Romance for the Faraway Land

AK,

Happy Holi and Ramazan Mubarak.

I have been in away for long. Some “kashish” of the subject dragged me back.
I begin with beautiful romantic song. About traveling to a Faraway land of no return, from Chandrakanta, movie of 1956 that has some of the best poignant songs by Sahir.

Ji Chahta Hai Aaj Kahin Door Jaiye Mohammad Rafi Asha Bhonsle Film Chandrakanta (1956) N Dutta

https://youtu.be/ExwNczNjGb4?list=RDExwNczNjGb4

Next let me move on from ‘”मोहब्बत “ to “और भी ग़म” who else but Sahir. He is best at that too. His thoughts on the Almighty of the Faraway Land, in this song

AASMAAN PE HAI KHUDA-MUKESH (PHIR SUBAH HOGI 1958)-SAHIR –KHAYYAM

https://youtu.be/hb-dXP2h4zw?si=DrmrMKrHo-PEVcWu&t=67

Ak ji
Ironically your post comes at a time when far away and not so far away lands ( and skies) are filled with drones of hatred and missiles of cruelty.
The last song in your list is a perfect antithesis of the situation today and it is addressed by the hero to his son.
Here is a female equivalent of that song:
Aao tumhe chand pe le jaye – Jakhmi- Gauhar Kanpuri – Bappi Lahiri
– Lata and Sushma
https://youtu.be/yFDqdb-9yH4?si=T0j0et-ZhQzeq3_T
This should rank as one of the most melodious songs of Bappi da ( though there are not many) .

One normally expects a lighthearted post from SoY on Holi, but this is a good change. Thanks a lot AK and Sh Rangan.

Most of the good songs on this theme are already covered. I can think of one more – ‘Duniya walon se door, jalne walon se door’ from Ujala. The mood is upbeat, contrary to most of the other songs that are contemplative:

https://youtu.be/h98ZisZ7-Ck?si=BiRLYa6qAk3qw5UR

This is an interesting topic. I remember one song composed by Usha Khanna for EK SAPERA EK LUTERA sung by Lata , Dur kahin dur hame le chalo sanam urging to take to faraway land..

Le chal, le chal mere jeevan sathi
Le chal mujhe us duniya mein
Pyar hi pyar ho jahan….

VISHWAS, 1969.

Mujhe le chalo
Aaj phir us gali mein…

SHARABI, 1964.

Le toh aaye ho hame
Sapno ke gaon mein…

DULHAN WOHI JO PIYA MAN BHAYE

O door ke musafir
Humko bhi sath le le re…

UDAN KATOLA

A young, carefree Rishi with Rakhi. Debonair Shashi appears in Rakhi ‘s thoughts.

Kya mausam hai…
….
Chal kahin door nikal jaye.

DOOSRA ADMI.

Akji,
I enjoyed the songs, particularly songs 2 through 6 and song 10.
The romance of faraway lands, placed in different contexts, can be both enchanting and poignant. I think the songs you and others posted in the comments exemplify this.

Now adding a few;
“Pardesi Balam” has arrived from “Us Paar”, expressing his sense of joy, but he is afraid that he may lose his way somewhere (Hamen dar hai ham Kho jaye Kahin). Waiting on this side for so long, the response;
Mai to kab se khadi is paar
ye ankhiya thak gayi panth nihaar.
Aaja re Pardesi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Mc9qLyeAVE

Sahailendra asks,
“Chali kaunse desh gujariya tu saj dhaj ke”,

and the little”gudiya” innocently responds.
“Jaun piya ke desh o rasiya mai saj dhaj ke”

And continues in the same vein,
“Door desh mere pi ki najariya, woh unki mai unki sanwariya
bandhi lagan ki dor mainne sab soch samajhake”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rjf1EFFqkLA

Now, a bride while leaving her “Babul’s house laments,
Bhej hi dena tha to babul
pyar diya kyun itna
kahin nahin mamata ka sagar
maa ke aanchal jitna

And requests her “sanam”
…………..ek pal ruk jana
ek pal ruk jana

Now her “Sanam” lovingly assures her,
Jitne aansu aaj bahaye
tune babul ke aangan mein
mai utne hi phul bharunga
sajni tere daaman mein
SapnoN ke gaon mein palko ki chhav mein
chal gori chal us paar
kaahe ab ruk jana kaahe ab ruk jana

Md.Rafi & Asha Bhosle, Darrar (1972), lyricsMahendra Dehlvi, music Sudhir Phadke
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOIs6K1xd-I

It’s not always sunshine and rainbows”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjYK67cgNKc&list=RDwjYK67cgNKc&start_radio=1&rv=wjYK67cgNKc

It’s not always hunky-dory
Main is Paar, tu us paar – Md.Rafi & Lata Mangeshkar, Agnirekha (1972), lyrics Pradeep, music Kalyanji-Anandji
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7H9B8q6Q2I

Jaa re jaa re ud jaa re panchhi
Baharon ke des jaa re….
MAYA.

Chal ud jaa re panchhi
Ke ab ye des hua begana…
BHABHI.

Aa ab laut chale….
JDMGBH.

Ho , dulhan si saji dharti
Khula wo asman…
….
Aa ab laut chale..
AALC.

Main chali main chali
Peeche peeche jahan…
PROFESSOR.

Main chali main chali
Dekho pyar ki gali…
PADOSAN

Teri duniya se door
Chale hoke majboor
…
ZABAK.

Teri duniya se
Hoke majboor chala
…
PAVITRA PAAPI.

N Venkataraman @4: Thanks a lot for remembering my humble contribution to SoY. I wish I could recall the name of the gentleman who prompted me to come up with something when a Hindi night was being organised in our training academy in 1975. I went to the library and settled on this poem. It took me about an hour to set the tune – a very basic movement in Yaman-Kalyan. My good friend and batchmate Pankaj Kumar encouraged me through it.

AKji

This song doesn’t explicitly mention uspaar but the sentiments are of longing for the world left behind

tere unche mahal me nahi mera gujara
mujhe yad aa raha hai woh chhota sa shikara

Yahaan Mein Ajanabee Hoon – Rafi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aox-1RtGm8w&list=RDAox-1RtGm8w&start_radio=1

PS The song I posted #28 doesn’t seem to have been posted before mine, nevertheless apologies if it’s a duplicate post 🙂

AK ji,
I see that Subodh Ji has also confirmed that us paar is about the world we go to after departing from this world. I tried to look up the movie Lal Patthar to send you the exact timing of this poem being recited by Raj Kumar in the film but it is no longer available on YouTube . I think Netflix has it.
Anita

AK,
Sorry for being so late.

A nice topic. The discussion about ‘is paar priye tum ho’ has drawn a number of experts and I would also like to add my comments. First some facts.

Harivanshrai Bachchan is one of my favourite Hindi poets. I first read his poems and his autobiography during the winter of 1972-73 when I was in B. Com IInd year. My father had set up a library with about 150 books in our village in the name of my grandfather which my uncle expanded when he was a headmaster in our village school. I read Bachchan’s poetry and the first two parts of his autobiography from that library, which had already been published by 1970. This made me understand his poetry better.

Bachchan was married twice. He was married to Shyama in May 1926 and she died on 17.11.1936. During this period, for more than 6 years, she was mostly suffering from some kind of TB which was not truely diagnosed but was not related to lungs. She would have fever mostly during summer months and would be healthy or near healthy during winters. As finances of his family were in the doldrums at that time, she would mostly go to her parents house during the illness and return in winters. During such an absence, Prakashwati (who later married revolutionary turned writer Yashpal) who was connected to revolutionaries of HSRA arrived in his house at the start of August 1934 and stayed there for about 3 months. HSRA companion Srikrishna Suri was a friend of Bachchan and he used to send some revolutionaries to Bachchan’s house in Allahabad for hiding. Bachchan got involved with this Prakashwati. Later Suri came to Allahabad and he and Prakashwati rented a room. Bachchan used to help them financially and used to visit them in the evening almost daily. At the of February 1935, he went there and found a suicide note written by them, on which he ran towards the river and frantically searched for them and after a lot of time in that state he saw them coming back and he fainted out of exhaustion and shock. I am referring to this story because he dedicated at least one stanza in his poem ‘is paar, us paar’ which is under discussion here. This incident had a huge impact on his life.

In April end or May start there was an annual function of Akhil Bhartiya Hindi Sahitya Sammelan in Indore which was to be presided over by Mahatma Gandhi. Bachchan went there and also met Gandhi. When he returned he had caught fever similar to Shyama. He got rid of that fever in about a year. During this period Shyama miraculously kept healthy and was caring for him. As soon as he was cured she fell ill and did not recover and died in November 1936.

After this background I would come to the poem in my next post.

AK,
Now I come to the poem. This poem was published alongwith other poems in his poem collection Madhubala, which was published in 1936. This poem ‘is paar, us paar’ was written during the period he was seriously ill and was in great danger of death. Despite his misdemeanour with Prakashwati he was very much dedicated to Shyama as she was too. He has written in detail about what Shyama did for him and he had held her character in high esteem throughout and she has been his inspiration for many poems. I will give here one of his small poems, published in 1939 as a set of 20 poems under the title ‘Ekaant Sangeet’. This poem is at no. 8.
Poochhta, paata na uttar!

Jab chala jaata ujaala,
lautati jab vihag-maala,
“praatah ko mera vihag jo ud gaya tha, laut aaya? –”
Poochhta, paata na uttar!

Jab gagan mein raat aati,
deep maalayen jalaati,
“asta jo mera sitara tha hua, phir jagmagaya?–”
Poochhta, paata na uttar!

Poorva mein jab praat aata,
bhring-dal madhugeet gaata,
“maun jo mera bhramar tha ho gaya, phir gungunaya?–”
Poochhta, paata na uttar!

Such a sweet ode to her memory.

Now I come to the poem. You have already said this poem cast a spell on you. Subodh’s rendition is a proof, this poem is in his high esteem. Venkataramanji’s and Anita’s comments make it clear, they are also in the same boat. My first reaction to this poem was similar to your reaction. As Bachchan was going through his health turmoil, it would be very appropriate to think he had ‘parlok’ in mind which is suggested by Subodh and supported by Anita. I have no quarrel with this view, but I would lay down some facts here to ponder. The fifth stanza of the poem starts with the word संसृति. In Amitabh Bachchan’s recitation posted by you this is the first stanza. ‘Sanshriti’ means ‘janma par janma lene ki parampara’ as per Hindi Shabdakosh by Naagri Pracharini Sabha, Kaashi which I have with me. In my view, in the context of this stanza, in which he is also hinting at ‘pralay’, Bachchan had the same meaning in mind. He also referred to the same ‘pralay’ in the next two stanzas though in a different manner. I have a view that his ‘us paar’ may refer to parlok, but it is also clearly talking about the next birth. It appears logical too, because both husband and wife thought they were terminally ill and were talking occasionally about the next birth which is very common theory in Hinduism.

But his poetry had very deep meaning and there were more than one in the poem, if anybody reads it carefully. The fourth stanza talks about what Srikrishna Suri and Prakashwati did to him and all the above meanings I mentioned were missing there. In others he talked about difficulties of life and we could even read something like the other part of land too. So I think there is a small grain of ‘faraway land’ in that poem too. So this topic is not completely off the mark.

About the recitation by Amitabh, I would say he disappointed me with this poem. I have seen his other recitations of his father’s poems which impressed me. But, this one has exposed his vowed dedication to his father. In the seventh stanza, he pronounces ‘kaal’ as ‘kal’ which would mean he was looking at English version of the poem. That was a shame. He should have before him his father’s poem in original. If he was having his father’s poem in Hindi and still mispronounced ‘kaal’ as ‘kal’, then it is more serious, because it shows he does not either understand his father’s poetry or does not take it seriously. I very much liked Subodh’s rendition though only two stanzas, the 3rd and 9th were there. His composition is somewhere between recitation and geet and it is really good and left an indelible mark on me. I would request him here, if he has time and inclination, to record the full poem and may be one or two other small poems and post here.

I would write about songs related to this theme separately.

AK,
Now the songs.

There are two famous songs talking about parlok. One is ‘sajan re jhooth mat bolo’ from Teesri Kasam and ‘sansar se bhage phirte ho’ from Chitralekha. I give here both.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IR9ShQEdcgg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UOg7GWgEdk

Here are two songs filmed on Raaj Kumar. In the first, from Neel Kamal he is asking Waheeda Rehman to come to parlok (in part 2) where he has already gone. I give here both parts of the song ‘tujhko pukaare mera pyar’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUrAgSBLX8Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRHNXqr2ghU

The second song ‘ye duniya ye mehfil mere kaam ki nahin’ from Heer Ranjha he is desperate after Heer has gone ‘us paar’ after marriage with another person. In one of the antaras he says ‘door nigahon se aasoo bahata hai koi, kaise na jaun main mujhko bulata hai koi’.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHcy-rquIZ4

Hansji @ 58,
I share your point of view; I was also somewhat disappointed at the time. I believe Bangal ka Kaal was published in 1946, though he must have written it earlier. I also understand it was his first long poem written in Mukta Chanda (free verse). When I get the book back, I will go through it again.

AKji @ 60,
The Second World War was one of the deadliest conflicts in human history, killing—by some estimates—nearly four percent of the world’s population. A forgotten tragedy was the 30-35 lakh Indians (5% of Bengal’s population in 1943) who died in the 1943 Bengal Famine—a part of the world that was barely touched by combat, but devastated by war. It is not easy to discuss, but it is history that needs to be remembered, especially since fewer people know about it.

The profound irony of the 1943 Bengal famine was that, in 1942, Bengal had experienced a bumper crop, yet the famine was largely caused by British wartime policies, including a “scorched earth” (or “denial”) policy. Following rapid Japanese advances in early 1942—specifically the fall of Singapore in February and Rangoon in March—intense pressure was placed on the British Empire, creating acute panic regarding the security of India. The Japanese occupation of Burma cut off essential rice shipments, causing severe supply disruption.

As Japanese forces approached the Indian border, the British, who had largely neglected the defence of Burma, implemented a “denial policy” in Bengal. Fearing a Japanese invasion, authorities seized over 66,000 boats and destroyed local rice stocks in southern districts like Midnapore, Bakarganj, and Khulna to prevent them from falling into enemy hands. This systematically destroyed local fishing, transportation, and commercial lifelines. While the local population starved, the British government continued to procure food for military supplies and essential industrial workers, leaving insufficient food for civilians.

Artificial shortages were further aggravated by the removal of large quantities of rice from coastal areas, triggering hyperinflation. Additionally, the region faced immense pressure from the sudden migration of thousands of Indian refugees fleeing Burma and the arrival of a massive military contingent, including American (“Tommies”) soldiers, placing an untenable strain on food supplies. These factors, compounded by the inability or unwillingness of the British War Cabinet, under Winston Churchill, to send significant food aid to India, prioritizing resources for the European war effort resulted in a catastrophic man-made disaster.

The book you are referring to must be the contemporary sketchbook of iconic scenes of famine victims, Hungry Bengal: a tour through Midnapur District in November, 1943 by Chittaprosad Bhattacharya, was immediately banned by the British authorities and 5,000 copies were seized and destroyed. One copy was hidden by Chittaprosad’s family and is now in the possession of the Delhi Art Gallery. The The book often cited as one of the most comprehensive early accounts of the Bengal famine is “Famines in Bengal (1770-1943)” written by Kali Charan Ghosh.

Venkataramanji and AK,
First of all thanks to Venkataramanji for the additional info. I mentioned the case of Indian hoarders to which AK said they were businessmen. I dont think he supports any activity whatsoever of businessmen. I think the Britishers were more of businessmen, but we never hear of British public being starved due to hoarding by their businessmen. I particularly mentioned Gandhi man Birla. His hoarding was not a one off case in WW2. He continued it even in free India. I think you will remember controls on certain essential commodities were exercised by Indian Govt as a result of precarious situation following influx of refugees from West Pakistan after independence. Birla was lobbying for de-control but Govt was unrelenting. Gandhi who was in Noakhali departed from there – in the name of going to Pakistan which he never intended – and came to Delhi and camped there and started pressuring govt. for de-control. When normal pressure did not succeed he announced ‘anshan’ in the name of communal violence. He had this habit of ‘kahin pe nigahen kahin pe nishana’. When Sunhas Bose was elected President of Congress, he started fast against atrocities being perpetrated against the public of Faridkot. But, his stooges started pressuring Bose to resign so that Gandhi could end his fast. Initially, Bose argued it was for Faridkot, but later after incessant pressure he resigned. The same thing happened in Delhi. Gandhi did not succeed in full de-control, but the govt removed controls on some items.

Regarding the ‘scorched earth’ policy referred to by Venkataramanji, I would like to mention that Japanese had the intention of getting Rangoon so that no supplies could reach China through this route. Britishers themselves initially retreated from Burma areas. Japanese had no intention of coming to India. They bombarded Indian territories as a deterrent so that British forces do not come to Burma. We must remember that there was Quit India movement in 1942. This movement was the most aggressive in Bihar, Bengal and some parts of Orissa. In fact, a local govt by the name of Tamluk National Govt was established in Midnapore district, which continued to function in some form till 1944. The destruction of boats which Venkataramanji refers was a kind of punishment for Quit India movement and not any ‘scorched earth’ policy which reason was invented by British apologists to shield British actions.

Hansji @ 63, Akji,
None of the leaders are or were free from fallibility. However, the points raised regarding Gandhi, if accepted, cannot be termed merely as ‘fallibility.’ Despite his humanitarian reputation, Gandhi did not prioritize direct famine relief, nor did he have much to say about the Bengal Famine, even after his release from jail in 1944. Furthermore, there are contradictory and conflicting opinions regarding his much-talked-about concept of Ahimsa. Well, I will not dwell too deeply on this matter here.

During World War II, Japan supported Subhas Chandra Bose’s INA, enabling its participation in the 1944 Imphal and Kohima campaigns to disrupt British operations. While Bose aimed for Indian independence, Japanese commitment was largely strategic, often limiting the INA to propaganda and secondary roles. Despite severe logistical failures and ultimate defeat, this campaign and the subsequent Red Fort trials shattered the belief in Indian troops’ loyalty to the Raj, dealing a major blow to British colonial authority.

Formed on December 17, 1942, in Bengal’s Tamluk subdivision during the Quit India Movement, the Tamralipta Jatiya Sarkar was a defiant, parallel government operating against the British Raj until August 1944. Following a devastating October 1942 cyclone, it maintained independence with its own courts, police, and the armed Bidyut Bahini (Lightning Force). Their newspaper, Biplabi, sustained the revolutionary spirit and anti-British morale. The “Jatiya Sarkar” actively provided relief, and its radical approach was influenced by the ideals of leaders like Subhas Chandra Bose.

We have drifted away into a romantic, revolutionary, and faraway land. While I remain on this side (is paar) geographically, I am, regarding the period, on the other side (us paar). We live in the present, yet our hearts belong to a distant time, place, and ideal. But, upon reflection, is there truly any difference between then and now—between this side and that?

Let me rest her with this song:

Jayen kahan bachke koi,
Bachke koi jayen kahan
Hai ye gunahaon ka sansar
Zulm ki aag jal rahi kaisi
Ye lut yahan wahan
Jayen kahan bolo IS PAAR YA US PAAR
IS PAAR YA US PAAR
Film:Is Paar Ya Us Paar (1990), singer and composer Khokon Choudhury, lyrics Shradanand Tiwary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TTx6MHN9A8