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

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Today (1 july 2019) happens to be the first day of the month (pehli taareekh). People today arev no longer as happy and bullish about pehli taareekh as they were till a few decades back, nevertheless it remains an important day for people.

This time, it happens to be monday, the first working day as well. 😉 It is as if one is beginning a new month with a clean slate, with the first working day of the week. 🙂 There are people who dread mondays. I am sure regulars of this blog are not among such people. 🙂

This day happens to be quite an important day for the blog as well. Today is the 4000^th day for this blog ! 4000 days of continous vibrant existence, with posts almost every day !

Out of 4000 days, there have been 217 dot days (5.4 % days) when no posts were published, otherwise there have been posts everyday on 3783 days (94.6 %) out of these 4000 days !

The peak daily strike rate of this blog was 4.626 posts a day on 1902^th day of the blog on 2 october 2013 when 8800th post was posted. Those were the days when covering six songs in a day was considered normal in the blog. The strike rate began to fall from 2015 onwards and today on the 4000^th day of the blog we are on 15100 only !

Did I say post number 15100 ? Yes, I did. Today on the 4000^th day of the blog, we reach another century post, namely post number 15100 in the blog.

Many of our writeup contents, like our strike rate of posts have dried up as well, nevertheless we still summon enough creative juices for special occasions. Blog century post is one such special occasion.

This writeup is a labour of love (a favourite phrase for this blog) and it covers a topic that I wanted to cover on 5 june 2015, which was world environment day. Though I had considerable data on this topic, I was not able to convert all that data into useful and interesting information in the limited time that I could summon by that date. So I decided that this topic would be covered while discussing post number 15100. I discussed the matter with Sudhir Jee and requested him to find a suitable song. Finally we zeroed in on a song that is quite appropriate and suitable for the occasion as well as the topic being discussed in the song.

The topic of this writeup is environment. This writeup covers a man who has singlehandedly performed a Herculean task ( भगीरथ प्रयास) in the area of environment.

Who is this man and what he has done ?

Jitu Kalita, a Jorhat-based journalist who writes a popular column on nature in Prantik, an Assamese magazine, was stalking vultures when he found himself on the far side of Aruna sapori (sapori is the Assamese word for island), entering a forest, when a visibly perturbed tribal man practically attacked him and chased him off the land.

Later, Jitu Kalita managed to pacify the man and he convinced him that he was a journalist and not a poacher as apprehended by the tribal man. It was then that the tribal man, named Jadav Payeng, gradually opened up to Jitu Kalita and Jitu Kalita had the biggest news scoop of his career.

He is a man called Jadav “Molai” Payeng, a native of Assam. A man in his late 50s, he is an ordinary man who lives in a village near Jorhat (Assam). A tribal man of Mising tribe of Assam, he makes his living by milking his cattles and selling their milk.

When he was young, he lived with his parents and family is an island on River Brahamputra, near a small town called Kokilamukh located on south bank of the river.

In 1965, there was a big flood and that devastated the island (called Kartic sapori or Aruna sapori). Jadav Payeng’s family decided to move to another island to the north, namely Majuli island (which incidentally is the biggest river island in the world).

Before relocating, acute poverty compelled his parents to leave five-year-old Jadav in the care of Anil Borthakur, a court-master at the District Judge Court in Jorhat, who looked after his schooling.

In 1979, after he had appeared for his matriculation examination in a Jorhat School, Jadav Payeng visited his native place during summer season. What he saw there devastated him. He saw hundreds of dead snakes or the dry and hot sands. These snakes, which were washed ashore that island during rainy season, had died in summer because there was no vegetation growing in the sands that could protect and nurture these snakes. Jadav Payeng was heart broken. If snakes could die like this, then in future humans can likewise die if there is no vegetation to protect and nurture them- he thought. And he resolved to do something about that.

He approached forest department (where he had worked as a labourer in their project of afforestation), but they refused to help him and stated that it was not possible to do what he wanted.

Jadav Payeng asked the elders who lived in that area about some suitable vegetations that could be grown there. They advised him to grow world’s tallest grass. Initially confused, he later came to know that they described bamboo as world’s tallest grass. They also provided him some seeds.

Jadav Payeng began to plant seeds regularly from that day in 1979. Initially it was bamboo, and later, when Bamboo trees formed a decent enough self sustaining vegetation, he began to plant other variety of seeds as well.

Jada Payeng kept on and on for more than three decades unsung, unknown, unheralded. He obviously had genuine passion for the task that he could go on and on singlehandedly for this long without any support.

It was only thanks to the chance discovery by nature photographer Jitu Kalita that people came to know about this forest which was grown singlehandedly by one man.

This forest became so large and so thick that wild animals like Elephants (from Dibrugarh), Rhinos (from Kaziranga) and tigers (from Karbi anglong) found their way into his forest.

This jungle was named Mulai kathoni (Mulai jungle) by the local people, where Mulai was his nickname.

Jadav Payeng had built his tribal style home (known as Changghar – house on stilts in the Mising style) in the jungle where he lived with his family (wife and three kids). When the herd of elephants first arrived in the jingle in 2008, they overran his home.

He stood and watched from a distance and realised the magnitude of what he had done. While the others watched on, baffled, he was overcome with joy. And he had every reason to be – he has succeeded in bringing life (that too wildlife) back to the island.

But his celebrations were short-lived. A few days later, angry villagers, having assessed the damage to their crops, blamed Mulai Kathoni for attracting the elephants. One mob manifested their anger by cutting down trees while another set fire to a patch at the far end. He reckons he lost one tenth of the forest in that first wave of mindless violence.

Fortunately, things calmed down since. The forest department too realised that wild elephants had gone to this “new” jungle that they knew nothing about till then. The ex-gratia payment for damaged crops offered by the Forest Department, the media attention and accolades bestowed on Payeng helped in suppressing the rage of the villagers.

What was empty sandbar had transformed into a full fledged jungle spread over 1360 acres (550 hectares). The forest now had around 5000 trees of over 100 different species, all singlehandedly planted by him. The vegetation included shimloo, shishoo, bhelo, gamari, segun, jamun, aam, kathol, shirish, dimolu, kohee, koroi, arjuna, amla, kadam, krishnasure, aizar, two types of neem, bagori etc (all local names). Most he planted himself; others grew from the seeds dispersed by winds, birds and the Brahmaputra. The forest now had fullfledged fauna consisting of Elephants, tigers, rhinos , deers, monkeys, rabbits, vultures and other birds etc !

Central Park in Manhattan in New York, a famous man made jungle is spread over 843 acres (341 hectares). It was created thanks to the efforts of many men and machinery.

If Central Park is larger than countries of Monaco(202 hectares) and Vatican city (44 hectares), then this forest (now called mulai kathonibari or Mulai forest) is larger than Gibralter (area 680 hectares) of Great Britain and comparable to area cocos island of Australia (1373 hectares).

Jadav Payeng’s fame spread slowly. Initially it was confined to local media. From 2012 till 2015, he became known mainly among academic circles and he was honoured by JNU (2012) where he was hailed as Forest Man of India. In 2013, he was honoured by Indian Institute of Forest Management.

Earlier, only people have access to corridors of power used to get government awards. Now a days, public are being encouraged to nominate people for such awards. That is how many unknown and unsung people are being recognised these days. That is how someone recommended his name for Padmshree Award and he received Padmshree Award at the hands of President Pranob Mukherji in 2015.

The Padmshree recognition caught the eyes of media and gave him world wide recognition. Many TV channels of various languages have visited him and have featured him in their TV programs. Even International media have covered him. He began to be called nationwide and even abroad to attend seminars and conferences.

Though a school drop out, he has vast knowledge about nature and he talks like an environmentalists that he actually is. He has knowledge which many theoretical environmentalists may not be aware of. For instance, he knows that Rhinos, Elephants and ungulates prefer to eat three different kinds of grasses. He is not familar with the English or scientific names of these grasses though.

He gets invited all over India and also abroad. wherever he goes, he is on the lookout for seeds of plants, which he keeps in his pocket. He manages to bring all these seeds with him to his native place in Assam and then plants them in the forest.

All this fame and recognition has not changed him. he is the same humble person that he was earlier. He did all this not for awards, but because he strongly believed in the cause. That is how he could go about this tast unrecognised and unsung for three decades.

Though not formally educated, he is an environmentalist at heart. He insists that Environment schience should be made compulsory in primary schools. Every kid, when he starts schooling should be given two saplings. He should be responsible for their care. By the time he leaves school some one decade later, his two plants would be full fledged trees. As for senior people not in school, they should plant one plant and nurture it. That way everyone of us would ensure our continued survival in earth.

“Man is responsible for the well-being of all animals and birds in this world,” Payeng explains. “If man does not take care of all animals, who will?”

Jadav Payeng lived in his hut in his jungle till 2011. Then he moved to “mainland”, namely a village called Eklong Mising Gaon near Kokilamukh in Jorhat in 2011, mainly to take care of the schooling needs of his three children.

He still goes to his jungle regularly from his “mainland” home, which involves walk on foot for a few kilimeters, followed by a treacherous boat ride over a stream of River Brahmputra, then walk of a few kilometeres, then another boat ride in another treacherous stream of river Brahmputra, and finally a trek of several kilometers before he reaches his jungle. Then the same trek back home.

To appreciate the logistics, I have provided the google earth image of his forest. One can also see the vastness of the river. As mentioned above, this small island is larger than some small nations of the world. The jungle grown by Jadav Payeng itself is larger than the smallest nations of the world.

Island in River Brahmpurta with Mulai forest
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Bird’s eye view, with River Brahmputra seen- See how wide is the river. The area to the north of mulai forest is Majuli island.
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It gives me great pleasure to introduce Jadav Payeng, the great self made environmentalist of India. What he singlehandedly achieved despite absolute lack of resources, encouragement and guidance is simply astonishng and out of the world. I am happy that his efforts were finally recognised, even if it took more than three decades.

I hope that we will not just pay lip service to his contributions, but that we will actually try and do out sincere bit for nature and environment.

The song that accompanies this writeup talks about the effects of hot weather as well. So pretty lady- Helen, who else, beseeches her beau to take her to Shimla, seeing how hot it is in the city. Let us grow more threes, so the temperatures in our cities remain under control. Else, even hill cities where people like to go to during summer will become as hot as plain during summer season. We are already witnessing this.

This song is from “Mud Mud Ke Na Dekh” (1962). The song is sung by Asha Bhonsle. Prem Dhawan is the lyricist. Music is composed by Hansraj Bahl.

On the occasion to 15100^th song on 4000^th day of the blog, I thank one and all for their continued support and well wishes. We have access to much better support from our fellow music lovers, much better support than what Jadav Payeng enjoyed, so I hope that we will be able to keep our musical bandwagon rolling on and on for as many years as possible.

Song-Ye hai june ka maheena aaye bada hi paseena (Mud Mud Ke Na Dekh)(1960) Singer-Asha Bhonsle, Lyrics-Prem Dhawan, MD-Hansraj Bahl

Lyrics

ye hai june ka maheena
aaye bada re paseena

ho ho ho ho
mar gayi garmi se
le chal shimle baabu
mar gayi garmi se
le chal shimle baabu
are le chal shimle baabu
main mar gayi garmi se
le chal shimle baabu
main mar gayi garmi se
are le chal shimle baabu

kaale pad gaye gaal gulaabi
naina pad gaye peele
kaale pad gaye gaal gulaabi
naina pad gaye peele
kabhi na poochha toone re baabu
ho ho ho
kabhi na poochha tooune re baabu
thanda sharbat peele
main mar gayi garmi se
le chal shimle baabu
main mar gayi garmi se
le chal shimle baabu

nainital mein bachpan beeta
srinagar mein jawani
nainital mein bachpan beeta
srinagar mein jawani
toone meri kadar na jaani haaye ae ae re
tune meri kadar na jaani
ja re rajasthani
main mar gayi garmi se
le chal shimle baabu
main mar gayi garmi se
le chal shimle baabu

dekh ke kaale kaale baadal
main to nikli ghar se
dekh ke kaale kaale baadal
main to nikli ghar se
jaane kiski lagi najariya
haaye ae ae re
jane kiski lagi najariya
chale gaye
main mar gayi garmi se
le chal shimle baabu
main mar gayi garmi se
le chal shimle baabu