We just passed is the birthdays of Ameen Sayani and the legendary singer Mohammed Rafi, both inseperable from Bollywood Cinema 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, the singer whose soft and sweet voice was unmatched in the world of music, though in the 1970s and until he died Kishore Kumar at the height of his popularity dominated the show.
Come December, come waves of memory recollection from the airwaves the 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 played every Wednesday night which ranked songs based on their popularity chart struck a chord in me. At end of the year in the month of December 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 was 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). But Ameen Sayani's mellifluous, sweet loquacious voice and unique style of narration which would arguably be the best marketing brand that company ever had remained unchanged.
Kishore Kumar & Lata Mangeshkar (often their duets) dominated CIBACA Geetmala those days, though other singers like 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), who was a natural singer pure in Raaga.
Kishore Kumar and Radio Ceylon have a history together. Internal Emergency was declared in June 1975 by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Her all powerful son Sanjay Gandhi wanted Kishore Kumar to sing in a Congress rally. Kishore Kumar, an extremely popular singer at that time refused to sing for Sanjay Gandhi and was promptly banned from government controlled All India Radio and TV. Folks used to tune to Radio Ceylon to hear Kishore da's songs until the ban on him lifted.
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 Reagan. Vegetables like Cauliflower, Cabbage, Tomato, Turnip etc used to be very seasonal and unlike these days it wasn't available round the year. Eaten during the short span of winter months the Cauliflower would be very 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, Lata and Ameen Sayani, but they still live in our hearts. Those were the days and nights...
Come December, come waves of memory recollection from the airwaves the 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 played every Wednesday night which ranked songs based on their popularity chart struck a chord in me. At end of the year in the month of December 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 was 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). But Ameen Sayani's mellifluous, sweet loquacious voice and unique style of narration which would arguably be the best marketing brand that company ever had remained unchanged.
Kishore Kumar & Lata Mangeshkar (often their duets) dominated CIBACA Geetmala those days, though other singers like 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), who was a natural singer pure in Raaga.
Kishore Kumar and Radio Ceylon have a history together. Internal Emergency was declared in June 1975 by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Her all powerful son Sanjay Gandhi wanted Kishore Kumar to sing in a Congress rally. Kishore Kumar, an extremely popular singer at that time refused to sing for Sanjay Gandhi and was promptly banned from government controlled All India Radio and TV. Folks used to tune to Radio Ceylon to hear Kishore da's songs until the ban on him lifted.
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 Reagan. Vegetables like Cauliflower, Cabbage, Tomato, Turnip etc used to be very seasonal and unlike these days it wasn't available round the year. Eaten during the short span of winter months the Cauliflower would be very 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, Lata and Ameen Sayani, but they still live in our hearts. Those were the days and nights...
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