Shaam - e - Mehfil

A beautiful evening from my stay in Hyd.

Mom has this practice of spending dusk in the balcony, humming to herself, in pretty much complete darkness. This evening I joined her, asking if I could give farmaish.... and she was game. We started with:

- ये रातें, ये मौसम नदी का किनारा
- आयेगा आनेवाला
- ना ये चाँद होगा, ना तारें रहेंगे

A few more..... a glass of wine....and we moved into karaoke, and all I needed was for her to say, you also sing....and i actually did..first ever for me

- ये हवा, ये रात, ये चांदनी, तेरी एक अदा पे निसार है
- याद न जाए बीते दिनों की
- आप की नजरों ने समझा प्यार के काबिल मुझे
- आ जा रे अब मेरा दिल पुकारा
- लग जा गले के फिर ये हसीं रात हो न हो
- अजीब दास्तां है ये, कहाँ शुरू कहाँ ख़तम

And with this last one, dad got pulled in too, and that too with a lovely story:

This was way back in 1960, when he'd just begun working....he was travelling from Delhi to Bangalore by train, and at a station on the way he saw a poster of Dil Apna Preet Paraya (ajeeb daastan hai yeh is from this movie)....... and he was such a diehard Meena Kumari fan, that he actually got off at the station.....just to watch the movie. :)

Dad's farmaish was all from Noorjahan and Suraiyya, and then out came more stories....of buying LPs......winding up gramaphones...escapades to watch movies et al

I loved this story from mom too........she said her grandfather was so strict that all lights at home had to go off by 8 at night...so mom and kamlesh aunty (her sister) would hide with the radio under blankets to listen to Binaca Geet Mala. I couldn't help but put a visual to my imagination... 

This is one of those times I reaffirmed my gratitude to google.....a recall of one random line from an old old song.... a few clicks and the song comes alive....and what's more... with lyrics too:

- मेरा सुंदर सपना बीत गया
- प्रीतम आन मिलो
- मेरा दिल ये पुकारे आ जा
- न जाओ सैयाँ, छुड़ा के बैयाँ
- मोहब्बत ऐसी धड़कन है

I just had to list as many as I could remember...... it's a chance to relive the music and the evening.