Madhushala!

I was frantically trying to get to the bottom of the daily mail stack, with Dream Theater blasting through the Sony headphones, that have been used mercilessly and stay plastered together somehow through generous use of cello-tape. I don't fancy Dream Theater for music... but they sure are complicated and fast paced enough to make me defocus from the song itself. It was Bosh that intro'ed me to them.

And then I saw Madhushala in the playlist... hadn't played it in more than a year. Hadn't heard vivid ras-daar hindi geet by Bachchan Sr., which I was in love with for so long. I once had it mostly memorized. (Is not easy, it's a 30 minute long song... and aah Manna De's calm soothing voice of). I used to play it on my cheap Transcend mp3 player and get lost in the tune.

I played it, and got lost again. It's 12 minutes to go for some freaking important meeting and instead of going through the notes, I am writing this!

मदिरालय जाने को घर से चलता है पीनेवाला
किस पथ से जाऊं असमंजस में है वो भोलाभाला|
अलग अलग पथ बतलाते सब, पर मैं ये बतलाता हूँ
राह पकड़ तू एक चलाचल पा जायिएगा मधुशाला!!

सुन कल कल छल छल मधुघट से गिरती प्यालों में हाला
सुन रन झुन रन झुन चल वितरण करती मधुसाकी बाला
बस आ पहुंचे दूर नहीं कुछ चार कदम अब चलना है
चहक रहे सुन पीनेवाले, महक रही ले मधुशाला!

अधरों पर हो कोई भी रस , जीव्हा पर लगती हाला
भाजन हो कोई हाथों में , लगता रखा है प्याला
हर सूरत साकी की सूरत में परिवर्तित होती है
आँखों के आगे हो कुछ भी, आँखों में है मधुशाला !!

and on and on it goes holding me again in gentle trance... bin sharaab ki hai ye madhushala!