Chitrahaar ka Chamatkaar

Saturdays are usually my chore days-the day I do all the tasks that I’ve put off until I absolutely HAVE to do them-laundry, cleaning, grocery shopping and paying bills.  And to incentivize myself, I typically choose some music that I love so that I can complete everything on my to-do list without getting bored. Today, tired to death of all the music I had been listening to recently, I chose a 90s Bollywood playlist. Turned out, it was not so much a playlist as a time machine that took me back into my childhood.

My parents didn’t encourage TV viewing as a child and so we didn’t have cable channels at home for most of my childhood. But I think they missed something there, because hindi music became as much a part of my diet as daal, rotli, shaak, kachumbar and dahi.

Dil is the first movie I can recall watching in a theatre and I fell into undying love with  hindi film music. My parents even have a recording of me singing “khambe jaisi khadi hai” with such a mish-mash of words that Sameer (the actual lyricist) would probably have sued me had the version ever reached him.

My sister and I behaved like absolute angels on nights that had Chayageet, Chitrahaar and Superhit Muqabla on Doordarshan so as to ensure that our TV privileges weren’t taken away. And during the entire one hour that those shows were on air, we were enthralled by the romance of “Tujhe dekha toh”, the seductiveness of “Dhak Dhak karne laga” and the sheer indianess of “Morni bagha maa”. It was almost as if the Ministry of Magic had introduced magic to muggles like myself for that short span of time.

We were delirious with joy every time my mom bought  an audio cassette for us and we would hear the entire tape again and again. If it was a Rangeela , Roja or 1942 a love story, then we could play it during meal times or car rides as well, since my parents loved AR Rahman and RD Burman as much as we did. I have had some major fights with my sister over which song to listen to and  ridiculous as it sounds now, even over which song to sing when it was my turn during antakshari.

Today I have absolute freedom to listen to whatever I want and watch whatever I want.  But there is something missing. . I don’t think the best Ipods or Spotifys can replace the triumphant moment when a radio was finally tuned to the right channel and the crackling had turned into Alka Yagnik or Kumar Sanu or the feeling of exhilaration when the reels of the cassette finally reached the song one had been waiting for. It’s not that there isn’t good music in Bollywood today-there are some amazing soundtracks and soulful lyrics. But I guess, my deepest love will always be the “chura ke dil mera”, “bahut pyaar karte hain tumko sanam” and “maiyin maiyin” of the world. Not just because they are awesome songs, but also because they have so many memories and associations.  And I am sure that every person who has grown up in the late eighties or early 90s would agree….. E…always a tricky one for Antakshari until “imli ka boota beri ka ber” came along!