the song in all its melody and semantics. I didn't discover until recently that the raag ♫भूपाली is behind this melody.

ये ज़िन्दगी उसीकी है, जो किसी का हो गया

"The world is that person's, who belongs to someone else, gets 'lost' in love." In other words, if you are not loved for any reason, it can be very lonely and can give rise to all sorts of desperation.

Ultimately, while union with a lover and, by implication, with God is what is desired by everyone, it takes a skillful poet to bring that about in words, and a beautiful voice like what Lata Mangeshkar and Shreya Ghoshal have, to impart melody.

अल्लाह तेरो नाम, ईश्वर तेरो नाम

This song brings out the secular nature of God, although only two forms of God are mentioned here:

1. Allah of the Muslim faith, 
2. Eswar of the Hindu faith. 

It also wishes for goodness in the world, in expressing that:

1. Everyone be blessed with good mind
2. Wives not lose their husbands. (This is probably a reflection of the time; women tended to be more dependent on men those days than nowadays).
3. Mothers' and sisters' not fulfilling their hopes
4. Life not be stifled by a [weak] body
5. Everyone be blessed with knowledge of God

The foregoing is nothing but an elaboration of another well-known Sanskrit phrase, वसुदैव कुटुम्बकं, or "The whole world is one family".

Above all, it is a beautiful rendering by the incomparable Lata Mangeshkar.

सागर किनारे, दिल यह पुकारे

The poet crafts a love number with the sea shore as a starting point ...

चन्दा है तू, मेरा सूरज है तू

A mother wishes a child well, in spite of her own difficulties, through lilting music. I selected this song to be included here, after I listened to Raag Bhoopali rendered by Vijay Prakash.

तेरे लिए, हम हैं जिए

The reunited lovers describe how they have been separated for most of their youthful years -- another Yash Chopra love story. "दिल में मगर, जलते रहे, चाहत के दिये", what a powerful sentiment!