When Music Was Made in India Part 1

If you are expecting a post on the good old days of pure classical music and how the western culture has badly influenced it, sorry, this is not such an article.

This post randomly discusses some of the artists and their songs of the Indipop genre, which once created a huge wave of change in our attitude about music and love, and rocked the young generation of India for almost a decade. I will be discussing some of the major names in the Indipop industry and some of their hits I like. These are my personal opinions. If you find I've missed any of the best songs please do comment below.

Dear kids of '80s and '90s, let's go down the memory lane, relive those wonderful moments and get nostalgic......

ALISHA CHINAI

Alisha Chinai is a cutie, knew how to present herself well and is a good singer. Though she had sung for Hindi film, her successful career, identity and fame was mainly because of the Indipop industry. Alisha was once a common household name.

MADE IN INDIA (1995)

 

Any Indian born in ‘80s and early ‘90s will definitely know the song 'Made In India'. It is probably the widely acclaimed, most remembered, highest rated and the most sold out hits of that time. It had an innovative and patriotic theme and we considered that song as the pride of every Indian. Thanks to Alisha, (DIL CHAHIYE, THAT’S) MADE IN INDIA was the catchphrase of the decade! (BTW, did you know that Alisha had a foreigner boyfriend for a brief period after this song’s mega success? Just forget I said that) :P
Anyway, the theme of this song is that the damn cute princess of a far away land called Qashab started searching for her suitor. Princes from many countries came but she wasn’t happy. Finally she realized that the Prince of India (portrayed by Milind Soman) is the one she wanted. He came, carried her away to his kingdom and they lived happily ever after. I don’t blame her for wanting him. Even though he doesn’t look his best in this video, Milind Soman is a sexy beast whom every girl of that time has fantasised!

EUPHORIA

The cool thing about this band is that they were formed in 1988 by singer Dr. Palash Sen, a then medical student. It is one of the best Indian bands ever and they have some of the biggest Indipop hits to their credit. DHOOM PICHAK DHOOM is another one of their super hit songs.

KABHI AANA TU MERI GALI (2003)

 

In this song they launched Vidya Balan, who later turned out to be a very successful actor in Indian film industry. The story goes like this: On the previous night of Vidya’s wedding, her sister finds out that she has an untold love, a Bengali singer living nearby. But her wedding is tomorrow, her family is very orthodox and most of all, she doesn’t know if he loves her. Actually he has a thing for Vidya, but he too was afraid to tell her. Anyway, just before the wedding, the groom’s family has some disagreement with the bride’s family and they’ll call off the wedding (probably because of some dowry issue). So, in order to protect Vidya’s family’s honour, our hero steps forward and tell her dad that he would like to marry Vidya. Vidya Balan looks very pretty (though a little over aged) in this video. I also like her little sister ‘Chotti’; she’s funny and very supportive. I also like Palash’s watch. Has anybody else noticed that the guy who does Suryanamaskar looks like Raj Kundra, Shilpa Shetty’s husband? :D

JYOTI – KALIYON KA CHAMAN (2000)

I’m including this song just because it is an important part of my nostalgia about Indipop. This was sung by a lesser known singer, Jyoti. This song was actress Meghna Naidu's transition from South Indian films to Bollywood. The nostalgia about this song is that, whenever it was played on TV, my elder cousin brothers/sisters changed the channel saying I wasn’t old enough to watch it! This, definitely, aroused my curiosity and I’ve watched it a couple of times when my cousins weren’t around ;)

SHEHZAD ROY

For a very long time I had thought this guy was Ali Zafar. There are some common things between Ali Zafar and Shehzad Roy. Both of them are Pakistanis who became famous by releasing Indipop songs.

SALI TU MANI NAHI (2005)

 

Munnu Bhai, his wife and her younger sister were living happily. But one day Shehzad came into picture. Munnu bhai doubted that this cool guy fell in love with his beautiful wife and he might steal her away. But Munnu later discovers that his wife is faithful and this guy is in love with Munnu’s sister-in-law Ramla. Everything ends almost well. The most hurting part is when Munnu destroys Shehzad’s guitar :(

K J YESUDAS

As you know, Yesudas is one of the best and most respected singers in India. He has infinite hits to his credit. I doubt if there's a single film in Malayalam that doesn't have at least one song by Dasettan, as we Mallus call him.

CHAMAK CHAM CHAM (2000)

 

This song is the pride of every Mallu. Except for Yesudas’ pathetic Hindi pronunciation, everything about this song, the music, singing, cast, theme…was great! I used to stare at the screen just to see the hero’s smile. It’s so cute :*

The story is about the romance between people from different worlds. A photographer from the city meets a village girl during one of his assignments. After completing the assignment he goes back but both of them couldn’t forget each other and realizes they’ve fallen in love with each other. She gets his wallet which he had dropped there by mistake. He comes back to the village only to know that she has eloped from the village to the city in search of him. As people say, it’s a small world. When she was standing puzzled in the city, they finally meet!

ARYANS, THE ROCK BAND

Aryans was a band that flourished during the golden era of Indipop. They had some cute feel-good love-themed songs (Actually most of the Indipop are love-themed). But now they are silent.

ANKHON MEIN (1999)

Ankhon Mein is my personal favourite. I guess it is the actor Shahid Kapoor’s first video song. After acting in a couple of such video songs he entered into Bollywood. Just compare this old Shahid in the video and the new Shahid given in PETA's banner in my blog's side bar... It's a huge difference! In this particular song, Shahid looks so sweet, cute and innocent. I love the heroine Hrishitaa Bhatt and that doggie too *_* Shahid’s notorious little dog destroys Hrishitaa’s expensive dress and she becomes very upset. He had saved some money to buy Sachin Tendulkar’s autographed cricket bat. But he used this money to buy her a new dress, partly because he was responsible for the doggy destroying Hrishitaa’s dress and partly because he always had a crush on her. But Shahid is shocked and devastated to see H’s boyfriend proposing her. There is still ambiguity about the ending of the song. Heart-broken S is walking away and his doggy is running behind him, dragging a white dress. Some say that it’s the dress of a new girl leading to a new relationship with S and the new girl. Some say it is H’s wedding gown and this will reinforce H’s and S’s relation, making his dreams come true. They’ve left it to our imagination. But I am a supporter of the latter idea as I want H and S to live happily ever after ;) What is your opinion?

DEKHA HAI TERI ANKHON KO (2001)

Dekha Hai Teri Ankhon Ko was a very popular song during that time. It was better known as “Coffee Bar” as the whole story happens in a coffee bar. The hero works there and heroine is his regular customer. Every time she finishes a cup of coffee and leaves, the hero keeps the cup (with the mark of her lipstick on it) as a souvenir. She finally finds out how much he loves her and gives a souvenir (yes, the lipstick mark) on his face :D The cast was horrible, the song was only average, but there was something about it that everyone loved. Another sweet memory relating to this video is that my over protective cousin sister used to cover my (then a kid) eyes when the heroine's dress goes up in a breeze. Poor thing my cousin... she doesn’t know I’ve seen worse :D

(To be continued...)

Working for a Good Change :)

It all started with Greenpeace India's tweet asking ideas to tackle various non-ecofriendly issues.

As the regular readers of my blog know, I travel a lot by train and some of the posts in this blog are about my experiences during train journeys. There's something that used to worry me always. You would have noticed people throwing away wastes through the windows and doors of trains. Here “people” refer to you and me. Admit it, most of us love littering in rivers; even now some of us do that! Sitting inside the moving train, my sister and I used to wait for rivers to throw away the coffee cups, bottles and paper plates into it! Please note that I’m talking about what I used to do some 10 years back; now I don’t. But, thinking of that stupid idea makes me feel so ashamed and disgraced now.

We throw away plastic bottles, carry bags, wrappers, food remnants, disposable cups & plates and every other possible waste through the windows of the train coaches. It may seem to be very silly thing but it adversely affects the environment. Have you ever noticed how polluted the surroundings of railway lines are; especially the water bodies nearby? Even well-educated people litter without a second thought! I always ask my friends and relatives (and sometimes strangers too) to avoid this act and dispose waste only in dustbins. Well, some people listen to it, at least for the sake of formality. But mostly these talks lead to debate and I end up being labelled as “DUSTBIN” who collects waste and doesn’t throw them away until I find proper means for disposal! This is how even small acts to serve and save Mother Nature are discouraged knowingly or unknowingly. The blame doesn’t lie solely on the people.

The problems faced here can be listed as follows

• Only AC coaches and a few sleeper coaches are provided with waste bins
•  Many of the available ones are found to be teemed with waste
•  Lack of enough staff for cleaning activities
•  Inadequate coordination and understanding between multiple departments of Indian Railways (IR) leading to ineffective cleanliness efforts
•  Absence of proper monitoring of cleaning activities
•  Deficient waste collection and disposal mechanisms
•  Ignorance and indifferent attitude of people towards keeping the environment clean
•  General apathy of the authorities when dealing with hygiene and sanitation

Solid waste (consisting mainly of paper and plastic) generated each day by train passengers across our country is a very huge. They can be divided into
biodegradable (leftover food), slowly degradable (disposable cups, plates,
newspapers) and non-biodegradable (mineral water bottles, carry bags) waste
materials, most of which can be recycled and reused. It is unfortunate that,
despite being the second largest railway network in Asia and the largest public
sector undertaking in our country, IR doesn’t have an environment-friendly
policy yet. Surprisingly, IR is also devoid of a department dedicated to take care
of cleanliness and sanitation activities.
During a Facebook discussion on this topic, someone shared his relative’s
experience on train. The trash in their compartment was teemed with waste.
When they brought this to the attention of TTE, he advised them to throw away
the waste through the window/door instead of complaining about the trash.
A friend of mine commented like this “If at all the IR sets up dustbins in every
coach, these will go missing very soon. Who knows a national mafia network
that stoles dustbins from trains may grow up gradually! This is Incredible
India!” He was just joking. But sadly, the probability of occurrence of
something like that is very high in our nation.
To bring a change to this pathetic situation the first thing to be changed is our
attitude. We constantly complain about the Indian system, but don’t realize that
this system is made of people like you and me! If each one of us pledges to keep
our surroundings clean, it would be a big leap towards cleaner India.
Other things that can be done are

•  Provide dustbins in every train coach.
•  Employ enough staff for cleaning activities
•  Ensure that these activities are properly coordinated and monitored
•  Develop an efficient system for proper waste management and treatment
•  Install boards everywhere possible indicating not to litter

As mentioned at the beginning of this post, it all started with Greenpeace India's
(@greenpeaceindia) tweet asking ideas to tackle various non-ecofriendly issues.
I had replied with the suggestion to provide dustbins in every train coach. The
idea was welcomed by them and they provided with all help to start a
petition on that issue, titled PROVIDE DUSTBINS IN EVERY TRAIN COACH. But, when I completed this post, I felt the petition should be
modified and more things should be included in it.

Dear readers,
If you haven't signed the petition yet, please show your support by signing it:
PROVIDE DUSTBINS IN EVERY TRAIN COACH
And please share it with maximum people :)
Thank you for your constant support...
Let's work together for cleaner, greener Indian Railways :)

These are the links to Greenpeace India's
Website
Facebook page
Twitter Profile

Reference Links: http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_railways-need-another-dept-to-tackle-solid-waste-management-iim-ahmedabad_1549207
http://www.cag.gov.in/html/reports/railways/2007_6_peraud/chap_2.pdf
http://www.downtoearth.org.in/node/12913

This post was submitted under ISB iDiya for IndiChange in Indiblogger.
http://www.isb.edu/idiya/