This article is written by Sudhir, 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.
| Blog Day : | 3500 | Post No. : | 14064 |
3500 – a good number to be. It is divisible by 7. Gives us 500.
Lets take a stock of the major numbers.
We complete 3500 days – unbroken sequence (almost 
).
500 weeks.
14,000+ songs.
And, for the ticker watchers, we are just going to touch 10,100,000 visits to this blog.
In terms of artist stats, some very interesting total numbers,
486 – Music Directors + 109 posts with [*Unattributed] MD status
659 – Lyricists + 402 posts with [*Unattributed] Lyricist status
870 – Singers + 93 posts with unidentified singer names
Keeping out the unattributed and the unidentified, we are managing a whopping total of 2015 unique artists
I have written this phrase before. Our blog is history in the making – history of Hindi film music – one song at a time.
In terms if format, in terms of depth of content, in terms of dealing earnestly and critically with the subject matter, this blog is unique and without any peers. We are close to completing 10 years. Even now, we periodically get to see reader’s comments that tell about recently having discovered this hallowed destination on the internet, and what a fantastic treasure they have encountered. In fact, we have one such comment that came in today, just about four and a half hours ago. Paraphrasing from the text of this comment, a new reader Jayant Raleraskar writes that “. . . that’s a Great contribution indeed. In fact I am a new visitor to Atulsong. Of course I am enjoying and getting nice information as well.” Today, 3500 days after its inception, we still continue to get new readers who are impressed enough to leave such a heartening and an encouraging comment.
And the march continues. Ah yes, it is the next coming month also; but I refer to the dogged insistent forward journey that has been in progress for 3500 days today. The pun is on the word March. By the way, are you familiar with the best pun on ‘March’. It is a tiny two liner
“Can February March?
No, but April May.”
Great journey so far. A grand motley crew of loving friends assembled on the bandwagon. And on towards the horizon – many a thousand more stations still to be covered on this beat. Maybe someone may ask us some day – why we do it? Brings to mind a similar incident from the mountaineering past. George Mallory, the famed young British climber who was part of the first three (unsuccessful) expeditions to conquer Mt Everest, in the 1920s. Mallory is famously quoted as having replied to the question “Why did you want to climb Mount Everest?” with the retort “Because it’s there”, which has been called “the most famous three words ever in mountaineering”.
Well, I think our answer may not be limited to these three words. The answer by us would be – “Because it is there, and we love it”. 
And on this journey, we continue to discover, almost on a daily basis, something new and surprising about the Hindi film music.
Take today’s song for example. Yesterday when Atul ji and I exchanged emails about today being the 3500th daily anniversary of this endeavor, I thought about it, and then started searching for a song with the word ‘hazaar’ in it. After checking out a few examples, I settled on this song for this post today.
ek shama hai mehfil mein
parwaane hazaaron hain
or if I may take some poetic latitude here, I would like to surmise as
ek asad hai internet mein
padhne waale hazaaron hain
And the other reason I picked this song – aah well, I am sure some of you may have already guessed. Going thru the lyrics of this Geeta Dutt beauty from 1952, folks will find a suspicious shadow falling on to another iconic song from three decades later. Yes, I refer to the famous song from ‘Umrao Jaan’ (1981) –
in aankhon ki masti ke
mastaane hazaaron hain
In fact, not just mastaane, but also deewaane and maikhaane. Just take away the music and map the lyrics. I think we may have hit upon the original song that ‘inspired’ the famous hit song of ‘Umrao Jaan’.
The 1952 film ‘Baghdad’ is produced by JB Lulla, under the banner of Falcon Films, Bombay and is directed by Nanabhai Bhatt. The star cast is listed as Ranjan, Bharti, Yashodhara Katju, Anwar, Veera, Kamal, Samson, S Nazeer, Kanta, Nagpal, Anant Prabhu, Bhupen Kapoor, Habib, Sabu (Tattoo), and Bhagwan. The eight songs of this film are penned by Raja Mehdi Ali Khan, and the music is by Bulo C Rani.
Congratulations once again to all – milestones galore. Happy 3500th to all.
Song – Ek Shama Hai Mehfil Mein Parwaane Hazaaron Hain (Baghdad) (1952) Singer – Geeta Roy, Lyrics – Raja Mehdi Ali Khan, MD – Bulo C Rani
Lyrics
ek shama hai mehfil mein
parwaane hazaaron hain
parwaane hazaaron hain
wo naina hoon main jiske
wo naina hoon main jiske
deewaane hazaaron hain
ek shama
ek shama
har aankh mein ghar mera
har aankh mein ghar mera
har dil ko talab meri
har dil ko talab meri
har dil ko talab meri
but ek hoon main lekin
but ek hoon main lekin
butkhaane hazaaron hain
butkhaane hazaaron hain
ek shama
ek shama
paimaane mohabbat ke
uth jhoom
uth jhoom jhoom ke pee le
pee le
pee le
in masti bhari aankhon mein
in masti bhari aankhon mein
maikhaane hazaaron hain
maikhaane hazaaron hain
ek shama
ek shama
ek shama hai mehfil mein
parwaane hazaaron hain
parwaane hazaaron hain
ek shama
ek shama
———————————————————
Hindi script lyrics (Provided by Sudhir)
———————————————————
एक शमा है महफिल में
परवाने हजारों हैं
परवाने हजारों हैं
वो नैना हूँ मैं जिसके
वो नैना हूँ मैं जिसके
दीवाने हजारों हैं
एक शमा
एक शमा
हर आँख में घर मेरा
हर आँख में घर मेरा
हर दिल को तलब मेरी
हर दिल को तलब मेरी
हर दिल को तलब मेरी
बुत एक हूँ मैं लेकिन
बुत एक हूँ मैं लेकिन
बुतखाने हजारों हैं
बुतखाने हजारों हैं
एक शमा
एक शमा
पैमाने मोहब्बत के
उठ झूम
उठ झूम झूम के पी ले
पी ले
पी ले
इन मस्ती भरी आँखों में
इन मस्ती भरी आँखों में
मैखाने हजारों हैं
मैखाने हजारों हैं
एक शमा
एक शमा
एक शमा है महफिल में
परवाने हजारों हैं
परवाने हजारों हैं
एक शमा
एक शमा