Koi ye keh de gulshan gulshan
Posted on: July 27, 2014
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in sites like lyricstrans.com and ibollywoodsongs.com etc then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
I had listened to most of the audio clips of Begum Akhtar’s ghazals and other semi-classical songs uploaded on YT. She had rendered ghazals of many well known Urdu poets like Ghalib, Mir, Daagh, Momin Khan Momin, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Jigar Moradabadi, Firaq Ghorakhpuri, Behzad Lucknowi etc. In the later part of her singing carrier, she sang ghazals of the then emerging poets like Shamim Jaipuri, Shakeel Badayuni, Kaifi Azmi, Sudarshan Faakir, Amir Qabalbash etc. Jigar Moradabadi was one of her favourite poets. Begum Akhtar started singing his ghazal sometime in the second half of 30s when Jigar was already popular among the mushiara audience because of his captivating style of rendering his poetry. Because of his popularity, he was called ‘people’s poet’.
Begum Akhtar fell in love with Jigar Moradabadi’s Diwan when she first started reading it for selecting a few ghazals for composition and renditions in the concerts. From the poetry, she surmised that the poet must be a romantic person. Eventually, she fell in love with him without even meeting him. At one time, she used to sing only his ghazals in concerts with great fondness. Despite requests from the audience for singing some other poets’ ghazals, she would shrug off by saying that she had prepared to sing only his ghazals.
Her ‘crush’ for Jigar Moradabadi was so intense that one day after finding out Jigar’s residential addressed, she sent him a letter expressing her admiration of his Diwan and proposing to marry him. She said ‘you are a poet and I am a singer. We should unite and make a great couple’. Jigar Moradabadi sent his reply telling her that she had only read his Diwan but had not seen him. He advised her not to dream about looking at him as he was not the one suited to be her lover. The reference to ‘not to look at him’ was a pointer to the fact that Jigar Moradabadi did not consider himself to be a good looking person. On the day she received his ‘letter of rejection’ one of the ghazals she sang in her concert was a gloomy ghazal of Ghalib:
Ye na thhi hamaari kismat ke visaal-e-yaar hota
Agar aur jeete rehte yehi intezaar hota
[I was not fortunate to join with my beloved.
If I had lived longer, it would have been an endless wait.]
Note: The source of the anecdote mentioned above is ‘Ae Mohabbet… Reminiscing Begum Akhtar’ written by Prof. Rita Ganguli, one of her senior disciples.
Jigar Moradabadi remained one of her favourite poets and she continued to sing his ghazals until her death in October 1974.
I have selected for this write-up one of Jigar Moradabadi’s ghazals which she composed and sang in the concerts during the days of her ‘crush’ for the Poet. The ghazal is ‘koi ye keh de gulshan gulshan’. Begum Akhtar had composed this ghazal and sang in concerts sometime in latter half of 30s, but it was recorded for HMV sometime in early 50s (Record No. N.88304). Five out of 19 couplets of the ghazal have been included in the record version to fit in 78 RPM disc space.
Enjoy this khushnuma (joyous) ghazal in a sonorous voice of Begum Akhtar in her birth centenary year 2014.
Song-Koi ye keh de gulshan gulshan (Begam Akhtar NFS)(1950) Singer-Begam Akhtar, Lyrics-Jigar Muradabadi
Lyrics
aa aa aa
aa aa aa
aa aa aaa
aa aa
aa aa aa aa
koi ye keh de gulshan gulshan
koi ye keh de gulshan gulshan
laakh balaayen aen
laakh balaayen
ek nasheman
laakh balaayen
ek nasheman
koi ye keh de
phool khile hain gulshan gulshan
an an
lekin apna apna daaman
lekin apna apna daaman
koi ye keh de
aaj na jaaaane
raaz ye kyaa hai
ae ae ae
hijr ki raat aur itni raushan
hijr ki raat aur itni raushan
koi ye keh de gulshan gulshan
rahmat hogi ee
aa ee eee
taalib e isyaan
rashk karegi paaki e daaman
rashk karegi paaki e daaman
koi ye keh de
kaaaanthon kaa bhi
haq hai kuchh aakhir
kaun chhudaaye apna daaman
kaun chhudaaye apna daaman
kaun chhudaaye
koi ye keh de gulshan gulshan
ko…i
——————————————–
Meaning of some words used in the ghazal
Laakh balaayen = Plenty of trouble
Nasheman = Nest, Resting place
Hijr ki raat = Night of separation
Rahmat = Mercy, Clemency
Taalib-e-isyaan = candidate/aspirant for rebellion
Rashk = Envy
Paaki-e-damaan = sanctity or purity of character
5 Responses to "Koi ye keh de gulshan gulshan"
July 27, 2014 at 9:13 pm
I once had a cassette of Begam Akhtar’s ghazals. This was one of them. I used to listen to it all the time.
What a voice!
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3 | Bharat Upadhyay
July 28, 2014 at 8:51 pm
SK-ji,
Thanks for posting this gazal of Begum-ji, my favorite Gazal singer. I was the front raw seater at her ‘baithak’ at WIAA hall near Charchgate, and after she sang this gazal I pushed my dairy and she wrote “hijr ki raat aur itni raushan…. Begum Akhtar”. I wish I could lay my hand on that dairy so that I could put a photo of that page here.!!!
BTW, being her great fan I attended her last but one performance in Surat and the last performance in Amdavad too. I read in papers, about her demise, next day morning.
Thanks for the anecdote, which now connects her to this gazal.
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October 12, 2015 at 9:25 am
As per SAREGAMA (HMV) listing, the ghazal was jointly composed by Begum Akhtar and Murli Manohar Swarup.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XItRWf2eyuM&
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October 17, 2018 at 10:17 am
Video clip of a non-filmy Bengali song rendered by S D Burman, more or less on similar tune. This song was recorded and released in 1973.This was probably S D Burman’s last recorded non-filmy song.
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
July 27, 2014 at 8:45 pm
Sadanand Ji
Thanks for the interesting write-up on Begum Akhtar. Enjoyed listening to the song.
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