Picture this: Two Indians and one Chinese driving together and a CD of Hindi songs playing. Do you know what happens? Well, re-discovery!!!

Frank, my Chinese roommate every now and then asks us (me and Chaitanya, the indians), what the people in those songs are singing. Everytime I answer him, it’s a re-discovery. It’s like going out for a morning jog (or a late night drive). The same places, the same signboards, the same streets, but totally different sights.

It started off with a song which had been stuck in Frank’s mind since years. Yes, it’s a hindi song!! The legendary ‘Awara hoon…’. Frank can only hum it, vaguely. And it took us a long time to decode which song he was humming. Instantly, Frank asked us “What does it mean?”. Here’s what I attempted.

“I’m a nomad, I’m a nomad. Or maybe I’m just a star from the sky, going through a rough time”.

“Wow!!!!” Isn’t it? Something which I’ve been humming since childhood, presented to me in a totally different avatar. Totally touched me, in a way it never did earlier.

Take 2: Chait, Frank and Me driving off to work. Song on the car stereo: “ Allah key bandey” by Kailash Kher. Frank pops the question!! This is what I attempted.

“A bird broke, and it broke such that it never got together again. Who robbed him? And robbed him such that it never flew again.

He fell all the way down on this earth, but in his eyes, there were clouds still. And he kept saying this,

Oh god’s child, please smile. Oh god’s child, please smile.. because whatever it is (that you lost) will come again tomorrow.

That’s when he learnt to fly, when he lost his wings. And he has to keep travelling with the sadness, because the pain is gonna be useful in the future”

Wow!!! Let’s just leave it at that and say no more.

 

Take 3: Chait, Frank and Me, pulling into the parking outside our appt, back from work. Song on stereo: “Dil kabootar-khana hai” from the movie ‘Bollywood Hollywood’.

Here’s my version as narrated to Frank.

“My heart is like a pigeon hole (the thing people put outside their homes where birds can come and feed as they wish to)”

“My heart is like a pigeon hole, and anyone comes and goes as they wish”

Smart isn’t it. A while later I told Chait, “isn’t it funny that we never thought that song actually had a meaning” !!!

I mostly dismissed this song as junk lyrics, unlike the earlier ones which I always held in high regard, except that they never hit me like they did when I tried translating them. We told Frank later next morning about the re-discovery of the meaningful lyrics. Frank popped back the question instantly. The song in the car this time was ‘Dil ney yeh kaha hai dil sey’ from Dhadkan. The female is asking the hero, ‘kaisey aankhein chaar kar loon??’ and I attempt translating this to Frank. I tell him, in hindi lyrics we often use this phrase ‘how can I make my eyes four, from two’… sounds funny..isnt it? Hold on, I tell Frank this is the literal meaning, what ‘Aankhein chaar karna’ (Making your eyes four)really implies is, to look into the eyes of your beloved and get lost in them such that, they are no longer two different pairs of eyes !!!!

Needless to say, I was amazed with myself!! And this phrase, ‘Aankhein chaar karna’ which has been such a trivial part of our jibes and conversations since, forever. I never thought it can be translated to such a beautiful implied meaning.

A few seconds later, Chait and Me are taken by surprise when Frank sings out ‘Kaisey aankhein chaar kar loon’, In pucca bollywood tone and accent!! He’s practicing, so he can woo his wife allover again with a Hindi song. She herself, happens to be a big fan of ‘Awara hoon’. Frank tells us that the movie Awara is a big favourite among the Chinese.

Being the smart guy that Frank is, he’s ready with the next question. “Are most Indians always into this kind of love?”

I tell him, yea. Most of the Indian movies would be like this, dreamy love stories, far away from realty, just the way Indians like it !!!

 

Isn’t it funny? How somethings, which are out there, long forgotten, present themselves to you and you realized how much you have missed because you didn’t pause and spend time with them. Just 5 minutes of effort spent trying to translate these songs for Frank, made me feel sorry for, why I didn’t try doing it earlier. And even funnier is how someone alien to these masterpieces is the reason why I feel closer to them once more, more than ever before.

 

PS: Another example of re-discovery. After almost two weeks of food experiments we had Maggi for dinner today!!! The 2-minute re-discovery !!!!!!!!