Kahaan ke pathik kahaan
Posted on: August 7, 2014
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a 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.
We Indians are known to be inquisitive about the personal lives of others, more so in the semi-urban and rural settings. Historically, this trait may have come from community living in hamlets where there were closer ties with families through interactions. This also helped in keeping abreast with what was happening around them. Inquisitiveness is not confined to India alone. It has also been observed in other developed countries, though to a lesser extent. I have personally experienced it in a couple of European countries.
During my travels and treks in the remote parts of India especially in the Himalayas, I have experienced the inquisitiveness of the rural folks. I always felt that these were more in the nature of curiosity to know about us rather than prying on the affairs of strangers. Some of the common questions village folks would pose to me and my responses are as under:
‘Where are you from?
‘I am from Mumbai’
The moment the word ‘Mumbai’ is uttered, the next supplementary question would invariably be from a younger one from the family.
‘Oh! Mumbai. Then you must have met Rajesh Khanna/Dharmendra/Amitaab Bachchan/Amir Khan/Salman Khan/Shahrukh Khan/Hirthik Roshan’. Of course, the names of film stars keep varying over a period of time.
‘I have not met them’. My answer would perplex them because villagers cannot believe that after staying in Mumbai, I had no opportunity to meet the film stars.
At one time an elderly man among the family asked me ‘IN which part of Mumbai are you staying?’ I was surprised by this question as I always presumed that the old man staying in a remote village had no knowledge about the topography of Mumbai. I revealed him my area of stay. Then other surprise was in store for me. The elderly person told me that he had spent A couple of years in a military camp in Kalina (near the domestic airport), Mumbai during the World War-II. It is quite common to find at least one member of the family of the villages in the Himalayan region in the Armed Forces.
‘What are you doing for a living? Or where are you working?’ This would be the next common question.
‘I am working for Reserve Bank’. I revealed this after my vague reply of working for a bank did not satisfy an elderly villager.
‘Oh! Note chhaapnewali bank? (Oh! the bank which printS currency notes?).
I nodded in agreement knowing that it would be a futile exercise to explain to the old man that it is the Government’s Note Printing Press which prints the currency notes and Reserve Bank merely issues them to banks and the public.
The elderly man suddenly took out an old currency note stapled with plastic cover which was so badly mutilated that only the colour of the note would identify that it was a 10 rupee note. ‘We get to see only such type of currency notes in the village’ he said smiling. I sympathised with him and offerred him a new 10 rupee note which he gladly accepted. I am sure that the new currency note which I gave to the old man would not come into circulation as he would not use it as a medium of exchange but as a token of value.(That was what Economic professor taught us in the college about the function of money).
There would be other common questions. Are you married? If yes, how many children and what are they doing? Where are your parents living? What language do you speak at home etc. These questions would normally be asked by the women folks.
Apart from inquisitiveness or curiosity, answers to these questions also enable them to compare similarities or otherwise of their and the strangers’ families. Sometimes I get a feeling that for those village folks who did not have the access to TV and telephones/mobiles those days, interacting with outsiders was not only a sort of entertainment for them but it also enabled them to keep abreast with what was happening beyond their villages.
The inquisitiveness of village folks has been nicely captured in the Goswami Tulsidas poem ‘kahaan ke pathik kahaan kinho hai gamanwa’. The poem is in the nature of a conversation between villagers and Ram and Sita. The simple translation of the poem is as under:
Villagers asks ‘O travellers, where are you from? Where are you going? What is the name of your village? Where are you staying? What is the reason for leaving your house?’
Ram says ‘In the direction of north, there is a city called Ayodhya which is ruled by King Dashrath. We both are his sons. Following the order of our mother, we have left our house’.
The women folks ask Sita. ‘Who is your beloved (husband) and who is your brother-in-law?
Sita smiles and tell them in her sweet voice ‘The one with dark complexion is my husband and other with fair complexion is my brother-in-law’.
Tulsidas says ‘O Lord, I seek the shelter of your feet. O Janakiraman (beloved of Sita), You have conquered my heart.
Apart from excellent imagery of conversation in the poem, Tulsidas has treated Ram, Laxman and Sita as ‘aam aadmi’ who are not spared from the inquisitiveness of the villagers when they were travelling to spent 12 years in the forest (banwas).
This is an unusual bhajan in the sense that it is neither a prayer nor in praise of God. Only the last line of the poem gives some feeling of devotion of Tulsidas for Lord Ram. The divinity in the voice of Pandit D V Paluskar has, however, turned this poem into a bhajan.
Song-Kahaan ke pathik kahaan(D V Paluskar NFS)(1950) Singer-D V Paluskar, Lyrics-Tulsidas
Lyrics
aaa aaa aaa
aaaaaaaa
aaaaa aaa aaa
aaa aaa aaa aaa
aaa aaa aaa
aa aa
kahaan ke pathik kahaan
kahaan ke pathik kahaan
kinho hai gamanwa
aa aa aaa re
kahaan ke pathik kahaan
kahaan ke pathik kahaan
kinho hai gamanwa
aa aa aaa re
kahaan ke pathik kahaan
kahaan ke pathik kahaan
kinho hai gamanwa
aa aa aaa re
kahaan ke pathik kahaan
kaun gaam kaun thhaam
kaun gaam kaun thhaam
ke vaasi Raam
ke kaarana tum
ke kaarana tum
tyajo hai bhavanwa
aa aa aa re
kahaan ke pathik kahaan
kahaan ke pathik kahaan
kinho hai gamanwa
aa aa aa re
kahaan ke pathik kahaan
kahaan ke pathik kahaan
kinho hai gamanwa
aa aa aa re
kahaan ke pathik kahaan
kaun gaam kaun thhaam
kaun gaam kaun thhaam
ke vaasi Raam
ke vaasi Raam
ke kaarana tum
ke kaarana tum
tyajo hai bhavanwa
aa aa aa re
kahaan ke pathik kahaan
kinho hai gamanwa
aa aa aa re
kahaan ke pathik kahaan
aa aa aa
aa aa aa aa aa
aa aa aa aa aa aa
kahaan ke pathik kahaan
uttar dishi ee
uttar dishi ee
nagari ek Ayodhya
nagari ek Ayodhya
raja Dashrath nrupa
raja Dashrath nrupa
wahaan hai bhavanwa
aa aa aa re
kahaan ke pathik kahaan
kinho hai gamanwa
aa aa aa re
kahaan ke pathik kahaan
kinho hai gamanwa
aa aa aa re
kahaan ke pathik kahaan
unahi ke hum
unahi ke hum
unahi ke hum
dono kunwarwaa
maata ke vachan sun
maata ke vachan sun
tyajo hai bhavanwa
aa aa aa re
kahaan ke pathik kahaan
kinho hai gamanwa
aa aa aa re
kahaan ke pathik kahaan
aa aa aaa aaa
aa aa aaa
gram vadhu
gram vadhu
poochhat un siya se
poochhat un siya se
kaun se preetam
kaun se preetam
kaun se dewarwa aa
siya muskaayi
siya muskaayi
bolat mridubaani
siya muskaayi
bolat mridubaani
saanvaro so preetam
saanvaro so preetam
gaur so dewarwa
aa aa aa re
kahaan ke pathik kahaan
kinho hai gamanwa
aa aa aa re
kahaan ke pathik kahaan
Tulsidas prabhu
Tulsidas prabhu
aas charanan ki
Tulsidas prabhu
aas charanan ki
mero man haar leenho
mero man haar leenho
mero man haar leenho
jaanaki ramanawa
aa aa aa re
kahaan ke pathik kahaan
kinho hai gamanwa
aa aa aa aa re
kahaan ke pathik kahaan
kahaan ke pathik kahaan
kinho hai gamanwa
aa aa aa re
kahaan ke pathik kahaan
11 Responses to "Kahaan ke pathik kahaan"
August 7, 2014 at 10:30 am
Great upload. Combination of Sant Tulsidas and Pt. D V Paluskar is fantastic. During my childhood I had heard only a part of the song
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August 7, 2014 at 12:27 pm
Sadanandji,
Very interesting experience .What to say about Paluskarbuwa’s bhajan.? Full satisfaction to ears. One thing pl note Ram’s vanvas was for 14 years and not 12. ( 12 years was for Pandavas.) If it was reduced by 2 years Ram-Ravan battle won’t have taken place.
D Samant
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August 7, 2014 at 1:32 pm
Oh! Sorry for the mix up. I guess, it was due to the current TV serial ‘Mahabharat’ effect on me.
Thanks for pointing out.
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December 9, 2019 at 7:27 am
This is a gem. And D V Paluskars vioice makes it even better
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August 7, 2014 at 12:40 pm
Another common question they ask: kitna kamate ho? Even our relatives have the habit. my answer would be : khaate peete ghar ka hu. That stumps them.
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August 7, 2014 at 12:45 pm
I agree Nitin Ji… my reply usually to these people is… “Enough” :). They have no question to ask after that ;).
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August 7, 2014 at 12:43 pm
DV Paluskar sang 2 songs with Amir Khan and one solo in Baiju Bawra. Total 3 in HFM..
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August 7, 2014 at 7:53 pm
Nitinji,
Will you pl quote the three songs? All songs of BB are on this blog. Only in the jugalbandi (aaj gaawat man ) DVP’s voice is heard. Tori kartaar is misquoted as sung by DVP in Hindi GeetMala. (In this blog Atulji mentions it sung by Ustad Amir Khan. ) Pl. confirm.
D Samant
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August 14, 2014 at 9:42 pm
Thank you for presenting the wonderful song. I too am inquisitive to know whether this song is Raag Jhinjhoti ?
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December 9, 2019 at 7:26 am
This is a gem. And D V Paluskars vioice makes it even better
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
August 7, 2014 at 9:47 am
Thank you for the post Sadanand Ji.. if not for all of you, I would have never been exposed to all these gems :).
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