Lyrics: Word prompt

Wrote this for fun as the word lyrics triggered memory of a certain period in my life. 

 

It was the year 1995.  Having turned into an adolescent, it was a phase when I was experimenting with street food and delving deep into the world of cinema. Watching musical shows on television eventually became a past time. 

 

Now I had grown up listening to songs with lyrics that touched the soul and evoked myriad emotions. A strange sense of melancholy that was difficult to comprehend but nevertheless left a lingering feeling on my mind. One particular song was Gulzar’s Tujhse naraaz nahin zindagiwhich instantly brought tears to my eyes. What a masterpiece that was, capturing a man’s helplessness to respond to his son’s innocuous questions. 

 

So, it came as a rude shock when Indian cinema entered into a phase of coming up with numbers where pants and shirts were considered sexy, girls were labelled as a mast cheez, the leading actors were hollering about moving the cot. Was this what creativity had been reduced to? I remember this one particular movie where the actors were dancing on the streets singing about walking on the road and bhelpuri being spicy. Having been introduced to chaat that particular year by my mother, I recollect that incident outside the food stall. 

 

It was a sultry Sunday evening and the aroma of pav bhaji wafted into my nostrils. At one end of the stall a man was mixing puffed rice with several other ingredients with great fervor. 

“Ek plate bhel puri aur ek plate pav bhaji bhaiya,” my mother said. 

“You are going to love this,” she turned to me with a childlike glee in her eyes. 

Bhel puri bhel puri..the words swarmed in my head triggering a memory of that song I had heard on television a few days ago. 

“Tujhko mirchi lagi to main kya karoon..”

I cringed while my mother looked at me in concern. 

“Are you ok?” she asked. 

I nodded albeit with an expression as though I had just swallowed a bottle of vinegar. 

The man handed us our plates. 

I remember relishing the taste of Pav bhaji while my mother watched me with a smile on her face. 

“Isn’t it delicious? Try this,” she said handing me the plate of Bhel Puri. 

Reluctantly I took a bite.

“Tujhko mirchi lagi to main kya karoon.”

I cough and spluttered instigating an alarmed mom to hand me a glass of water. 

“Are you ok? Is it too spicy?”

I still wasn’t sure if it was too spicy for my tongue or whether it was the psychological effect of the lyrics of that song. 

As years passed, I went on to relish Dahi papdi Chaat, pani puri, sev puri and ragda pattice. Yet bhel puri never topped my list. Even today my family has never been able to comprehend my step motherly treatment towards Bhel puri. Every time I see it on someone’s plate I shake my head in disdain wondering what on earth possessed a lyricist to come up with such words. Especially the same lyricist who wrote beautiful songs like Nazar ke saamne or Ghunghat ki aad se. 

It was around that time when my respect for Bollywood was diminishing when Javed Akhtar came up with Sandhese Aate hain in Border after a couple of years which evoked the same emotions as what Tujhse naraaz did. It restored my respect towards Hindi film music but could never alter my taste buds for bhel puri.