Lose and lose some more.
The evening that it was
With the advent of tech everywhere and the possibility of being able to monitor everything, I believe it is easy to come across a new song/genre and then be able to pinpoint the date and time it actually happened. Why is it important? I don’t know but I would love to go back in time to remember when I heard few songs for the first time.
There was no obligation to track things back when I was growing up in Lucknow 100 years ago or so. Still, I remember the year in which I came across what would be my first ghazal. It is a Jagjit Singh ghazal, of course. Hardoi. Terrible monsoon that made it impossible to sit in a circle with relatives as they were taking turns singing. Still, the resolve of having a good time won and we kept sitting. Shared blankets, exclusive fried food.
I was 13. It was a wedding and I was not supposed to be there because of exams, yet there I was. Everyone my age was giggling as people would sing…’why are they singing’? A bunch of us were trying to stay invisible lest we be called inside to avoid the moody rain that could have made us sick. I tucked next to my favorite Uncle whose shoulders I used like a side-rest throughout such gatherings where kids were just not expected to be present.
When their turn came, they sang and I was caught off guard. It was a couple who would sing a ghazal that arrested my attention and possibly changed my life, the way I look at music, the way I look at language and the way I love.
Why am I invading your inbox with this unnecessary piece of information? For no good reason except:
To pay homage to hedonist couples who would choose to sing a ghazal at a marriage baithak when the lights were out and it was sufficiently dark to be scared into a good ghost story. That couple is no more now.
To pay homage to Jagjit singh, whose ghazals screwed my life, possibly gave me depression issues, for good.
I returned to Lucknow and the first thing I did was to visit my local cassette shop and pick a pirated (Thrill records) copy of the album to which the ghazal belonged.
Album name - The Latest
Ghazal - Badi Haseen raat thee
I would find out, to my surprise, that the ghazal is just sung by Jagjit Singh and isn’t a duet. To sing a solo ghazal on a dark evening, as a duet, about the evening that it was…These hedonists I tell you!
It isn’t Jagjit Singh’s birthday or death anniversary. Those dates would come and go and nothing would change. This is just a nothing post.
It amazes me how the world (and I) keep on going when Jagjit Singh is no more.
