Guest article by Anita Rupavataram
(Mukesh once famously sang, ‘Hazaaron tarah ke ye hote hain aansoo’ (song #5 in this post). There are literally thousands of types of tears. Of joy, of sorrow. Of victory, of defeat. Of success, of failure. Of love, of break-up. Of parting, of union. Involuntary tears caused by music, painting, dance, theatre, cinema, sports. Anita Rupavataram makes her debut as a guest writer on SoY, with this excellent post on the songs of tears in different situations.
Anita has been a recent active participant on SoY. She herself writes an interesting blog titled, Trivia: The spice of Life. In her own words, “Trivia is what adds flavour to life. At the end of a day, when you sit back and reflect, what you rejoice and reminisce are the little things that occurred which made your day – a small thank you message from a friend, a song that you heard after years, a parrot that you saw perched on a branch outside your window – the list could be endless. It is this trivia that distinguishes one day of life from another.”
With her busy professional career, being a homemaker, mother to two daughters, amateur singer, part-time Radio Jockey, an aficionado of handlooms and handicrafts, writer of a blog, Anita is truly a Multitasker as she describes herself on her blog. She has quite an insight into literature. I was pleasantly surprised by her offer to write an article for SoY, which she could very well have done for her own blog.
It was a pleasure to interact with her in the course of preparing for this post. She was very receptive to my random ideas, even if these came after she had done and dusted her final draft and had already mailed it to me. Coming soon after our collective grief on the passing away of Lata Mangeshkar, this is a very timely post. I have great pleasure in welcoming and presenting before the readers a new guest author. – AK)
Have you ever wondered why we cry? Albert Smith, an English international footballer once said, “tears are the safety valve of the heart when too much pressure is laid on it.” Tears release stress-relieving hormones. Once copious tears have been shed, one feels much better, with all the pent up emotions having found a vent. I am reminded of Alfred Lord Tennyson’s famous lines for a woman who has lost her husband in war. She is unmoved, even after seeing his mortal remains. The maidens around her say, “She must weep or she will die.” This line, perhaps, consummately sums up the significance of tears.
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There are years when a competition becomes a one-horse race. That is the case with the best male singer for the year 1943. On the one hand we have the landmark film Tansen starring KL Saigal and Khursheed, on the other we have Kismet and Ram Rajya which have several landmark songs by female singers. There is no film which has several memorable songs by a male singer, though we do have sprinkling of some timeless male solos, such as GM Durrani’s Neend hamari khwab tumhare. Here I should add this song has Balakram singing sargam as the interlude, therefore, I treat it as a solo.
