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

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 other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.

21^st July, 1969 – a tiny me was waiting for the arrival of the school bus, around 6.40 am in the morning, at the end of the lane where we lived, in Karol Bagh area of Delhi. Three, maybe four other friends, going to the same school – executing the normal morning routine, with strap bags on shoulders, waiting to espy the school bus that we all recognized oh so well, to take a turn from a crossing about 200 metres away – to come, and to gobble us up, and to carry us to yet another day at the school. I think, it was too early in life to philosophize about the love-hate relationship with education, school and school teachers. It was still kind of an eager fun to travel in the bus and get to a classroom, and spend time watching teachers do their things on the blackboard, for us. Ah yes, the blackboards back then were actually black, and white chalks were then the standard instrument of communication between the teacher and us.

Sorry, I am jumping the gun – classroom and education is not the topic today; ‘waiting for the bus’ is. So as I was saying, four five of us kids were at the appointed place, at the appointed time – waiting to be picked. Some of these memories are so vivid and crystal clear in the mind, as if it was just yesterday. Ah yes, does seem like yesterday. I remember there was a bakery and confectionery shop right on the corner where we used to wait for the bus. It was a family run business – two brother partners. Over the years, the ownership of that shop has remained in the family, but the subject matter of the shop has changed from confectionery to designer clothing today. I still remember, the board on the shop – ‘Paul’s – Bakers and Confectioners’.

The kids’ interest of course was in the candies, toffees and chocolate items displayed in the shop’s show cases. The shop would be open before we reached the waiting point, because being a baker, he was catering to the early morning needs of milk and bread supply, to the early riser families, which, in those times, was practically all the families in the neighborhood.

Ah, sorry, I digress again – waiting for the bus it was. So the different thing that happened on that morning was the the bus did not come on time. It was kind of a pleasant, expectation filled feeling in the kiddy hearts – is the bus not coming today? Well, bus used to be late once in a while. And the tiny minds would be inventing conjectures about the school being closed for this or that unimaginable reason. But then, those dreams used to be shattered within a matter of minutes – late it would be, but then it would appear on the horizon, and the young footsteps would prance on to the four steps and into bus, starting another day at the school.

But that day, the few minutes extended into many minutes – and no bus. Although we were all in the mood to run back home and make a pompous announcement of the mystery of the disappearing bus. Of course, none had the courage to do so. It was a mindless wait, but the instructions to this kiddy platoon was to stay rooted to the bus stop area, and not to wander away – no matter how late the bus was. And we waited. No, the parents were not with us. We kids were in that gray transition zone of trust building age, that the parents would drop us at the bus stop, and head back home, with the confidence that the kid would certainly board the bus and spend another productive day at the school. And so we waited.

One of the more enterprising member of this waiting platoon ventured into the bakery shop and asked for time. “Seven o five”, we were told – goodness the bus was twenty five minutes late. This had never happened before. It was a first in the long years of the tiny age of experiences that the kiddy minds had accumulated till then. But then, in the absence of any instructions for this unexpected, first time, unheard of situation, we were clueless as to what should be done. So we waited – did not have courage to venture back home – the certain thought in mind was that parents would simply scold us and ask us to get back to the bus stop immediately and wait some more. There must be a valid reason – breakdown, accident, petrol finish – whatever, but it will come. So go back.

But it didn’t come. Another fifteen minutes passed. Still no bus. The uncomfortable squirming had now transformed into an anxious fear – have we already missed it? Has the bus come and gone and all of us missed it by a minute or something. Now the fear started to grow, since if the bus had already gone, then the fault would be ours that we were a minute or two too late to reach the bus stop. And so what were we doing, while ambling towards the bus stop from home, how did we reach the bus stop late? And why? All sorts of uncomfortable thoughts were now cycling through the mind. And we waited.

But the tension was unbearable now. The urge was to rush back home, but in the absence of an explanation, the apprehension of the consequences did not allow us to move. First time in the long years of tiny experiences, we were facing a helpless situation, the CPUs of mind were primitive and no conclusive directions were forthcoming.

Finally, we saw a ray of hope. We espied a senior student of our school, walking towards our bus stop. This person used to board from the next stop on the route, about half a mile ahead. He came, he declared, and we conquered. 😀 😀

He informed us that the bus would not be coming that day, since the school had declared a holiday. So head back home and take a day off. Whoosh. . . the mounds of stones of uncertainty were suddenly lifted, a new energy seemed to flow now, in place of the helpless limbo. I am very very sure, all would have had this ‘Whoosh’ experience sometimes in school life – an unexpected holiday announcement. It was like ‘छप्पड़ फाड़ के’ – I am using this phrase in hind sight. Of course I was not aware of this phrase or its implications at that time.

Then one of us had the curiosity strong enough to ask, what happened, why this unannounced holiday. The senior was not very sure himself. He said his father had called the school, and the school had announced the holiday – it was because of the moon landing. Totally bewildered with this information the tiny brains could not process, we externally expressed relief and happiness, lugged the bags over the shoulders once again, and walked back home.

It was almost one hour after the bus time, and of course the parents were totally surprised to see me back at the doorway. Dad asked what was the matter. And I recounted in brief, about the wait, the senior student, the information about the holiday announcement and moon landing. Dad started to laugh. He had already known about this news – well he was part of the editorial team that published the morning paper. So he already had the information about the event in the late hours of the previous night. But there was no news in the papers about the school holidays. So then he ventured to confirm – went to another neighbor’s place to make a call to the school. We did not have a phone at home in those times. He returned after a few minutes, and his smile confirmed the announcement, and laid to rest any apprehensions, that I would be held to fault, for making up such tall story.

I asked him, and he explained, quite lucidly of course – he had prepared the news story for print just a few hours prior. But much of that did not register into the brain. The moon landing, Apollo 11, US spacecraft, Neil Armstrong – some key phrases stuck in the mind. I took up the newspaper and read through the story. The quantum and the quality of significance did not sink in then. But yes, this idea did sink in very earnestly that the event that happened was some towering, huge, first of its kind accomplishment by USA. In the later years, as my interest grew in scientific topics, I would come to realize the depth of significance and importance of this huge event. The man had landed on another celestial body for the first time in the history (known history??) of the mankind. Yes, it was huge.

On 25th May, 1961, John F Kennedy, the then US President, made this proposal to the US Congress, to land a man on the moon before the end of the decade. Of course, the objective was achieved on 20th July, 1969.

And so the event, and its earth shattering significance has stayed with me now, for all these years – all because the schools declared a holiday that day – to celebrate this towering achievement of the human race. The man had reached the moon, and the school was closed in celebration.

Today, we are celebrating the 50^th anniversary of that accomplishment. Over the past 50 years, the science of astronautics, and the technology had progressed by leaps and bounds. But the ‘man on the moon’ event has this envious and non-duplicate-able quality about it – what more to say. The US scientists and NASA took almost 8 years to accomplish the target that their famous president had set for them. Long before that, the Indian cinema had already responded with the film ‘Rocket Girl’, in 1962, and with this humorous and lilting melody created by Prem Dhawan and Chitragupt.

Searching for an appropriate song for this celebration, I chanced to discover this fabulous gem of a song that has probably been considered lost and consigned to the deep. I tried to search for songs with reference to ‘chaand’. Another song from this film – “Na Jaane Chaand Kaisa Hoga” – is an iconic, popular hit song that is already posted on the blog. When I read the words of the mukhda of this, I was very curious to search and pull out this song, because the mukhda kind of hints at traveling to the moon. With some time spend, I am able to locate this song in my collection. As far as I could check online, this song is not yet available. So I prepared and uploaded this song, and here am presenting it for this celebration today.

Listening this song, I am so surprised that this song has remained obscure all these years. A vintage Chitragupt melody that takes the listener on a journey of lilting extravaganza – so beautifully tuned and so exquisitely arranged. The humming composition simply is not getting out of my mind at this time – the lady wants to travel to the land of the moon and have a romance amongst the stars, and gentleman is not at all convinced that they would reach there alive. 🙂  The words of the song are so interestingly crafted – it is a veritable treat to listen to.

‘Rocket Girl’ is a film from 1962, produced under the banner of Film Sansar, Bombay and is directed by Nanabhai Bhatt. The cast of actors is listed as Naaz, Sudesh Kumar, Jagdish Raj, Nilofer, Kanchanmala, Brahm Bhardwaj, Genius, Lal Bahadur, Mohammad Bhai, Ameer, Sandow, Shafi, Shammi, and Bhagwan Dada. Six songs are listed for this film, all from the pen of Prem Dhawan, with wonderful music compositions coming from the mind of Chitragupt.

I have no idea whether this film is about space travel, and visit to the moon. Listening to the two songs, it appears that his film is about space travel, I request our more knowledgeable readers to add more information about this film.
[Ed Note: Details about the film ‘Rocket Girl’ have already been posted by Arun ji, our in-house encyclopedia, with the earlier posted song of this film – “Na Jaane Chaand Kaisa Hoga”. The same are also available at Atul Movies – Rocket Girl (1962). Thanks to Aero Survey for this reminder.]

Fifty years of moon landing – and a surprisingly wonderful song to go along with – enjoy.

Song – Aa Ja Chalen Piya Chaand Waale Des Mein  (Rocket Girl) (1962) Singer – Suman Kalyanpur, Manna Dey, Lyrics – Prem Dhawan, MD – Chitragupt

Lyrics

aa ja chalen piya chaand waale des mein
taaron mein hum jaa ke pyaar karenge
aa ja chalen piya chaand waale des mein
taaron mein hum jaa ke pyaar karenge
teri kasam wahaan khair nahin jaan ki
marna hi hai to yahin pe marenge

basti nai sitaaron mein basaayenge
gaye jo wahaan palat ke naa aayenge
basti nai sitaaron mein basaayenge
gaye jo wahaan palat ke naa aayenge
aisi baaton se hum nahin darenge
na na na na
teri kasam wahaan khair nahin jaan ki
marna hi hai to yahin pe marenge
oo oo oo
aa ja chalen piya chaand waale des mein
taaron mein hum jaa ke pyaar karenge

jhoothe hain sabhi ye kisse chaand waand ke
le chaloon tujhe main zulfon mein baandh ke
jhoothe hain sabhi ye kisse chaand waand ke
le chaloon tujhe main zulfon mein baandh ke
jaao akele hum aahen bharenge
na na na na
aa ja chalen piya chaand waale des mein
taaron mein hum jaa ke pyaar karenge
oo oo oo
teri kasam wahaan khair nahin jaan ki
marna hi hai to yahin pe marenge

kehte the tumhin
sitaare doonga tod ke
honge meri jaan
ye waade kisi aur ke
mil ke jiye hain mil ke hi marenge
na na na na
teri kasam wahaan khair nahin jaan ki
marna hi hai to yahin pe marenge
oo oo oo
aa ja chalen piya chaand waale des mein
taaron mein hum jaa ke pyaar karenge
oo oo oo
teri kasam wahaan khair nahin jaan ki
marna hi hai to yahin pe marenge. . .

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

आ जा चलें पिया चाँद वाले देस में
तारों में हम जाके प्यार करेंगे
आ जा चलें पिया चाँद वाले देस में
तारों में हम जाके प्यार करेंगे
तेरी क़सम वहाँ खैर नहीं जान की
मरना ही है तो यहीं पे मरेंगे

बस्ती नई सितारों में बसाएँगे
गए जो वहाँ पलट के ना आएंगे
बस्ती नई सितारों में बसाएँगे
गए जो वहाँ पलट के ना आएंगे
ऐसी बातों से हम नहीं डरेंगे
ना ना ना ना
तेरी क़सम वहाँ खैर नहीं जान की
मरना ही है तो यहीं पे मरेंगे
ओ ओ ओ
आ जा चलें पिया चाँद वाले देस में
तारों में हम जाके प्यार करेंगे

झूठे हैं सभी ये किस्से चाँद वांद के
ले चलूँ तुझे मैं ज़ुल्फों में बांध के
झूठे हैं सभी ये किस्से चाँद वांद के
ले चलूँ तुझे मैं ज़ुल्फों में बांध के
जाओ अकेले हम आहें भरेंगे
ना ना ना ना
आ जा चलें पिया चाँद वाले देस में
तारों में हम जाके प्यार करेंगे
ओ ओ ओ
तेरी क़सम वहाँ खैर नहीं जान की
मरना ही है तो यहीं पे मरेंगे

कहते थे तुम्हीं
सितारे दूँगा तोड़ के
होंगे मेरी जान
ये वादे किसी और के
मिल के जिये हैं मिल के ही मरेंगे
ना ना ना ना
तेरी क़सम वहाँ खैर नहीं जान की
मरना ही है तो यहीं पे मरेंगे
ओ ओ ओ
आ जा चलें पिया चाँद वाले देस में
तारों में हम जाके प्यार करेंगे
ओ ओ ओ
तेरी क़सम वहाँ खैर नहीं जान की
मरना ही है तो यहीं पे मरेंगे