Except what you will be remembered
for, nothing is permanent. Neither your success. Nor what you call failure.
Everything changes. You too have changed.
You too will lose everything that you desperately seek to protect: your name,
your position, your salary, your savings, your assets. You too will move on,
when your time comes. This is the Law of Life. This is the way of the Universe.
If this is so, why do we fret, fume, worry, amass, control, protect, fear and
feel jealous of or hate another?
Understanding the impermanence of Life
itself and of each experience that comes with it in this lifetime is
intelligent living. Whatever has happened, whatever is happening, whatever will
happen to you cannot be changed. It is when you live with this realization that
you actually live. And until you get this simple truth about Life straight, you
will struggle and suffer through Life.
Last evening, I was listening to one of
R.D.Burman’s compositions – Musafir Hoon
Main Yaroon – (Parichay, 1972,
Gulzar, Kishore Kumar). To call Rahul Dev Burman just great is perhaps
blasphemous. RD or Panchamda as he was fondly called, was__and IS__one of
India’s greatest music composers. Between 1966 and 1982, he ruled Bollywood. I
am sure no one needs any introduction to his genre or his songs. Just a gentle
reminder will get us all humming. It is said that he composed ‘Aye Meri Topi Palat Ke Aa’ for his
father Sachin Dev Burman’s 1956 ‘Funtoosh’
when he was hardly 9 years old! The golden years of Hindi cinema were courtesy
RD: ‘Aaja Aaja Main Hoon Pyar Tera’ (Teesri Manzil, 1966), ‘Dum Maro Dum’ (Hare Rama Hare Krishna, 1971), ‘Piya
Tu Ab Toh Aaja’ (Caravan, 1971),
‘Chingari Koi Bhadke’, ‘Kuch Toh Log
Kahenge’ ‘Yeh Kya Hua’ (Amar Prem,
1971), ‘Duniya Mein Logon Ko’ (Apna Desh, 1972), ‘Chura Liya Hai Tumne’ (Yadoon
Ki Baraat, 1973), ‘Is Mod Se Jaate
Hain’ (Aandhi, 1975), ‘Mehbooba Mehbooba’ (Sholay, 1975), all songs of the musical
blockbuster Hum Kissi Se Kum Nahin,
1977, ‘Nam Gum Jaayega’ (Kinara,
1977), ‘Aaj Kal Paon Zameen Par Nahin
Padte Mere’ (Ghar, 1978), ‘Piya Baawri Piya Baawri’ (Khubsoorat,
1980). The list is endless. Each of his songs can send people like me into a
rapturous, emotional nostalgia trip. Yet, writes Bollywood chronicler and
RD-admirer, Ganesh Anantharaman in his book ‘Bollywood
Melodies’, “despite
the youthful hit scores of Love Story (1981) and Betaab (1983), I believe that
by the 1980s, RD was in the throes of a serious identity crisis. He had
exhausted his capacity to create westernized jazzy scores. He had too many
instances of his more melodious scores being rejected, mostly because the films
were badly made or did not have the right star cast.” In reality this translated into RD being totally
rejected by Bollywood.
Can you imagine one of the greatest music
composers of all times knocking on the doors of producers and studio owners in
Mumbai “asking” for an opportunity? Where R.D. Burman had made a career
from songs with a strong Western jazz influence, he found that he was
repeatedly being outdone by Bappi Lahiri's Western "inspired" disco.
There were a few reprieves though from this ignominy. Notable among them, once
again showcasing his genius, was the work he did for his close friend Gulzar: ‘Mera Kuch Samaan’ (Izzazat, 1987). He plodded on, hurt, humiliated, financially
devastated, in pain and suffering. ‘1942-A
Love Story’, Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s super hit, and whose music restored RD’s
glory convincingly came, I guess, a trifle too late. Although he had poured his
heart into composing the film’s music__evident with the runaway success of the
numbers ‘Ek Ladki Ko Dekha’, ‘Kuch Na Kaho’ and ‘Pyar Hua Chupke Se’__he died, beaten, rejected, dejected on January
4th 1994, several months before the film’s release and, therefore,
before seeing his last work reach cult, iconic status.
(Enjoy a review of a book on him by
Aniruddha Bhattacharjee and Balaji Vittal, R.D.Burman __ The Man and Music, in
the video link here)
Such is Life. You could be on top one day.
And hit rock bottom on another day. Or you could be catapulted to glory from
the throes of defeat, failure and frustration. The key to intelligent living is
to recognize the transient nature of Life. Then you will want to live well, in
the moment, doing whatever you can do__the dishes, painting, cooking, teaching,
curing, leading, whatever__the best way you ever can. Don’t get carried away by
fame. Don’t get defeated by insults and rejection. What lasts is the immortality
of your work__when you leave behind a legendary body of art. Just the way RD’s music
is. Everything else is impermanent.
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