Sunday, May 30, 2010

Jayanta Hazarika - I Like

In one of my earlier posts, I had blogged about our trip to Nameri. As I had mentioned there, it was a five hour drive. To kill time, my father in law (Deuta) had taken a fine collection of CDs including the likes of Dire Straits which we could play (yeah, he is a cool guy). You know, it feels really good to start a journey listening to Mark Knofler play that sexy lead.

One of the things that came out of the drive was my exposure to the Assamese music legend, Jayanta Hazrika. I had never heard of him although everyone has heard of his elder brother, Bhupen Hazarika. I'm sure you are humming the song Dil Hoom Hoom Kare right now! Aah, as soon as the CD started playing, Ma piped up from the backseat and started signing away. A subtle change came over Deutas face also and he started tapping his fingers to the tune while smiling slightly. I smiled politely and took my eyes off the road to quickly scan the CD cover. My heart sank when I saw that there were over 15 songs but what to do!

As the first song was getting over, I realised that he had a very soothing voice and the songs reminded of old Hindi songs, maybe of the SD Burman / Salil Chowdhury varieties. I was actually expecting his voice to be something like Bhupendas voice - deep and rough. Anyway, I settled back to listen to the rest of the songs. After about 8 or 9 songs, suddenly there was this cheerful song which came up - Rambha Menoka Kimba Juthika. It was really catchy and had a nice beat to it. Anyway, I was concentrating on the road and trying to avoid abuses from the women in the backseat.

On our way back, I actually asked Deuta to play the CD again. It was better than before!! I enjoyed a lot more songs than before. It was totally within the settings - a trip into the countryside, Bihu festival, the long road undulating before us and this melodious collection playing. Anyway, the trip got over and we came back to Delhi. Within a day or two, I started scouring the net for the Rambha song but to my chagrin, it was nowhere. I went on to YouTube and tried listening to a few others but in my impatience I couldn't find any that I liked. After two three days, I finally calmed down and started listening to other songs. I then stumbled upon a user called Bohagboliya who had a nice collection of 12 songs uploaded. It is in karaoke style with excellent fonts and cool graphics.

Anyways, the point of all this is that good music leads to more good music and Jayanta Hazarikas songs continue to give me pleasure. I still wish I could get my hands on that song but in the meantime y'all sample these songs and let me know if you too felt the magic


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