Translated from: ‘Gaata Rahe Mera Dil’ by Salil Dalal, published by Satya Media. Permission for putting up this post has been sought from Satya Media via email. No response has been received as yet. If Satya Media decides to disallow posting of this passage, this post will be taken down.

Text in box brackets [ ] is added by me.

SHAILENDRA

ramaiyaa vastaavaiyaa

Whence did Shailendra get these words – ramaiyaa vastaavaiyaa? He had been to a dhaba for food. There, the proprietor called the waiter by his name – Ramaiyaa, and Shailendra was so intrigued by this odd-sounding name that he made an opening line (mukha.Daa) of a song using it. And what immortal words he employed to follow these unique words? mai.nne dil tujhako diyaa.

[Alternative version: I have heard an alternative version of this anecdote. Shailendra had gone to a Goanese restaurant, but with either Shankar or Jaikishan (or perhaps, both). Apparently, ramaiyaa vastaavaiyaa means mai.nne dil tujhako diyaa in Konkani or some other language or dialect, and Shailendra heard those words in the restaurant and was charmed by them. This version of the anecdote has the merit that it can be easily verified by checking whether ramaiyaa vastaavaiyaa really means anything in any language. Besides, what is so odd about a person with the name Ramaiyaa?]

Absent-mindedness

Shailendra was so absent-minded that he lost attention toward his cigarette. Shailendra had a unique style of smoking a cigarette and shaking off ash. Once, there was a classical meet at music director Shankar’s place. In addition to the entire R. K. group, Dilip Kumar was also present there. Shailendra became so engrossed in sitarist Ravi Shankar and vocalist Ustad Amir Khan sahab’s dual performance that he forgot to take puffs from his cigarette. His fingers were about to get burnt by the lighted cigarette when Raj Kapoor noticed. He exclaimed, “Pushkin, mind your cigarette!” (Raj Kapoor called Shailendra by the name Pushkin, after the Russian poet Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin, who lay at the foundations of the people’s revolution.) The poet snapped out of his musical reverie when Rajsa’ab alerted him. And once, he had lighted a second cigarette while the first one was already lighted and between his lips. This may be all right - as a poet, one can consider him absent-minded, but shouldn’t there be a limit to it? Once he went to Sundarbai Hall with his wife to watch a play, and came back alone at night!

Song from ‘Amrapali’

In the song jaao re jogii from the film ’Amrapali’, Shailendra conveys a profound thought with a simple, short line:

gyaan kii kaisii siimaa gyaanii, gaagar me.n saagar kaa paanii!

Shankar-Jaikishen had the tune of this song ready. But Shailendra was at a loss for words. The director, Lekh Tandon, took Shailendra to the National Park in Borivli. After four hours, the poet returned without having put down a single word in his 200-page notebook, his constant companion. But after arriving at the recording studio and listening to Shankar-Jaikishen’s full composition, Shailendra wrote the song in just 5 minutes, in a stanza of which he presented reality to ascetics with these words:

jiivan se kaisaa chhuTakaaraa, hai nadiyaa ke paas kinaaraa

[Alternative version: I have heard Lata Mangeshkar say, on the Vividhbharati radio channel, that the words of this song were ready, while Shankar-Jaikishen were unable to agree on a tune for the mukha.Daa. It was Lata who suggested how to take up the words jaao re, jogii tum jaao re, and then the composition fell into place.]