The other day someone asked me, “Which is your favorite song?” Wow! That question made me feel real nostalgic and all. I mean, it is the kind of stuff teenyboppers ask to each other. I said, “my favorite song is – Baapchik baapchik bumbo, chiki chiki chiki chiki baa...’” and thought my reply sounded cool as hell.

Actually I think this thing about favorite song, favorite this-n-that keeps changing all the time. It depends on the state of mind, age, time and stuff like that. For instance, when I used to be a love crazed teenager, my favorite song was ‘Tu meri zindagi hai…’ from the Bollywood blockbuster Aashiqui. *Blush*. Heck, I even tried to dig Mozart and stuff at college. I guess these artistic/musical preferences are quite fluid.

Anyways, the ‘favorite song’ question made me wonder how we misunderstand lyrics and make a complete khichdi of some wonderful poetry. Take, for instance, this song:

Tu jahaan jahaan chalega

Mera Saaya saath hoga

[A purely functional translation is, ‘Where ever you go, my dear. My shadow follows.’]

Now, the Hindi key word here has two meanings. Saaya means a shadow. Saaya also means a petticoat.

[It was later, much later that I understood the real meaning of the song.]

Initially, the song made me wonder why the hell this woman wants her petticoat to follow her beloved! It sure sounded spooky, to say the least.

Similarly, another song:

Do diwaane shahar me,

Raat mein yaa dopahar mein

Aab-o-daanaa dhoondhate hai

Aab-o-daanaa means ‘water-and-food’. Basically, ‘a life’ in poetic terms. And this song tries to capture, the travails of young lovers in the big city, looking for food, shelter and generally trying to go get a life.

For some weird reason I always heard aab-o-daanaa as sabu dana (Pearl sago).

Again the same question! Sabu dana is a that starchy grain that people feast upon- especially during the fasting days. It looks like homeopathic granules and tastes no great shakes.

I kept wondering what was so cool about it that made these two young lovers roam around the city looking for saabu dana of all things! How very intelligent.

Many people call Arundhati Roy a ‘one book wonder’. People who call her so also represent a particular school of political thought. But this post is not about politics.

It is about a fact that most artists are actually ‘one (or two) great work’ wonders. Look at most of the rock and pop legends, most of the bands have come up with one (or two) great albums. And the remaining works have been quite mediocre. So, I guess it is quite natural to be a one ‘book/album/film’ wonder. It does not demean an artist in any ways.

Here I wish to share one of my all time favorites. Losing my religion, I feel this was as good as the alternative rock band REM ever got.

Losing My Religion

Oh, life is bigger

It's bigger than you

And you are not me

The lengths that I will go to

The distance in your eyes

Oh no, I've said too much

I set it up

That's me in the corner

That's me in the spotlight, I'm

Losing my religion

Trying to keep up with you

And I don't know if I can do it

Oh no, I've said too much

I haven't said enough

I thought that I heard you laughing

I thought that I heard you sing

I think I thought I saw you try

Every whisper

Of every waking hour I'm

Choosing my confessions

Trying to keep an eye on you

Like a hurt lost and blinded fool, fool

Oh no, I've said too much

I set it up

Consider this

Consider this

The hint of the century

Consider this

The slip that brought me

To my knees failed

What if all these fantasies

Come flailing around

Now I've said too much

I thought that I heard you laughing

I thought that I heard you sing

I think I thought I saw you try

But that was just a dream

That was just a dream

That's me in the corner

That's me in the spotlight, I'm

Losing my religion

But that was just a dream

Try, cry, why try?

That was just a dream

Just a dream, just a dream

Dream