Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs

Main Flora, Rang Mera Gora

Posted by: on: July 10, 2015


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.

Yeh Hai Bombay Meri Jaan – 7
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

As of the last episode, my tale of habitation in Bombay (in the post “Bambai Shehar Ki Tujhko Chal Sair Karaa Doon”) was put on hold at the Pali Hill guest house of the Tatas.  With this post now, I pick up the threads and move ahead with that story.

The flats in this guest house were huge and luxurious, fanned in the evenings by the breeze coming in from the Arabian Sea.  The luxury and the comfort was, of course, short lived.  One, the guest house was provided only for a three month period. And two, ‘where was the wife’ ?  The three month period came to an end.  There was no rush on the waiting list, so for some time no one came around to remind me that I had to vacate my room.  Additional 2, 3 weeks passed.  Happily, and quite brazenly, I continued to commute between Bandra and Andheri, knowing that the call from admin will come any day.  After about 3 weeks or so, I was eventually requested to vacate, as another family was now waiting for accommodation.  Adding on a grace period of another week, I eventually lasted in the Pali Hill accommodation for about four months.

My efforts in the interim were bearing no fruits.  The despondency of the whole situation made my mind even more resolute that I will not stay in Bombay.  So the efforts were continuing in both directions – trying to get a short term accommodation, and trying to get an assignment which will take me away from Bombay.  My search during the four months at the guest house was not very successful. One alternative that I could muster up, was another relative – a distant grand uncle of sorts.  He was the chacha ji (uncle) of my mammi ji (auntie).  He was confirmed bachelor, working as general manager in a firm dealing in chemicals.  He was staying in a two bedroom flat in Parel, on the east side.  The flat was provided by his company. It was two bedroom, so that if required, other company officials on business visits to the city, may briefly stay in the same place.  So through my mammi ji, I contacted him.  Again, a very gracious and a welcome response I got from him.  So on vacating the guest house, I moved in with this grand uncle who had a room to spare.  Of course the understanding was that if a requirement arose from his company to use that room, then I will have to move out, or at best, share the room with others.  The situation was such that any condition was acceptable to me.

So the move took me further south on the western line.  And once again, the stay was pleasant and comfortable.  The flat was equipped with a full kitchen, and a part time cook who would come in the morning and evening to prepare the meals.  My grand uncle had a very fixed schedule.  He would have an early lunch and leave for office by about 11 am.  His company had provided him with a car and a driver. His office was in the Fort area.  He would leave by 11 and was religiously back to home latest by 6 or 6.30.  Absolutely no change in schedule.  I would leave for my office earlier, and was generally back by about the same time as he.  He would watch some TV, have dinner and then go to sleep.  A little time later, in our conversations, it got revealed that he liked playing rummy.  So then one or two evenings in the week, and on Sundays, the two of us would play some rounds of rummy.

And so passed another phase of my stay in Bombay, once again with comfort and ease.  The only issue was that I was continuing to live out of the suitcase.  The other efforts to locate a suitable accommodation were thus far not bearing any results.  I knew that I could not over stretch the homely hospitality with which my grand uncle was favoring me.  The day had to come, when I should be leaving this place in a pleasant and friendly way. The stay here lasted just a few weeks. And then the imminent happened.  Rather two things happened, and all was well. . .

The boss of my grand uncle, in fact the owner of the company, was arriving, with family.  And he would be staying in the same flat.  My grand uncle did not ask me to leave, just requested that I move into the living room, and use the single bed there for sleeping.  Although he did not even mention me to leave, but I knew that I must.  His boss arrived with his wife.  No one complained.  Rather the next four five days were really grand.  In the sense that lady (boss’ wife) simply took over the household (it was their flat to begin with).  In a day’s time, the whole flat was set right, prim and proper.  And she took over the kitchen. I had a gala time, feasting on Rajasthani cuisine (they were from Rajasthan).

Two days after the owner’s arrival, I got to see a hand written notice on the office notice board. Another employee, apparently in the same situation as me, had put up an ad, saying that an apartment was available in Four Bungalows area, for sharing.  He was looking for two more people to share with. The nifty thing that I remember about that handwritten ad.  It started with the sentence “Wanted two guys to share an apartment. . .”.  Some other enterprising busybody, obviously with a grand sense of humor, had overwritten and changed word ‘guys’ to ‘gays’. 🙂

I immediately contacted the publisher of the ad, notwithstanding the spelling ‘correction’. His name is Puneet, and he is originally from Delhi also. It turned out that he was on the same project as me, and so we were traveling in the same boat.  The details were like this.  He had a family friend who was a few years senior in the same company. That gentleman was assigned a project in the US and was leaving with his family. In fact he had already left, and given over his apartment to Puneet, on rent, and authorized him to share with one or two more people.  The apartment was a two bed room flat.  He had moved almost all his stuff into one of the bedrooms and locked it.  He then rent out the remaining portion to Puneet.  I talked with Puneet and convinced him not to crowd the place, and that two of us could manage the rent between us.  Puneet finally agreed, after I agreed to share a greater than 50% share of the rent.  The arrangement was that he would keep the larger room, that is the living room.  He would be using the one bed that his friend had left outside.  The situation was such that I would have even agreed if he had asked me to sleep in the balcony.  I agreed to everything, of course with the understanding that only two of us will share.

At last there was now a real place where I could now settle down.  The flat is in the Avinash Apartments society in the Four Bungalows area, right on the main road that goes to the local train station.  In the current time, there is a Metro station for Versova that commands that area.  Earlier, when I moved there, it was a much more open space, with a huge BEST bus terminus right next to our building.  Our flat was on the fourth floor.  With windows facing the ocean on one side, it was wonderfully airy as all the space around was open.  (Yes, across the street, we have Jyoti Apartments.  Arun ji has been staying there, even before I stepped into Avinash in 1987.)

So this apartment was the place where I spent the rest of my stay of that period.  Our Bombay based project was in progress, but about a year or so later, it ran into trouble.  (I will cover that incident, and my role in starting that trouble 🙂 in the next episode.) Being in the same project for some time, we already were familiar with each other.  Of course, staying together made us very good friends, lifelong friends.  (Puneet is currently settled in San Jose in the US.  He has started his own venture.  He heads a company that develops software for communication networks.)

We had another resident in the flat. His name was ’Ramu’.  Ramu was the invention of Puneet’s imagination.  Whenever something was to be done, or fetched from market, he would call out for Ramu.  Then wait for a couple of minutes. And then he would start laughing, get up, and get the things done.  One very interesting development happened during this time.  My sister and Jija ji (brother in law) once visited us for a week or so.  The kitchen was equipped and functional, but just so.  Puneet and I did not do much except for quick breakfasts.  When my sister came, she insisted to make the kitchen functional.  We got the necessary items and groceries, and the kitchen started.  Puneet himself very much enjoyed this “home cooked meals” phase.  After they left, one day I just walked into the kitchen, thoughtfully looked around for some minutes, and then decided to take on the challenge. In the next week or ten days, the great mystery that used to be, the “Secrets of Cooking” – that mystery simply evaporated.  I daresay that with very little experimentation, I came up with methods to create real home cooked food.  And Puneet was the happiest one of all, lazy as he was for anything to be done in the home.  This transition came in very handy in my later stints in the US.  Staying alone, I really enjoyed this hobby of culinary skills. 🙂

On the way from Four Bungalows the train station, on JP Road, there used to be a cinema house.  (Arun ji may confirm – was it Navrang?  Is it still there?). This cinema house hosted week long festivals for Guru Dutt films, Dev Anand films and V Shantaram films, during the months that I stayed there.  It would be the first time in my life that went to see films seven days in a row, multiple times.  It was one of the best chances that I got, to see some of the all time great films of these artists, most of them for the first time.  It was a great experience.

Now with everything taken care of in life – a good job, a good salary, a deposit free rental accommodation just a stone’s throw from the sea, a good kitchen going; all that was left in life was a slice of romance.  And Puneet provided that slice too.  In the same building, I think one or two floors above us, there lived a Sindhi family.  Puneet took a fancy to their eldest daughter.  He had met her on and off, at bus stop or while negotiating the stairs. Then one day, he confided in me that he seems to be getting romantically inclined, and also shared the identity of the lady.  I couldn’t say much, except that he should be careful, and not get too involved unless very sure of what he wants in life.  Sometime later, my niece and nephew paid us a visit from Delhi.  They stayed  for some time.  It turned out that my niece’s birthday came during their visit.  So we took this opportunity to have a small party, and invited few neighbors too.  We invited the family of Puneet’s ‘fancy’ also.  This broke the ice somewhat.  They in turn invited us after a few days. And so the ‘silsila’ started.  I was to find out later that the two of them also stole some time and went out for a cup of coffee together.  Not creating any problems or wrong impressions though, they used to keep it short. Then the Ganesh festival came.  As is traditional, a huge dandia program was organized in the campus of our apartment building.  I coaxed Puneet to go and join; this would be very opportune.  But he simply could not muster up enough courage to take on ‘dandia raas’, and continued to watch every day from the windows of the apartment.  Then the festival was over.  Other festivals followed.  Both of us traveled back to Delhi for a break.  Things seemed to continue between them on a low key.  Then, as the assignments came to a closure, and we planned to move away from Bombay, apparently this ‘puppy love’ fancy seemed to fade away.

Both of us continued on to different projects in the US. But we have always kept in touch, visiting each other, while in the US and also when at home in Delhi.  Then we were together again in the same city, when I went back to San Jose in 2001, and he was already settled there.  He has married an Indian girl whom he met in Detroit.

Now, the part that remains to be told is the manner in which we were able to “break free” from the local Bombay project.  That is a very interesting episode in itself, to be narrated in the next article of the series. 🙂

And by the way, you must be wondering why I got into some details regarding matters of Puneet’s heart.  I assure you I am making up none of what has been stated above.  Rather, I have abbreviated it and kept it short.  You see, I also had to get in a link into today’s song.  This song is another one of those unnoticed and obscure gems, that continue to surprise us as we are exploring the golden era of Hindi film music.  I had earlier set this song aside for the fabulous foot tapper series. But when I thought some more about it, I found that it links is so appropriately with the matters of heart narrated above – the story about ‘Bombay waala madam’ and ‘Dilli waala chhora’.  Listen and you will make the connection.

The film is ‘Ek Ladki Saat Ladke’.  This is one of the films that music director Vinod was working on when he unexpectedly passed away in 1959.  Some songs had been recorded, and for the remaining songs, the composition work was completed by S Mohinder.  In the Geet Kosh, for some songs of this film, the name of the music director is not specifically identified.  This song is one of them.

The film is produced and directed by Roop K Shorey.  After having tasted success with ‘Ek Thi Ladki’ (1949) and ‘Ek Do Teen’ (1953), he tried to repeat a similar sounding formula in this film.  The earlier two films had Motilal and Meena K Shorey as the lead pair, and Vinod as the music director.  But in this film, the only common link is Vinod, who also was replaced by S Mohinder, in unfortunate circumstances.  The cast of actors is very brief – Majnu, Ameeta, Badri Prasad, Durga Khote, and Ravinder Kapoor.

The words are written by Majrooh Sultanpuri.  The singing voice is that of Asha Bhosle.  One of the songs for which you are bound to say, ‘really, wow’.  And so, while I am searching for a suitable replacement in the ‘Fabulous Foot Tapper’ series, please go ahead and listen. And enjoy.

Song – Main Flora, Rang Mera Gora (Ek Ladki Saat Ladke) (1961) Singer – Asha Bhosle, Lyrics – Majrooh Sultanpuri, MD – (Vinod / S Mohinder)

Lyrics

main flora
aa haa
rang mera gora
o ho
ho main flora
rang mera gora
ae ji hum bombay ka madam
tum hai dilli waala chhora
main flo. .ora
rang mera go. .o ra
ae ji hum bombay ka madam
tum hai dilli waala chhora
main flo. .ora
rang mera go. .o ra

jis ne humko dekha
nasha chhaa hi gayaa
aisi waisi. . .
ho oo oo
aisi waisi samjha
dhokha khaa hi gaya
jis ne humko dekha
nasha chhaa hi gayaa
aisi waisi samjha
dhokha khaa hi gaya
khaali peeli khaali peeli
kai ko re khaali peeli
bom maarta
humko thora tho. .ora
main flora
rang mera gora
ae ji hum bombay ka madam
tum hai dilli waala chhora
main flo. .ora
rang mera go. .o ra

dekho dekho dekho
ghabraa hi gaya
aisa  chakraaya. . .
aisa chakraaya
mazaa aa hi gaya
ho oo oo
dekho dekho dekho
ghabraa hi gaya
aisa chakraaya
mazaa aa hi gaya
khaali peeli khaali peeli
kai ko re khaali peeli
bom maarta
humko thora tho. .ora
main flora
rang mera gora
ae ji hum bombay ka madam
tum hai dilli waala chhora
main flo. .ora
rang mera go. .o ra
main flo. .ora
rang mera go. .o ra

 

 

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

मैं फ्लोरा
आ हा
रंग मेरा गोरा
ओ हो
हो मैं फ्लोरा
रंग मेरा गोरा
ए जी हम बॉम्बे का मैडम
तुम है दिल्ली वाला छोरा
मैं फ्लो॰ ॰ओरा
रंग मेरा गो॰ ॰ओरा
ए जी हम बॉम्बे का मैडम
तुम है दिल्ली वाला छोरा
मैं फ्लो॰ ॰ओरा
रंग मेरा गो॰ ॰ओरा

जिसने हमको देखा
नशा छा ही गया
ऐसी वैसी॰ ॰
ऐसी वैसी समझा
धोखा खा ही गया
हो ओ ओ
जिसने हमको देखा
नशा छा ही गया
ऐसी वैसी समझा
धोखा खा ही गया
खाली पीली खाली पीली
काए को रे खाली पीली
बोम मारता
हमको थोरा थो॰ ॰ओरा
मैं फ्लोरा
रंग मेरा गोरा
ए जी हम बॉम्बे का मैडम
तुम है दिल्ली वाला छोरा
मैं फ्लो॰ ॰ओरा
रंग मेरा गो॰ ॰ओरा

देखो देखो देखो
घबरा ही गया
ऐसा चकराया॰ ॰
ऐसा चकराया
मज़ा आ ही गया
हो ओ ओ
देखो देखो देखो
घबरा ही गया
ऐसा चकराया
मज़ा आ ही गया
खाली पीली खाली पीली
काए को रे खाली पीली
बोम मारता
हमको थोरा थो॰ ॰ओरा
मैं फ्लोरा
रंग मेरा गोरा
ए जी हम बॉम्बे का मैडम
तुम है दिल्ली वाला छोरा
मैं फ्लो॰ ॰ओरा
रंग मेरा गो॰ ॰ओरा
मैं फ्लो॰ ॰ओरा
रंग मेरा गो॰ ॰ओरा

Tags: , , , , ,

6 Responses to "Main Flora, Rang Mera Gora"

maheshmamadapur's avatar 1 | maheshmamadapur
July 11, 2015 at 11:26 am

Sudhir ji,
Your experiences and the art of narration are worthy enough for a best-seller non-fiction novel. When should we expect it?

Like

prakashchandra's avatar prakashchandra
July 11, 2015 at 11:50 am

I fully support your comments Mahesh ji

Thanks Sudhir ji for the post and the rare upload

prakash

Like

prakashchandra's avatar prakashchandra
July 11, 2015 at 12:11 pm

I enjoyed reading your post very much, While reading the post I feel like as all the things you have written are happening before my eyes……………
I am going to read this post, whenever I find time(again and again), it gives me a feel of living in Bombay………….

regards
Prakash

Like

Peevesie's Mom's avatar 2 | Peevesie's Mom
July 11, 2015 at 12:09 pm

hullo Sudhirji.
Yes the movie hall in that region of andheri is Navrang. Don’t know if it is still there, I ve not been in that stretch of andheri for many years now. When my maika was andheri and particularly in my school & college days i ve seen many movies there. And my family was heart broken when the Ambar-Oscar-Minor theatre gave way to today’s Shopper’s Stop

Like

raja's avatar 3 | raja
July 24, 2015 at 4:42 am

Thoroughly enjoyed reading this (and the earlier part of this story), Sudhirji. You are the most marvellous story-teller I know. It is as if everything is happening right in front of our eyes. When you write the next post on this topic (like you say, abhi picture baaki hai), maybe the song should be “mere paas aao, mere doston, ek kissa suno”. 🙂

Like

raja's avatar 4 | raja
July 24, 2015 at 4:47 am

Sudhirji, I see that “mere paas aao, mere doston” has already been posted. Khair, koi kahin…it’s the thought that counts. 🙂

Like

Leave a comment

This blog discusses Bollywood songs of yesteryears. Every song has a brief description, followed by a video link, and complete lyrics of the song.
This is a labour of love, where “new” songs are added every day, and that has been the case for over SEVENTEEN years. This blog has more than 19700 song posts by now.
This blog is active and online for over 6000 days since its beginning on 19 July 2008.
Important Announcement
(© 2008 - 2025) atulsongaday.me The content of this site is copyrighted and it may not be reproduced elsewhere without prior consent from the site/ author of the content.
Total number of songs posts discussed
19744

Number of movies covered in the blog
Movies with all their songs covered =1541
Total Number of movies covered=5171

Total visits so far

  • 17,699,566 hits

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 1,952 other subscribers
Support the blog

Bookmark

Bookmark and Share

Category of songs

Current Visitors

Historical dates

Blog Start date: 19 July 2008

Active for more than 6000 days.

networked blogs

Archives

Stumble

visitors whereabouts

blogadda

Visit blogadda.com to discover Indian blogs

blogcatalog

Music Blogs - BlogCatalog Blog Directory

Blog at WordPress.com.