Growing Up Music: Mere Desh Ki Dharti

 

What I thought I would do, is to share, from time to time is what I call “Growing Up Music”

Largely, this will be stuff from my childhood, teenage years and then later adulthood. I am still growing

Some of it is music that I just like. Some of it is music that has had some sort of influence on me. Some of it may be from my own country. Some from Eastern or Western climes.

Let me start with one called “Mere Desh Ki Dharti”. This means, ‘The Land of My Country”.

The actor is not singing! The playback singer in this song, is one called Mahendra Kapoor. He starts by singing that the land of my country is so rich that it produces produce that are like rubies and gold (in purity and value)

Those were days when India was young. We are an ancient people, and a very young country that is now trying to find its soul.

Patriotic stuff like this is anachronistic in these times, as everyone seems to rush for themselves, and no one cares about the other person.

In India – the land of India – Hindus, Sikhs  and Muslims have lived together for hundreds of years, before the British decided to rip the fabric of our country apart. Sadly, today we are prolonging that sad British legacy.

Songs like the one above are revived only on National Holidays like Independence Day and Republic Day. While I don’t say that we were saints then, but the hopeful spirit of a young nation ran deep in our souls, and gave us energy.

Songs like this had a great influence on me as a kid. Which, is possibly one reason why, when I had the chance to change my citizenship, I did not take it.

The mood of the country is ugly today, and maybe it is time to revive the spirit of the times that are just a few decades old.