culture

Forgotten Cousins of Punjabi Sikhs

Just like many Marathi families settled in Tanjore during the time of rule of Marathas at this place, many Sikhs opted not to return to their native land but to settle in the Assam itself. These Sikhs trace their genealogies to few hundred Sikh soldiers which arrived in Assam to help the Ahom rulers in the year 1820. These Sikhs were sent by Ranjit Singh as a friendly gesture. Many of them perished but many among those who survived chose to settle down there. Many of them married the local girls. Most of the descendants are mostly concentrated in Nagaon… Read More »Forgotten Cousins of Punjabi Sikhs

Let it Be

Beatles singer Sir Paul McCartney was inspired by the dream he dreamed. In this dream, his mother who had died of cancer, visits him and tells him to relax, not to worry. She says to him to leave all his tensions and fears to God. The God who is so benign and merciful; whose blessings on us are without limits. It is only us humans who are shortsighted and react foolishly to bad and good days. The song by Beatles titled “Let it be” “When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me Speaking words of… Read More »Let it Be

Harking Back the Old Days

These days rewinding of the tape on the spool of life is taking place frequently. This may be a indicator of many things. One of them may be that the person is not at ease in the present circumstances and since one cannot run away easily, the only escape is to take shelter in the past memories. The events of the past, good or bad, which become memories. As they have now become history and rewriting them is beyond our capacity, so begin to like them. We are lost in the reminisces!! The childhood of every person is greener as… Read More »Harking Back the Old Days

Those Days Shall Never Return

I happened to listen a Marathi song sung by Pandit Hridaynath Mangeshkar, the genius brother of Mangeshkar sisters. Its opening stanza is “Gele te Din Gele” which means “those days are gone now forever”. The song is written by Bhavanishankar Pandit and music composed by the great Marathi music director Shrinivas Khale. It is so soulful song that it hooked me to it and I have listened it a number of times. The quality of the poetry and music shows how rich the Marathi music has been. The song combines two phenomenon in the world of humans: transience of the… Read More »Those Days Shall Never Return

Hinglaj

North West of Indian subcontinent has been the cradle of one of the great civilizations that flourished in the world once upon a time. The great Indus Valley Civilization existed here. Although the name suggests that it might have been situated along the coast of Indus valley because two sites namely Harrapa in Punjab and Mohenjo Daro have been found along the great river. And why on the river? Because river nourishes life. Early civilizations when population pressure was not much tended to settle down near the rivers. It has been now established that the civilization was not confined to… Read More »Hinglaj

Sasural Genda Phool

Sasural Genda Phool is a very popular song from the movie Delhi-6. Actually the song is adapted on the Dadaria folk of Chhatisgarh state of India.  While rest of  the songs of the film has been written by Prasoon Joshi, Rehman and actor Raghuvir Yadav searched for the folk song for the movie in addition to the other songs. Rajat Dholakia is credited along with A.R. Rehman for introducing the song in Hindi movie. Raghuvir Yadav belongs to that area and must have been familiar with the folk songs of the area. The origin of the song has been traced… Read More »Sasural Genda Phool