Musical Memories Down The Lane – #MyFriendAlexa

Musical Memories Down The Lane

I think all of us would agree that as a rule, human beings have a powerful attachment to their childhood experiences. By the same token, we would probably agree that we would be strongly attached to the kind of music we grew up on. During my childhood days, when it came to music it used to be melody that ruled the roost. For a song to be a hit, the primary consideration was that it should have a lilting tune and should be sung by someone with a melting voice. 

In this post I will take you through my musical experience from my childhood days to the here and now when I am a fifty-three year old man with grey hair. 

Till my fifth grade, I had absolutely no exposure to Hindi cinema or its music. During those days, my musical repertoire was limited to songs from Tamil movies. Yes, this was the pre-dinosaur era when Sivaji Ganesan and MG. Ramachandran (MGR) used to dominate the Tamil cine industry. During those days there was no television, and radio used to be the primary source of entertainment. Here are some lilting Tamil songs from my childhood days that I am sure you would love.

First, I present a mesmerizing number sung in the melting voice of SP Balasubramaniam from the MGR movie ‘Netru Indru Nalai’. The song is picturised on MGR and Manjula.

And here is another song from the movie Sumangali I love. It is sung by S Janaki to the music of  MS Viswanathan and picturised on Muthuraman and KR Vijaya.

After my 4th grade my father got transferred to New Delhi and that was when I caught on to Hindi cinema music. Though my favourite hero during those days was Amitabh Bachhan, as far as music was concerned I did not get hooked to the music of Amitabh’s movies. It was the music of a much earlier era that I fell in love with. Here are some simply marvelous melodies from a few Shashi Kapoor starrers that I doted on.

Do listen this number  ‘Khilte Hain Gul Yahan’ from the movie Sharmilee filmed on the dashing Shashi Kapoor and lovely Rakhee. The song is sung by the man with the mellifluous voice, Kishore Kumar.

And here is another one again featuring the evergreen Shashi Kapoor and Asha Parikh from the movie Kanyadaan sung by that king of melodies Moihammed Rafi, to the music of Jaikishan.

Then I joined IIT and that was when I got exposed to western music. I had a number of favourite music groups, but the one that I really got fixated with was Queen. The number ‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love’ used to be my favourite.

And here is another superb number by Queen ‘I want to break free’

I hope you enjoyed this small collection of songs chosen from three languages. My mother says music is an ocean and this is just small drop. Last year I started learning the keyboard and my teacher told me that I had a good deal of talent. But I had to give it up after an year because I could not commit myself and spend time on practice. I could not handle office and blogging and music on top of that. But I will be damned if I will let go off the keyboard so easily.  I plan to get back to it soon.

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