oh baby sing a song

Brrr… Mumbai has gotten cooler in the mornings. And so has the swimming pool. I feel cold just looking at Jispa and the kids taking a dip in the pool at 5.45 am. My squash court is also closed for renovation, so today I decided to join her in the pool. Hmmm. It is cold. But its ok when you get swimming. after a long time I did around 12 laps and I could have possibly done more, but I came out. Its always interesting to see that every sport has a different muscle group requirement. No matter how much I might be playing squash, but after a round of intense swimming after a long time, and my different muscle groups made their presence felt. Sports – it makes feel alive.
I feel so good that Jispa is doing her share of sporting activities. But we never knew it would get this serious. Today the coach asked us if we were going anywhere for a vacation. Luckily we weren’t. He did not want Jispa to miss her routine as she was doing well. Then I asked about March and he said that state selections are in April. So that now leaves us for June. Wow. I can’t handle such a long break from a break. I will have to figure a way to stay at home and relax and make the best of my holidays. So now I am planning a June vacation. My immediate reaction was – it better be two weeks at the least. Lost for 14 days, preferably without the cell or internet or anything else!
You know… I am not the music types. I don’t really listen to music much but today I somehow was listening to an old Kishore kumar number and suddenly I smiled at the irony of it. I am right now listening to this number and talking about a vacation with my daughter with no cell or internet… and the song is… did you guess this one?

Ek aise gagan ke tale – jahan gum bhi na ho, aasun bhi na ho… bus pyaar pyaar pale….
Wow. Some sweet happy coincidences in life! It set the mood. What a lovely song! And lovely lyrics. Simple heart tugging stuff.
Listen to some more Kishore.

This was and still is a big hit. The number of times it has been resung remix and rescrewed is amazing. In fact I had to look a little more to get the original…. But at least I got to it. I feel so lucky to be able to find and share music and videos through the internet and of course youtube. In 1984 or 85 when we came in from Dubai, there was one cassette player in the house and that was monopolized by my teenage sister with fresh notions of romance in her head. Ok I am being slightly uncharitable but, she did monopolise it. It was a two-in-one which some of our young readers might know the meaning.Basically the player had not one but two cassette decks and a radio, which I have explained many times in the past was a REALLY big thing in the deprived pre liberalization era. It looked somewhat like this one here


So this one time the big musical hit Love Story was being aired on our national channel. Which was also a big thing as we had a movie aired only once a week on Sunday evenings. Socialist India treat for its citizens! So my sis decided to record all the songs using the two in one placed next to the TV. NOPES there were no wires connecting the two. It was an attempt to pirate using good old record button when the song played. The TV would blare and the player would record. I don’t remember very well but I don’t think it worked well as an experiment. But I do remember getting grief from my sister when I came in ringing the bell a few times. Opps. Teenage elder sisters are dangerous.
We should say grace for we have the internet!
While we are on songs – while I was searching for Neele Neele Amber pe, I chanced upon this south Indian piece from which it was inspired (I am not sure which one came first though). Listen on –

And of course the original from Love Story. Teenage elder sisters… sigh.