SMILE PLEASE...

" Lambi Judaai, Char dinaunda, pyar o rabba badi lambi judaai"

At least a dozen of my friends would identify the person attached to this song. I guess they also remember the person when the listen to this song. Some relationships in this world are already made when you are born. And some relationships you make when you grow up. You choose your own friends, and friends have classifications also; school friends, college friends, online friends, facebook friends, colleague turned friends blah blah... among them there are some people who come very close to you. The closest among them becomes your partner [ girlfriend or boyfriend ] but there are others who are also equally close to you. They become more like your brother or sister, and some best friends who are the soul friends. Unlike a typical Bong boy, I have made umpteen sisters in my 27 years of lifetime... and most of them said that I am a great brother material [ once my girlfriend also thought so]... In 27 years I have gathered at least 127 rakhis [ among those 20 came from my cousin sisters]. And I guess every year I was the most sought after brother in all my educational institutions [ What was it? my non existent jawline? my never bulging biceps? My non-macho personality? I never could figure out] and I enjoyed every bit of the attention. Among all the sisters  I made over the years, there are actually three sisters whom I really treasure... Lambi Judai reminds me of my this sister, the cutest person on earth, owner of the most beautiful smile, and the most melodious voice among the people I know... Indira, the prettiest girl in whole Imphal.

Indira was my junior in my post graduation college, and her claim to fame was her voice. On her first teacher's day, the whole college clapped for her when she sang Jaanam Samjha Karo. That's my first memory of her, and after that a dispute in a management class over her north east Indian accent. That's what I remember of her during my college days. But I recognised the real Indira, when she got a job in my company in Mumbai. During her initial days in Mumbai, she used to find it pretty hard to communicate with the people around. But with her famous 'Kya keh rahe ho' she won everyone's heart very soon and in three months she had learned the art of survival in Mumbai. 

That's when Indira came close to me. She always respected me & loved me like a big brother and always came to me whenever any advice needed and I guess I tried my best to live upto her expectations. [Wait... am I losing the  plot here? where's the song connection Vic? Oh yes... ]. Once we were working at the edit suite and one of the editors was asking her to sing a song, I also insisted as I hadn't heard her since that teacher's day. And she started this song... " Bichhde abhi to ham bas kal parson... Jioongi main kaise, is haal mein barson" It just blown me away. Never heard anything so sweet, so melodious, so content... She truly deserved a gentle pull on her plump cheeks, and I did exactly that. Since then whenever there's been a get together at my house, I made sure Indira sings this song. Every time before singing she did hazar nakhras and atlast when she sang people had the same feeling like me. The irony of life is now she's not in Mumbai and every Sunday I miss her [ every sunday she used to some to my place for home cooked food], her Manipuri style potato chicken, her shampoo ad [ she has such silky & straight hair that she used to demonstrate it like a shampoo ad], the soan papdis and mostly the gossips.

Indira was a sister and a good friend till she did something which brought her much closer to my heart. Victor, in his 27 years has never been so surprised as he was on 6th August 2009 at 7:30 am. The bell rang and to my ultimate surprise I found Indie standing there with a rakhi. I didnt even know that it was rakhi and she came in the morning without eating anything as she knew that sisters should eat after tying rakhi. For heavens sake... I must've born with the luck of a lifetime to experience this... That was my best rakhi ever... will always be till she does something else to surprise me. With Indie I can always expect a surprise...


Indie...  I know that u already know, but still felt like saying it... Whenever in life you need me, I'm there for you. Miss you dear sis... miss u a lot...

DUTTA IN DARJEELING

Anjan Dutta is known as a good parallel filmmaker in the country. But much before I could understand his films, I got addicted to his music. Anjan's songs are mostly a mix of country & acoustic and there are clear impressions of Dylan & Denver in his songs. But there's some kind of secret melody in his songs which are made clear by his unique voice and and the sweet guitar tune. It's very easy to identify his songs because of these characteristics. 

 Anjan's songs were a craze among the teenagers and some of his tracks were superhit amongst the college students also. The song which I'm gonna talk about is called 'Darjeeling'. It's about a kid's memory of Darjeeling in his childhood. I strongly believe the song has something to do with Anjan's childhood in Darjeeling. And this song reminds my of Sutirtha, one of my very good school friend. 

Sutirtha came to our school when we were at class six. From the first day itself, he left no stones unturned to prove the fact that he is good singer.  indeed he was, but the problem was the way he used to vary his voice in between a line [ And he still does]. After sometime it used to get on our nerves, [and it still does], but somehow all the pretty girls from other schools who used to take tuitions with us, used to find his voice very sexy, and the annoying part of it was Sutirtha was actually a handsome guy [ He is not even close now, the beer belly did the trick], and because of that girls were easily attracted to him. The song which he used to sing the best was 'Kanchan', I remember whenever there used to be a get together, he always used to sing Kanchan. But I would always remember him through 'Darjeeling'. 

We used to take tuitions of Biology from our school teacher S.D.Pal. For some reason Sutirtha was his favourite student [ a little bird says, more than that], and we always used to tease him for that. After our class XII exams, we made a trip to Gangtok & Darjeeling with all our batchmates and sir organised the tour. It was one of my best tours as I bought  many electronics goods on that trip. Whenever we used to travel through hilly roads all of us used to sing songs to pass time. And Sutirtha used to sing the most songs. Once when we were travelling from a very narrow road, Sutirtha started singing Darjeeling " Chater dharer railingta [ the railing near the roof] and in the second line he started the variation, and all of us looked at each other [with that thought, it started again], and he continued doing that. On the second stanza, it just became un bearable. Firstly it was cold and we were anyway shivering, secondly it was a very bad road and it had sharp turns, so the turns in his voice were scary at times. And then miracle happened... he was singing at the top of his voice and the driver of our car was taking a turn and suddenly he stopped... He looked at us and said please dont sing till I cross the sharp turns. Sutirtha was about to sing the third stanza and  Poor driver even he couldn't concentrate....[ smileys]...


From that day, the song Darjeeling always reminded me of Sutirtha. It's been long since I've left Baruipur but Sutirtha is always there whenever I think about my school friends. Actually Sutirtha has been a friend with whom my friendship has grown over the years. And now if I look back at my school days I only find five good friends among whom Sutirtha is one of the best. This March when I went back home I met him after a long time with three of my other friends, we chatted over a drink and I found out he is still the same, nothing has changed in him [ other than the weight and the size], not even the variations. But this time when he was singing, it felt like heaven, as if I was missing those variations for so long. We switched of the lights and were listening to those songs and I realised, I actually missed Sutirtha in my subconscious mind. Back in school those variations seemed like just add ons to his songs which could have been easily done away with. But now I understand, the variations are the soul of Sutirtha, those were his improvisations [ sometimes went wrong, but who cares??]. Now I'm proud of my friend's voice, I'm proud that he is still the same, he maintained his originality.


Even when I'm writing the blog I got a call from him, he was sitting with some other friends and was missing me. He's planning a trip where us friends can go for some days and chill out with loads of drinks and a little bit of nostalgia. Well that's when I miss my home, being in Mumbai I can't meet my school friends often, but I make sure when I meet them, I make it an unforgettable affair. After all that's life all about, and that's why friends are there to be with you. I'm really lucky to have a friend like Sutirtha....