This article is written by Raja, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in sites like lyricstrans.com and ibollywoodsongs.com etc then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday, dear atul-song-a-day blog
Happy birthday to you
Yes, it’s that special day of the year again. It’s our blog’s happy happy birthday. It was born on 19th July 2008, so today it completes 9 years. And we, wherever we are in the world, are definitely not going to let the occasion go by without celebration. Maybe we don’t have cakes and candles, but we have enough blog handles. (Ok, admittedly, that was a terrible one!).
NINE years! Phew!
This cannot be seen in isolation. This has to be seen in the context of WHAT this blog has been upto in these nine years. Only then will we understand the magnitude of this achievement. And why we are so happy celebrating this birthday.
There are other and older blogs out there, for sure. Blogging itself started a few years earlier – even I started a blog in 2005 or so. (The fact that I don’t even remember when I started my blog should give a reasonable idea of the state of my blog. ). And that’s the thing. There are plenty of older blogs. But how many of them are still active. Like volcanoes, many of them are probably extinct now. Or maybe dormant. And that’s hardly surprising. It’s one thing to start a blog – many do, out of sheer enthusiasm. It is something entirely different to keep it running. That calls for effort.
I’ve seen active blogs, updated every now and then. Maybe a couple of times a month. Sometimes twice in a week, then a lull of three months. Unless it’s earning the blogger serious money, therefore providing him or her a financial incentive to keep new content coming in, it’s usually upto the blogger’s own convenience and motivation. So you see a post with “Sorry, I was very busy the last three months, so I could not update the blog”. Fair enough. Everyone has his/her life outside the blog too – and that often takes over.
I’m mentioning all this in detail only to highlight something. How very different this blog is, compared to other blogs out there. This blog is not just an active volcano, it is probably one of the most active volcanoes out there. It produces content every day, multiple times a day. It has only very rarely missed a day – so rarely in fact that Atul used to even have a page where he used to mention in advance the day he would not be able to post!
Just naming a blog “…songaday” isn’t enough. Atul has kept it going every day – and not just one song, but multiple songs. And this, is an act of love. Yes, if it had been done with financial motivation, one can understand the discipline and focus. But for Atul, it has always been, first and foremost, his love for music that has been the driver for the blog. You can easily sense that in his posts, in the way the blog has grown, the way he has added features, statistics pages, an anniversary page. And in the fact that he is a stickler for accuracy, putting in extra effort without compromise. If you don’t love what you do, you will never be able to put in so much effort and still enjoy it, with no financial rewards to keep you going.
And he does all this, while having his own life outside the blog to deal with as well. His work, his family, social engagements etc. Not to mention how he’s been moving from one location to another, almost always in places with questionable internet reliability and speed.
So, there’s a world of perfectly valid reasons for Atul to not be able to keep up activity on the blog, if he’d chosen to slacken efforts – but Atul, being Atul, keeps persisting – and manages an amazing balancing act between all demands on his time. (He once said he doesn’t waste time in any activity that is unproductive – there’s a lesson there for everyone).
So there’s every reason to celebrate this blog heartily on its birthday. It’s not come easy – if not blood and tears, there’s definitely been plenty of sweat in bringing the blog to where it is today, celebrating its ninth birthday. Every day of these nine years has been an adventure and experience in its own right.
While on this – and while we are celebrating the blog – I think it’s only fair to also mention the community around it which has built up over the last nine years. This is spread around the world, across time zones, from Australasia to Asia to Africa to Europe to the Americas.
The blog has seen several million hits over the years – it has many regular visitors. It is a go-to site for lovers of old Hindi film music, especially those who seek long-forgotten treasures of yesteryear. It revives memories for them, it brings them immense joy as they read the post, listen to the song, check out the lyrics – can you put a price on this joy? I, for sure, can’t.
Over the years, many have, also out of love, contributed to the blog in some way or the other. Some write guest posts, some prepare lyrics, some leave encouraging comments, everyone wants to do his or her bit – to give back something and help build, or improve, the blog. That is the spirit this blog has generated – the camaraderie is amazing.
So, as we celebrate this ninth birthday, I’d like to tell Atul on behalf of all Atulites (yes, that’s the term we use for this blog’s fans), thank you SO much for creating this – and you can count on our continued support to keep this going as long as we can. You’re certainly not alone.
Now, moving on to the song for today. It’s a birthday song – what else?
I just happened to come across it today when I searched for “saalgira”. I must admit I’d never heard it before – but the first thing I did was to check if it had been posted yet. It hadn’t – so I immediately got down to business. I’ve listened to it many times since. The very first time I listened to it today, I fell in love with it. Shamshad is one of my favourite singers anyway – and I quite like Asha too.
It’s a pleasant song, composed by Vasant Desai. I think he’s also one of the more underrated composers we’ve had in the industry – maybe because he was more niche, than mass, composer. I remember Arunji writing about Vasant Desai sometime – would like to read that post again.
There’s no video for this song but from the lyrics, I’m imagining that it’s a birthday song for a child – whether by name raja, or lovingly called raja, or could be a young king too. (No, it has nothing to do with me – my nanha munna days are way, way, in the distant past. ) Or maybe Raja Mehdi Ali Khan wrote the lyrics of this song for himself.
Animals/birds, likely toys, are part of the birthday celebration. So there are references to koyal, maina, kaaga, bagula etc – apparently they are all playing musical instruments to entertain the raja.
I was just imagining different Atulites, in fancy dress of animals/birds, playing musical instruments to entertain Atul on this occasion of the blog’s birthday.
With that thought, I’ll leave you to enjoy the song.
Once again, a very happy birthday to the blog and congratulations to all Atulites.
[Ed Note: As noted by Raja ji in the comments, with this song, the film ‘Anand Bhavan’ (1952) has all its songs posted. Time to declare and to celebrate yet another ‘Yippeee’ on this blog. Yaaaay. . . .]
Song – Nanhe Munne Raja Ki Saal Girah Aayi Re (Anand Bhavan) (1952) Singers – Shamshad Begum, Asha Bhosle, Lyrics – Raja Mehdi Ali Khan, MD – Vasant Desai
Chorus
Lyrics
nanhe munne raja ki saalgira aayi re
nanhe munne raja ki saalgira aayi re
o o o o o
bagiya mein koyal ne gaai badhaai
o mausi billo ne baanti mithaai re
o mausi billo ne baanti mithaai re
ho ho
ho ho
ho ho ho
nanhe munne raja ki saalgira aayi re
nanhe munne raja ki saalgira aayi re
master kaagaa to dholak bajaaye
maina bajaaye shehnai re
hoye
master kaagaa to dholak bajaaye
maina bajaaye shehnai re
kumri ne meethi si thumri sunaayi
kumri ne meethi si thumri sunaayi
bagule ne bansi bajaayi re
bagule ne bansi bajaayi re
ho ho
ho ho
ho ho ho
murgey ne taan lagaayi re
murgey ne taan lagaayi re
thumak thumak naache
oye thumak thumak naache
ho o o o
ho o o
ho o o
ho o o o
ho o o
ho o o
thumak thumak naache
moti malaniya
double-roti malaniya
oy moti malaniya
double-roti malaniya
phoolon ke gajre laayi re
phoolon ke gajre laayi re
kele ke chhilke se phisli dhadaam se
ho ho
ho ho
ho ho ho
boli duhaayi duhaayi re
haaye haaye
boli duhaayi duhaayi re
cheeni ki gudiya boli ke meri
rajaji se kar do sagaai re
haaye
cheeni ki gudiya boli ke meri
rajaji se kar do sagaai re
cheeni ke gudde ne gudiya ko peeta
ho ho
ho ho
ho ho ho
donon mein ho gayi ladaai re
haaye raam
donon mein ho gayi ladaai re
nanhe munne raja ki saalgira aayi re
nanhe munne raja ki saalgira aayi re
———————————————————
Hindi script lyrics (Provided by Sudhir)
———————————————————
नन्हें मुन्ने राजा की सालगिरह आई रे
नन्हें मुन्ने राजा की सालगिरह आई रे
ओ ओ ओ
बगिया में कोयल ने गाई बधाई
ओ मौसी बिल्लो ने बांटी मिठाई रे
ओ मौसी बिल्लो ने बांटी मिठाई रे
हो हो
हो हो
हो हो हो
नन्हें मुन्ने राजा की सालगिरह आई रे
नन्हें मुन्ने राजा की सालगिरह आई रे
मास्टर कागा तो ढोलक बजाए
मैना बजाए शहनाई रे
ओए मास्टर कागा तो ढोलक बजाए
मैना बजाए शहनाई रे
क़ुमरी ने मीठी सी ठुमरी सुनाई
क़ुमरी ने मीठी सी ठुमरी सुनाई
बगुले ने बंसी बजाई रे
बगुले ने बंसी बजाई रे
हो हो
हो हो
हो हो हो
मुर्गे ने तान लगाई रे
मुर्गे ने तान लगाई रे
ठुमक ठुमक नाचे
ओय ठुमक ठुमक नाचे
हो ओ ओ ओ
हो ओ ओ
हो ओ ओ
हो ओ ओ ओ
हो ओ ओ
हो ओ ओ
ठुमक ठुमक नाचे
मोटी मालनीया
डबल रोटी मालनीया
ओय मोटी मालनीया
डबल रोटी मालनीया
फूलों के गजरे लाई रे
फूलों के गजरे लाई रे
केले के छिलके से फिसली धमाधम से
हो हो
हो हो
हो हो हो
बोली दुहाई दुहाई रे
हाय हाय
बोली दुहाई दुहाई रे
चीनी की गुड़िया बोली के मेरी
राजाजी से कर दो सगाई रे
हाए
चीनी की गुड़िया बोली के मेरी
राजाजी से कर दो सगाई रे
चीनी के गुड्डे ने गुड़िया को पीटा
हो हो
हो हो
हो हो हो
दोनों में हो गई लड़ाई रे
हाए राम
दोनों में हो गई लड़ाई रे
नन्हें मुन्ने राजा की सालगिरह आई रे
नन्हें मुन्ने राजा की सालगिरह आई रे
