A Tribute to the Legend - Bhupen Hazarika
(The reason for me to be a musician)
India might remember him as an ace Film maker and musician, Assam might remember him in many different ways, but Bhupen Hazarika to me will always be ‘The first light of liberation and celebration of my mind’.
I have no clear memory of my initial school years, but I faintly remember at the age of 6 or 7 (when I was in class 1, or class 2) I suddenly got addicted to ‘radio listening’.
'Vivid Bharti' was the prime channel for entertainment then and there was this program of ‘Adhunik Bangla Gaan’ aired at 5.45 pm in the evening every day. There were Sachin Dev Burman, Hemanta Mukhapadhyay, Lata Mangeshkar, Arati Mukhapadhyay, Banasree Sengupta, Manna Dey, Haimanti Shukla, Sandhya Mukhapadhyay, Shyamal Mitra, Rahul Dev Burman, Asha Bhonsle, Anup Ghoshal and many many more names….
But my mind tasted the essence of freedom only with the voice and the magical tunes of Bhupenda. I still remember the name of the lyricist - Shibdas Bondopadhyay, who wrote most of his songs (later I learned that they were mostly translated from original assamese songs written by Bhupenda himself).
Well ‘Ami ek Jajabar’ (I am a traveller...) was the song which was the first one to be rendered in my voice. A kid trying to sing and also trying to imitate his inspiration’s voice…..
….and that was actually how my training of music started.
Many years later I would come to know that the very popular Kishore Kumar number ‘Musafir Hoon Yaron…’ by RD Burman, was inspired by the same song. Gulzaar Saab accidentally heard the song when Bhupenda was humming its assamese version one day and instantly decided of writing a Hindi song on the same thought for his own film 'Parichay'.
My aunty organized a trip to Digha, a sea beach close to Kolkata during the summer vacations of 1978; my first trip outside Kolkata. In my lower middleclass childhood, a trip like this was truly a sudden gift from god.
I remember the two ground floor rooms in an 'under construction building' we could rent was more than a palace to me and to my sister. It was on a sandy stretch of land very close to the beach.
Digha was not crowded then. Two kids – one five and half and one 7 (that’s my sister and me) would run on sandy beaches in the salty breeze for unending hours and often the elder one would sing songs of his own choice. I still remember myself - bare body, in just a pair of orange color shorts, singing ‘Aha ki anondo akashe batashe...’ from the Film ‘Hirok rajar Deshe’ By Satyajit Ray...and ‘Ami ek jajabor...’ by Bhupenda.
The other song I used to sing during that time was, ‘Dola, he dola...’ – a song of toil and pain which is being sung by the carriers, who are carrying a wealthy person on their shoulders. I faintly remember the rhythm and the relentless ‘life’ element of the song always amused me. And I – even at the age of 6 or 7 would sing it aloud whenever I wanted to be free, free from the boredom of studies, free of doing meaningless things, free of sitting idle...or even free of carrying the weight of so called education in a form of a school bag.
There was no gramophone record player (tape recorders were yet to come) in our house then, so we had only radio and we had to wait for new songs to be aired on Akashbaani (AIR – All India Radio).
One day the ‘Adhunik Bangla Gaan’ program aired ‘Aaj Jeebon khuNje paabi…chhute chhute aay...’(“you will find life...just come running...”).
I went almost mad...my 7 year old mind was possibly waiting for that call...
That one call... and I decided to learn music...
That was the day and that was the song...that was the time when my mind came to know that it has to be music. Nothing else but music...
Music will liberate me...
Only music has the power to give me freedom and enable me to fly the skys.
Today I know in my heart, my mind was always in search...
but only Bhupenda showed me the way.
Victor Kalyan Ghoshe
9-11-11, Delhi
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