Ghamzaah paikaan huaa jaataa hai
Posted on: September 4, 2011
This article is written by Sudhir, a fellow enthusiast of hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
Saigal, a voice that became still more than sixty years ago, is still regarded as the unvanquished king of Hindi film music. The prodigious voice of Saigal, the Golden Voice as many writers have referred to him, is a wonder that has not since been emulated again. And this person of humble and affable personality, also carried a heart of gold.
There are so many incidents recounted by friends and family members, where Saigal Saab would not think twice of giving away something, even sometimes, everything in his pocket, to someone whom he felt was in need. More than one anecdotes recounted by his friends tell about his response, that he was once like them. Maybe the reference is to the time in his years of wandering, when he may have been received mercifully by others, and that is a feeling that he would not forget. The quality of kindness, the humility and friendliness is so commensurate with a the quality of his art. And more so, with the quality of greatness as a human being. He may have had his failings, in terms of a detached reality, but even that state of mind is more commanding and more potent than the machinations of the worldly wise, who are apparently successful in life. The true success is not in terms of the glory and the riches and the possessions one accumulates. The true success is in realizing oneself as a human being, and the true possessions are the riches of memories that friends will carry, long after the person is gone. Saigal Saab is surely one such person.
This ghazal is another beautiful piece of poetry from the poet, ‘Bedam’ Warsi, one of the two ghazals of this poet that Saigal Saab has rendered. Hazarat ‘Bedam’ Warsi, son of Hazarat Syed Hussain was born in 1882,at Ataawa Shareef, a small town near Aligarh. His original name is Ghulam Husnain. His early studies happened in Ataawa, and then he moved to Aligarh for higher studies. At the age of 17, he met with his spiritual guide and mentor Haji Sarkar Alam Panha Hafiz Qari Syed Waris Ali Shah, who gave him the name he is better known as. His mentor made him an Ehram-posh Faqueer. Janaab ‘Bedam’ passed away at the age of 74 in 1936 and his shrine is situated in Aslana-e-Aliya,very near to his mentor’s shrine.
This ghazal is an enticing play on words; the poet is talking about a beloved, but on reading the words, and listening the way it has been rendered, the temptation is go deeper into the words and discover the actual theme behind the tantalizing hints that the poet is giving all through. The undercurrent of the ghazal is more about life, existence and the relationship with God, teasingly expressed through amorous allusions to a beloved. But looking beyond the words, the pursuit of realizing the ultimate truth is so intensely described in these verses, and the expressions of anguish and frustrations of this search, simply pierce home into the heart. The hidden level in this ghazal is acutely powerful.
ghamzaah paikaan huaa jaataa hai
dil ka armaan huaa jaataa hai
The flirtations directed at me sting me like the sharp tip of an arrow, and the longings are overwhelming my heart.
The poet is expressing his grouse that the flirtations from the other side (from beloved) are now beginning to effect him like a sharp arrow stinging from within. The desires and yearnings in the heart are becoming irresistible; rather the heart is no longer its own self, but has become just a desire.
At another level, the poet is hinting about trying to find the truth, about life and existence; the hints and incomplete suggestions that sometimes dawn in the mind are like flirtatious glimpses of a partial enlightenment that intensify the desires in the heart to reach the ultimate truth.
ghamzaah = wink, an amorous glance, coquetry, flirtation
paikaan = tip of an arrow
hua jaataa hai = is transforming into, is becoming
dil = heart
ka = of
armaan = wish, longing, desire
dekh kar uljhi hui zulf un ki
dil pareishaan huaa jaataa hai
Witnessing the entangled tresses of my beloved, my heart is getting distressed.
The beauty of the verses are in the underlying hidden allusions, similar to, and yet more profound than the apparent meaning of the words. In this verse, the poet is expressing distress that the search for this truth is so entangled and intricate, that the heart is tormented at its inability to resolve this complexity. And it is painful too. As one may have experienced, trying to untangle disheveled hair with a comb is both difficult and painful.
dekh = to see
kar = to do
dekh kar = on seeing
uljhi = this from word uljhan, which means perplexity, complication; in context, as applied to hair, it means entangled, disheveled
hui = is
zulf = lock of hair, tresses
un = personal pronoun, third person
ki = of
dil = heart
pareishaan = distressed, perplexed, scattered, worried
hua jaataa hai = is becoming
teri vehshat ki b’daulat ae dil
ghar biyaabaan huaa jaataa hai
Just for your intense single minded pursuit, o heart of mine, I am beginning to lose my links with this world
In this verse, the poet is addressing his own heart, his own self, and is reproaching that the things and relationships of this world are slowly getting disengaged from him, and his home and existence are become barren and desolate, because of the single minded pursuit. The word used is ‘vehshat’, implying that the pursuit is almost bordering on the savage and ferocious. The object of the pursuit is only implied. The allusion can be to a beloved, or it the pursuit is also for the realization of the truth of this existence. And the pursuit of this truth is making the poet more and more detached from the physical world.
teri = yours
vehshat = single minded pursuit, savagery, dread, horror, ferocity
ki = of
b’daulat = because of, by means of, through
ae dil = o my heart
ghar = home, place of residence
biyaabaan = desert, widerness
hua jaataa hai = is becoming
saaz-o-saamaan ka na honaa hi mujhe
saaz-o-saamaan huaa jaataa hai
That I am becoming possessed with the notion of the absence of possessions with me.
The poet is emphasizing that the preparation for the pursuit of truth will happen, as one gets more detached from the physical world and physical possessions. The truth will be realized as one gets more and more disengaged from the physical possessions of this world.
saaz-o-samaan = a set of things; this phrase is used in many contexts; a set of personal possessions; or even the set of all possessions; in business, things in stock; make preparations, e.g. safar ka saaz-o-saamaan, putting together things in preparations for travel etc.
ka = of
no = no
honaa = is, to be
hi = emphasis; this, as in ‘this very thing’
mujhe = to me
hua jaataa hai = is becoming
dil se jaate hain mere sabr-o-qaraar
ghar ye veeraan huaa jaataa hai
My heart is losing its peace and comfort; this home is becoming more and more deserted.
Once again, the allusion to the search for the truth – the poet is indicating that the inability (thus far) to realize the truth has made the heart impatient and aggravated. The frustrations of this pursuit have actually sharpened the resolve for the pursuit to the extent that the self is getting more and more isolated from this physical world.
dil = heart
se = from
jaate hain = going away, leaving, departing
mere = mine
sabr = patience, endurance
qaraar = comfort, relief, solace, succor
ghar = home, place of residence
ye = this
veeraan = deserted, uninhabited, abandoned, isolated
hua jaataa hai = is becoming
dil ki rag rag mein samaa kar ‘bedam’
dard to jaan huaa jaataa hai
The pain is so immersed in every vein of my heart, that this pain has now become the life and existence.
The use of signature ‘bedam’ is significant in this verse. Expressing his inability to reach the goal of realization, the poet says that the anguish of not reaching the realization has become so intense, that this anguish is now assimilated into his very self. This anguish is now in every pore, in every vein of his being, that it has become his life and existence.
dil = heart
ki = of
rag = vessels that carry blood in the body
mein = in
samaa = to be contained in; to fit in comfortably
kar = to do
samaa kar = immersed; merged into
‘bedam’ = weak, incapable; also poet’s signature, takhallus
dard = pain, agony
jaan = life, existence; also something or someone very dear
hua jaataa hai = is becoming
Song-Ghamzaah paikaan huaa jaataa hai (Saigal NFS) (1940) Singer-K L Saigal, Lyrics-Bedam Warsi
Lyrics
aaa aaa aaa
ghamzaah paikaan huaa jaataa hai
haaye ghamzaah paikaan huaa jaataa hai
dil ka armaan huaa jaataa hai
haan dil ka armaan huaa jaataa hai
dekh kar uljhi hui zulf un ki
dil pareishaan huaa jaataa hai
haaye dil pareishaan huaa jaataa hai
teri vehshat ki b’daulat ae dil
haa teri vehshat ki b’daulat ae dil
ghar biyaabaan huaa jaataa hai
haaye ghar biyaabaan huaa jaataa hai
saaz-o-saamaan ka na honaa hi mujhe
saaz-o-saamaan ka na honaa hi mujhe
saazo-samaan huaa jaataa hai
haaye saazo-samaan huaa jaataa hai
dil se jaate hain mere sabr-o-qaraar
haaye dil se jaate hain mere sabr-o-qaraar
dil se jaate hain mere sabr-o-qaraar
ghar ye veeraan huaa jaataa hai
haay
ghar ye veeraan huaa jaataa hai
dil ki rag rag mein samaa kar ‘bedam’
dil ki rag rag mein samaa kar ‘bedam’
dard to jaan huaa jaataa hai
dard to jaan huaa jaataa hai
gamzaa paikaan huaa jaataa hai
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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