Of Songs and Situations...

There is this something in certain songs that remind you of some particular stage in your life.Maybe of some bygone era..
As I pack my bags for Manipal, telling myself that this won`t be my last visit to this one place in the world where I could be myself,I do know that the contrary is a distant possibility.More about my Manipal musings in a later post.My 4 years in this place deserves a whole blog, not just a post, to its name..There you go..another marathon post in the offing..
Today as I was getting ready for office 104 FM started playing a couple of Bollywood ditties which took me back by a coupla years.'Waada Raha' from Khaki,this song will always remind me of my first year at Manipal.We were in this triple seater room , Seema,Roopali and yours truly in room 214.Neither of us had computers.I had a run-down Walkman which my sister had so lovingly(casting lethal looks which translated as 'ek scratch aya na ispe to....') given me as I boarded the train from Ranchi.Roops had got along her Philips 2-in-1 which soon became a Room-214 common property.So, in the peak summer months,after those merciless hours at the First Sem workshop, we would trudge back to our room turn the fan`s regulator to its highest speed ,draw the curtains, collapse on our beds (sweaty workshop coats and shoes still on ) and play this very song at its highest volume,while Akka would come to do pocha in our room.By the time she finished her job all 3 of us would be fast asleep , under the combined influence of the song`s melody and the cool,sweet-smelling dampness of the freshly swabbed floor , all at odd angles (my fave posture was my head and torso on the bed, one leg on the window sill and the other away from the bed on the ground...Dont tax ur brains, it is unvisualizable(if such a word exists!)).This song had this enormous capacity of putting us grumbling lot at peace,soothing and mellifluous..
And during those combined Engg. Drawing sessions it was the remix of 'Tu tu hai wohi'(remember that video of a pink clad trio sporting pink guns).All 10 girls of our section would assemble in our room after dinner, with their huge ED boards and drafters and t-squares and squeeze into every available square inch of space.Then we would distribute the Assignment questions amongst ourselves and under Seema-The ED queen`s guidance draw an assortment of lines and solids, till over 4 am.These were those times when we bonded big-time.We dint have fancy cell-phones(those who did, dint have boyfriends on them 24*7 ) or i-pods.We just had ourselves.At one point we would throw our hands up over an impossible figure and would start off about the juiciest bits of gossip about college, passing around Dry-bournvita,Matthri,Achar,Namkeen and even licking clean the 5 Rs worth sachet of Nescafe Powder to keep ourselves awake so that the next day we could proudly proclaim over phone to our parents "Oh Mommie,these profs make us work so hard...Last night I was up till 4 am doing Engg. Drawing assignments ".Even though a year later all of us drifted away to different classrooms for branch specific studies, the memories of these sessions were something we would sit and laugh and talk about for the next 3 years to come.
2nd year It was 'Dhoom Machale' throughout the 3rd sem and 'Kaal Dhamaal' in 4th sem.Blaring out from every door and window of the hostel.Everywhere you go, MIT`s fest Revels or the NITK`s fest ,everyone who could shake a toe was up on stage convulsing to the tune of these songs.
3rd year was Himesh Reshamiyannnnn`s year through and through.'Jhalak dikhlaja','Aashiq Banaya aapne','Tera Suroor' et al.Our mess wale Uncle was such a die-hard fan that the menu for every meal of the day had a Himesh number playing throughout the meal.As though 'Khane ke saath, Himesh ke gaane ,Bilkul muft'.When I thought I could bear it no more,Atif came to rescue.Thankfully, during our end-terms during those night-outs, we heard faint strains of 'Woh Lamhe,woh Baatein' playing from every hostel room that had a computer lodged inside, even from as far as the Boys Hostels.
4th year saw a resurrection of Sufi Music.Kailash Kher loomed large over every speaker,So did the new crowned prince of chartbusters-Atif and the icing on the cake was Strings which performed live during Revels.
During those last days at college,when we had our official photo-shoot for the yearbook,at the impromtptu party that was thrown right after the shoot, I found that song which would remind me of the spirit of MIT-CSE-2k7-Section 'B'.'Kya Mujhe Pyaar hai' reminds me of everything that happened in the confines of our classroom for all the 4 years of Engineering.As we hit the disc clad in our sarees and the guys dressed in smart formals and ties,the significance of the occasion finally dawned upon us. Never again would we party as a class together.Never again would we walk down to an 8 am class, a bunch of sleepyheads.Never again would we collectively curse the teacher who had vowed 'I`ll see to it that none of you pass in microprocessors'. Never again would we come back to manipal together after the sem-breaks...and a whole lot of unsaid,un-thought-about never-agains..
I dunno why I tend to associate only Bollywood numbers to such occasions although a few western numbers figure prominently in my fave songs list.Backstreet boys, N-sync , Linkin park forming an essential part of my teenage; have never managed to conjure up any memory, never reminded me of any occasion or any situation.I havent quite been able to decipher this..
I have had 'Kashmir ki kali hun main mujhse na rootho babuji..' floating in my head during a couple of wicked Lab. vivas, when the teacher-turned-villain would be poring through my observations.I have had 'Rang Barse'and 'Tujhe Dekha to ye jana sanam ' while noting down the measurements in the pipettes and testubes over the bunsen burners in Chemistry Lab, playing in my head.I have had 'Pehla Nasha' strumming through my brain during the initial classes taken by 'Pinky Sir' (He had a huge collection of Pink shirts, had the pinkest lips I`ve seen on a human being and his specs emitted a pinkish glow when he turned towards light).On more than one occasion while I would be writing away furiously in the last few minutes of a semester paper I`ve had 'Chura Liya hai tumne jo dilko' playing loudly at the back of my mind....the list of inane songs related to completely unrelated situations goes on.....Collate them,and there you have the background music of my life...

Is it just me or does stuff like this happen to few of you also ??