BANNER CREDITS: RITUPARNA CHATTERJEE
A woman with the potential to make it big. It is not that she cannot: she simply will not.
PHOTO CREDITS: ANIESHA BRAHMA
The closest anyone has come to being an adopted daughter.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Umrao Jaan

When I was young I had heard a song somewhere (and learnt that it was actually a popular song as I grew up):
Dil cheez kya hai aap meri jaan lijiye
Bas ek baar mera kahaa maan lijiye

I was intrigued by this. The second line was, obviously, obvious. The first line wasn't. What did it mean? Was it
1. My heart is, well, peanuts, and doesn't really count; you should have a go my life instead?
Or was it
2. Why don't you try a go at knowing what my heart is all about, mate?
I was baffled. The word jaan obviously had two meanings, leading to the two possible options I mentioned.

At that age sacrificing one's own life seemed mind-bogglingly big, so I assumed that Shahriyarji had implied the first one. But these days, when years of watching dusty souls has taught me that actually winning a heart seems way, way more difficult than taking one's life, I suppose he had implied the other one: find out more about my heart, and you won't complain.

Now, why on earth did I write this utterly useless piece? Obviously, to find an excuse to put up a glamorous picture on my blog. I suppose everyone had got that by now.

5 comments:

  1. ooofff. rekhar chhobita ki hot! also, i always assumed the first meaning. the possibility of the pun never really hit me till now. how strange!

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  2. may it's strange, or maybe not. but i had the same confusion for a long long time - before finally settling on the second explanation. just shows we are a lot less unique than we would love to believe :)

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  3. me too guess that Shahriyarji meant " find out more about my heart, and you won't complain." but still think (ie even at this age)"sacrificing one's own life seemed mind-bogglingly big" :)

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  4. ato shundor gaan take niye ato surgery na hoy nai korli?khali chokh bondho kore shon dekhbi u'll understand every bit of it, wht pain lies in every word uttered in the song.And off course, Rekha, what more could be said about her, i think she dignified the character of each tawaif she played on the silver screen and i really have no words to praise her.

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  5. What a ponderous question!
    this question kinda confirms it was seven year itch that made you start your own blog.
    So much for hearts and peanuts.

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