Connecting..

Ever since Narayan told me that he had Oriya songs with him, I had been requesting him to get me those. Finally I had them this weekend and I was really excited to find that there were some videos as well.

I have been out of Orissa for the last 5 years and when I was there, I never developed a taste for Oriya music. Until may be I had Jaga as my neighbour in the hostel. In spite of being always short of cash, he managed to save enough money to buy a stereo system and from that day onwards he would never miss out a album that was released. A little of his fanatic zeal brushed off me and I at least started to know the red hot numbers that was released in that period. Otherwise it used to be a few bhajans and classic oriya songs that I must have sub-consciously picked due to over exposure over the years. Though I must admit, the interest was mostly limited to hot tracks like "Ekda Ekda", which shared same kind of status as "Mungda Mungda" when it came to dance numbers. You got to know them to sync up will the frenetic crowds around you, whether it be a marriage 'baraat' or ganesh puja 'bisarjan'. And of course you needed to know a few sambalpuri steps. Seemed to me almost like the bhangra for odiyas. Most popular ones were folk songs had some kind of sambalpuri lyrics.

Strangely, I seem to come across more of Oriya music when I am out of India. In US i realized that YouTube has a great collection of oriya album songs. Considering the connection speeds in India (streaming video is almost impossible unless you are using a broadband connection), we can safely assume that most of these videos have been made available thanks to a bunch of nostalgic Odiya brethren techies. But I guess we should be thankful to them. I saw a new generation born and learning their first steps far away from India, thanks to these youtube videos. However ridiculous the lyrics, however clumsy the dancers, however archaic the dressing sense of even the lead actors and actresses, still it was Oriya music. A 3 yr old was dancing to its tunes while his proud parents watched on, may be taking a trip down the memory lane and happy that at least now there was something common between their childhoods, otherwise separated light years of technology, culture and mindsets.

This weekend while I sat down surfing through these DVDs, nothing much had changed. Still we had singer like Udit Narayan and Babul Supriyo (who are not oriya) bringing out full albums, the choreography had improved but was struggling hard to catch up (it was still like the 30 people dancing behind Govinda number aaAAeeEEe...), the dressing sense was still terrible though a few fresh faces (actresses) did lighten my heart up.

Having confessed that I was never a big fan, you can simply ignore my comments. But I must say it did get me nostalgic. It was not the music but the videos. Just seeing the streets of Bhubaneswar was enough to capture my interest and view the video. Dance numbers shot at familiar places like Nicco Park, Khandagiri, Chandaka road and chandrabhaga beaches made it a nice watch for me. Some of them touched deeper. There were a few that reminded me of wintry mornings of hilly Keonjhar that I must have seen when I was a child. A few capturing the soft golden sunlight through the misty mornings on a freshly harvested paddy field took me to memories that must have been ages old. I don't remember when I had been to my village the last time. It was not the girl wooing on the banks of the river that had my interest, rather the admiration of the peaceful settings and the fact that I had once a chance to live through that serene settings made me feel ecstatic.

It might be increasing difficult to ever trace back your steps into magical places like these but what continues to amaze me is that, the feeling of being there comes back so strong, whenever it does.. and i believe one should let onself to be lost in those magical moments..