RIP Ameen Sayani

 "I have three best friends in this world. What's surprising is that they also happen to be your (audience) three best friends. They are Bachpan (childhood), Jawani (Youth) and Budhapa (old age)." 

"People bore me. Film people particularly bore me. I prefer talking to my trees. I like nature... that's why I want to get away to Khandwa. I have lost all touch with nature out here. I tried to dig a canal all around my bungalow out here, so that we could sail gondolas there." The legendary singer Kishore Kumar said in an Interview with Ameen Sayani on All India Radio. Kishore Kumar died long back in October 1987.Ameen Sayani had known Kishore to frolic about bare-footed in the jungles of Bombay's suburbs with Sachin Dev Burman, singing senseless songs like Zingalala zingalala.

Ameen Sayani died today at the age of 91. Both of them immensely contribution to my love, knowledge and respect for Hindi music and Urdu language, both of which are inseparable to each other. 

Last December Ameen Sayani had his 91st Birthday along with the legendary singer Mohammed Rafi, both inseperable from Bollywood Hindi music. Ameen Sayani was the voice of CIBACA GEETMALA, a popular musical program on Radio Ceylon in the 70s and 80s which had good share of popular Rafi songs.  

Come December, come waves of memory recollection from the airwaves of his indomitable voice and Hindi songs from the famous BINACA GEETMALA (which later changed to CIBACA GEETMALA) anchored by Ameen Sayani and aired by Radio Ceylon (as Sri Lanka was known then). The hour long program of contemporary Hindi hits every Wednesday night ranked based on their popularity chart struck a chord in me. At end of the year in December month Radio Ceylon aired a special program ranking the top 15 popular songs of the entire year. It instantly took me down to the memory lanes of 1970s and 80s. 

Once a week, wafting over the airwaves would float in the unforgettable familiar voice of Ameen Sayani - BEHNO AUR BHAIYON, AAP SAB KO LE CHALTE HAIN ISH GANE KO, JO PICHHLE HAPHTE  PADAAN NUMBER 10 SE ABHI PADAAN NUMBER 6 PER AGAYA, "Dear Sisters and Brothers, taking you to this song which has jumped from position no 10 from last week to position number 6 this week". 

The program played clips of a plethora of popular songs flooding the airwaves of our childhood and youth. Those were the nights sans television in Bhubaneswar. I would be waiting eagerly for every Wednesday, to tune in to what would be a non stop one hour feast of music fiesta commencing at 8 PM. At sharp 7.55 PM I would elongate the antenna of our MURPHY Brand radio. It was followed by a good 5 minutes of struggling to adjust the vertical bar to the exact location with intermittent bursts of stuttering farts from it, CHRRRRD... PRRRRRTT.., before I could finally manage to tune in. 

It would be a very delicate balancing act on the short wave Radio. One millimeter here or there you get a whole different station and miss your favorite song. The reception was particularly bad towards the end of December when the special annual version of the program is aired as a fitting finale, bidding adieu to the year. 

The program earlier used to be called BINACA GEETMALA, but the name BINACA was changed to CIBACA sometime in the late 1970s - a popular toothbrush/paste brand of the time (not sure if it still exists). Ameen Sayani had a mellifluous, sweet loquacious voice and unique style of narration which would arguably be the best marketing brand that company ever had. 

Kishore Kumar & Lata (often their duets) dominated Cibaca Geetmala those days, though other singers like Mohammed Rafi, Mukesh, Asha Bhonsle, Suresh Wadkar had their fair share of contributions too. Popularity mattered. For example - in 1980 the song "HAME TUMSE PYAR KITNA" voiced by Kishore Kumar topped the popularity chart and played more often than the same song sang in a classic classical tune by Parveen Sultana. The choice of a music aficionado would be Parveen Sultana, however the general public went ga ga over Kishore version of the Gana (song).

Amidst intermittent losses of signal and constant sputtering it was great fun nevertheless to listen with ears glued just inches away from the radio, wrapped in a shawl on those cold winter nights while waiting on a hot dinner of RUTI (Indian flat bread) and Cauliflower curry. Cauliflower used to be very seasonal and unlike these days it wasn't available round the year. Eaten during the short span of winter months it would be tasty in November but eventually boring to the taste bud towards the end of the season. 

I would pick a piece of hot cauliflower from the curry bowl, followed by blowing air with snorted lips to cool it down before munching. No sooner I finish a couple of florets than the rest of the cauliflowers would get cold. Blowing hot and cold, I could feel the pinch of winter in Bhonsar (Bhubaneswar as pronunced by many locals) those days with dual pleasure of eating dinner while listening to Cibaca Geetmala. These are memories from a bygone era to cherish forever. CIBACA GEETMALA is dead, so also Rafi, Kishore and Lata, and now Ameen Sayani at the age of 91. Mortal men, immoral memories.