Time Machine

There are different theories on what a time machine is and what would it look like if incepted. If you ask me, the time machine just looks like a small, circular and translucent plastic disk which you can play on either a CD player or your computer. For there is nothing like a song that takes me back in memory lanes.

Just the other day something made me rethink on this. I was listening to Kannathil Muthamittal's title song performed by Chinmayee. For those who don't know, it is one of the brilliant albums by A R Rahman for a very sensitive movie by Mani sir. This song always takes me back to a seat no 7 of the II AC compartment of Bangalore-Chennai Madras mail. It has been almost 3½ years to that journey, now that I think about it, but still it is as vivid as if I had been sitting on that window seat restlessly at 1 AM listening to this song again and again and again just yesterday night. And I did not stop until my third set of batteries were drained out of charge.

And who can forget Dil Deewana from movie Maine Pyar Kiya? I guess I should have been fifth standard when that song was a rage. And when I used to return from school, almost without fail our murphy radio used to play this song. Just as 7:05 Marathi news was an indicator for us to start for the school (and 7:15 news would mean we are too late!), this Lata Mangeshkar classic turned out to be my personal benchmark for something breezy, not just because of it's warming lyrics, but more so because of it's association with the closure of those excruciating school hours.

Then there is Bin Tere Sanam by Udit Narayan and Kavita Krishnamoorthy. It takes me to my cubicle in Bangalore office where I spent days searching for that song online (trying different loopholes in the system which did not allow downloading songs) just because I needed it for someone. But those efforts were all worth it considering that lovely song. That did teach me a thing or two about bending the rules! :-)

Another song is a Marathi song. It goes like "Hiravya hiravya rangachee jhade ghanadaT, Sang _____ (not sure what this word is) disto kasa khandyaLyacho ghaat!" I dunno which movie is that one from, but whenever I think about it, even though that song, as far as I remember, is picturized in a train, a premier 118 NE rushing madly on winding downhill roads comes to my mind. Now I think, this transformation in transports might have been because when our tv's speakers were not working, we used to watch the movies while playing cassettes our new Sony 2 in 1 and this might have one of those unfortunate fusion moments.

Of course, another worth mentioning item (pun not intended) is, Thanda Thanda Panee by Baba Sehgal, which was my first stage appearance (as a part of chorus, mind you) in my school days. Yeah, yeah, I know, don't give me that look. Things do happen at that age!

signing off,