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

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Regulars of this blog are aware that my family had three pets namely Nuppy (cat), Bhole (dog) and Chhote (Dog) that my wife adopted in september 2010, october 2010 and december 2010 respectively in the place where she lived. I was based at Nagpur those days, some 300 km away. They were all very young when they were brought home. I would visit my wife and daughter and bring them to Nagpur along with the pets during their holidays.

These pets and their interesting tales are covered in several of my writeups, viz. Aaye ho to dekh lo duniya zaraa (Chiraag Kahaan Roshni Kahaan), Jab koi ladki baar baar mere dil ko tadpaaye (Chattan Singh), Ye pyaari pyaari paati (Janmbhoomi), Tu hai mera yaar (Milan),Jahaan chaar yaar mil jaaye wahaan raat ho gulzaar (Sharaabi)(1984), Jaa jaldi bhaag jaa (Deshpremi)(1982), Bade miyaan to bade miyaan (Bade Milaay Chhote Miyaan)(1998) etc.

Most of these writeups were happy tales describing the amusing antics of the pets. The first and so far the only sad writeup appeared on 29 june 2012, where I broke the news that the cat nuppy was no more.

There have been no detailed posts in the blog about my pets since 2015 though I had a collection of many new interesting stories about them.

I have finally decided to pen another writeup on my pets. This is unfortunately another obituary. It is Chhote, the youngest pet who passed away on 27 may 2020.

When we got the medical cards of our pets made in Nagpur in January 2011, the three of us were the owners of the three pets. Chhote was shown as owned by my wife, Bhole by me and Nuppy by our daughter.

The three pets have brought us countless hours of joy as long as they lived and left fond memories after two of them left us.

Chhote was the centre of attraction of our household. Not just the humans in the house, even the other two pets of the house were very fond of him. He had a natural knack of winning over strangers (animals as well as human beings). He was the youngest pet, and the other two pets were very protective of him. In the winter season of 2010-11, the three of them would sleep snuggled up with each other. The two senior pets would keep Chhote between them, protecting him from both sides.

My wife never pampered our daughter (despite she being our only child), but Chhote was pampered by her, to the extent that she began to give step motherly treatment to Bhhole. Later she realised the error of her ways and made amends. Chhote began to assert proprietary claims over my wife and would prevent Bhole form coming close to her. When I came visiting from Nagpur, Bhole paid Chhote in the same coin. He staked a proprietary claim over me and prevented Chhote from coming close to me, much to our amusement. Till the last moment, this ownership claim was not given up. But to our credit, we tried to treat both dogs fairly even if he was not the owner. 🙂

Chhote had such smooth silky coat. In Nagpur, I would hear the door bell. At the door, I would find the padosan living upstairs holding Chhote and telling me that he was going to the busy main road. I would thank her and take hold of Chhote. People loved to hold Chhote in their arms, just to feel the texture of his smooth silky coat.

Cat was allowed to go out and come in but the dogs were not. But Chhote, always looking for challenges and adventures would often escape out of the home. Bhhole would then seek to escape so that he could go out and protect Chhote.

While Bhole and nuppy knew their way back home, Chhote did not and he would lose his way. Then my wife would order nuppy to go and bring Chhote back. Amazingly, nuppy understood the command. She would go and bring Chhote home. This happened more than once and so it could not be just a coincidence.

Even street dogs began to know him. Once a street dog brought him back to the home! As a reward, my wife gave that dog some foodstuff to eat.

Chhote gave respect to his senior pets, just like humans do.

While Chhote had the temperament of being a dog seeking to socialise with everyone, Bhhole was an athletic dog, with strong jaws and good running speed. My daughter appointed him her sprint coach. The two would begin their sprint together. Bhhole would easily outrun her and then stop to allow her to catch up with him before resuming his sprint. Bhhole’s coaching was quite useful seeing that my daughter was the 100 metre sprinting champion of her class among girls and once she even won a District level sprint.

Bhhole would also play football with my daughter while being dressed properly in football shorts. Bhhole, proudly sporting his footballing short looking like Scoobie Doo, would be seriously tackling the daughter for ball possession when he would suddenly find his shorts being pulled down. It was Chhote (looking like Scrapy Doo) entering the arena wondering what happened to the tail of Bhhole. Bhhole would snarl at him, asking him to leave him alone. 🙂

Once, Chhote for some reason began to whine and whimper and got into the nerves of my wife. It is said by wise men, and morning message to this effect regularly gets circulated in whatsapp groups that “One should not take imortant decisions when angry and one should not make promises when happy”. It is a wise saying that my wife does not practice. She got annoyed with Chhote and decided to give away the trouble making Chhote to someone else. She convinced a lady to take Chhote and handed Chhote to her.

That was a saturday. When the daughter came back home from school and found Chhote missing, she started crying and insisted that Chhote be brought back. Even the other two pets were silent and sad. Next morning, wife and daughter went to that lady. They found Chhote, who roamed around freely inside his earlier home, tied by a chain in that household. Chhote was very happy to see them. My wife asked Chhote back. Much to their relief, the lady agreed to hand Chhote back. While they were bringing Chhote back, a cow who had recently given birth to a calf though that her calf was being taken away. she gave a chase. My wife went to the cow and showed her Chhote and convinced her that it was a pup and not her calf. 🙂 When Chhote was brought back home, the other pets, silent since morning, became happy and cheerful. The raunaq of the household had returned. The voice of Chhote which my wife was finding annoying till the previous day began to sound like music to her ears.

Chhote was quite intelligent and smart. Unlike most humans, he could think out of the box and outsmart humans. A human would chain him and think that Chhote cannot get away. Chhote would pull his head out of the neck collar and the human would be left holding the chain with the collar. Chhote had used this trick on many unsuspecting humans. In the early days, we tied him with chain made of fibre. He would bite off the rope and free himself. Then we bought metal chains to tie him and Bhole.

In Nagpur, we had a garden adjacent to my residence. The garden is closed from all sides. I would leave the dogs in the garden every morning for an hour before bringing them inside the home. I was secure in my knowledge that there was no way the dogs can go out of the garden. But as I mentioned before, Chhote outwitted me. He laid a detailed long term plan. This plan was carried out so well that I could notice nothing. One week later, when I went to the garden to bring the two pets back, they were nowhere to be found. They had escaped !

What Chhote had done was an example of a lateral thinking at its best. He found out that the mud under the gate was soft. So every day, he got Bhhole (the athletic dog) to dig some mud from under the gate. Bhhole dug some mud everyday for seven days. On the seventh day, enough gap got created under the gap and the two escaped through that gap.

Where did they go ? There was a children’s part nearby. The board said-“only for Children of Railway employees”. The two dogs were playing there, considering themselves as children of a Railway employee.

Both dogs had different natures and different qualities. Chhote, the brainy one, had the ability to analyse things and work out ingenious solutions, which is unusual for most other dogs. For instance Bhole could never do these things. When it came to opening doors, Bhhole only knew how to open door by pushing. If the door needed to be pulled then Bhole was all at sea. But Chhote could easily pull a door. He even worked out the way to go through spring loaded doors by pulling it safely.

Bhole was good in barking whereas Chhote was not. When Bhole barked, his bark was so furious that people thought that many dogs were barking. Chhote accompanied him in barking but he in reality would only be only lip syncing in Bhole’s voice.

Chhote had some superhuman abilities in him. For instance he could tell by smell if the foodstuff was edible. We often used to buy milk packets when running short of Milkman supplied milk. Once we bought one such milk packet and offered this milk to the pets. Pets, who would dring milkman supplied milk without a fuss, refused t drink it despite being hungry. Later they drank milkman supplied milk. That is how we realised that the milk suppled in milk packets was not safe.

Chhote’s hearing ability was truly superhuman. The car that we have is one of millions such cars built to the same specifications, but Chhote could tell this car apart by the sound of its engine. He could do it when the car was at least a kilometer away. The person driving the car could barely listen to the sound of the engine, whereas Chhote, located one kilometer away could tell that this car belonging to the family was arriving back home in five minutes.

Chhote was very fond of being driven around in that car. He would take the passenger seat and look around, soaking in the scenario. He has traveled a lot between Maharashtra and MP, seated on the passenger seat.

When visitors came home, they were afraid of Bhole and they would request that Bhole be tied down by chain. No one was afraid of Chhote. Chhote would remain free and join in watching the visitors (plumbers/ electricians etc) do their stuff. If luggage was being moved from one place to another (for instance during transfers) Chhote would sit on the furnitures and would get carried along with the furniture. If the school friends of the daughter drop in and had their discussion while seated on chairs, Chhote too would hop on a chair and give them company.

From Nagpur, I got transferred to Bilaspur during end of 2011 and shifted the luggage in February 2012. All six of us travelled from Nagpur to Bilaspur in that car.

Bilaspur residence had a sprawling premise. The wall was broken at places. Initially I was worried that the dogs would escape through the gaps and would be lost. But after nearly one year of tussle between the pets and me, I realised that the pets could go out and come in safely. There were many occasions when I felt that the dogs (one or both) were lost, but fortunately they came back safely every time. In due course, the premise became a safe haven for pups and their mothers. The two pets would repel any male dogs from entering the premise, but pups and their mothers were welcome to reside in the premise. There was a time when the premise housed, apart from Bhhole and Chhote, two female dogs and nearly a dozen pups.

Bhole and Chhote had their meals in their earmarked pots. Bhole was very possessive about his meal and would not share it with any other dogs. Chhote on the other hand was quite accommodating and shared the meal of his pot with any pup who approached him. The pups adored him. I had taken photographs (that I shared on facebook) that show Chhote walking around with nearly a dozen pups following him.

We also had some temporary pets there that lasted for just a few months before being lost for one reason or the other. My wife had given them interesting names. One of these temporary pets was a pup named Kabra Singh. Both Bhole and Chhote were quite friendly with Kabra Singh and they would teach him tricks of dogfight. I have a photograph where Kabra Singh is seen trying to apply those tricks on his own gurus. 🙂 Kabra Singh tried to copy the mannerisms of Chhote. If Chhote was seated on a chair then he would get seated on a small stool striking the same pose as Chhote.

When I was transferred from Bilaspur to Izatnagar in UP in 2015 then bringing the two pets offered challenges because of the distance involved. Finally I worked out an elegant solution (first suggested by the daughter). She suggested that we needed to bring them by train. Initially I told her that it was not possible. Then on checking up the rules I found that dogs could be brought in guards van or in AC first (if other passengers do not object). No self respecting pet dog would ever travel in the guard van with the guard (without the owner) so that option was ruled out. The dogs had to be taken only by AC first. The best and fail safe way to ensure that there was no objection from other fellow passengers was to ensure that we got the cabin of two berths instead of four berth cabin. I requested for it. I was ensured that I would get that provided no VIPs traveled that day by that train. I prayed and my prayers were answered. VIPs kept away and we were allotted two berth cabin. The dogs, duly certified fit to travel (certificate issued by a government vet), with their documents and tickets were with us. THe TTE saw the tickets and raised no alarms (I had already ensured that the TTE was briefed beforehand). Chhote occupied the lower berth and watched eagerly out of the window like a wide eyed kid. Bhole, not interested , made himself comfortable at the floor of the cabin. Chhote let my wife share the lower berth with him. 🙂

Early morning, we arrived at Agra cantt. From there, we reached Izatnagar by road.

Izatnagar in UP was different from Bilaspur in Chattisgarh. The premise of the residence was just as porous as was the case with Bilaspur residence but I realised that allowing the dogs to roam free like they did at Bilaspur was not safe. So after a few close shaves, it was made sure that the two dogs were taken out of the residence only while chained. Of course then escaped from the chain many a times and those who ran behind to bring them back aften had harrowing time cornering them and bringing them back.

Every morning I would take the dogs on walk, one dog at a time. It was alweays Chhote first, because it was he who insisted on being taken for a walk first thing in the morning, come rain or snow. Thanks to him, I became the most disciplined officer in Izatnagar who would regularly go on a walk at 6 AM and even earlier while others were still sleeping. Even during torrential rain, Chhote would insist on having his daily morning walk. He was that kind of outgoing dog.

The street dogs in Izatnagar were quite big built and fearsome. They would try to bully Chhote and Chhote would get nervous. I , armed with a stick, assured him that he was under Z category security and he was well protected. I would manage to keep the gang of street dogs at bay. When it was the turn of Bhole to go on his morning walk, the tables were turned. For some reason, the appearance of Bhole unnerved even those big built hardened street dogs assembled in a gang and they would quickly disperse at the sight of Bhole. Bhole walked the street like a dabang dog.

Like at Bilaspur, even at Izatnagar, pups and their mothers were allowed to stay in the premises of the residence. As at Bilaspur, even here the pups were fond of the pets. Even Bhole was admired by pets. When they went on their morning walk, these pups also accompanied them. Pups accompanying Bhole would take advantage of Bhole’s appearance to bully even big looking street dogs and chase them away. 🙂

Izatnagar has an IVRI (Indian Vetenary Research Institute) nearby. The two dogs would often go there for their medical check ups and there they would combine to bully other dogs.

When I was transferred from Izatnagar to Gorakhpur in August 2018, I and my wife travelled by our car with our pets. The residence at Gorakhpur had proper walls so the pets could not go out. So for the first time in years, we could leave the dogs in the premise without worrying about them going out of premises. On three occasions, during heavy rains, I found parts of wall falling down and the premise getinmg exposed to public. Those were harowing days, because it meant dogs could escape to busy main road and from then onwars there was no hope for seeing them again. On all these occasions, I managed to somehow keep the dogs restrained while the wall got repaired (first temporarity and then permanently). On those days, I would take them out of residence while chained. Otherwise the dogs had forgotten the experience of being chained after coming to Bilaspur.

After one year of stay at Gorakhpur, Chhote suddenly developed the desire to go on a walk out of the residence every morning and afternoon, like how it was in Izatnagar. It was from december 2019 onwards. Chhote continued to go on his walks till march 2020,

It was during the last months of 2019 that Chhote started suffering from a medical problem that initially went unnoticed. My wife feels that he had developed a tiny swelling inside his mouth on the right side. Later, on being checked, it turned out to be malignant cancer. My wife took him to a vet for treatment in early march 2020, hoping that it would help. Next date of treatment was 25 march 2020, which turned out to be the date when lockdown started in India. It was in the second week of april that the Vet clinic finally opened. When Chhote was taken to the vet, he had become quite weak and thin by then because he was not able to eat properly. He was given driops and some injections, which helped a bit, and his appetite returned a bit. He has stopped eating his normal food. My daughter suggested that he be fed soft chicken pieces. She ordered chicken biryaani online every afternoon. I would feed Chhote soft pieces morsel by morsel which he would struggle to eat. He would then drink lots of water in a bid to wash it down.

The cancerous growth was becoming bigger. It led to continuous secretion that Chhote would try to wipe on his forelimbs. So his shiny white coat wou;d get dirty and discolored. I began to give him baths every second day which gave him relief for some time before his body would once again be covered with that secretion.

Chhote was suffering. Inability to take in nourishment was telling on him. An erstwhile burly looking Chhote was getting shrunk in size which was sad to see. When I showed his video to my daughter she began to cry at his plight.

When Chhote was taken to the vet again one week later, this time he stated that it was a hopeless case. The swelling is solid swelling. Nothing can be done to reduce it- the vet stated.

So I came back and informed this fact tyo my wife on phone.

To the credit of Chhote, he endured this pain stoically. He had realised that his last time was approaching. He seemed to be reconciled to it, secure in the knowledge that we tried everything we could for him. In his prime, he would bother us for many things, but this time he had decided that he would try and be as less of a problem on us as he could help. He did not whimper once throughout his suffering.

On my part, I made sure that Chhote did not feel unwanted, unloved and uncared for because of his medical condition. He was given the same freedom as before. No quarantine, no restrictions, no stigmas. He in fact was given special attention as far as feeding him and bathing him was concerned.

When my wife and daughter first became aware of the worsening condition of Chhote, they opined that he should not be made to suffer like this and he should be given euthanasia. I opposed the idea telling them that he was eating chicken and so he was getting nourishment.

By 25th may, his condition took a turn for the worse. He stopped taking even the little nourishment he was able to take earlier. And he had become so weak that he struggled to stand on his feet.

On 26th may, I phoned my wife and informed her of Chhote’s situation. I told her that I could no see Chhote holding on for much longer. It was now I, instead of she, who broached the subject of euthanasia. My wife, from her location in MP tried to get things arranged by talking to people concerned. The feedback was that no doctor was prepared. So be it. But we needed to be ready since the end was near.

On 26th of night, Chhote struggled to move around in the hall. He tried to sit in one place, and then another, then at yet another place and so on. He did not eat anything. with some effort, he drank water.

At night, he was sleeping in the hall. Late at night, when I woke up and looked at the hall, he was not there. It meant that he had gone to some other room where he liked to stay.

Every night, I am woken up by Bhhole a few times who wants to go out to relieve himself. And I take his out. Every time I do that, more often than not, Chhote too joins in. On this night, Chhote did not come out.

Next morning, when I hardly got any sleep, I took Bhole out of residence. At about 5 AM, I mustered enough courage to venture in the direction where Chhote had gone at night. There he was, lying stone cold at the floor. He had expired, after bravely fighting off this killer disease for several weeks.

As instructed by my wife the previous day, I kept the body on Chhote’s bed, which my daughter had ordered for him online the previous year. Then I covered him with a dupatta of my wife.

My wife had phoned the concerned people. An area was located in one corner of the premise adjacent to the boudary wall. A grave was dug. Chhote along with his bed and my wife’s dupatta covering him was laid to rest in that grave. Flowers, plucked from the plants in the premise were laid on the grave. Agarbattis were lit.

When nuppy had died, it came as a sudden shock because Nuppy was young and without any ailments. Chhote’s death on the other hand was not unexpected. It had become nevitable after cancer was detected inside his mouth and it was diagnosed as incurable. The pain of losing Chhote was tempered by other feelings, viz, feeling of relief that Chhote was finally put out of the terrible misery he was going through.

Then there was the feeling that I was spared a moral dilemma of subjecting my pet to euthanasia. No doubt I wanted that in order to save the pet from further pain, but that would have still amounted to murder. I was mightily relived that I could now could keep a clear conscious. I also felt morally upright knowing that I did not lt my pet down, I did not betray him and I did not hurt his feelings while he was undergoing his suffering. He was in need of support and comfort and I tried to provide that. When I realised that his end was near then I decided not to leave him alone.I took leave from office and stayed at home in the second half of 26 may 2020. So I was at home when the end came sometime in the night of 26 may-27 may.

My daughter asked me, did Chhote sport his collar while being buried ? I replied in the affirmative. Then I realised how wise it was on my part to fit Chhote’s favourite collar around his neck. Pet dogs wear this collar proudly as a badge of honour for being a pet of a household. Chhote departed from the world, secure in the knowledge that he was sporting his favourite collar at that time.

How did Bhole react to the demise of Chhote ? In the morning of 27 may 2020. Bhole must have gone to the room where Chhote was lying dead. He must have seen that Chhote was no more alive. Bhole kept a sombre silence throughout the morning. He saw Chhote, with his bed and dupatta cover being carried out. So he knew that Chhote would no longer be around.

Chhote got a decent honorable burial with eight human beings present. If there is something like soul which watches from above, then the soul of Chhote would have felt that he was treated well in his life and also while bidding him a final farewell.

There is this concept of “Shaapit gandarv” and “shaapit dev”. In ancient mythology, some gods would anger some rishis/ munis and the rishis / munis woud curse them to get born in the Mrityulok. On request, the sentence would be reduced a bit. Like for instance, in Mahabharat, eight vasus were cursed by Rishi Vashisht that they would e born as humans. On request, it was stated by Rishi that they would hav to spend just a few moments as human, as their mother would kill them immediately and then they could be back as Vasus. Some acquaintances, who are familiar with our pets have suggested that our pets too were like such devas who were cursed by some munis that they would be born as dogs on earth. On being requested, their sentence was softened. It was ordained that they would be brought up by a kind human family that would bring them up with care and affection. It is a theory that I agree with. Chhote and Bhole, and also nuppy seem to be very special pets who possessed qualities that seem unreal in a normal cat/ dog.

So, nuppy and Chhote are back to being the devas that they were before they came into our lives. Bhole is the only one left now. He perhaps needed to serve the longest sentence of them all. Like the humans, Bhole too is remarkable well composed and is coping well with the loss. Hopefully, we will get over the loss soon. The font memories of Chhote will ofcourse linger for many years. We have not forgotten nuppy who left us eight years ago, and I am sure same will be the case with Chhote as well.

I am sad but also relieved, and philosophical about this loss. Two days have already passed. I thought that I would keep this news to myself. But then I decided that it would be a burden on my chest if I kept this fact to myself. So this writeup, the longest in the blog for some time is my effort to get the load off my chest and then resume my normal life.

I searched for a suitable somh to go with the occasion. The search led me to a song from “Pyaas”(1982).

“Pyaasa”(1982) was produced and directed by O P Ralhan for Ralhan Productions Bombay. It had Kanwaljeet, Zeenat Aman, Tanuja, Anju Mahendroo, Madan Puri, Kamini Kaushal, A K Hangal, Dheeraj Kumar, Manmohan Krishna, Ram Mohan, Brahmchaari, Kamaldeep, Jagdish Raj, Devyani Thakkar, Shivraj, R S Chopra, Asha Sharma, Gauri Verma, Sunil Dhawan, Dhanraj, Maqbool, Hakeem, Ashok, Rafiq, Anil Ahuja, Rani Gill, Surjit Kaur, Shwini Kumar, Zeenat, Satyarani, Ramlal , Jimmy, Gopal Ralhan, Vinod Talwar, Ashok, Ratan Gaurang, Harendra, Kumud Tripathi, Ramesh Kumar, V K Chopra, Renu Kumar, Tarana, G Ansari, Ameer, Raj Kishore, Master Chhotu, Debut-Aaloka, Guest appearances by McMohan and Om Shivpuri.

This forgotten movie had eight songs by three lyricists. This song from “Pyaasa”(1982) is a song that seems tailormade for the sombre occasion. The song is sung by Kishore Kumar. Shiv Kumar Saro is the lyricist. Music is composed by Bappi Lahiri.

Only the audio of the song is available. I request our knowledgeable readers to throw light on the picturisation of this song.

With this song, “Pyaas”(1982) makes its debut in the blog.

Song=Saath mera chhod kar (Pyaas)(1982) Singer-Kishore Kumar, Lyrics-Shiv Kumar Saroj, MD-Bappi Lahiri
Chorus

Lyrics

hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm
hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm
hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm

saath mera chhod kar
saath mera chhod kar
chal diya tu kahaan
dil mera tod kar
dil mera tod kar
saath mera chhod kar
saath mera chhod kar
chal diya tu kahaan
dil mera tod kar
dil mera tod kar

aaa aa aa aa
aaa aaa aa aaa aaa
gham se bhara hoon main
aur mujhe gham na do
phool maange thhe maine
mujhko khaar na do
saath mera chhod kar
saath mera chhod kar
chal diya tu kahaan
dil mera tod kar
dil mera tod kar

hmm hmm hmm hmm
hmm hmm
yaaden thhin kitni haseen roye aasmaan roye zameen
sahar ka ham kya karen yaar apna saath nahin
saath mera chhod kar
saath mera chhod kar
chal diya tu kahaan
dil mera tod kar
dil mera tod kar

aa aa aa aa
har dil mein zinda hai tu
insaan nahin farishta hai tu
gareebon ki hai jaan tu
insaan par ehsaan tu
saath mera chhod kar
saath mera chhod kar
chal diya tu kahaan
dil mera tod kar
dil mera tod kar
hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm