This article is written by Sudhir, 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.

Ye Hai Bombay Meri Jaan – 1
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

        Silence. . .     Silence on the sets

        Lights. . .
        Camera. . .
        . . .
        . . .

        Breakfast. . .

On Sunday (21 Dec), when the gangout happened in Bombay, many things converged together, including a lot of birds of the same feather. And with it also came the ideas around another new series (this one).  But more about the series later.

The uncertainties of participation kept on changing till right the last moment, so to say. The list of attendees kept getting shorter, as personal circumstances limited some of the gang members to be present for the planned grand finale for the year.  The planning for this gangout reminded me somewhat of certain space flight missions.  You see, as the planets are moving in their orbits at their own pace, the variations in the distance and speed makes it highly improbable that they would be often aligned in the line of sight.  Such cosmic events happen once in a few centuries that the planetary positions get aligned such that the planets can be viewed close to each other in the sky.  And more importantly, such rare conjunctions allow the space scientist to plan missions that would allow a spacecraft to visit many planets in a single flight, thus raising the economies of scale.  In the past about 60 years, since space exploration came into existence as a major enterprise, I recall just two occasions when announcements were made that the conjunctions of the planetary positions would facilitate exploration missions that will visit multiple planets with a single launch.

You must be wondering if I have lost it 😀 :D.

Let me explain the connection of the long drawn, highly technical (ahem !) explanation above, to the gangout planning.  See, I am pointing towards the conjunction of the geographical positioning of the stars of Atuldom.  The alignment of such geographical positioning of the star players made it feasible, as well as imperative, as well as urgent, that the gangout planning should be scheduled.  The transition in the travel coordinates of Ben Katie, the star mafioso from the Americas, and the Mastermind from unspecified secret locations by shores of the North Sea, have brought them very close to 21.1500° N, 79.0900° E during the winter months of December.  (Sorry, this became too numeric now.  The numbers represent the latitude and longitude coordinate of Nagpur, the representative and central coordinates of the subcontinent land mass that is also known by the name India).

After a great start with the successful gangout at Bangalore, the second and enhanced edition of the snuggery was proposed for Bombay.  The enthusiasm with which the planning got initiated, was evident in the email exchanges, which foretold that this is going to be the BIG one.

Planning began in real earnest, with the Bombay syndicate taking the lead in preparations.  Planning meetings occurred at the Andheri hideout of Jabbar Singh Rashtramukh Moochwaala.  Initial tidings and report out were very encouraging.  IndiaMan, the antithetic patella specialist (will be explained little later), NeatInsider, the compiler and keeper of gang records encrypted into lyrics of Hindi film songs, and the EverBlessed Comet, the trekking enthusiast became the key architects of the upcoming event.  For the record, the insider information on EverBlessed is that his trekking expeditions are an assignment from Mastermind, basically to explore new and as yet out-of-security-radar routes across the Himalayas and the Hindu Kush mountains, to identify new “business paths” for opening up new territories in Tibet, China and Central Asia for our kind of business.  After all, “business” has to prosper too.

But I digress; let me return to the main topic of this report.  So the planning was finalized, meeting venues, travel routes, parking details, menus for intermission refreshments, agenda of activities – all was being put in place and finalized.  The level of planning details which the Bombay syndicate got to, is simply amazing.  I will mention more about it as the section on the session report gets underway.  In the meanwhile, email campaign was in progress to finalize the attendees list.  The initial cut was very encouraging, and we had a almost a score of people on the attendee list.

But, as they say about best laid plans.  Some sad unforeseen personal events intervened, leading to very extenuating and difficult family and personal limitations for some members.  The members impacted were JSR Moochhwaala, Peevesie’s Mom, Déjà vu 007, and Avey-of-Discard.  I will refrain from citing additional details here, as the same have been partially recounted earlier in the group transcripts.  But the outcome was the unhappy preclusion of these stars from being present at the meeting.

As the unhappy tidings were emerging, some of the members, in deference to the gravity of the situation, quietly even suggested to postpone the event.  As this thought got circulated, there were mixed reactions.  However, it was JSR Moochhwaala himself who insisted that the ‘show must go on’, especially since the conjunction of planetary positions were strongly in favor, and it would be a grand opportunity missed, if the meet did not happen.  With respect, the advisement was adhered to, and the group decision was that the ‘show will go on’.

At this juncture, the IndiaMan got active and he volunteered to raise a few additional participants for the day, from his local circle of friends of the same feathers.  By his efforts, he was able to invite friends from ‘Sargam’, a local group of music lovers.  Plus having a long working association with Shri Suresh Chandwankar ji, he was able to invite him also to join.  For the record, Suresh ji is the founder secretary and the driving force behind the ‘Society of Indian Record Collectors’ (SIRC).

A brief aside about SIRC – In 1992, some of the collectors in Mumbai came together to form a group of record enthusiasts.  With the help, support and guidance of Mr Michael Kinnear (discographer and researcher of Indian records) from Australia, the Society of Indian Record Collectors was founded in Mumbai.  Monthly listening sessions are held and a magazine titled The Record News is published.  The Society has over 150 life members from all over India and abroad, and its units at Nanded, Solapur, Tuljapur and Baroda are functioning very well with the aim of preserving this treasury for posterity.  This is probably a unique organization in India.

The premier guest for the day – I hold back on that, and will present him a little later.

And so, the stage was set, the preparations all in place, the participants (with the above noted absentees) were all primed to converge on the designated meeting place.  All appeared to be well and slowly coming together.  It must be noted that outside of the group emails that carried information and planning details, there was a hectic activity on phone calls, as well as one-on-one emails, with the IndiaMan being the most active caller in the days leading the Big event.

All appeared to be well and slowly coming together.  But the breaths were still bated, as some last minute threads were still flowing free and not knotted into the design.  The first free thread was the suspense of the presence of our fearless leader, Ranchiwaala Gaanewaala, which was the most nail biting, right up to the morning of the day.  In his own reserved manner, he had let it be known that his participation, if decided, may happen only at the very last minute.  And true to this promise, the suspense did get extended to the literally the last minute.  The second continuing anxiety was about Mastermind himself, who had variously indicated his intentions to make a daytime dash a la Shammi Kapoor.  In the final count, he was also restrained from being present in person, on account of family visits at his bunker where the last gangout had happened.  And lastly, a hiccup and a near miss in the plans of yours truly.  Having confirmed my plans to reach the Maayanagari one day in advance, I was all geared up to travel.  In my case too, a certain family situation intervened and prevented me from starting my travels as planned.  I was in a tizzy – what with the airlines getting knocked out from flying schedules, the fares were really and literally sky high.  Providence helped to get a train confirmation at such a short notice, and I was able to make the journey to reach on the day of the get together.

Late on the day before, an email arrived from our fearless leader, announcing that, being a railwayman, he was going to accomplish this particular journey in the most unrailway-like style, and he will be on a combination of trains and hopping flights both ways, to reach the venue.  The collective sigh of relief and happiness could was audible all over the cyberspace.  On the day of my train journey, after having missed the schedule one day earlier, continued to be fraught with near misses.  With lot of good time in hand, I started for the station from home.  A trip by car that should have taken 20 minutes ended up taking one hour and 20.  It seemed as if the entire population of Delhi was on roads, all there to see me off on my journey.  It was bumper to bumper traffic all the way.  As the hands on the clock (rather I should say, the numbers on the digital dashboard in the car) started approaching the train departure time, I got progressively alarmed and also realized that the train will be gone by the time I reach the station.  With just 10 minutes to the train time, and the car caught up in traffic about a kilometer from the station gate, I had no option but to get out of the car, pick up my bags, and start running.  Heaving breathlessly, I reached the station gate.  One coolie started running with me.  I offloaded one bag to him, and hastened the pace.  Boarding the train was just like one sees in the comics.  Holding the door pipe with one hand, holding the bag in the other, with my legs literally flailing in the air, while the coolie aims a basketball shot with the other bag, landing it inside the door, the boarding was a comic miracle.   (I shudder to think what a mis-step would have caused).  Ah, alls well that that lands well ;).  Throwing the coolie’s earnings to him through the door, as he kept pace with the accelerating train, I simply leaned back on the wall – it took full five minutes to simply get my breathing back.

I got off the train at the Borivali station.  Timing was good, it was just after 8.30 am.  And guess what, just missed running into Ben Katie and EverBlessed Comet, who later told me that they were also at the same station at that time, in their effort to reach the venue in good time.  I had a stopover in Santa Cruz, to drop my bags, get a shower, and then rush to the venue.  Thankfully, the distance was short enough to be negotiated by a scooter rickshaw, without having to board the local again.

And so, this was it. The meeting place was studiously camouflaged like a commercial hotel.  My mind went back to the films like ‘Night Club’ (1958) and ‘Aankhen’ (1968).  The guns and ammo, as before, was hidden away just a grab away, behind the wood panels.  As I entered the international hideaway, and checked for the gangout assembly area, I was directed the secret underground chambers.  I walked towards the nearly hidden doorway to the down stair case.  Besides the door, there was a display board, and I recognized the meeting code name listed in the day’s functions – ‘Atulite Mumbai’.  Any casual observer, or even a seasoned spy would view this as probably a meeting of the chemical industry (you know, Pidilite, Du-lite, Atulite. . . 😉 ).  And meeting venue announced was such a master stroke. The room listed was ‘Bored Room’.  Once again, recognizing the crafty hands of the Mastermind behind this, I doffed my imaginary cap in thoughts to him.  No intruder would even think of going to the ‘Bored Room’ for any purpose whatsoever.  However, as the day’s proceedings sustained, the meeting was anything but ‘Bored’.

I began to descend the stairs.  Mastermind’s instructions – to avoid elevators as far as possible, they are veritable traps; stairs provide a lot more flexibility in case of an emergency getaway.  Coming down the stairs, I could see the seasoned hand behind the planning.  Well lit escape route, silence that would magnify any intrusions, and the control room for comm and surveillance right next door.  I could not see a soul.  My eyes checked out a partially open doorway, and it tip toed towards it.  Cautiously peeking inside, I heaved a sigh of relief, as the smiling face of Ben Katie came into focus, and then the smiling glances all around as one by one IndiaMan, Neat Insider and Everblessed Comet rose from their chairs as I slowly opened the door.  One more very familiar figure rose with the group.  This was the lanky Hyderabadi who has recently become familiar with the gang activities, and this meeting was also his first taste of authentic gang world recipes.  Code named SignalTimer, Sri, as he is affectionately addressed, had made it to Maayanagari the previous afternoon.  Seeing him gave a feeling – ah, a good day lay ahead.

It was full round of handshakes, hugs and back slapping.  And the fantastic wonderful feeling as more of the gang members descended from being email ids and voices on the phone, to being real people one could touch and feel.  The call went out as the IndiaMan summoned the Unvanquished.  I was puzzled initially, but as quickly explained by the antithetic patella specialist, this was the code call for the handyman assigned to support the day’s proceedings, to supply the most important ingredient – food and fuel for body machines at work.

The Unvanquished informed that the morning session of fuelling had timed out, but as a special privilege, he suggested us to ascend to the ground level, and partake the spread in the main court.  So that was that.  I was late for breakfast, but not too late that they could still arrange it.  NeatInsider and Everblessed accompanied me to the upper floor.  Of course, an animated discussion ensued as to why the later-comer (i.e. yours truly) was being accorded a better spread of refuel items, as compared to the team that was on time.  Before it could be escalated into a full blown human rights confrontation, the courtyard keeper immediately offered all parties to partake the enhanced selection of breakfast fare.  Quick thinking on the feet, on the move.

Let me take a break here, before I launch into the account of the day’s proceedings.  But before I close this section, I will describe the overall feeling that was slowly gaining ground between the participants.  The animated exchanges, the jolly repartees, the energy levels – all gave a feeling that a group of children are having a grand day at the day care center.  Looking around, the phrase that leapt to my mind was “vadeel dhikro” – grown up turned kids.  And then another thought came to mind.  In one of the exchanges relating to the Bangalore gangout, our fearless leader had hazarded a guess about the average age of the gathering.  His estimate at that time was very high – ages in the range of 60s and 70s.  And I was thinking, let him arrive and estimate for himself.  The average age of the group would certainly be pegged in the teens.  With the IndiaMan taking the lead as the youngest, most animated of the lot. And I felt very happy. With all of my twenty eight years 😉 behind me, I felt so much at home and fitting so well into the day’s combination.

[NOTE: as indicated at the start of this article, the build up to the gangout is covered, to the point of breakfast that day. We shall return shortly with Part II of this report, taking on the action right after the breakfast.   😀 ]

And now, a short note on the series.  The title says it – it is Bombay that will be discussed, with the songs that talk of this very interesting metropolis, which is the center of the Hindi film industry.  The day earlier, as I was on the train, on way to Bombay, the idea started to form in my mind.  I was thinking of my recent phone conversation with Manju ji (Manju Amarnath Das, daughter of director K Amarnath).  After my post on the centennial birth anniversary of K Amarnath ji, she had called me and we had a long conversation.  In the threads was a brief topic about her childhood days in Bombay, and she wondered if someone would write about the city and its film people.  The topic, went and gone after we closed the call, appeared again in the mind, as I was contemplating the upcoming gangout, lying on my 2AC berth, going through the lists of songs by year that I am trying to compile and organize my music collection into.

The thoughts started to form, to start the Bombay series with the meeting write ups that I was (am) planning.  And then, the mind made up – it said yes, that’s it.  After having a taste of the day’s gangout proceedings, the first song that came to mind was this one.  The emotion that ruled the day, as one savored the warmth and the hospitality and the friendship of the Bombay syndicate, is so beautifully summed up in the title phrase of this song – “Jiye Teri Bambai, Ho Raja Jiye Teri Bambai”.  It tells of the emotion while also very unobtrusively calls out a salute to the Mastermind (aha. . .  brownie points, you know).

The song is from a relatively lesser known 1961 film, ‘Dekhi Teri Bambai’.  As I checked the blog, I find that the film has already made a debut here with the wonderful foot tapping Geeta Dutt number “Dil Ko Bachaana Aji Dil Ko Bachaana”.  The music is by Vinod, the young genius that the industry very unfortunately lost in 1959, at an unimaginable age of only 37.  This film was released after he passed away.  Lyrics are from the pen of Aziz Kashmiri.  The singing voices are identified as those of S Balbir and Sudha Malhotra.  In my opinion, as we listen to this song, I feel there is also a second female voice that has not been identified.  But I may be wrong.  I request other readers and friends to please comment on this.

The film is produced by Sheetal Movies, Bombay and is directed by Kailash Bhandari.  The cast of actors includes Poornima, Daljeet, Sheikh, Jagdish Kanwal, Radhika, Prakash Kaur, Ramlal, Tilak Kundra, Vivek, Shammi, Kumari Aruna, Anand, Master Shashi.  The lady actors in this song are Poornima and Shammi.  And I am sure you would recognize the gentleman who is trying to catch the attention of the ladies.  Yes, if you will recall the iconic qawwaali “Hamen To Loot Liys Mil Ke Husn Waalon Ne”, you will also instantly recall the round faced actor who performs that qawwaali. The name is Sheikh.

And so, the first part of my report out on the Bombay gangout.  And the first offering of this new series on the Maayanagari Bombay.  Let us see how the series develops further.  A quick note on another aspect.  Day before I got a call from our IndiaMan, Bharat Bhai.  The subject of the call was my continued absence from the blog for the past about two weeks.  He told me that he was sitting under the fan in Bombay, waiting for me to thaw and put up the gangout report.  It is being eagerly awaited, he confided.  So yes, time to get better of this chilling weather up here in Delhi, that simply does not want to go away.

Bharat Bhai, “Jiye Teri Bambai. . .”  🙂

Song – Jiye Teri Bambai Ho Raaja Jiye Teri Bambai (Dekhi Teri Bambai) (1961) Singers – Sudha Malhotra, S Balbir, Lyrics – Aziz Kashmiri, MD – Vinod
Sudha Malhotra + Chorus
Sudha Malhotra + S Balbir + Chorus

Lyrics

jaane waale dekh le
bas ik nazar moonh pher ke
hum musafir kis liye
baithe hain rasta gher ke

dilli dekhi mathura dekha
dekhe shehar kai
desh desh ke log dekhe
boli jinki nai
par
jiye teri bambai ho raja
jiye teri bambai
jiye teri bambai
jiye teri bambai ho raja
jiye teri bambai
jiye teri bambai

dekha ik panjabi lala
thumak thumak chalta
thumak thumak chalta
dekh dekh ke chikne chehre
mud mud akhiyaan maltaa
mud mud akhiyaan maltaa
aankh mein uski chhupi sharaarat
hothon par thi chhayi
hothon par thi chhayi
jiye teri bambai ho raja
jiye teri bambai
jiye teri bambai
jiye teri bambai ho raja
jiye teri bambai
jiye teri bambai

kaun albeli naar hai jo yun
churchgate pe ghoome
churchgate pe ghoome
a . .  een
dekh ke jisko paagal manwaa
haathi ban kar jhoome
haathi ban kar jhoome
arrey jaa
ang ang mera boley gori
tak-dhina-din-thai
tak dhina dan thai
tak dhina dan thai
heyy
jiye teri bambai ho raja
jiye teri bambai
jiye teri bambai
jiye teri bambai ho raja
jiye teri bambai
jiye teri bambai

naam flora fountain is ka
khadaa jahaan diwaane
khadaa jahaan diwaane
arrey arrey hum bhool gaya baai
dil waalon ke mehfil mein kyon
aa gaya taang adaane
aa gaya taang adaane
arre jaata hai na baai
itni baat bataa de teri
laaj sharam kaan gayi
laaj sharam kaan gayi
ayyy
jiye teri bambai ho raja
jiye teri bambai
jiye teri bambai
jiye teri bambai ho raja
jiye teri bambai
jiye teri bambai

——————————————–
Hindi script lyrics (Provided by Sudhir)
——————————————–

जाने वाले देख ले
बस इक नज़र मुँह फेर के
हम मुसाफिर किस लिए
बैठे हैं रस्ता घेर के

दिल्ली देखी मथुरा देखा
देखे शहर कई
देश देश के लोग देखे
बोली जिनकी नई
पर
जिये तेरी बंबई हो राजा
जिये तेरी बंबई
जिये तेरी बंबई
जिये तेरी बंबई हो राजा
जिये तेरी बंबई
जिये तेरी बंबई

देखा इक पंजाबी लाला
ठुमक ठुमक चलता
ठुमक ठुमक चलता
देख देख के चिकने चेहरे
मुड़ मुड़ अखियाँ मलता
मुड़ मुड़ अखियाँ मलता
आँख में उसकी छुपी शरारत
होठों पर थी छई
होठों पर थी छई
जिये तेरी बंबई हो राजा
जिये तेरी बंबई
जिये तेरी बंबई
जिये तेरी बंबई हो राजा
जिये तेरी बंबई
जिये तेरी बंबई

कौन अलबेली नार है जो यूं
चर्चगेट पे घूमे
चर्चगेट पे घूमे
अ॰॰ईं॰॰
देख के जिसको पागल मनवा
हाथी बन कर झूमे
हाथी बन कर झूमे
अरे जा
अंग अंग मेरा बोले गोरी
तक-धिना-दिन-थई
तक धिना दन थई
तक धिना दन थई
हे॰॰ए
जिये तेरी बंबई हो राजा
जिये तेरी बंबई
जिये तेरी बंबई
जिये तेरी बंबई हो राजा
जिये तेरी बंबई
जिये तेरी बंबई

नाम फ्लोरा फाउंटेन इसका
खड़ा जहां दीवाने
खड़ा जहां दीवाने
अरे अरे हम भूल गया बा॰॰ई
दिल वालों की महफिल में क्यों
आ गया टांग अड़ाने
आ गया टांग अड़ाने
अरे जाता है ना बा॰॰ई
इतनी बात बता दे तेरी
लाज शरम कां गई
लाज शरम कां गई
ऐ॰॰ए
जिये तेरी बंबई हो राजा
जिये तेरी बंबई
जिये तेरी बंबई
जिये तेरी बंबई हो राजा
जिये तेरी बंबई
जिये तेरी बंबई