We grow up reading some books because they have been read in the family by elders and they desire it should be read by all. I know people my age who place books written by Jane Austen above sacred texts. Some families have S Maugham positioned as the family entertainer and some find solace in Shakespeare and make his writings an interlocutor in serious emotional situations.
Speaking for myself I grew up not reading much fiction but watching a lot of it on screen. Fiction was considered a waste of useful effort called “reading”. My father a voracious reader and bibliophile would smile and say… “Why Mills and Boon read a good book on why one feels inclined to romance”. Mercifully we watched films, so fiction it was, but in images.
Films and film songs also have a family following. I have visited a lot of old films to figure out why some elders spoke of them so endearingly. There would be a visible expression of love on my mother’s face when she spoke of Raj Kapoor & Nargis starrer Aah. No matter how many times she heard the song Raja ki Aayegi gi Baraat it would make her teary eyed. She would insist on watching this song or else Rammiya Vasta Vaiya during her ailment on the I Pad. I think deep inside she loved Raj Kapoor.
My father in the quiet of his study would listen to songs from Pyaasa or Bandini or the melancholy of Ghalib made lethally more melancholic by Jagjit Singh. So it was the old world fifties music with poets from the Left unleashing their angst and hope in words and these songs became our anthem at home. Living with many elder siblings with a capital E meant other genres of music being unleashed at home from the quiet of their spaces.
My elder sisters and aunt were all dedicated to those lilting songs sung on screen by Rajinder Kumar…Yaad na Jaye bite dinon ki , Dil ek Mandir hai… and my three elder brothers would play Mohd Rafi songs from the Colour/ Rock and Roll era of Shammi and Rajesh Khanna years. So from the yahooing Rafi to yoddling of Kishore it was a huge platter of popular music at home.
When sad, I quickly go to Baazicha e Atfal of Ghalib/Jagjit and although I don’t comprehend the subtleties of the language completely, I insist on listening to it. And if I want to make an old aunt comfortable for a lunch at my place I will play something that Nargis has sung on screen preferably with Raj Kapoor to reacquaint her to the feeling of romance. And if one is feeling a little springy at times I think of some good times spent with my siblings and play the Shammi and Biswajeet medley.
I feel I have an operative SOP of music tailor made for all engaging moods for me. Actually under these varying influences my own anthem has become very eclectic. Some songs that fill me up with feelings are chirpy, some not so, some sad, some brutally so and some just mad. I could personally listen to endlessly in a loop Uthe sab ke kadam, Chura na dil mera sanam, Ae dil hai Mushkil title song, Aankon se Uteri hai Dil main,Maujan Hi Maujan .. . It is a disaggregated music platter and I am trying to figure out what is it that I like; but find no clarity. Is it the sadness of Arijit over joy of Mika Singh?or is it the Hope of Uthe sab ke Kadam or the Romance of Aankhon se jo uteri which dominates? Well, I could attempt no answer except this, when we let varied influences operate on us…we learn to appreciate that life has no one Mantra to
