On Travel By Train...Soulful Singers

As the 7.34 p.m. local leaves Churchgate station for Virar, I dug myself into my copy of the day’s Economic Times. However because of an exhaustive day at work I keep the paper aside and enjoy the breeze that’s flowing in through the window and of course as is the practice take little nap. Soon I wake up to enjoy a beautiful voice singing the soulful melody “Main Shayar Badnam” from Namak Haram. It’s been sung by Shabbirbhai, a bearded man who appears to be in his late forties. He has for company a perfect mix of Indian diversity the local trains represent. He then followed it with other golden oldies like “Suhani Chandani Ratein” and “Akele hain chale aao” among the few he rendered. It’s was such soothing feeling to relax to the tune of such gems, which rarely come by these days. Whilst enjoying I tried hard remembering few recent songs that would match this timeless class. Unfortunately not many come to my mind. I am marvelled by the simplicity of the words, their meaning and poetry that filled these songs. I set my mind to the tune of the classics being belted out one after other. In between Shabbirbhai is kind enough share few anecdotes about the song, its singers, the musician and the movie. The company he has is actively engaged in listening to his anecdotes. And Shabbhirbhai is humble enough to mention a fellow traveller (who was most probably missing today) who sings a few these compositions in a far superior way than he does.

And while all this happening, my mind travels back to one of the most soulful renditions of “Ramiya Vasta Vaiya” (another timeless classic from Shree 420) I have ever heard on Virar bound local. Unlike Shabbirbhai and his group it was group of four youngsters in their early twenties enjoying themselves to the old songs. However for some strange reasons it’s the only song I remember from that journey. Maybe it’s for the reason I realized what a gem of Director Raj Kapoor was. The song is beautifully timed when Raj Kapoor dejected by the surreal world returns back to his roots and lyrics illustrate the illusions of surreal from that of real world. Till then I heard the song thousand times before but has totally missed the soul of the song. For anyone who has seen the movie will agree the song could not have more beautifully travel for all its worth.

So here I pay tribute and thank all such simple people who sing just for joy of and make the journey back home a pleasant one after a hard day’s work.

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