Song (and Dance)!
It all started with Neels. She *sang* a song for me on my doodle-board, and I felt most obliged to respond in kind.
We then played song-tag, (a new(?) game) where we picked up words from each other's songs and *sang* other songs. Before I knew it, we had a game in eternal progress, with daily updates from many who joined us in our *singing*!
Which brings me to the well-know game of Antakshari. I wonder what is so fascinating about Antakshari. I think most Indians are quite familiar with this game, and have played it some time or the other in life! (To those who don't know the game, it's very simple: one person starts singing a song from a Hindi film (mostly), and the next person has to sing another song starting with the last alphabet of the previous song.)
I remember the game being a top favourite of my childhood years, coming from a musically-inclined, and movie-inclined family. All of us used to play it - including my parents. Dad used to sing real oldies by K L Saigal, which we could rarely challenge. Mom's favourite song was "Nahi nahi, abhi nahi, abhi karo intezaar - chodo naa!" The chodo naa ended at a higher inflexion and sent us into peals of laughter! We sisters used to compete to end a song with the most difficult last alphabet. We loved starting up cycles which would always end with the letter "ha". We would hunt down songs like rare diamonds and stash them away, only to produce them with a triumphant flourish when others were stumped! It was also an effective tool to keep me from feeling bored, when I was alone - I used to play the game with myself! :))
I was quite taken aback when I grew up and met people who actually didn't enjoy playing Antakshari! I viewed specimens who groaned at the very mention of the game with a great deal of suspicion. I was convinced that there must be something seriously wrong with them!
Nowadays, of course, with all the TV shows, the game has been elevated to quiz-status, where one needs to know not just the song, but all the trivia associated with it! Enjoyable at first, but gets to be a drag after some time.
I wonder how this game got started in the first place. Anyone out there, who can throw some light on this unique Indian phenomenon?
We then played song-tag, (a new(?) game) where we picked up words from each other's songs and *sang* other songs. Before I knew it, we had a game in eternal progress, with daily updates from many who joined us in our *singing*!
Which brings me to the well-know game of Antakshari. I wonder what is so fascinating about Antakshari. I think most Indians are quite familiar with this game, and have played it some time or the other in life! (To those who don't know the game, it's very simple: one person starts singing a song from a Hindi film (mostly), and the next person has to sing another song starting with the last alphabet of the previous song.)
I remember the game being a top favourite of my childhood years, coming from a musically-inclined, and movie-inclined family. All of us used to play it - including my parents. Dad used to sing real oldies by K L Saigal, which we could rarely challenge. Mom's favourite song was "Nahi nahi, abhi nahi, abhi karo intezaar - chodo naa!" The chodo naa ended at a higher inflexion and sent us into peals of laughter! We sisters used to compete to end a song with the most difficult last alphabet. We loved starting up cycles which would always end with the letter "ha". We would hunt down songs like rare diamonds and stash them away, only to produce them with a triumphant flourish when others were stumped! It was also an effective tool to keep me from feeling bored, when I was alone - I used to play the game with myself! :))
I was quite taken aback when I grew up and met people who actually didn't enjoy playing Antakshari! I viewed specimens who groaned at the very mention of the game with a great deal of suspicion. I was convinced that there must be something seriously wrong with them!
Nowadays, of course, with all the TV shows, the game has been elevated to quiz-status, where one needs to know not just the song, but all the trivia associated with it! Enjoyable at first, but gets to be a drag after some time.
I wonder how this game got started in the first place. Anyone out there, who can throw some light on this unique Indian phenomenon?
posted by thoughtraker at 9:07 AM
7 Comments:
by a person stuck in a train on a long journey with a perprtual braggart and armed with nothing but a bottomless fount of movie song knowledge to get him to stop talking abt himself :-P
Ah you brought back such fond memories! My experiences are very similar to yours! Coming from a music-loving and movie-crazy family, playing antakshari with my immediate and extended family was a big part of my childhood.
Trying to end songs on 'ha' and 'ma' to while the gears in your head turn to quickly come up with a stock list for future use, singing 'haaye re haaye, neend nahin aaye' and having even the non-singing folks in the room chime in with the 'haaye' chorus :).. similarly for 'pyaar humein kis mod pe le aaya' .. where the 'dil kare haaye' line ALWAYS has the whole room go 'haaaaaye' in response (makes me wonder, something about the word 'haaye' that draws everyone to it eh?) .. and everytime there would be some poor soul who would get 'ha' as their letter, start with 'hum tum ik kamre mein band ho' and the whole room would pounce on them yelling — no no no, that song starts as 'baahar se koi andar na aa sake' :D
I think i've babbled enough in your comment space to warrant a post in itself, so I should stop taking up space on your blog and go write on mine instead :)
i am one of the 'other' species who groan at the mention of antakshari. i have no specific reasons other than that i have never enjoyed it. if i remember right, i must have probably played thrice in the last 15 years!!!
lol@reshmi - quite possible - can visualize the scene very well!! i used to love playing antakshari on any journey!
ditto@megha! haaye haaye!! nice rambling comment, btw! and did i tell u i love ur name?
lol@imp - i am more "tolerant" now of the "other" species! :))
Ano,
I am absolutely enjoyoing our little game of song tag!!! My challenge is to make it tough to pick up - I do that a lot while playing Antakshari too - try and end with a "Ph" or a "DH" or something - people hate me! :)))
And yes, we are on for Antakshari on the 12th!!!
Sal - ur definitely a pro at making it tough!! I'm quaking in my shoes at the thought of the showdown on 12th! :))
SSM - yup, it is great fun!
No you didn't, but thankoo! I'll make sure I pass on the compliment to my mom since its really her doing, not mine ;)
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