suhaanii chaandnii raate.n ...

i am sure all of you have at least one favourite song, if not more. and if you are like me, probably many of your likes (and dislikes) were influenced by someone - a relative, a friend, a rival, an enemy (gosh!) ... sometimes you like the song for the music, sometimes for the thought it expresses, or because you heard your best buddy sing it, or because you heard it blaring out of the neighbour's loudspeaker at his son's wedding, or you watched a movie and loved the picturization, or ...

whatever the reason may be, listening to the song invokes memories of someone, something, some place, some incident. the purpose of this blog is to discuss my favourite songs (and there are many of them) and how i started liking them! so, here goes my opener to the crease ->

it was vishvakarma (or as ranchi-ites say it - vishkarma) day, the day of the celestial architect of the hindu religion. typically, the heavy engineering corporation (h.e.c.) ranchi permitted employees to bring their families to look around the giant corporation during this day. as a result, attendance in centrally administered schools (local ones being closed on this day for obvious reasons) dwindles on this day.

anyway, as our class was half empty, the teacher was in no mood to teach. so he asked for volunteers to come up and sing any song they wanted. well, knowing that he was a good singer, the rest of the class volunteered rakesh v., a reticent wiry bespectacled classmate, to sing first. and rakesh sang this song by mukesh ...

suhaanii chaan.dnii raate.n hame.n sone nahii.n detii
tumhaare pyaar kii baate.n hame.n sone nahii.n detii

below, i have cut and pasted (and made a slight change to) the song as stored in rec.music.indian.misc's itrans songbook.

%
\startsong
\stitle{suhaanii chaa.Ndanii raate.n, hame.n sone nahii.n detii.n}%
\film{Mukti}%
\year{1977}%
\starring{Shashii, Sanjiv, Vidya Sinha, Bindiya Goswami}%
\singer{Mukesh}%
\music{R D Burman}%
\lyrics{Anand Bakshi}%
%
% Contributor: Ravi Kant Rai
% Transliterator:
% Credits:
% Editor: Anurag Shankar (anurag@astro.indiana.edu)
%
\printtitle
#indian
%
suhaanii chaa.Ndanii raate.n, hame.n sone nahii.n detii.n
tumhaare pyaar kii baate.n, hame.n sone nahii.n detii.n
suhaanii chaa.Ndanii raate.n, hame.n sone nahii.n detii.n

tumhaare reshamii julfo.n me.n dil ke phuul khilate the
kahii.n phuulo.n ke mausam me.n kabhii ham tum bhii milate the
puraanii vo mulaakaate.n, hame.n sone nahii detii.n
tumhaare pyaar kii baate.n, hame.n sone nahii.n detii.n
suhaanii chaa.Ndanii raate.n \threedots

kahii.n aisaa na ho laga jaaye dil me.n aag paanii se
badal le raastaa apanaa ghaTaae.n meharabaanii se
ki yaado.n kii ye barasaate.n, hame.n sone nahii.n detii.n
tumhaare pyaar kii baate.n, hame.n sone nahii.n detii.n
suhaanii chaa.Ndanii raate.n \threedots
%
#endindian
\endsong
%

i had never heard this song before; however, rakesh (in spite of his lisping 'sa' sound) sung it so well that it instantly became one of my favourite songs. to this day, my mind wanders back to that vishvakarma day when i listen to this song, and i wonder where rakesh is today ...