Mere piya gaye Rangoon wahan se kiya hai telephoon
Posted on: December 10, 2008
These days telephones are taken for granted and calling anywhere to anywhere in the world is no big deal.
But that was not always the case. Barely a few decades ago, phones were a luxury for many people, and people had to wait for years to get a phone connection. And phones were so unreliable and so expensive. One needed to book long distance calls and needed to wait interminably for hours together for the call to materialise.
And in case the long distance call miraculously materialised, the caller needed to shout at the top of his voice to make his voice heard to the recipient. The recipient may or my not be able to hear him, but the entire neighbourhood could clearly hear what was being talked on the phone. At the end of the call, the caller would have to contend with a hefty telephone bill.
There may be people who would not believe my description, but the scenario that I am describing was very much there in India just 15 years ago.
Just imagine what it must have been in 1949, when telephone services were much more antiquated than today. Talking on telephone must have been something of a luxury and a major event in the lives of people who got to talk on it.
That way, this song “mere piya gaye Rangoon, wahan se kiya ha telephoon” has got to be a landmark song in Bollywood music history. There may have been songs on letters, but I am not aware of any song on telephone prior to this song.
Lyrics of Rajinder Krishan draw a very vivid picture of how it was like to talk on telephone. A man is talking long distance from Rangoon, Burma to Dehradoon, India and both are missing each other. It is a poignent song, but amusing as well for the listeners. The lyricist sought to find names of places to rhyme with “telephone” but could not find any such names. So he settled for Dehradoon and Rangoon, that came the closest. And instead of distorting the names of these places to rhyme with telephone, he decided that the word “telephone” should be distorted, and thus the word “telephoon” ( sounding like typhoon) was coined.
The effect was wonderful. The word “telephoon” is what catches the attention of the listeners. Other descriptions are just as poignant and amusing. The funniest sentence of the song comes near the end of the song which goes “aji lungi baandh ke karen guzaaraa bhool gaye patloon” ( I am managing by wearing lungi, and I cannot feel like wearing pantaloon). Awesome lyrics by Rajinder Krishan.
C Ramchandra was the music director, as well as the male voice in the song. And needless to say, this is one of the many memorable compositions of C Ramchandra.
The female voice, which predominates in the song belongs to Shamshad Begum. Awesome is the word that comes to my mind. This has to go down as one of the most memorable songs that she sang in her career.
The song was picturised on Gope and Nigan Sultana. Nigar Sultana looks so pretty in this song. The song itself is a stage song as well, where the two are supposed to be participating in a drama.
This song is an evergreen, immortal, memorable, timeless…… ( fill up any other adjectives that comes to your mind) song and I just love it. And I am sure I am not the only one who feels that way about this song.
Song- Mere piya gaye Rangoon (Patanga) (1949) Singer-Shamshad Begum, C Ramchandra, Lyrics-Rajinder Krishan, MD-C Ramchandra
Lyrics
Hello,hindustaan kaa Dehradoon?
Hello,main Rangoon se bol rahaa hoon
main apni beevi Renukaa devi se baat karnaa chaahtaa hoon
haan haan
mere piyaa
ho mere piyaa gaye Rangoon
kiyaa hai wahaan se telephoon
tumhaari yaad sataati hai
tumhaari yaad sataati hai jiyaa mein aag lagaati hai
mere piyaa gaye Rangoon kiyaa hai wahaan se telephoon
tumhaari yaad sataati hai
tumhaari yaad sataati hai jiyaa mein aag lagaati hai
ham chhod ke Hindustaan bahut pachhtaaye bahut pachhtaaye
ham chhod ke Hindustaan bahut pachhtaaye bahut pachhtaaye
huyi bhool jo tumko saath na lekar aaye
huyi bhool jo tumko saath na lekar aaye
ham Burma ki galiyon mein aur tum ho Dehradoon
tumhaari yaad sataati hai
tumhaari yaad sataati hai jiyaa mein aag lagaati hai
mere piyaa gaye Rangoon
kiyaa hai wahaan se telephoon
tumhaari yaad sataati hai
tumhaari yaad sataati hai jiyaa mein aag lagaati hai
meri bhookh pyaas bhi kho gayi gham ke maare gham ke maare
meri bhookh pyaas bhi kho gayi gham ke maare gham ke maare
main adhmuyi si ho gayi gham ke maare
main adhmuyi si ho gayi gham ke maare
tum bin, saajan, january february ban gaye may aur june
tumhaari yaad sataati hai
tumhaari yaad sataati hai jiyaa mein aag lagaati hai
mere piyaa gaye Rangoon
kiyaa hai wahaan se telephoon
tumhaari yaad sataati hai
tumhaari yaad sataati hai jiyaa mein aag lagaati hai
aji tumse bichhdake ho gaye ham sanyaasi ham sanyaasi
aji tumse bichhdke
umse bichhdake ho gaye ham sanyaasi ham sanyaasi
khaa lete hain jo mil jaaye rookhi sookhi baasi
khaa lete hain jo mil jaaye rookhi sookhi baasi
aji lungi baandh ke karen guzaaraa bhool gaye pataloon
tumhaari yaad sataati hai
tumhaari yaad sataati hai jiyaa mein aag lagaati hai
mere piyaa gaye Rangoon
kiyaa hai wahaan se telephoon
tumhaari yaad sataati hai
tumhaari yaad sataati hai jiyaa mein aag lagaati hai
15 Responses to "Mere piya gaye Rangoon wahan se kiya hai telephoon"
December 11, 2008 at 1:55 am
I absolutely love this song. What a wonderful voice, and what a pretty face singing the song on the screen too.
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December 13, 2008 at 7:05 pm
Absolutely LOOOOVE this song !
Everything about it is just perfect…the voices, the picturisation, the actors, the music, the lyrics.
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December 18, 2008 at 4:24 am
Lovely, lovely song. As a kid I used to find it funny, but now I think it is an exceptionally sweet one. Love Shamshad B.’s voice. 🙂
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December 18, 2008 at 8:05 am
It is a very sweet song, in addition to being funny and novel.
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December 31, 2008 at 10:42 am
just lovely, the lyrics are so good.
Shamshad begum was such an excellent singer, and many of her renderings gives me goosebumps!
Trivia::
Madhubala’s & Lata’s “rival’s” in the famous Mughal-e-Azam quawali competition were were Nigar Sultana and Shamshad Begum respectively!
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January 1, 2009 at 3:02 am
Thanks, Rajat.
Thanks for your information about the Mughal e Azam song, Bawa.
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September 24, 2009 at 5:56 pm
Patanga was a great comedy with Gope,Nigra Sultana,Agha and Shyam. all the other songs are also superb. Film is available on DVD in India for anyone wanting to see.
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September 24, 2009 at 6:39 pm
Yes, this movie is available in India. And you are right about the quality of songs of this movie. Apart from this song, this movie has some other songs which are fantastic.
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December 25, 2009 at 7:48 am
Thanks Atul to make me aware of the time when telephone was very rare. I feel very much curious about past time and you have written so well that while reading the article I had reached that time.
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October 1, 2010 at 2:45 pm
i love this song…. but from where can i download this song…????
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April 13, 2011 at 11:41 am
What a lovely song. I imagined I always had this song with me, and to my surprise, I seem to have missed it. Now to get the song again :). This is a true classic. Thanks for posting Atul, and as usual your wonderful write up on the song.
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April 13, 2011 at 12:08 pm
Now that you mentioned it, I too went through the writeup and enjoyed reading it. I had myself forgotten what I had written about this song. 🙂
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April 19, 2014 at 9:16 pm
thanks atul I love this song very much and I anted to see it again n again
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
December 10, 2008 at 8:11 pm
I love this song! I just love the static, everything in it. Hopefully I will see the film one day too 🙂 There are lots of good Shamshad Begum songs in it.
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