Wednesday, April 19, 2017

A Tune to Delight

Almost a decade and a half ago, one night, a folk song was being telecast on the National Channel of India and it stuck in my mind and on my tongue. Its theme was,”You didn’t have lemon, nor did you have tamarind, what fruit did you eat that your child is so beautiful?"  To keep this song going, one can add the names of all the different fruits that the mother may have eaten. This song is actually a conversation between the mother of a new born and her sister-in- law about the new born child. The fugitive meaning of this song, which isn’t that difficult to decipher, is that the mother didn’t have anything that would make a child beautiful, yet gave birth to this beautiful child, and how? After listening to this song, I would sing it to my Aunty, exactly at a time, when she was among her colony friends and chatting of this and that. When she heard me singing this song, she would take off her slippers and throw them at me, shying away from her friends and saying, as if in explanation, “This kid is very naughty”. Actually it is a folk song and people sing it after the child is born.

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One day, we were all set to start a street play in a village near Ayodhya. The entire village had gathered. It was evening and darkness was dawning upon us, ready to ruin our set up as there was no available electricity connection and we had to arrange lights and everything. We were trying to get electricity from a streetlight pole anyhow, so we could start the show. It was my responsibility to hold the attention of the crowd till we got the electricity and started the play. And then I saw a lady holding her new born tightly to her chest. I don’t know what came in to my mind at that moment that made me pick up my mouth organ and begin singing that song. I kept adding every fruit that came into my mind at that time.  After two or three lines, the entire crowd began singing after me. I was looking at the lady whose cheeks turned pink every time a new line and a new fruit were added.  When the song ended, I saw tears in her eyes, may be because of the joy of becoming the mother of such a beautiful child, maybe I gave her some happiness. When people were dangling me on their shoulders, I was wondering if there’s any pleasure, any joy, better than this.
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Translated by Rahul, Edited by Sweta, Final proof by Scharda

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