Chhaiyya-Chhaiyya (Dil Se..)

In Banasthali, we had offs on Tuesday (yes, not on Sundays). So instead of Saturday nights we used to celebrate Monday nights. I had joined Banasthali some time in July 1998, when Dil Se.. was just about to be released. So on our first few Monday nights, half the time we ended up dancing to Chhaiya-chhaiya (the other half was taken up by Chhamma-chhamma). So this song still reminds me of those crazy (but well practiced) dance-steps from 13 years back.

All the dance memories aside, the lyrics are not typical for a dance track. Initially, Sukhwinder Singh had offered a Punjabi devotional track 'Thaiya-thaiya' (based on Bulleh Shah's verses) for this situation. Gulzar wrote Chhaiya-chhaiya drawing inspiration from the devotional undertones but essentially interpreting it in his own inimitable way. These devotional undertones are often present in his non-filmy poetry as well, where the beloved is depicted as almost sacred or divine. (Will update the blog with a few such lines soon - updated here).

Once again, I'll give the literal translation (shabdaarth) first, followed by my interpretation of the intended meaning (bhaavaarth), wherever required. Specifically, I've tried to explain the paragraphs which allude to faith etc. in detail. I've tried to do a little research before writing; but if I've interpreted something incorrectly, please do correct me. Because I do not want to hurt any religious sentiments here.

Lyrics, and translation

Jinke sar ho ishk ki chhaon, paaon ke neeche jannat hogi

Jinke sar ho ishk ki chhaon

[[Those, who have the shade of love over their head, will have heaven at their feet.

This world is not a pretty place to live in. And living here without love is like walking under the glaring sun, and it could get really unpleasant without (the shade of) love. But if you've loved someone, life becomes so beautiful it's almost as if you're in heaven - without any pain or suffering.]]

Chal chhaiya-chhaiya chhaiya-chhaiya

chhaiya-chhaiya chhaiya-chhaiya

Chal chhaiya-chhaiya chhaiya-chhaiya

chhaiya-chhaiya chhaiya-chhaiya

[[So, walk in this shade (of love).]]

Sar ishk ki chhaon chal chhaiya-chhaiya

Paaon jannat chale chal chhainya

[[Walk in this shade of love, and you'll feel like you're in heaven.]]

(Chal chaiya-chaiya...)

Wo yaar hai jo khushbu ki tarah, jiski zubaan Urdu ki tarah

Meri shaam-raat, meri kaaynaat, wo yaar mera saiyaan-saiyaan

[[My beloved, who's sweet like a fragrance; and whose voice is like a beautiful poetry in Urdu language,

The one who is my day and night, who's the whole world for me - only she can be my lover.

Khushbu ki tarah - like a fragrance: sweet and pure, but cannot be caught or held down.]]

(Chal chaiya-chaiya...)

Gulposh kabhi itraaye kahin, mahke to nazar aa jaaye kahin

Tabeez (Taveez) bana ke pahnoon use, aayat ki tarah mile jaaye kahin

[[She, who's clad in flowers, loves to flaunt (her beauty); her fragrance is so bewitching that you can find/recognize her by her fragrance alone.

She's sacred like an aayat (a verse from Quran). I wish I come across her (by a miracle), then I'll wear her like a amulet.

Aayat is the plural of aayah which means a verse from the Quran but it can also mean signs, revelations, miracles, etc. (source). 

Tabeez is an amulet with Quranic inscription, which protects you from evil.

So the second line could mean that "If I meet her, I'll treat her as a sacred verse from Quran, and always keep her close to me." Also, she's like his good-luck charm.]]

Wo yaar hai jo imaan ki tarah, mera nagma wahi mera kalma wahi

(Mera nagma-nagma, mera kalma-kalma)

[[She's like my faith, she is my song and my Kalma from Quran.

In this line as well as in the previous lines, the devotional, almost reverential allusions are pretty apparent. There are six Kalma's in Quran (Please correct me if I'm wrong), the first one being "Laa ilaaha illal Lahoo Mohammadur Rasool Ullah", considered very sacred by in Islam.]]

Yaar misaal-e-os chale, paaon ke tale firdaus chale

Kabhi daal-daal, kabhi paat-paat, main hawa pe dhoondhoon uske nishaan

[[My beloved walks like dew-drops, it's as if she's walking with the paradise under her feet

I keep looking for her everywhere, I search for her signs in the air.

Misaal-e-os - Like dew-drops. One moment she's there, and the next she has disappeared.

Paaon ke tale firdaus chale - Again referring to 'paon ke neeche jannat' line, perhaps?

Hawa pe dhoondhoon uske nishaan - Could refer to the first line 'misaal-e-os' where she has disappeared like a dew-drop and now I'm looking for her in the air. Or could refer to a previous line 'mahke to nazar aa jaaye kahin' - he's searching for her fragrance in the air. In all, he's hoping that the air will whisper to him about her whereabouts or give him a clue about how to find her.]]

(Sar ishk ki chhaon chal chhaiya-chhaiya...)

Main uske roop ka shaidaayi, wo dhoop-chhaon sa harjaayi

Wo shokh hai rang badalta hai, main rang-roop ka saudaayi

[[I'm an admirer of her beauty, but she's elusive like sun and shade.

She is playful and keeps changing her colors, and I deal in beauty and colors.

Rang badalta hai - Changes colors. Doesn't stay the same. Is fleeting and deceptive.

The other recurring theme in this song is the elusive nature of this beloved. She's been referred to as fragrance, dew drops, sun-and-shade at various points in this song - basically she's not easy to catch or pin down. She's like an enigma, which makes her all the more desirable to this saudaayi (derived from 'sauda' (trade).]]

(Jinke sar ho ishk ki chhaon...)

Totally unrelated: Watch SRK's jump atop the train at 3:30 minutes in the video.

Chhod aaye hum wo galiyaan (Maachis)

In a listener's mind, this song's iconic whistling is so important a part of the complete package, that last I started writing about this song, the post was hijacked by the whistling part alone and I ended up writing this post instead. While whistling is often associated with a carefree disposition and an untroubled mind, the feelings behind this song are anything but carefree or untroubled.

Maachis (1996) is a movie about the aftermath of Indira Gandhi's assassination by her Sikh bodyguards. As violence broke out, the atrocities against Sikhs resulted in many Sikh youths joining militancy.

The song itself shows a transition - from four (apparently) happy young men singing (and whistling) about leaving behind their loved ones' streets (in the mukhda) - to a slightly melancholic mood (in the first antara) - and suddenly shifting gears to a hard-hitting second antara talking about 'Ek chhota sa lamha hai, jo khatm nahin hota' - those moments of atrocities that one tries hard to forget, but is unable to.

Lyrics, and translation

Chhod aaye hum wo galiyaan... - 2

[[We've left behind those streets...]]

Jahaan tere pairon ke kanwal gira karte the

Hanse to do gaalon mein bhanwar pada karte the

Teri kamar ke bal pe, nadi muda karti thi

Hansi teri sun-sun ke, fasal paka karti thi

[[Where the lotuses of your feet used to fall /

When you used to laugh, the dimples in your cheeks were deep like whirlpools /

The river used to take its curves from your waist /

And the crops ripened with the sound of your laugh

(Everything beautiful revolved around you)]]

Chhod aaye hum wo galiyaan... - 2

[[We've left behind those streets...]]

Jahaan teri eDi se dhoop uda karti thi

Suna hai us chaukhat pe, ab shaam raha karti hai

Laton se uljhi lipti ek raat hua karti thi

Kabhie-kabhie takiye pe, wo bhi mila karti hai

[[Gulzar shifts into a more melancholic gear with this antara - though the hero has left behind his love for a greater(?) cause, he is missing those times and places.

When you used to walk, sunlight took off from your heels (you set free the sunlight) /

(I've heard that) that doorstep of yours is now under a gloomy shadow of dusk /

The night that I found entangled and coiled around in your hair /

Once in a while it comes to pay me a visit when I'm lying awake at my pillow]]

Chhod aaye hum wo galiyaan... - 2

[[We've left behind those streets...]]

Dil dard ka tukda hai, patthar ki dali si hai

Ek andha kuaan hai ya, ek band gali si hai

Ek chhota sa lamha hai, jo khatm nahin hota

Main laakh jalata hoon, yeh bhasm nahin hota

[[The song shifts mode yet again, giving a glimpse of the heart of a militant. No one becomes a terrorist for the heck of it. It often results from deep-rooted pain and suffering.

My heart is like a lump of pain, it's like a piece of stone /

(It's) Like a bottomless pit, or a blind alley / 

There is this fragment of time, which just wouldn't end /

No matter how much I try to burn it, it just wouldn't reduce to ashes]]

Music Director: Vishal Bhardwaj
Lyricist: Gulzar
Singers: Hariharan, KK, Suresh Wadkar, Vinod Sahgal

My two cents:

1. The last para talks about how there are some memories which, no matter how much one tries to forget, are impossible to get out of your mind. They change your life for ever.
2. This song somehow reminds me of Bhagat Singh - also a young man who left behind his family and loved ones to join a cause he believed in.

(On Samyak's request)

Woh khat ke purze (Marasim)

I've been thinking about writing this post since forever. Will finally finish it today as my (inadequate and delayed) tribute to the Late Jagjit Singh (February 8, 1941- October 10, 2011). Though I had never been much of his fan, I do honour and respect him for almost single-handedly keeping ghazals alive in India for so many years; and introducing at least 2 generations of Indians to nazms and ghazals. And like so many others, I have listened to, loved and hummed his songs since I was a kid.

Trivia: The famous Lifebuoy jingle from our childhood "Tandurusti ki raksha karta hai Lifebuoy" was sung by Jagjit Singh. :)

This particular ghazal is part of the music album 'Marasim' (meaning relationship, rishta) - composed and sung by Jagjit Singh, written by Gulzar. Putting it very crudely, in this ghazal, a person (let's say a guy, for the sake of consistency in the remaining post) is talking about his observation of his lover's behaviour after their breakup. The ghazal itself is anything but crude, though.

Since it will be a gross injustice to the beauty behind these words if I translate them literally, I'll try to go into the thought (or what I think is the thought) behind each couplet. In green is my interpretation, while blue is the literal translation of the couplet.

Lyrics, and translation

Wo khat ke purze uda raha tha

Hawaaon ka rukh dikha raha tha

[[Letters are often some of most precious keepsakes in any relationship. By tearing them up and throwing them, one is not only making clear one's intention of ending this relationship, but showing that it has lost all its meaning to them. 'Hawaaon ka rukh dikhana' is used metaphorically to mean 'show the way things are going to be'.
Literal meaning: She was showing me the direction of the wind, by tearing my letters to pieces, and throwing them in the air.]]

Kuchh aur bhi ho gaya numaaya

Main apna likha mita raha tha


[[Sometimes, when a relationship goes bad, we go back and try to relive as to what might have gone wrong. At times, we realize just how wrong the whole thing was, and that it's better to forget it and begin the rest of our with a clean slate. At such times, it becomes obvious that it's time to move on.
Literal meaning: Something else also begin apparent, since I find myself erasing what I had written earlier.
Numaya = apparent, obvious]]

Usi ka imaan badal gaya hai

Kabhi jo mera khuda raha tha

[[How would you feel if for as long as you can remember you have had some conviction, some belief and something or some event makes it go off in pieces? How would you feel if you loved and trusted a person with all that you have, and one day that person turns out to be someone completely different from what you thought he was? Would it ever be possible to hold on to your own faith/beliefs after that?
Literal meaning: The person who used to be my God, has now changed her religion.]]

Wo ek din ek ajnabi ko

Meri kahaani suna raha tha

[[There are secrets to any love story, that are intensely personal, to the point of being sacred. To discuss your ex-lover with a stranger means you're letting a third person in on that relationship's solemn secrets, thus invading its sanctity.
Literal meaning: She was telling my story to a stranger the other day.]]

Wo umr kam kar raha tha meri

Main saal apne badha raha tha


[[Honestly, I'm quite confused about this couplet, but will share what I think, which is -
While she (my ex) was trying to belittle me and the time we spent together; I thought it was the best thing that happened to me, and the most meaningful period of my life - I was attaching more and more significance to that time. 
Literal meaning: She was decreasing years from age, while I was adding them on.]]

Aye Ajnabi (Dil Se)

Rahul, this one's for you -
Because it's like I'm only half-alive when you're not here.
Because I miss you so much everything else seems unimportant and uninteresting.
Because even this festive season seems like a drag without you.
Because without you, even breathing seems like an effort.
Because I miss you so much, it's as if my whole being is aching to be with you.
Because, if it weren't for you, I'd never have realized that all these clichés I was so quick to diss were actually true.

Honestly, I had no intentions (as yet) of posting this song on this blog. I have always loved this song, but today it's been playing on a loop in my head, and it's today that I fell in love with it all over again. How fitting are the words of this song! It's a song of separation, of yearning, but above all of love. And how haunting is the melody! I'll go on to say, at the risk of sounding redundant because I've said this already, that Dil Se is one of A.R. Rahman's finest albums.

Do read the translation too, there are some 'Words of wisdom' inserted here and there :P. Yes, they break the flow of the song. Yes, I'm sorry about that. :-|

Satrangi Re (Dil Se)

In my opinion, Satrangi Re's distractingly beautiful cinematography and a stunning Manisha Koirala take away from it. Because the song in itself is so incredibly exquisite, it ought to be heard in isolation as well.

At the hostel in Banasthali, we used to shut all doors and windows of our room and make it pitch black. Then we played this song on full volume. That took the song to another dimension altogether. Today before writing the post, I recreated that atmosphere. And I must tell you, we were not crazy back then. Go, give it a try!

A 'Satrangi Re' montage.