THE MANGO TREE

                                                  



                                               


                                             
                                                  THE   MANGO   TREE

 It  was  one afternoon in Summer during lunch time the casual staff entered with a plate of cut mango, and indeed it was a pleasant surprise to relish fresh ‘hapus’ with my simple Tiffin, he said that it was from his village where his family has a solitary Mango Tree . And I could  understand  that there was this sense of belonging to his village, and I am sure he was proud of his solitary mango tree., why then would he offer that  mango from his solitary tree to me? He conveyed so much!  It enhanced his status! How many of us have a mango tree in our village? Do we know our village?

     This small gesture of his made me think, I wondered that this young man lives in  Mumbai; city of supreme urbanization where there is hardly any space for courtesies and culture, where the demands of survival smother the tenderness of humanity . Therefore in such a milieu  the visit to his village purifies him of urban ills, it cleanses his sensitivity and makes him human once more.

     And the incident took me back to my village in search of my mango tree, far in the  sub- H imalayan terrain in the valley of Garhwal.  And I looked at my mango tree and was told by the villager that this year no mangoes appeared, but I was not disappointed, for I had made my Trip! And I resolved to visit again to remain rooted to my origin  and relish the sweetness of my mango tree.

      We all have our mango tree hidden far away, we must visit our tree for our sustenance and regeneration , or plant one for survival.

YAI HAI BOMBAY MERI JAAN

YE -  HAI        BOMBAY       MERI            JAAN

       

          I n     the    fifties     when   Guru  Dutt   made  C I D  , the famous   Bombay  song  ‘Aye  dil   hai   mushkil    jina  yahan,   ye hai Bombay , yai hai Bombay, yai hai Bombay   meri  -jaan’ written    by   Majrooh Sultanpuri  and  composed by O P  Nayyar caught the imagination of the viewers and has since remained embedded in our collective consciousness. It was sung by Rafi and Gita Dutt and played on Johny Walker and Kum Kum on screen whilst they move on the Victoria on marine drive. The song  represents the difficulties, agony and ecstasy of being in Bombay.

      Since then many songs reflecting the spirit of Bombay have been enacted on Screen. Amitabh Bachhan   enacted  the  famous ‘ Ei   hai bambai  nagaria  tu   dekh  babuwa.........’  in ‘Don’ sung in typical   Avadhi/Allahabadi  dialect it narrated the woes of the eastern migrants. The rap song sung by Javed Jafferi in ‘Bombay Boys’  also made news with its typical Bambai dialect. Bhupender sung ‘ek akela is shehar  mein  raat   mein  ya  dopahar  mein...’ depicting the forlorn and lonely state of Amol Palekar in ‘Gharonda’ also haunts us specially the lines of Gulzar   ‘ Jine ki  jagaha  to koyi  nahi  marne ka  bahana  dhoond  ta  hai  dhoond  ta  hai...’    This was the photograph i took on 18 July at about 0900 near cooperage crossing. The labourers are are loaded in a bulging truck on their way to docks to deliver goods, they seem satisfied with the world- 'yai  hai Bombay  meri  jaan....'