5 minutes of bliss

Today was another uneventful day, life seems to be filled with quite a few of them.

Was on my way home after work which takes me about an hour travelling on the red line in chicago. For people who've used the "el" here, its an extremely boring line, pretty crowded during rush hours with the trains going about in an excruciatingly slow pace. Everyone crams into an overly crowded train, trying to find any space to hold onto (almost a flashback to the local bombay trains, without having your face in someone's armpit) while the train goes on its merry way on century old tracks. Sometimes I try to single out interesting looking people, in the hope that they end up livening up the journey a bit. I have noticed one guy who stands out - he's short, young, has a nice sized beer belly, wears tweed, platform shoes, tries to smoke and act cool while waiting and generally highly interesting mannerisms.

My subject matter wasn't in sight today, so I was just gazing out of the window looking for avenues to pass the time. I generally listen to songs on my IRiver - NOT an IPod, yes I know I've been called by quite a few anti names, anti Establishment, anti Microsoft, anti normal behaviour, anti Intelligence (right, I realize some are more flattering than others).

So there I was listening to songs when one of my favourite Jagjit Singh songs wafted on my music player. To the uninitiated, Jagjit Singh generally sings gazals in Hindi, Urdu and Punjabi and has been almost entire responsible for the rebirth of the genre in India.

I've always loved the song 'Tum Itna kyon muskura rahe ho', but today nothing of the outside world registered while the song was going on. For once the crowd, noise, weird people were all shut out while I actually listened to the words of the song.

So in deference to the brilliance of the song and Jagjit Singh, here are the lyrics, while the song goes on in our heads.


tum itna jo muskura rahe ho - 2
kya gham hai jisko chhupa rahe ho - 2
tum itna jo muskura rahe ho

aankhon mein nami, hansi labon par - 2
kya haal hai kya dikha rahe ho - 2
kya gham hai jisko chhupa rahe ho
tum itna jo muskura rahe ho

ban jayenge zehar peete peete - 2
yeh ashq jo piye ja rahe ho - 2

jin zakhmon ko waqt bhar chala hai - 2
tum kyon unhe chhedhe ja rahe ho - 2
kya gham hai jisko chhupa rahe ho
tum itna jo muskura rahe ho

rekhaon ka khel hai muqaddar - 2
rekhaon se maat kha rahe ho - 2
kya gham hai jisko chhupa rahe ho
tum itna jo muskura rahe ho
kya gham hai jisko chhupa rahe ho