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| Photo credit: Antonio Littorio (The Power of Words) |
Letter-writing is an old-fashioned and outdated form of communication today. But
there was a time when you wrote a letter and waited anxiously for the
reply. When the postman's arrival was a cause for joy (or grief). When
you lovingly cleaned your fountain pen and filled it with ink. When you
chewed on the end of your pen wondering how best to express an emotion
in just the right phrase. When many papers were crumpled and thrown away because you couldn't get the right word to describe what you felt. When loveletters were tied up with red ribbons and stored in sandalwood boxes, to be opened and read again and again.
When I was a young girl, I wrote letters. Long, newsy letters to my grandparents, assorted aunts and uncles and cousins and other relatives. And to friends. Pages and pages of news in the most miniscule handwriting that could actually be read without a magnifying lens. (I had to fit it all into one inland letter, or in just-enough pages inside an envelope so I wouldn't have to pay extra postage.) One of my friends, straight out of college, landed rather cushily, or so he thought, into a job as an assistant manager on a tea estate. He hadn't bargained for the loneliness. Years later, when he ran into my father again, he told dad that in those years, it was only my letters that stopped him from quitting his job or committing suicide. Dad grinned. He should know. For years, he had complained that a huge part of his salary went to keeping me in stationery and stamps. (My father actually bought me a letterpad of onion-skin paper so I could use that for even domestic letters.)
When I was a young girl, I wrote letters. Long, newsy letters to my grandparents, assorted aunts and uncles and cousins and other relatives. And to friends. Pages and pages of news in the most miniscule handwriting that could actually be read without a magnifying lens. (I had to fit it all into one inland letter, or in just-enough pages inside an envelope so I wouldn't have to pay extra postage.) One of my friends, straight out of college, landed rather cushily, or so he thought, into a job as an assistant manager on a tea estate. He hadn't bargained for the loneliness. Years later, when he ran into my father again, he told dad that in those years, it was only my letters that stopped him from quitting his job or committing suicide. Dad grinned. He should know. For years, he had complained that a huge part of his salary went to keeping me in stationery and stamps. (My father actually bought me a letterpad of onion-skin paper so I could use that for even domestic letters.)
Our postman used to know me by name; the bulk of the letters and cards he delivered to my house were addressed to me. In fact, after I married and moved to Bombay, he once asked my mother rather wistfully whether I never wrote letters any more. He didn't have as many letters to deliver as he did before. For the longest of time, I had filed every letter that was ever written to me - from my grandfather's quaintly formal English in fine script to my grandmother's affectionate homilies in her lovely cursive hand. I had my mother's letters both in Malayalam and English when I left home to work, my sister's newsy missives, and my brother's scribbles from medical college hostel. (Dad found it difficult to read his own scrawl, so he never wrote letters.) Letters from friends, pen friends, and relatives were all filed safely away by name.
When I moved to Bombay, the only letters I took with me were the ones my husband wrote me in the many, many years we corresponded before we got married. It was fortunate that I did so, as it happened. My father went on a cleaning rampage one year, and one of the casualties of that enthusiasm was all the letters I had so carefully stored away. He didn't think I would need them any more. I'm afraid I wept. It was a part of my life that he burnt that day.
Given a choice, I would still write letters to the people I'm closest to. Words seem brighter, and to hold more meaning when seen on a page. Am
I alone in seeking meaning and comfort in pen-and-ink letters? Perhaps
not the only person, but we are definitely a dying race. It is not even
that I wish to get
a hand-written letter some time; I know that is asking for the moon. A
greater sadness lies in knowing that most people do not want to even receive a pen-and-ink letter any more.
My cousin teases me saying that my emails are no less than letters. But the hand-written letter has gone the way of the tonga and not just in Hindi films. Mention it to a youngster today and they make you feel a bit like Methesulah. A generation that has grown up on texting and 'likes' on social media even write their emails in a lingua franca that often leaves me scratching my head. Numerals take up the place of letters in a word, and acronyms abound, and honestly, I feel older than my chronological age. (When you get laughed at for spelling out every word fully during a chat session, or for using correct punctuation and capitals in an email, you begin to feel a bit awkward, especially when you once had to ask what a common chat acronym stands for.) It is like the floodgates have opened and capitals, grammar, punctuation, and whole words itself are fleeing in despair. In a world like this, what chance does the poor letter have?
Am I a fuddy duddy who mourns the passing of an age? A luddite to whom technology doesn't hold the charm of the scent of ink on paper? Not really. Working as I do in digital media, I'm both fully aware of new technology and have no trouble embracing the ones I need. But here is an ode to an age that has long passed, and a communication that will never return, here are some songs through the ages where a letter sent, and a letter received bespoke of varied relationships and diverse emotions.
My cousin teases me saying that my emails are no less than letters. But the hand-written letter has gone the way of the tonga and not just in Hindi films. Mention it to a youngster today and they make you feel a bit like Methesulah. A generation that has grown up on texting and 'likes' on social media even write their emails in a lingua franca that often leaves me scratching my head. Numerals take up the place of letters in a word, and acronyms abound, and honestly, I feel older than my chronological age. (When you get laughed at for spelling out every word fully during a chat session, or for using correct punctuation and capitals in an email, you begin to feel a bit awkward, especially when you once had to ask what a common chat acronym stands for.) It is like the floodgates have opened and capitals, grammar, punctuation, and whole words itself are fleeing in despair. In a world like this, what chance does the poor letter have?
Am I a fuddy duddy who mourns the passing of an age? A luddite to whom technology doesn't hold the charm of the scent of ink on paper? Not really. Working as I do in digital media, I'm both fully aware of new technology and have no trouble embracing the ones I need. But here is an ode to an age that has long passed, and a communication that will never return, here are some songs through the ages where a letter sent, and a letter received bespoke of varied relationships and diverse emotions.
1. Tere khat leke sanam
Singer: Lata Mangeshkar
Music: Vasant Desai
Lyrics: Majrooh Sultanpuri
Here is a song that exemplifies the joy of getting a letter. There is the surge of excitement of hearing the postman's cycle bell, the quickened footsteps that slow down just before you reach the gate (or open the door) so you can pretend you were not waiting for a letter, and holding on to the joy of receiving that expected letter that you do not open it just at once... It's a letter from her beloved, and she knows just what he would have written. His voice is enclosed within its bounds, and she needs to calm herself before she can read it. As it is, she can barely stand upright, she is that delirious with the joy of having heard from him.
Raaz jo is mein chhipa hai woh samajhta hai dil
Kaise bhool tera khat hum se dhadakta hai dil
Ye dil thehre zara nazar thehre zara
Hosh mein aa le zara hum
Tera khat le ke sanam
Paanv kahin rakhte hain ham,
Oh kahin padte hain kadam, kahin padte hain kadam
I especially like the ending, where she hides the letter behind her before going inside her house. And a pretty Meena Kumari who absolutely personifies that joy and you have the perfect song to start this post off.
2. Phool tumhe bheja khat mein
Singers: Mukesh, Lata Mangeshkar
Music: Kalyanji-Anandji
Lyrics: Indeevar
Lovers separated by circumstances in those days had no other option but penning their thoughts and feelings down on paper and waiting for the postman to carry it to their beloved. And yes, sending little tokens of their affection - a pressed flower, a photograph, a poem - was quite the norm. Here, Nutan's Kumud is penning a letter to Saraswatichandra, sending him a flower in lieu of her heart. His response is all that she dreamed about - he can sense her love, and if she only were in front of him, he would have kissed her hand. The picturisation is beautiful - the way she moves her arm as if in response to his kissing it - and then the plaint that begs for a meeting because now, letters aren't enough...
Khat se jee bharta hi nahin
Ab nain mile to chain mile
Chand hamare angna utre
Koyi to aisi rain mile
Milna ho toh kaise mile hum
Milne ki soorat likh do
Nain bichhaaye baithe hain hum
Kab aaoge khat likh do
Ah, nostalgia. :)
3. Khat likh de
Singer: Asha Bhosle
Music: Laxmikant-Pyarelal
Lyrics: Anand Bakshi
This is a pretend letter since the occasion is a stage show, but the emotions expressed are ones that have been expressed many a time before. Her beloved has gone away to the city in search of employment, and there is no one here to witness her anxiety. And so she begs the postman to write a letter for her. (Postmen in rural areas had to double as letter writers to a largely illiterate population.) If her beloved were here, she could be annoyed with him, but now, the heartless city has taken hold of him; she even wishes that he would lose his job. If he would come back when he read this letter, she would reward the postman well. There is so much more that she would like him to write, but she is embarrassed to tell that to a stranger...
Aur bahut kuchch hai likhwaana
Kaise bataaoon tujhe tu begaana
Sharm se ankhiyaan jhuk jaayegi
Dhadhak utthega mera dil deewaana
Bas aage nahin tera kaam babu
Kore kaagaz pe likh de salaam babu...
4. Ye mera prem patr padhkar
Singers: Mohammed Rafi, Lata Mangeshkar
Music: Shankar-Jaikishen
Lyrics: Hasrat Jaipuri
This is a straightforward loveletter, one where he begins by wondering how to address her. And as he writes, we are privileged to see his beloved's response to his love letter. As she pulls it neatly out of his hands, he is annoyed - isn't she ashamed to read others' letters? She is totally unrepentant - isn't he ashamed to write them? Their pretend annoyance soon dissipates, as he hopes that his letter will not anger her. She continues to peek at his letter even as he sings his feelings to her... [The song begins with a lovely musical prelude, and ends with Lata humming the refrain.]
Tu dil ke paas hai itni
Tujhe apna main samjhoonga
Agar mar jaaun rooh bhatkegi
Tere intezaar mein, intezaar mein, intezaar mein...
There is a rare video of Lata Mangeshkar singing a snatch of this same song in a duet with Mohammed Rafi, as Radha (Vyjayanthimala) re-reads Gopal's letter in the privacy of her room.
5. Dil ki shikayat nazar ki shikve
Chandni Chowk (1954)
Singer: Lata Mangeshkar
Music: Roshan
Lyrics: Shailendra
Written at a time when letters were the only means of communication, the unfortunate Zarina (Meena Kumari) has just received news that her husband, missing, presumed dead, is actually alive. That news comes in the form of a money order brought to her mother-in-law by the postman. But there is no return address. But the postman suggests that if she writes a letter to the bank where the money order was drawn, perhaps the bank would forward it to her husband. Zarina, smiling for the first time since she was married, sits down to write a letter.
And slowly, she fills it with all her hopes, her dreams and her aspirations; how only he could understand what she was going through; her little complaints about how they could have met in her dreams, only he took her sleep away when he left; how she's only written a little, but there is much left to express...
Thode likhe ko bahut samajhna naye nahin ye afsaane
Dil majboor bhara aata hai chhalak uthe hain paimaane
Khat mein jahaan aansoo tapka hai likha hai maine pyaar wahaan
Chhupa sakoon na dikha sakoon mere dil ke dard bhi huye jawaan
6. Payaam-e-ishq-o-muhobbath humein pasand nahin
Babar (1960)
Singer: Sudha Malhotra
Music: Roshan
Lyrics: Sahir Ludhianvi
What happens when the heir to the Mughal throne falls in love with the daughter of a courtier? Babar is ruling over the Mughal empire, and his son, Nasir ud-din Muhammad Humayun (Sohan Kapila) has just met the beautiful Hamida Banu (Azra), the daughter of his father's courtier Mirza Sahib. Entranced by her beauty and fascinated by her shaayari, the crown prince is young enough not to realise that love and the royal throne seldom go hand in hand. Not so the noblewoman who realises that however much the prince loves her, she can never aim to become the Empress of the realm. After all, how much can one believe the promises of an heir to the throne? Everyone knows their eyes wander.
And so she writes to him, in verse, excoriating him for constraining her to be his beloved.
Hamein to hans ke sitaaron ne bhi nahin dekha
Nazar mila ke bahaaron ne bhi nahin dekha
Kisi nigaah ki ju’rrat hamein pasand nahin
Jo takht-o-taaj ke waaris ho unka pyaar hi kya
This is a straightforward loveletter, one where he begins by wondering how to address her. And as he writes, we are privileged to see his beloved's response to his love letter. As she pulls it neatly out of his hands, he is annoyed - isn't she ashamed to read others' letters? She is totally unrepentant - isn't he ashamed to write them? Their pretend annoyance soon dissipates, as he hopes that his letter will not anger her. She continues to peek at his letter even as he sings his feelings to her... [The song begins with a lovely musical prelude, and ends with Lata humming the refrain.]
Tu dil ke paas hai itni
Tujhe apna main samjhoonga
Agar mar jaaun rooh bhatkegi
Tere intezaar mein, intezaar mein, intezaar mein...
There is a rare video of Lata Mangeshkar singing a snatch of this same song in a duet with Mohammed Rafi, as Radha (Vyjayanthimala) re-reads Gopal's letter in the privacy of her room.
5. Dil ki shikayat nazar ki shikve
Chandni Chowk (1954) Singer: Lata Mangeshkar
Music: Roshan
Lyrics: Shailendra
Written at a time when letters were the only means of communication, the unfortunate Zarina (Meena Kumari) has just received news that her husband, missing, presumed dead, is actually alive. That news comes in the form of a money order brought to her mother-in-law by the postman. But there is no return address. But the postman suggests that if she writes a letter to the bank where the money order was drawn, perhaps the bank would forward it to her husband. Zarina, smiling for the first time since she was married, sits down to write a letter.
And slowly, she fills it with all her hopes, her dreams and her aspirations; how only he could understand what she was going through; her little complaints about how they could have met in her dreams, only he took her sleep away when he left; how she's only written a little, but there is much left to express...
Thode likhe ko bahut samajhna naye nahin ye afsaane
Dil majboor bhara aata hai chhalak uthe hain paimaane
Khat mein jahaan aansoo tapka hai likha hai maine pyaar wahaan
Chhupa sakoon na dikha sakoon mere dil ke dard bhi huye jawaan
6. Payaam-e-ishq-o-muhobbath humein pasand nahin
Singer: Sudha Malhotra
Music: Roshan
Lyrics: Sahir Ludhianvi
What happens when the heir to the Mughal throne falls in love with the daughter of a courtier? Babar is ruling over the Mughal empire, and his son, Nasir ud-din Muhammad Humayun (Sohan Kapila) has just met the beautiful Hamida Banu (Azra), the daughter of his father's courtier Mirza Sahib. Entranced by her beauty and fascinated by her shaayari, the crown prince is young enough not to realise that love and the royal throne seldom go hand in hand. Not so the noblewoman who realises that however much the prince loves her, she can never aim to become the Empress of the realm. After all, how much can one believe the promises of an heir to the throne? Everyone knows their eyes wander.
And so she writes to him, in verse, excoriating him for constraining her to be his beloved.
Hamein to hans ke sitaaron ne bhi nahin dekha
Nazar mila ke bahaaron ne bhi nahin dekha
Kisi nigaah ki ju’rrat hamein pasand nahin
Jo takht-o-taaj ke waaris ho unka pyaar hi kya
Badalane waali nigaahon ka aitbaar hi kya
Huzoor ki ye inaayat hamein pasand nahin
She can't get clearer than that, surely?
7. Tum ek baar muhobbat ka imtihaan toh lo
Babar (1960)
Singer: Mohammed Rafi
Music: Roshan
Lyrics: Sahir Ludhianvi
This is a back-to-back song - it is the crown prince's response to the letter that is sent by the woman he loves - a letter that asks him to stay away from her, that tells him that she is not interested (in so many words). In response, he tells her that he is not so fickle - he may be a prince but that does not mean that he cannot be faithful to his beloved. Would she not give him one chance to prove his love?
Main apni jaan bhi de doon toh aitbaar nahin
Ke tum se badhke mujhe zindagi se pyaar nahin
Yun hi sahi meri chaahat ka imtihaan toh lo
Tum ek baar muhabbat ka imtihaan toh lo
It is a cry from his heart and she cannot but melt. Her heart has not remained untouched, even though she had tried very hard not to let her feelings lead her astray. So even though she throws his letter away at first, she cannot help but be moved by his pleas.
8. Dakiya daak laaya
Palkon ki Chaaon Mein (1977)
Singer: Kishore Kumar
Music: Laxmikant-Pyarelal
Lyrics: Gulzar
If Khat likh de was a pretend song to a postman, Dakiya daak laaya was a song picturised on a 'real' postman - a man who not only delivers the villagers' letters, but also reads (sings?) it out to them, as well as writes their responses for them. Sometimes, the news he brings is happy, sometimes it is sad, sometimes it is both... the woman in the picture gets an invitation to a wedding, as well as the news of her grandfather's death in the same letter. As he goes on, he is stopped by a woman who wants him to write to her husband, asking him to come home. She is missing him. Since the illiterate woman cannot express what she really feels, the postman takes it upon himself to pen a letter that will wring the heart of the proverbial stone...
Birhaa mein kaise kaise kaatoon ratiyaan
Saawan sunaaye bairi bheegi-bheegi batiyaan
Agni ki boondon mein jale jale baawariya
O naukariya chhod ke tu aa jaa na saanwariya
9. Aayegi zaroor chitthi
Dulhan (1974)
Singer: Lata Mangeshkar
Music: Lazmikant-Pyarelal
Lyrics: Anand Bakshi
Here lies the anticipation of a letter. One that never comes. The sheer agony of waiting is excruciating. In this case, Radha's (Hema Malini) husband passed away on their wedding night, leaving her in shock. As she awaits his 'return', she is aware that the villagers look upon her with pity, though she is not very sure why they should pity her. Her hopes are still high that her husband will definitely come back to her...
Karo aetbaar mera baat nahi jhooti
Toota hai dil mera aas nahi tooti
Maanega mera rootha rab dekhna
Aayegi zaroor chitthi mere naam ki sab dekhna
Who is she trying to reassure here?
10. Masterji ki aa gayi chitthi
Kitab (1977)
Singers: Padmini and Shivangi Kolhapure
Music: RD Burman
Lyrics: Gulzar
Chitthi mein se nikla cheetah
Thoda kaala thoda peela
Cheetah nikla hai sharmeela
Arre thoda thoda kaala
Thoda thoda peela
Arre wah wah
Huzoor ki ye inaayat hamein pasand nahin
She can't get clearer than that, surely?
7. Tum ek baar muhobbat ka imtihaan toh lo
Singer: Mohammed Rafi
Music: Roshan
Lyrics: Sahir Ludhianvi
This is a back-to-back song - it is the crown prince's response to the letter that is sent by the woman he loves - a letter that asks him to stay away from her, that tells him that she is not interested (in so many words). In response, he tells her that he is not so fickle - he may be a prince but that does not mean that he cannot be faithful to his beloved. Would she not give him one chance to prove his love?
Main apni jaan bhi de doon toh aitbaar nahin
Ke tum se badhke mujhe zindagi se pyaar nahin
Yun hi sahi meri chaahat ka imtihaan toh lo
Tum ek baar muhabbat ka imtihaan toh lo
It is a cry from his heart and she cannot but melt. Her heart has not remained untouched, even though she had tried very hard not to let her feelings lead her astray. So even though she throws his letter away at first, she cannot help but be moved by his pleas.
8. Dakiya daak laaya
Singer: Kishore Kumar
Music: Laxmikant-Pyarelal
Lyrics: Gulzar
If Khat likh de was a pretend song to a postman, Dakiya daak laaya was a song picturised on a 'real' postman - a man who not only delivers the villagers' letters, but also reads (sings?) it out to them, as well as writes their responses for them. Sometimes, the news he brings is happy, sometimes it is sad, sometimes it is both... the woman in the picture gets an invitation to a wedding, as well as the news of her grandfather's death in the same letter. As he goes on, he is stopped by a woman who wants him to write to her husband, asking him to come home. She is missing him. Since the illiterate woman cannot express what she really feels, the postman takes it upon himself to pen a letter that will wring the heart of the proverbial stone...
Birhaa mein kaise kaise kaatoon ratiyaan
Saawan sunaaye bairi bheegi-bheegi batiyaan
Agni ki boondon mein jale jale baawariya
O naukariya chhod ke tu aa jaa na saanwariya
9. Aayegi zaroor chitthi
Singer: Lata Mangeshkar
Music: Lazmikant-Pyarelal
Lyrics: Anand Bakshi
Here lies the anticipation of a letter. One that never comes. The sheer agony of waiting is excruciating. In this case, Radha's (Hema Malini) husband passed away on their wedding night, leaving her in shock. As she awaits his 'return', she is aware that the villagers look upon her with pity, though she is not very sure why they should pity her. Her hopes are still high that her husband will definitely come back to her...
Karo aetbaar mera baat nahi jhooti
Toota hai dil mera aas nahi tooti
Maanega mera rootha rab dekhna
Aayegi zaroor chitthi mere naam ki sab dekhna
Who is she trying to reassure here?
10. Masterji ki aa gayi chitthi
Singers: Padmini and Shivangi Kolhapure
Music: RD Burman
Lyrics: Gulzar
Another song that does not have a 'real' letter. Set in a classroom, the kids are upto mischief as soon as they are left alone, as is their wont. So after a little romp, shooting paper aeroplanes, talking and laughing, they break into song, letting their imaginations run riot. If their Masterji received a letter, how would it read? Perhaps a cat would jump out of the envelope? Or a mosquito? Or a cheetah, perhaps?
Chitthi mein se nikla cheetah
Thoda kaala thoda peela
Cheetah nikla hai sharmeela
Arre thoda thoda kaala
Thoda thoda peela
Arre wah wah
Chaal dekho
Ghoonghat daal ke chalta hai
Maang mein sindoor bharta hai
Maathe roz lagaaye bindi
English bole matlab hindi
If agar is hai but par what
matlab kya...
Gulzar's nonsense verse fit in perfectly with the situation as we got to see some normal children on screen for a change.
Do you like to write letters? What 'letter' songs would you add to this list?
Ghoonghat daal ke chalta hai
Maang mein sindoor bharta hai
Maathe roz lagaaye bindi
English bole matlab hindi
If agar is hai but par what
matlab kya...
Gulzar's nonsense verse fit in perfectly with the situation as we got to see some normal children on screen for a change.
Do you like to write letters? What 'letter' songs would you add to this list?
