Thursday 20 March 2014

Songs Next Door

Door chaahat se mei'n apni chalta raha
Khamakha bewajah khwaab bunta raha.

The accent was perfect. The pitch a bit too high. The guitar was a faithful complement. Such sweet music floated through the air of the summer night to please my ears. Life had not been happening. Nothing much to do. Studies. Social Media. Stuck up friendship. Illusions of success. Realities of failure. As I type this, the man next door, Ayan, restarts his song. The notes went wrong somewhere in the middle. And it was a difficult turn to take. And he starts again, this time, making a much better attempt.

Ye ho'nsla kaise jhuke,
Ye aarzoo kaise ruke
Manzil mushkil to kya,
Dhundhla saahil to kya,
Tanhaa ye dil to kya...

His next song is a masterpiece from Shafqat Amanat Ali. The composition is engaging. The words are inspiring. For a moment, the smoothness of his voice compells me to think over the life again and again. Inspirational thoughts start to rush in, when suddenly he fumbled over the high pitch of the song. Ali's voice is too sharp and trained for the song. He tries again to reach the level, fails, again, fails. This time, he starts with a couple of notes lower than the earlier one. He manages to sway through the composition with ease.

Udta hua wo aasmaa'n se Jakar gira zamee'n par,
Aankho'n mei'n phir bhi baadal hi thhe wo kehta raha magar...

Kailash Kher's voice echoed in the brain as Ayan played the very beautiful song. He was trying to take similar notes as the original version, and his vocal chords managed to do that for some extent. Only his guitar went a little off stream. But he does not stop. Instead continues and plays the later part flawlessly.

Kisi ki muskurahato'n pe ho nisaar,
Kisi ka dark mil sake to le udhaar,
Kisi ke vaaste ho tere dil mei'n pyaar,
Jeena isi ka naam hai...

The old classic by Mukesh has been one of my favourites. I find myself listening to Ayan with more concentration and fail to engage in the assignment I was typing earlier. The song stands for the meaningful lyrics that Bollywood produced in the 80s. The singing was swift and pleasant when suddenly my room-mate started singing a Bollywood number in his loud voice. Only if he was not wearing those earphones would he realize that he should stop singing. Probably, this harshness was reality. Well, I could restart with my assignment. And Reality.


P.S Ayan sings really well. And my room-mate sings really bad.