kahii.n ek maasuum naazuk sii la.Dakii ...

it was a census year, a year that comes along once every decade when india counts her teeming population. as in most other central government schools, the teachers in my school were recruited for 'census duty.' as a result, we did not have regular teachers in school that day and, guess what? we had substitute teachers who, under normal circumstances, would be in college pursuing their own studies.

given the situation, our substitute teacher was not in a mood to pontificate for the entire duration of the class, nor were we students in a mood to listen to him for that long. so we kids asked him if he would sing us his favourite song. he agreed, and sang this beautiful song:

kahii.n ek maasuum naazuk sii la.Dakii ...

here, then, is the song from the itrans library, in english (ascii) notation, and its devanagari (hindi) equivalent.

% ITRANS Song #145
%
\startsong
\stitle{kahii.n ek maasuum naazuk sii la.Dakii}%
\film{Shankar Hussain}%
\starring{Madhuchanda, Kanwaljeet, Suhail, Madhumalini}%
\singer{Rafi}%
\music{Khayyam}%
\lyrics{Kamal Amrohi}%
%
% Contributor:
% Transliterator: Avinash Chopde (avinash@acm.org)
% Credits: C. S. Sudarshana Bhat (cesaa129@utacnvx.uta.edu)
% Venkatasubramanian K Gopalakrishnan (gopala@cs.wisc.edu)
% Preetham Gopalaswamy (preetham@src.umd.edu)
% Editor: Anurag Shankar (anurag@astro.indiana.edu)
%
\printtitle
#indian
%
kahii.n ek maasuum naazuk sii la.Dakii
bahut khuubasuurat magar saa.nvalii sii

mujhe apane Kvaabo.n kii baaho.n me.n paakar
kabhii nii.nd me.n muskuraatii to hogii
usii nii.nd me.n kasamasaa\-kasamasaakar
sarahane se takiye giraatii to hogii

vahii Kvaab din ke mu.nDero.n pe aake
use man hii man me.n lubhaate to ho.nge
ka_ii saaz siine kii khaamoshiyo.n me.n
merii yaad me.n jhanajhanaate to ho.nge
vo besaakhtaa dhiime\-dhiime suro.n me.n
merii dhun me.n kuchh gunagunaatii to hogii

chalo khat likhe.n jii me.n aataa to hogaa
magar u.ngaliyaa.n ka.Np\-ka.Npaatii to ho.ngii
kalam haath se chhuuT jaataa to hogaa
uma.nge.n kalam phir uThaatii to ho.ngii
meraa naam apanii kitaabo.n pe likhakar
vo daa.nto.n me.n u.Ngalii dabaatii to hogii

zubaa.N se agar uf nikalatii to hogii
badan dhiime dhiime sulagataa to hogaa
kahii.n ke kahii.n paa.nv pa.Date to ho.nge
dupaTTaa zamii.n par laTakataa to hogaa
kabhii subah ko shaam kahatii to hogii
kabhii raat ko din bataatii to hogii
%
#endindian
\endsong
%
% Send corrections to Anurag Shankar (anurag@chandra.astro.indiana.edu)


similar to the first song of this series (suhaanii chaa.ndnii raate.n), i had never heard this song before either. after i listened to the rafi (original) version, i would not say that our sub teacher bested rafi's original rendition. however, he did do justice enough to the song; in fact, so well did he sing that whenever i listen to this song, or think about it, my mind rocks back to that census day, more than two decades ago, when i first listened to it.