Friday, August 07, 2020

A Walk Down Rahman Lane by Shashaa Tirupati

If you are here for the first time, please read this post .

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One personal favourite (this was next to impossible to choose and thou art a sinner for making me hahaha!) would be the song "J
aage Hain Der Tak" from Guru. I remember consuming the soundtrack of Guru to the point that all the songs started sounding distorted in my ears (I may've begun hallucinating as it played EVEN while I slept); that was perhaps when I realised I should give the album (and my ears) a break! "Jaage Hair Der Tak" would be one song that would tear me up in the most unexpected situations..


I'd be laying in bed or on the bus to university at the time, or sitting in our lawn and begin wailing for no reason I could particularly put a finger on besides the music itself. It was one of the catalysts towards dropping out and deciding to pursue music as a career, without an iota of a clue as to how. A lot of people are aware of this background story, but there grew an even deeper connection over the years.

I had begun touring extensively with AR Sir at the time and there was one particular show, I suppose it was in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where this very song was performed for the first time with the entourage. The day before the show, in my hotel room, I received news of my grandfather's demise.

"Jaage hain der tak, humein kuch der sone do"

He had gone to sleep after almost a decade of taking me to music classes, standing in line to pay my school fees, and accompanying me to every nook of the country to endless performances, competitions and musical musings. The significance of the song went from being my reason towards becoming a singer to an uncanny tribute to my grandfather's irreplaceable stature in my life. 

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About Shashaa Tirupati

Shashaa needs no introduction but I had to link her wiki page only for those who misspell her name, repeatedly (yes, I'm looking at you, metadata folks).
Apart from singing songs for all leading composers including A.R.Rahman, Amit Trivedi, M.Jayachandran, D Imman, Gopi Sunder and Anirudh, Shashaa has also been singing, writing, and composing independent songs. I hope to meet Shashaa someday and listen to Vaan Varuvaan, Naane VarugirenRaasali , Un Koodave and ofcourse, KhulKe, live!

Thank you, Shashaa for writing this poignant post, remembering your Grandpa. 

Folks, do head to Shashaa's YouTube channel to listen to her latest work and share your feedback here and here


2 Responses:

Sashasublime said...

So beautifully put ❤️. And thank you for guarding the spelling of my name!!

Unknown said...

Unknown inspirational story