DANCING AWAY THE BLUES
DANCING
AWAY THE BLUES
La ke teen peg baliye…
The familiar
Punjabi song suddenly erupted on my car stereo. I was driving to Kasauli. Had
taken a diversion as I travelled from Shimla to Chandigarh early morning. I
rightly thought it to be a day (mid December) when there was slim chance of
choked road and multitudes trying to find a footing on the ground of the tiny
cantonment town.
I was going to
Kasauli after ages. In the past two years alone I had travelled to Shimla at
least twenty times but partly due to
paucity of time and partly due to fear of getting stuck there I had avoided it.
The moment I took the right turn from Dharampur, I was surprised by the number
of new constructions that had come up on the road! Any place left was being
assiduously dug up by earth movers for building more. As I soaked hotels, inns,
villas and B&Bs standing shoulder to shoulder along the dusty track that
was the road (you guessed it right! I could make out that the road was dug up
for some underground pipe layout and then covered with usual disdain), I
wondered what experience were the visitors expecting? If only a clean room and
good food was required would they not be better off at home? Irony wasn’t lost
on me as I got stuck in a jam in front of a hotel offering ‘Your Home Away from
Home’! I was reminded of what Ravinder Makhaik (Editor of Hillpost and a
seasoned journalist) had told me the previous night in Shimla – Vikas we can’t
expect high end tourism in our system; the tourism which we encourage creates
more problems than revenue for the hills). Anyway, the driver of pickup in
front of me seemed to be unpurturbed and immensely proud of the place. He had
put his mind in the slogan on tail board – ‘Neem se achha nahi Chandan, Hamari
Kasauli se badaa nahi London’.
I had fretted
for some time that all our Himachal scenary was going to be from sight by high rise concrete buildings lining our roads. Then I
had come across recent NGT guidelines that restricted valley side buildings to
half a story above the road level to safeguard the view even if partially. My
heart took some solace to see that new buildings were sticking to the rule so
that part of hills and sky were visible. Some mercy! Anyway, after cribbing for
decades, I have come to terms with construction as it is inevitable when our
population has grown, we have money and aspirations are high. For that matter,
I have done 2/3rd of my life (I hope 1/3rd is left!; you
can never say when a decade younger
acquaintances, fitter than you keep collapsing suddenly these days!). I think
the world will be ok for next 20 odd years I have left so I have stopped worrying.
And I feel lucky that I was born in a period that has allowed me to see the
earth in its better days; I can always reminiscence and enjoy.
The song – teen
peg kept repeating itself in my head as I had my breakfast looking at the
unspoilt Kasauli valleys through the club restaurant. I realized that though I
spent 2 years in Ludhiana in late 90s doing masters, and enjoyed listening to
the song (and also dancing to it a number of times) I could never decipher the
words. I understand most of Punjabi but still like Hollywood flicks, a language
spoken rapidly can’t be understood fully by those for whom it’s not the mother
tongue.
Being a firm
believer in the adage ‘Beauty lies in the Details’, I googled the lyrics. What
a blessing internet is! As I went through the lyrics, my heart flew out of the
window and soared like a kite in the valley beyond.
Saanu aaonda nee
pyaar naap tol ke,
Kainda karida
speaker’an te bol ke.
Laike jutti
thalle Zindagi de bojh nu,
Yaar lootde ne
maujan dil khol ke.
Ni la ke teen
peg balliye,
Paande bhangde
gaddi di dikky khol ke ……
Meaning –
We have no
considerations when its love,
This we proclaim
on loudspeakers.
We trample with
our shoe on the life’s stresses,
And enjoy to our
hearts fill.
We partake 3
pegs
And perform
bhangra on the wayside with open boot of the car!
It was a
familiar sight in the hills to see Punjabi gabaru’s dancing with abandon on way
side with such songs blaring over car stereos and a mini bar laid out in the
open boot of the cars. Today I found none. Maybe the construction all over the
road has left no space and they are rather enjoying in the pubs and dance bars
in the tricity these days!
I enjoyed the
song ten times on my way home and decided to download lyrics of all such old
gems. That set me thinking of the plethora of Punjabi songs that glamorize
drinking. If drinking is made to be so
glitzy in popular culture is it not natural that the society will succumb to
the scourge of alcohol? And is it not the logical next step to try higher forms
of intoxicants – Drugs – natural and synthetic?
Umm. Its
worrying. Anyway, for now, I am going off to download more Punjabi song lyrics.
Brrrrrrrrooooowwwaaaaaaa!!!!
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