The songs of Rabindra Nath Tagore: rediscovered

Lately I've been listening to the songs of Rabindra Nath Tagore in the fresh and fetching voice of Sahana Bajpai. It is impossible to find a Bengali who hasn't heard the songs of our greatest poet. There is nothing I can say which hasn't been said before - and I'm not even close to be qualified for that.

Having said that, I didn't hear much of Rabindra sangeet in Benaras while growing up - we used to hear mostly Kishore Kumar or Hemanta Mukherjee i.e. Movie songs or Aadhunik (modern) songs. In reality I properly discovered Rabindra sangeet in the most unlikely of places. Dilli Haat in, obviously, New Delhi. During the winter of 1999 they were having some sort of Bengal themed fair and I happened to attend. I didn't know much about the Bengali music scene but on some random hunch we bought couple of cassettes (those were plastic thingies housing couple of hours worth of magnetic tape for the uninitiated). Anyway, one was by Srikanta Acharya and another by Lopamudra Mitra. I liked the former and fell in love with the latter's voice. She was a lovely introduction and I was a young romantic. A completely receptive ground for sowing the seeds of incredibly soft, soulful, touching lines of Rabindranath. I played the cassettes incessantly and never tired of her songs. Then things happened, time flowed and I moved on.

Years later, sometime ago, I was introduced to another voice singings Rabindranath's songs. I had heard "Aaj Jyotsna Raate" by Debabrata Biswas (George-da) years ago - it still is an experience. This song is example enough to demonstrate how modern and traditional Rabindra sangeet can simultaneously be.

After ages. I heard "Aaj Jyotsna Raate" again in Sahana Bajpai's voice - and she made me fall in love with her. I heard "Aamar Nishtho Raater Badoldhara" and I was transported to a dark window pane watching the night slide silently. I heard "Tomar Khola Hawa" and when she said, "Aami doobte raaji aachi", felt head over heels - has there been a more beautiful and bolder proclamation of love? She may not be the most technically astute singer of Rabindra sangeet - but why should I care if she manages to make my eyes well up when she sings of longing for the beloved?

Today in this age and time, eternal love sounds more like a concept. They say you need a person of flesh and blood to be in love with. I say love can be in words - without a shade of doubt it certainly is in these words and voices. They have made a romantic out of me, yet again.