Joyride

        Gosh!!!Roshan you had to be right… That Mohammed Rafi has got a mesmerizing effect in his voice was no surprise, but the real surprise is that it took me around 4 years to realize this simple fact. Roshan and I always had this argument in college that who is the greatest of all—Rafi or Kishore. I always argued in favor of Kishore da and he supported Rafi with such a passion that it was hard to ignore him…but even though he could not convince me. (I will not dwell much on who is the greatest; both are the doyens of Hindi Film Music and I am a ‘nobody’ as far as Hindi Film Music is concerned for a comment) But at last my argumentative instincts were convinced today and guess what it took to convince my logical mind…no not a talk show or a debate but a bus ride to Gurgaon.

        Delhi Transport Corporation’s buses are in news for all the wrong reasons. Around 40 odd buses caught fire within a month (that’s more than a bus a day). The iconic Tata Group’s reputation is at stake and it is at such level that government is thinking to cancel the contract with the Tata Group; though it is a different issue that Tata group has nothing to do with the buses catching fire. The blame should actually go to the growing population of India and lack of public transport. The buses are actually not meant to be loaded so heavily. Anyways, let me come back to the point. I should not drift away.

        Today, I missed my cab to office and I was cursing myself for not being proactive. But nevertheless it took me a lot of courage to decide that I should take a bus to office. And to top it all the bus I embarked was so full of people that I was actually struggling to stand on the foothold. Somehow I took the ticket and when I firmly set my foot inside the bus a cold stare welcomed me. It kept me wondering for quite some time that what actually prompted that kind of a stare from such a beauty. Either I was looking good, which I guess was not the case or something was wrong. But I did not give much heed to the stare and reciprocated with a similar cold stare. All this while, while I was jostling inside the bus, I was caught unawares…a nice background music was being played. And it did not take me long to recognize the mesmerizing voice about which Roshan always talked about. Yes, no prizes for guessing, it was Mohammed Rafi, at his best. Such was the impact of the numbers being played that I was dumbstruck to see that everyone was somehow contended. As if they had forgotten about the dangers of traveling in a low floor DTC bus; not a single soul was complaining. Otherwise such journeys are invariably marred by altercations and arguments and not to mention the ubiquitous Delhi slang in which people always drag others mothers or sisters into reference. The authorities had actually done a good job in putting up so many notices which advised passengers about how to use the fire extinguisher and the emergency exits in case of a fire. But today nobody cared about those warning notes and I was the only one who was busy reading such warnings and of course listening to Rafi. Probably even I was touched. The numbers were all time chartbusters and not that I had not listened to them earlier. But today somehow it had a different meaning.

        I realized Rafi’s greatness when a septuagenarian, barely standing next to me, started nodding his head when the number “khoya khoya chand…” was played. Probably that song reminded him of his wife or of his youth. Numbers like “chura liya hai tumne jo dilko…” or “kaun hai jo sapno main aye…” or “kya hua tera wada…” struck a chord with everyone inside the bus. Had it not been for the legend I don’t know in what state of mind I would have been at the end of the journey. But apart from Rafi the journey had nothing interesting in it. It pointed out the inadequacies of the Indian public transport system. That it requires a major overhaul is not an issue and is probably known to all, but the funny part is how do the westerners think that their money is being utilized for India’s development and India is shinning? Really if this is what India has to showcase during the upcoming Commonwealth Games, then I pity India and its bureaucrats. It’s a shame that we are so awfully prepared for such a mega event, but yes if I would have been given the charge to do something then I would have definitely tried Rafi’s songs (We cannot ramp up our public transport system in the next 6-8 months; that’s a herculean task) to mesmerize the foreigners. I am sure it will work and with less than 8 months to go for the mega event I am sure Rafi is our best bet. What do you think?

N.B. Roshan Dash is a very close friend of mine. We studied the same subjects in college and were in the same team at Oracle. Currently, he is pursuing Masters in Embedded systems in Philadelphia. Incidentally he has got a beautiful voice and is surely making the Indians in his college listen to Rafi.