Jhoom jhoom ke aaj zindagi
Posted on: July 19, 2013
This article is written by Sudhir, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
Aah, five years. Five wonderful, glorious years. Five years of rediscovery, five years of getting to know, all so much that we didn’t know – the films, the songs, the people, the times, the circumstances. Five amazing years of finding long lost gems, songs we had heard decades ago on the radio – ah, the exhilaration of meeting someone, whom you never thought you would ever be able to meet again. Five fabulous years of meeting new sounds that one has never heard before. And wonder, where was I all these years, and where have all these wonderful songs been hiding.
Five years, of falling in love, one day at a time, one song at a time, one friend at a time. Ah, this wonderful journey is all about love, one passage after another. The songs, the music, the words, the poets who wrote these words, and the composers who sculpted these beautiful images in melody, and the singers whose emotions continue to live in these songs, through their voices. Everything to fall in love with. And every day, a new thing to fall in love with. An addiction that has no resistance, a habit that has no challenge. Love, they say, is like that.
And the love is more about the friends and the people, co travelers on this virtual caravan – a bandwagon, a bandmaster and a band of merry music lovers. Most of us have not met each other, we do not know what the faces look like, we do not know what the voices sound like. And yet there is this common bond, which is a bond of love, held together by our common love for the music. It is not a home, and yet it feels so much to be at home while surfing this blog. It is not a party, and yet, every time a wonderful new song is posted, it feels like a party. It is not a meeting, and yet, going through the posts and comments, I feel as if I am talking live to each one of you.
The adage of “The whole being greater than the sum of its parts”, is oh so evident and such a matter of everyday experience here. For each partaker has so much knowledge and information to share – and the collective might of all the minds put together is simply formidable, be it identifying voices, identifying faces, adding heretofore unknown information and anecdotes, and even information from personal viewing of rare items, or having met some great personalities. And the sum total of all this effectively is a live online resource for rare songs, rare information and rare anecdotes. And it just keeps getting richer and better by the day.
Shangri La is the mythical mystical valley described by James Hilton in his novel ‘Lost Horizons’ (1933). It is an earthly paradise tucked away in an obscure valley in the Himalayan Kunlun mountains – a land of permanent happiness, a land of near immortality, a land where the inhabitants age very slowly, as compared to the other people of world. And today, as I am ruminating about this blog, its people, and the time that I have been here, it brings to my mind the land of Shangri La – forever young and forever happy. Music does it to you, and the company of other music lovers, will add to this bliss.
Ah, but another thought. Say that again – five years. Tell me truthfully, has it been five years. Think again and tell, does it really feel like it has been five years. No, not really. Doesn’t it actually feel like we have been here all our lives? It feels like that to me. That I have been here forever. That all other ages and passages of time are probably in some other dimension. And the living life as far back as I can recall, has all been here. It just cannot be five years, as you say. Five years is simply not enough time to have met with and known so many songs, and so many lovers of this music.
But, yes, let us celebrate, whatever the feeling about the passage of time be. What is this blog about, if it not about celebrations – day in and day out, we have a celebration. A celebration of happy things, a celebration of happy memories, may those memories be of sad things, but the yaadein are always sweet. The happiness is the bubbling fizz in the celebrations, and the melancholia is the sweet honey that soothes the mind and rests the heart.
And as they say, there is always a song for it. Whatever it may be that we are experiencing, the 83 years of sound in Hindi films has ensured creation of more than 70 thousand songs, and somewhere, one of them, is really very very appropriate for the moment now. Only that, we need to search. 🙂
And so, when the communication happened with Atul ji, that the five years celebration is round the corner, my mind started to ruffle through the catalogs. Two words stuck to my mind – ‘geet’ and ‘jhoom’. ‘Geet’ because that is the central theme of this endeavor, and ‘jhoom’, for we need a celebration. Many songs crossed the mind’s picket lines. But you know, with more than 8,300 songs posted, well it is better than a good chance that the song you want to write about, is already posted here. 😀 😀 That is what happened with many that first came to the mind. And after thumbing the catalog quite a bit, the mind thought of this song, that I have got from my friend some months back.
As I went back to find more details, I come across a name – BS Thakur. Searching the blog, I find that one song from this film and this music director is already posted here. It was the 1900th song of Rafi Sb, posted by Raja ji earlier in April this year – “Jeevan Hai Anmol Musaafir”. Interesting thing about today’s song is that it is also sung by the music director himself. The film is ‘Shanti’ from 1947, and the wonderful lyrics are by Shakeel Badayuni. A rare treat, only now available online.
As I pulled out this song and played it again, it compelled me to listen to it again and again. The words, the low key arrangement of the notes and the soft rendering, simply descended into me, and I just could not resist. The words and their meanings caught hold of the threads in mind and I simply had to write.
‘This buoyant life, swaying and swinging, is singing songs of happiness today’
jhoom jhoom ke aaj zindagi
geet khushi ke gaa gayi
‘All the sweet memories of yesterday have returned to the garden of my heart’
guzri huyi bahaar phir
dil ke chaman mein aa gayi
‘The distress of the tedium is a far memory, now that the silences are broken’
door huaa gham-e-khizaan
toot gayeen khaamoshiaan
‘As the aspirations started to stir in the heart, despair faded away and went to sleep’
jaage jo dil ke hausley
yaas ko neend aa gayi
‘Someone entered my heart carrying the lamp of hope and desires’
le ke chiraagh-e-aarzoo
kaun dil mein aa gayaa
‘The glow and happiness in my heart, now pervades the entire universe’
kyun mere dil ki roshni
saare jahaan pe chhaa gayee
(NOTE: ‘yaas’ = despair, hopelessness)
As I listen and listen again to these lines, there seems to be no better words to tell about what this blog is and what it does to the lovers of music.
I need say no more. 🙂
Just enjoy this lovely song.
Song-Jhoom jhoom ke aaj zindagi (Shanti)(1947) Singer-B S Thakur, Lyrics-Shakeel Badayuni, MD-B S Thakur
Lyrics
jhoom jhoom ke
jhoom jhoom ke aaj zindagi
geet khushi ke gaa gayi
jhoom jhoom ke
jhoom jhoom ke aaj zindagi
geet khushi ke gaa gayi
jhoom jhoom ke
guzri huyi bahaar phir
guzri huyi bahaar phir
dil ke chaman mein aa gayi
dil ke chaman mein aa gayi
jhoom jhoom ke
jhoom jhoom ke aaj zindagi
geet khushi ke gaa gayi
jhoom jhoom ke
door huaa gham-e-khizaan
door huaa
door huaa gham-e-khizaan
toot gayeen khaamoshiaan
door huaa gham-e-khizaan
toot gayeen khaamoshiaan
jaage jo dil ke hausley
jaage jo dil ke hausley
yaas ko neend aa gayi
jaage jo dil ke hausley
yaas ko neend aa gayi
jhoom jhoom ke
jhoom jhoom ke aaj zindagi
geet khushi ke gaa gayi
jhoom jhoom ke
le ke chiraagh-e-aarzoo
le ke chiraagh-e-aarzoo
kaun dil mein aa gayaa
kaun dil mein aa gayaa
kyun mere dil ki roshni
kyun mere dil ki roshni
saare jahaan pe chhaa gayee
kyun mere dil ki roshni
saare jahaan pe chhaa gayee
jhoom jhoom ke
jhoom jhoom ke aaj zindagi
geet khushi ke gaa gayi
jhoom jhoom ke
—————————————–
Hindi script lyrics (Provided by Sudhir)
—————————————–
झूम झूम के
झूम झूम के आज ज़िंदगी
गीत खुशी के गा गई
झूम झूम के
झूम झूम के आज ज़िंदगी
गीत खुशी के गा गई
झूम झूम के
गुज़री हुई बहार फिर
गुज़री हुई बहार फिर
दिल के चमन में आ गई
दिल के चमन में आ गई
झूम झूम के
झूम झूम के आज ज़िंदगी
गीत खुशी के गा गई
झूम झूम के
दूर हुआ ग़म-ए-ख़िज़ाँ
दूर हुआ
दूर हुआ ग़म-ए-ख़िज़ाँ
टूट गईं खामोशियाँ
दूर हुआ ग़म-ए-ख़िज़ाँ
टूट गईं खामोशियाँ
जागे जो दिल के हौसले
जागे जो दिल के हौसले
यास को नींद आ गई
जागे जो दिल के हौसले
यास को नींद आ गई
झूम झूम के
झूम झूम के आज ज़िंदगी
गीत खुशी के गा गई
झूम झूम के
ले के चिराग़-ए-आरज़ू
ले के चिराग़-ए-आरज़ू
कौन दिल में आ गया
कौन दिल में आ गया
क्यूँ मेरे दिल की रोशनी
क्यूँ मेरे दिल की रोशनी
सारे जहां पे छा गई
झूम झूम के
झूम झूम के आज ज़िंदगी
गीत खुशी के गा गई
झूम झूम के
4 Responses to "Jhoom jhoom ke aaj zindagi"
July 19, 2013 at 10:25 pm
Sir, as Raja ji has put up, ‘as usual’ , a lovely , soft, touching, emotional write up. to ‘bond’ us and keep ‘addicted’.!
Yes while reading the write up, i noted the key words, and thought to put some lines… but i think i have already said that in my poem, (and now my little bitiya has a warning for me to pack up for the day..)
So thanks once again and congratulations also !!
I think this film ‘Shanti’ has all beautiful gems, one (of Rafi saab) i have already shared to Atul ji and when i first note the music director, i got interested to know more about him.
Thanks !
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July 19, 2013 at 10:50 pm
This is such a heartfelt post, this time from one of the readers (Raja is practically the co-founder of the blog)
Sudhirji, you, like many others, are the primary supporters of this blog. The ones with their shoulder to the cart, that keeps it moving.
A very touching tribute. Thank you.
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July 20, 2013 at 12:26 am
Sudhir ji
Thank you for the rare song and post.
Aur ek baat
aapke dwaaraa upload kiye gaye video clips ke “writing font” mujhe bahut bahut achcha lagthaa hai. Aur cute se “Hindi Script” bhi,
Thank you again for that.
Regards
Prakash
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
July 19, 2013 at 6:49 pm
Lovely write-up as usual, Sudhirji.
And you are SO right. This is about love and co-travellers on this virtual caravan. 🙂 Beautifully expressed, with your usual metaphors, like Shangri La. 🙂
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