My favorite bag : Binny-bag

"Sama hai suhana suhana, nashe mein jahan hai

kisiko kisiki, khabar hi kahan hai..."

I've always been a great fan of kishore kumar. Actually I grew up on Kishore Kumar and Hemant Kumar. Mostly because of my dad, but also because of the puja pandals, which used to play only kishore during my childhood. Somehow, how i used to love the sad part of Kishoreda's voice. It was different and unique. It seemed all his grief and all his sorrow is stuck in that voice. Later on when I was in class nine or so, I tried to listen easy songs by Kishoreda. Tried to move away of the 'Chingari koi Bhadke' or the ' Mere naina Saawan Bhadon' and bought an album HMV ke anmol ratan  vol 4. And the first track was Sama hai Suhana Suhana. Instantly it got me into a trance [ though I hardly understood the meaning of getting into trance that time, neither do I understand now], and I kept on thinking about the song for two days, especially two lines from the song  ''dekho yeh dil ki ajab daastaan hai, nazar bolti hai, dil bezubaan hai.".

Surprisingly In my 27 years of lifetime, i have seen many Kishore voicealikes. But none among them sings this song in any performance, and more surprisingly none of them even mentions this song in their top 10 kishore songs. 12 years had passed after I heard the song for the first time and I didnt come across anyone who likes this song other than me. But then i found someone..

Sometime in August 2008, I was sitting at our fiflth floor office room of Imagine Showbiz. It was six o clock in the evening, and as ususal I had less work. So I thought of listening to some music and i put this song on. In the antara some female voice from my left side said " oi volume kar na thoda". I increased the volume. The song got over and to my utter surprise the voice said " please play it again noh, I love the song". I had to turn to my left and it was Binny... Binny Kapadia... the cutest Gujarati girl I've ever seen.

I first met Binny in April 2008. We needed an associate producer badly and My colleague and friend Imtiaz referred Binny. She joined our office and on the first day itself she was given loads of work. That time i was editing my shows in four bungalow Mhada and at night I had to come back to NDTV Imagine office and make the next days schedule. Three days after Binny joined, I came back to office at 2 pm, i went to check what is happening in the office edits, and I found Binny taking a powernap on the yellow beanbag after a hard days work. She was cuddling there like a little pup, and the name that came to my mind was ' binnybag', and since then I started calling her by that name.

Time flew by and Binny became one of the very good friends in office. And then the song incident happened. this song also made binny a very special friend. There are so many memories those are attached to Binny. From sharing her aunty's gujarati dabba, to rinku aunty's dabba, from retake to breaking bollywood [Dont worry Binny bag, we will break the bollywood, very soon], her new hairstyle [which was awesome, if you ask me], her excitement about the South Africa trip, From planning to go to Acid factory, to actually going and watching Holmes, from carter road coffe day chat to those auto rides [from neelam food mart to oshiwara generally]. But the best memory was the night Ruhi got married. Binny came to the party a little late, and i was meeting her after eight months or so. She was looking very pretty, and we spoke for a long time. All of us danced on the party songs and after that she had to rush for some birthday party. I also had to leave early, so both of us went to have food, and when we were speaking while having dinner, I noticed something, her eyes. It's the same as the song says. " nazar bolti hai, dil bezubaan hai", very dense, very expressive. That's maybe the reason why she likes the song. And while leaving she gave me one of the best compliments of my life. That was the most memorable moment with Binny.

And that day onwards, wherever I listen to the song, I remember Binny, Some days back when we were returning from office together, I told her about this blog, and told her about the song. Well Binnybag... this song is only for you...

P.S: sorry for taking the pic from ur facebook, dint have a solo picture of u :)