चिंगारी कोई भड़के, तो सावन उसे बुझाए

When you discover some good characteristic about a matter than you knew previously, there is a certain immense pleasure.

I first heard this song nearly four decades ago. Even though I liked the song, and even hummed it on occasion, I didn't know that it is in Raag Bhairavi; neither did I know it projected a certain sadness by invoking the ideas in proverbs such as the Fox Guarding the Hen house.

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There is a Kannada proverb with a similar import: ಬೇಲಿಯೇ ಎದ್ದು ಹೊಲ ಮೇಯ್ದರೆ

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आगे भी जाने न तू, पीछे भी जाने न तू

When you hear an instrumental of this song, as I did tonight, it seems to be more poignant in reaching you. It is true, isn't it, that you don't know what the future holds, and you don't quite know why certain things happened in the past? This song reminds you that all there really is, is the present. The song exhorts that listener "to seize the present to fulfill the wishes'.

A Bollywood version of Carpe diem.

सुमिरण कर ले मेरे मना

A moving rendering of the Guru Nanak composition by Pt. Jasraj. The Guru exhorts:

"Meditate on the Lord, Oh my mind,
Otherwise, your life will be over without the Lord's name."

The first video (1988) is a concert to present, along with Smt. M S Subbulakshmi, Mahatma Gandhi's favorites. This particular number starts at 10:15 in the video.

There is another rendering (2004) Pt. Jasraj has provided along with Kavita Krishnamurthy and Dr. L. Subramanian.

कैसे कहें हम प्यार ने हमको ...

Kishore Kumar brings out, very powerfully, the despair of a lover.

ರಾಮ ರಾಮ ರಾಮ ಸೀತಾ ರಾಮಾ ಎನ್ನಿರೋ

This post is as reminiscent as it can get: I first heard the song when I was a high school student in Bangalore. It was very memorably rendered by one of my classmates during an 'Arts' class.

Recently, my music teacher suggested that this may be a good song for my collection.

I have excerpted a few lines from another blog post, ರಾಮ ರಾಮ ರಾಮ ಸೀತಾರಾಮ; this subset is the same as that chosen by the artist in the video rendering, given below.

कभी प्यासे को पानी पिलाया नहीं

This song is very philosophical how we go about life ... It is also very reminiscent of तुम अगर साथ देने का वादा करो by Mahendra Kapoor.

बलम पिचकारी

Marking Holi for 2014, although from a 2013 song. The Times of India has also published 'Top 11' Holi songs.

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: