Kya hua tera vada

 

Kyaa hua tera vada

Woh kasam woh irada 

Bhoolega dil jis din tumhe 

Woh din zindagi ka aakhari din hoga

Growing up in Khopoli in the seventies there weren’t many avenues for entertainment. Occasional visiting troupes would have stage performances. May be couple of times a year. The only constant source was a single movie theater called Goodluck Cinema. My father was a movie buff and every Friday night he would take us along to watch a movie. I remember right across from my parents’ clinic there was a wall where a poster would be pasted of the movie currently being played at the theater. Friday morning we would be on the lookout for the change in the poster. Like my father I took a liking for movie songs. I knew several hundreds of them by heart. I think I still do. A little jerking of the memory and I can still recall most verses of those songs that I passively learnt at the time.

I was on the threshold of teenage when Hum Kisise Kum Nahi was released. Besides the title song which remains one of the most popular quawalis till date, the film was packed with many catchy songs that became super hits overnight. The songs catapulted the film to immense success at the box office. There was not much substance to the movie but then substance is not a requirement for the entertainment industry. 

Kya hua tera vada was one of the most popular songs from this blockbuster movie.

 Incidentally Mr. Mohammed Rafi, who was one of the best male playback singers of his times and with a career spanning over three decades had over 27,000 songs to his credit by then, won his first and only National Award for this song. 

Kya hua tera vada

What happened to the promise you made?

Woh kasam, woh irada

That pledge, that commitment?

Bhoolega dil jis din tumhe

The day my heart forgets you 

Woh din zindagi ka aakhari din hoga 

That day will be the last day of my life.

Nasha daulat ka aisa bhi kyaa 

How could money intoxicate you so much

Ke tuze kuch bhi yaad nahi

That you don’t remember anything ( about our love from childhood)

In the movie the young hero is portrayed wooing his childhood love with this song.

This morning I caught myself humming the lines of this song for no particular reason. But now, nearly four decades later, my mind looks at words and their meanings through an entirely different lens. 

The immediate realization that struck, when I paid attention to the lyrics I was humming, was surprising even to myself. I will come to that later. 

What came second was the context of a meeting with a patient I saw two days back at the clinic. He came with his wife for a consultation to quit using gutka ( an oral nicotine preparation). I listened to his story. He lost his father while he was just nineteen and the responsibility of his mother and sisters suddenly fell on his shoulders. Starting with manual labor he worked various jobs and supported the family. He is now married for about twenty years and has a teenager son in 12th grade.  Until about two years back this man used to have a morning routine of prayer, listening to a lecture on spirituality with the family, doing meditation and chanting before leaving for work. 

He worked his way up at the job and got promoted to the rank of a supervisor in the last two years. There is a lot of pressure from the work and at times he doesn’t know how to handle it. His refuge at such times is the gutka. A recent health scare brought him in contact with the doctors and he was advised to quit the habit. 

I let him narrate his entire journey and tribulations. After that I highlighted the same in the way I could see it. It was praiseworthy how he had shouldered the responsibility of his family since such early age and made a successful career despite very humble beginnings. He had stayed away from alcohol because he saw his father succumb to the effects of alcohol. 

But he wasn’t aware that gutka is just as harmful to health. He also wasn’t aware that his 17 year old son who presently disapproves of it is still vulnerable to resort to the same habit later in life when he faces stress. 

Until 2 years back the patient had kept aside time for prayer. And then in a bid for a higher paying job he had drifted from this routine.

Bhoolega dil jis din tumhe

The day my heart forgets you 

Woh din zindagi ka aakhari din hoga 

That day will be the last day of meaningful living.

Irritability, anxiety, depression had entered into his life.  He was no longer allowing himself quality time with family. He yelled at his wife and son if they were laughing or talking loudly. 

He was keen to please his boss at work. But what about the bigger boss in life ? He had allowed himself to forget about HIM. 

Nasha daulat ka aisa bhi kyaa 

How could money intoxicate you so much

Ke tuze kuch bhi yaad nahi

That you don’t remember your loved ones! 

Yes, money is needed for living. But what use is the money if it comes at the cost of one’s wellbeing? 

Kya hua tera vada

What happened to the promise you made?

Woh kasam, woh irada

That pledge, that commitment?

I told him to go back to his old commitment. Take out at least 15 minutes each morning for prayer and 30 minutes in the day for exercise. Every time he feels restless, sit down and enquire, what is the mind restless about? Is there a valid reason for the restlessness? Who is it that the mind is harassing? Just enquiring into these often brings resolution of the problem. I gave him means to overcome his nicotine habit. It was a wake up call for him to know that his son is vulnerable to the habit in the future. The man has promised to do his best to stop using the gutka and will return to give me an update in two weeks. 

Now coming back to the lyrics of the song and my first thoughts from this morning.

Bhoolega dil jis din tumhe

The day my heart forgets you 

Woh din zindagi ka aakhari din hoga 

That day will be the last day of my life.

Living in the awareness of the giver of Life you realize that the usual concept of life and death is very limited and within the confines of time and space. With that awareness your consciousness is no longer limited within these dimensions. Hence at that stage there is no question of forgetting God and no such thing as last day of life !! 

Never thought that these few lyrics from a movie that I thought was without substance would bring such realization to me one day. Indeed Tukaram Maharaj used the phrase “ shabdaanchich ratne “… words can be gems! And one can find gems at the most unexpected places.

Saree is a Kasavu from Kerala. Yesterday was the first day of Onam festivities. Hence picked this one to attend the inauguration of the physical therapy clinic of my nephew’s wife.