Monsoon Days

Very nice. The beginning of monsoon is always a magical time. But after a few days, when the air is thick with moisture and everything smells musty and you don`t feel like going out for fear of getting soaked (again), you`ve had enough..
Bina, I think Jay likes you especially. These are his love poems (kashmir, jihad, TNT, k for kafir..) I think he`s in love..

#34 Sobia ``smell of water on thirst earth`` why doesn`t someone bottle that ... ? that sondhi geeli mitti smell is pure joy !!

# Romiar - Hung up on the 70`s masaala formula movies are we ?? Can`t agree with the ``Zahil kameene`` line (smacks too much of greasy revolting villains my least favorite bit of classical ;) bollywood ) but yes the ``rain dances`` are a big loss ... if you`re including angrezi gane what about rhythm of the falling rain by cascades ?

check out folk monsoon songs at

http://www.beatofindia.com/forms/kajri.htm

# tahmed ... what an awful for it to end ...

behkar, ba`ghaar, whatever - give me liberty!

............ i hate it when karachi walas make us poor punjabis feel like such jahils and ganwars – they forget that we, along with the incorrigible pathans, make up the largest urdu speaking group ............they don’t realize that their airy-fairy urdu makes us feel quite inadequate, destroys our self esteem, and makes us look ludicrous when we try to imitate them by saying silly things like ,” aiye, tashreef laiye “ or “aap ke nawazish hai” ........... how wimpy!..........oye, call me paranoid, but I think you guys are always making fun of our accents and our loud and boisterous ways ..........you awe us with your quite whispering conversations which seem so polite, sophisticated and profound and makes us feel discombobulated and humiliated ..............

.......... and we get it from the other end as well .........growing up, my grandpa khan-baba used to tease us by commenting on our wheatish complexion and calling us “dal-khor bachaeya” (dal-eaters offspring”) or “teez-mar bacheya (gas-emitter’s offspring”).......... and this inspite of the fact that I spoke pushtu like a thief from mardan and refused to eat any kind of vegetable .........and even he, a self-hating pushtu speaker from kandahar, used to say, “ urdu sheer ast, farsi sheer-o-shakar ast, pukhto goz-I-khar ast” ( urdu is like milk, farsi is like milk and sugar, and pushtu is a like a donkey’s fart!).......and what about punjabi ?......... chopped liver, i guess .........

........there is only one thing left to do - punjabis, on both sides of the border, should secede and create a homeland where we can be free from the tyranny of the urdu speakers; where we can eat dal with tarka on plates made from shisha and begin every conversation with a loud “oye”.........let them eat ba’ghaared dal on their silly kaanch plates and begin every sentence with “pehlay aap”!

Lovely piece.

#32 by harish_hyd on July 7, 2003 9:35pm PT

and you dont??

#27 by tahmed32

I think she wants to say ``GarajChamak`` simply means thunderbolt.

GarajChamak ke-saath barish honay ka imkaan.

# 17 hamidm

Kaanch/shiisha= Glass
Aaina= Mirror

re: Monsoon songs

Ke aj mera jee karda (Kawa Kawa) from Monsoon Wedding

happy bday bina :)

wonderful article, i was literally thirsting for rain while reading it. It hasn`t rained in Lahore in ages. I miss it so much. The unnatural darkness in the middle of the day, gusts of wind, the smell of water on thirst earth, thunder and lightening...mmmmm heavenly!

Monsoons are here. My friends who own automobile garages are on uptime.

A truck loaded with sand, and then carrying bamboo balis as well as steel rods is lumbering along in the higher part in the middle. A bus following it tries to overtake from its left. Trucks skids a bit, bus also brakes and skids, rod goes through 15 year old boy sitting in the seat behind the bus driver.

#29 by ali87 on July 7, 2003 9:20pm PT

[I admire your dedication and pity your condition though!!]

The Pakis have taken note of your post. They just love you.

.... i think it is unfair on the part of temporal, roohi and others to criticize good ol hamidm on his command or lack of it , on hindvi, a language of the horrible hindoos also known as urdu which is basically a cocktail of some good and some not so good languages and dialects.whereas, his forte is English...the language of the MASTERS. rsaxena for a change has been correct in explaining the difference between the two words....

kaanch is glass, whereas sheesha is mirror. as far as the hookah wala sheesha is concerned........that is arabic and not allowed in the court of hindvi/urdu language.

wassalaam;)

Bina,
Timely topic, and nice article. Brings back memories of ``singin` and dancing` in the rain``. Well maybe not singin. and maybe not dancin, but just running around. And, who can forget that spatter of rain on the rooftops. I hear someone moving to saudi arabia actually took a tape of that spatter of rain on rooftops along.

What is the deal with the ``garamchamak``?? The word is bijli, my dear. Easy to remember: bijli. Just check with us panjabis when you karachiwallas are struggling with urdu.

roohi #13: There used to be too things that every Indian movie seemed to have. Unfortunately, now, Indian movies are evolving into science fictions, and horrors and Devdases and what not. These two things were:

- Hundred different depictions of the common dialogue, which was uttered at least once in every movie: ``Zalil Kameenay, Chaur day mujhay chaur day``
and
- The famous rain dance. Not the kind that the American Indians do. But the kind that Indian heroines do (did) when it started raining just at the right time, in all kind of wierd situations.

With the death of the above two, I am afraid, Indian movies have started to lose their audiences, as far as people like me are concerned.

Assuming that every rain song is a monsoon/sawan song, here are some more:

- Saawan aaye, Saawan jayee
- Jhula kaun jhulai
- Garaj Baras (Junoon)
- Singing in the rain (Gene Kelly)
- Raindrops keep fallin (B.J. Thomas...)
- Bheegi Bheegi ratoon mein tum (P. Udhas)
- Meray neenan Sawan badho (Mehbooba)
-

#10 by jay on July 7, 2003 2:26am PT
wow!!

I admire your dedication and pity your condition though!!

nice article Bina, brings back memories of when i used to spend EVERY summer holiday in Pakistan. we used to look out for the clouds, and then when the rain finally came like all the other kids we would go crazy playing in the rain, it was such a nice relief from the 40+ degrees C heat of Punjab. Everyone was happy, regardless of their problems, it was such a nice time, all i remember is smiles and `Rabb da lakh lakh shuker` being said by everyone... thanks for reminding me, of happier innocent days...

To all chowkies: May I suggest we all take time off to pray for success of the surgery now taking place in Singapore on the Iranian twins. They seemed so good humored and full of life despite the terrible predicament into which they were born.