C/O MR. ANTHONY AND THE MAKING OF JANA RE!!!!

For hansie and vishubha, the happily married couple



It was c/o Mr. P K Anthony where I came to stay with hansie for the first time after my second year of college. Hansie is my friend ,we were in same college, BA student. Mr. Anthony was a garage owner as per my information though I have never seen it but seeing the size of his house I realized that he must be having a big garage or the chain of garages and not that mechanic with all his white shirt gone black working beneath the car!!!and I don’t understand why most of this mechanic wear a light colored shirt anyways Mr. Anthony has a dog which I use to consider as a most hopeless creature on earth, I use to call him dumb dog as I have never heard him barking at someone not only dumb but also I was thinking he is a dwarf till I came to know about a separate breed of short highted dogs named as DASHHUNT. Another special character in Mr. Anthony’s house was his wife whom I have always seen cutting small pieces of meat in the verandah located right in front of entrance gate. And she use to give me a look as if I have not paid the rent of last 15years, Though I had a very short stay at his place or else he would have died of heart attack because my look only was enough to increase his blood pressure, but this stay we have unfolded the greatest moments of our life.

Hansie was more like software professional then a BA student, after he gets up in the morning he use to have the complete course of his break fast. Take bath daily, Wear clean clothes and wash his underwear with dettol. He was highly committed towards a girl especially for me who stays miles away from commitment, his was a benchmark and I remember he regularly use to call her. He maintained a kitchen also in the room to handle his impromptu hunger which strikes his stomach quite often and also for making tea. He has unique collection of coins in his table in the form of groups of three rupee and fifty paisa which is utilized to buy WILLS CLASSICespecially during the last week of month when we both happen to be below poverty line. Though for the first half of the month we had an enhanced frequency and capacity of doing things from drinks to cigarettes, also his outgoing calls to girlfriend, our diet and the availability of petrol in our bikes everything happen to be adequate. Overall hansie was a hard worker with enormous energy that he can work for hours but still I have never seen him reducing an inch from his waist. He generally use to come late in the night from office by then I after loosing interest on all things to keep myself awake was in my deep sleep, except for few rare occasions when I am awake I have noticed the energy in him even after 12 hrs of work is commendable. As a roommates we came across the great moments of life, like once we had no money to buy a cigarette and surprisingly he came back from the office with a full packet of Gold flake kings (not our brand) as typical student I guessed he might have flicked it from someone in his office which latter he explained that he swiped his credit card to buy the packet. Imagine the use of credit card by a bankrupt, Credit card (one more attribute unlike a student). Similarly one night when I was alone in the house and was dying out of hunger but has only three rupees which fortunately left because of the shortage of fifty paisa to buy a wills. I went outside and purchased few tomatoes for my dinner as I am a bad cook so I never dared to buy something which requires cooking, I missed hansie that night for his innovative cooking which happen to meet the requirements of both taste and quantity with minimum resource. In the same room we planned for our bike trip from pune to shimla though it never worked out but the plan was great where he has even worked out the possibility of meeting his girlfriend in delhi on her b’day. But still among all was the masterpiece “JANA RE..”

One day he returned from the office late in the night I don’t exactly remember the time but he was displaying the same energy level, I don’t know what was the backdrop but suddenly that day after returning from the office he took out his Casio from the cartoon which was untouched and was kept over the slab since the time I am seeing it, he connected the Casio to the speakers and started with some Hindi songs. It was a small Casio generally used for the initial exposure and was gifted to him and I was witnessing this trait for the first time. He was trying to recollect some old famous assamese tune; I personally have never heard assamese song and so inspite of applying brain I was enjoying the tune. Suddenly he stopped and said” it’s not that one!! I m forgetting” And I reacted simultaneously “it was great. I mean sounding great what was that? then” he started playing the tune again and with every next attempt he was improvising and inventing a new segment attached to it suddenly we realized that we are composing a tune and that was how the initial two lines where made. I wrote the words for it in a piece of paper and we started playing it again this time I was singing the line written for the song. For some moment we were silent may be we both were trying to make the next line or it might be the feeling of achievement that made us dumb for few seconds actually we both were involved in our thoughts. For next few mins there was no progress he started playing the tune again and then I realized that may be the A .R . Rehman in his fingers required the company of Shivamani, so I picked the bucket lying in the room inverted it and fixed it between my thighs. We started playing it again and this time with percussion effect, we both knew it was sounding great and we can’t leave it at this moment. It was on the third time when we stroked the next tune for antara and hansie was so perfect at that time that he didn’t took a single re- take to play it on his Casio, I took no time to write lyrics for it and our one cycle of mukhda to antara was complete and so was our expression we didn’t waited a second to start playing it again and again sometimes in faster tempo and sometimes the slower version. I remember I called swati and asked her to hear the song because it was remembering her I have written the lines of the song. Since then we sang the song in every of our mehfil but never attained the magic which was there on that night.

It’s a truth that me and hansie have never spoken or discussed about music or anything artistic before this day. It’s a truth that after that we never made any other song, but one more truth is on that night there was some magic happening with us or may be WE WERE BLESSED!!!!!!!!!!!! Mr. Hansraj dutta today is happily married to the same girl and well settled in ahemdabad (though I have given this marital status to him much before) and I am still unmarried and settled word doesn’t suit my profession.


The song

“ DIL MERA LE HI LIYA , CHAIN MERA LE HI LIYA
BOL KYA AB KAROON JANAAA RE!!!

NEEND MERI LE HI LIYA , HOSH MERA LE HI LIYA
BOL KYA AB KAROOON JANA RE!!!

Chorus: lalalalalalallaa

1. PEHLI NAJAR MEIN HI , TUNE KAR DIYA DEEWANA (2)
TUNE NAHIN JANA PAR MAINE THA YE JANA..jana re jana re!!
ARREY PYAAR HI HUA THA, AB TUJHE KYA BATANAAA…

DIL MERA LE HI…………………..!!!!!


2. BHOLI SI YE SURAT TERI OR TERA SHARMANA (2)
TERI YE ADDAYE HI TOH KAR DETI DEEWANA …jana re jana
ARREY KYA BATUN JANEMAN AB MUSHKIL HAI JEE PANA ..,

DIL MERA LE HI LIYA…….


Jana reeee …janareeeee …….janareeee…ooo jana re hey jana re….ends!!