Gazhals and the lover

What is it about gazhals, i wonder, that the heart,especially when already maudlin,yearns for it?does it help in romanticising pain and grief? Does it soothe it like alcohol...which is actually no soothing at all!

A lot,of course depends upon the singer,who in my opinion can be no-one better than Ghulam Ali. ALWAYS capable of infusing the drunken pathos of the lovelorn,defeated lover into his renditions, this man manages to evoke not just sympathy, but love-pathetically painful love for the lost lover,who still believes,loves and celebrates love..through life,poetry or death.

Many many many of his renditions evoke such images for me.



"sheher ki becharag galion mein,zindagi tujhko dhundti hai abhi,

koi taaza hawa chali abhi...dil mein leher si utthi hai abhi.."

sometime in the 1970's...a narrow alley of north kolkata or benaras perhaps...empty and dark save for one or two tungsten street lights...a tall young man,cigarette in his hands,or dangling from his lips...thinking of his lost love...hoping...hoping against hope that she might just emerge from a nook...and yet knowing for certain that she never will...

The girl in the dairy milk ad..

I wonder what happened to the girl in the dairy milk ad...what happened to her and her cricketer boyfriend...the one who scored a century(103,to be exact)...in celebration of which she broke into that impromptu gig...that OH-SO-DELIGHTFUL gig...i wonder what happened...are they still together?have they aged? does she still dance oblivious to public gaze?does he still find it endearing? .does she still wear those long frocks? i havent seen those in a long while..and does she still have a MEGA bar of dairy milk unfazed by 'weighty' issues?i wonder...but for her sake,and for the sake of 'that' time,i hope they are not together.