at the Library of Congress is a fantastic resourse for readings in the poets voices ranging across twenty odd Indian languages. These are sound clips of one of my foremost literary masters, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, reciting his very beautiful lines such as these:

aur bhii dukh haiN zamaane meN muhabbat ke sivaa raahateN aur bhii haiN vasl kii raahat ke sivaa mujh se pahlii sii muhabbat merii mahbuub na maaNg

There are other sorrows in this world, comforts other than love. Don't ask me, my love, for that love again.

Poetry, in particular Urdu poetry reaches completion when it lifts off from the page and becomes sound, becomes music. And this recordings project is a gold mine indeed for poetry across all Indian languages.

Or since in Bangla the sound of 'p' seems to have gone AWOL, should I say bop? Anyway, by the virtue of having gone to college in Bengal, I suspect I have been somewhat infect by the Bangla chavunistic bug? The musical associations in my mind usually link the landscape of the place to Gurudeb Robi babu's soongeeth, which gave me company many a lovely evening as I sat on the pedestrian over-bridge at Hijli railway station 'jhandaaoing' alone or 'bhaat maaroing" with friend(s). However, my cursory observation is that in general Bengali culture has managed to prevent music drifting off into thin air as it has happened in other parts of India, i.e., it still occupies an important place in Bangla mind.

Need evidence? Just look at the number of rock bands that hatch in Calcutta, or the number of 'Bungaalees' (yes, I am still tripping on "English, August") who can be found in nearly all contemprorary Indian bands such as Indian Ocean etc. That said, today I discovered this lovely melodic music video over at YouTube, by a group from Bangladesh, who simply call themselves "Bangla". They claim to be in the business of keeping old Bangla folk songs from being forgotten. And they have a 'cute' female lead singer.

If they are this good, more power to them. Banglamusic has few more tracks to listen to. Also while searching for this link, I found this amatuer Calcutta band who call themselves "Crows of Calcutta", whose instrumental fusion sounding music is pretty good for an amatuer band. Give them a listen.

Photo by M, a conversation with whom triggered this translation

This evening, it appears that that is a wetness to these eyes here. This evening, it appears that there is an absence of you here.

Simply burn me so that I too may breathe along with smoke For it appears that my life has held its breath for too long here.

Fickle time, why it doesn't stay at one place? In this inconstancy of habit, it is like us here.

Agreed that between us now, there is no relationship left. Yet it appears that you have stayed in the mirrors here.

This evening, there seems to be a wetness to these eyes here. This evening, there seems to be an absence of you here.

No one can put the heart of the matter into words more simply and elegantly than Gulzar. Listen to this ghazal here.