Today after aeons I decided to listen to some Rabindrasangeet ..... in the midst of floyd and kanye west and emran hashmi remixes the songs were a breath of fresh air ...... and hence begun a long journey down the memory lanes......
Dad listening to the voice of Hemanta on the our most treasured radio early mornings.... mom humming to it while getting us ready for school .....
The black and white Uttam-Suchitra movies aired on Doordarshan on Sunday evenings when the entire family including kalpona mashi would gather, munching on 'masala muri' ....those in the neighbourhood who did not have a television would peep through our windows to watch it :-) ..... ma commenting that the movies nowadays could not capture the subtle and innocent romance that could touch your hearts (considering this was a decade and a half back wonder what she would comment on watching Mallika Sherawat's Murder!!) .....
Rabindra jayanti programs in school when we would spend weeks practising and choreographing rabindrik dance to Tagore's songs, to pay him a tribute and remember his unforgettable contribution to literature .....literature, poetry, music reading and listening to which we all have grown up...... learning by-heart and reciting so many of his poems every year in Bengali classes ..... some of which we can still recall, surprisingly.......
The songs were sung over and over again by people....in singing classes where little children started with "Aalo aamar aalo ogo" since that was the easiest to play on the harmonium, dance classes where "Megher kole rod hesheche", "Momo chitte niti nritte" and "phoole phoole dhole dhole" were popular......from pujo functions to "Mor binay othe" on Saraswati puja, from basanta utsav to winter there is a song for every season ....collectively its usually called 'ritu rongo' ..colors of seasons ......
As I streamed those songs and listened on the head phones all afternoon while fixing my code ...... a sudden thought struck me.....if my children grow up in this country they will never experience those small things which brought us so much joy....they will never learn to sing and dance to Tagore's tunes or read shishu bholanath or beer purush ..... they will never know what basanta utsav is or the significance of wearing a yellow sari on saraswati puja ....or learn to sing a song for every season ...... they will also get lost in hip hop and rap and probably the only indian music they might like is desi bhangra remixes at clubs !!! :-( noooooooooooo!! I hope I never let that happen!!
No comments:
Post a Comment