Sunday, October 5, 2014

Musical Memories

Music moves me.   It makes me laugh, sing, or cry. And some songs -they make me go on time travel.

My first song was ‘twinkle twinkle little star’, the nursery rhyme that continues to be the super-hero among rhymes. To mime the twinkling stars using hand gestures, to express the wonder on the face and then jump up pointing at the sky to show the exact location of ‘the world so high’ are still the exact steps that is followed religiously by tiny tots all over the world.

I remember the accolades it gave me when I performed it in front of family during any family get together. I remember the petting that followed and the song rather made me vain.
Time flew and now my son sings it with so much love. As it is a lullaby, I used to sing it for my son while putting him to sleep, and he used to demand for it every night.

So when I hear twinkle twinkle little star, my heart grows fonder and many memories run towards me.

Another song brings fond memories and makes me vain. It is ‘Tumhi meri mandir, Tumhi meri puja’ sung by Lata Mangeshkar from the movie Khandan. My uncle who had a huge collection of old hindi songs had gifted me a collection of Lata mangeshkar songs on a birthday. This particular song caught my attention and I learnt it by heart soon. One day, while I was humming it in the class during a lunch break, my class teacher heard me. The next day some people from the KVS or the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan were coming for inspection. She ordered me to be prepared to sing it then. I was just nine then. Stage fear was unheard of and I sang with panache. There was thundering applause after I ended the song. The chief guest got up and gave me a bouquet. I became a singer officially and a forever member of the school prayer group.

My husband’s favorite song is ‘Humhe tumse pyar kitna’ by Kishore Kumar and he makes me sing it often. And whenever the song comes on television or on radio, I associate it now with him.

‘Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought,’ said Percy Bysshe Shelley, one of the finest lyric poets among the English Romantic poets. I agree 100%.

I have a long list of sad songs that tug at the chords inside my heart.

Listing five of them here:

1) Din Dhal Jaaye Haye, Raat na Jaye




2) Somebody’s me




3)Time to say goodbye.





4)Jeevan se bhari teri aankhen





5)Someone like you by Adele.






This post is part of the WordPress Daily Prompts : 365 Writing Prompts program where the aim is to post at least once a day based on the prompts that they have provided. Today’s prompt is Eye of the beholder:  Describe what it feels like to hear a beautiful piece of music or see a stunning piece of art. 

I am one of the guest authors at We Post Daily for the month of October.

6 comments:

  1. Nice topic to blog on.
    I am still stuck with Mukesh and Kishore songs. They make me laugh and cry. :)
    Listen to this when you get time :)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vo9X9H_Vn6k

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  2. "Someone like you" I never get enough of this song

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  3. ‘Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought'...I agree fully too... those five songs are on my fav list also...and so many more...endless list !

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  4. I feel music creators are "THE CREATORS". Hats off. I like all the fast ones, the lyrical ones and the rhythmic ones.

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  5. Some songs have deep memories & associations too, Preethi.
    Nice song-list. I love Music too!
    Great to know the incidents that established you as a singer :)

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  6. Nice post, Preethi! I am so in agreement with you about memories and music. And I enjoy reflecting/writing on this connection. Have a whole series of posts on my blog about music and old Hindi songs :) The no. 4 on your list is one of my favorite songs too! Keep listening, keep singing :)

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