“Well, don’t laugh at me when I answer your question!” was what came as a reply from a friend of mine when I asked her as to what kind of music she likes. Curiosity built and I convinced her that I shall not even giggle. She then shot a message which read, “Ahem. I’m not into rock and metal. I listen to the classics of Hindi music, most of the times. You know, Rafi, Kishore and all!” After almost screaming at her for being so hesitant about letting me know this, she said, “Well, enough people have laughed at me for the kind of music I like, okay?”

See! There! Whatever ones beliefs are about the classic Hindi/Urdu music, the moment you try degrading someone else’s choice of music with a pretext that what you listen to is ‘cool’, you deserve to get shot! The meaning that the words possessed once upon a time, when compared with the contemporary music, makes me feel that there has been an evolution in the language itself, let alone music. It’s not easy to digest the fact that the same language, which could produce such sensible emotional words that took the listeners’ breath away, is now put into use to shout and scream without even comprehending what the words mean. Very often, these new-fangled songs are made so emotional that one could label them as ‘wannabe emo-music’. (Examples here and here) My disgust had broken barriers when a roommate of mine played this nauseating cacophony on loop! And one cannot write about the ‘contemporaries’ unless an honourable mention is provided to ‘Tenu Mein Love Karda, Bematlab Karda, BahoN Mein Aa Soniye, Bas Aaj Raat Ke Liye’. Now, wait a minute. You claim to love that person, emphasizing modestly that it’s meaningless, and you want her in your arms for just one night? We’ve had a generation singing ‘Sau Saal Pahle, Mujhe Tum Se Pyaar Tha… Aaj Bhi Hai, Aur Kal Bhi Rahega!’ and well, BEHOLD! We’ve progressed so much now that the ‘love’ lasts only till we get an orgasm!

I don’t mean to pick on whatever shit that’s being sung and heard. What is insulting is the way the lovers of the contemporaries, sitting on their scholarly horse, discard what the last generation wrote, sung and lived with. No one, especially not them! No one decides as to what is ‘cool’ and what is not. I’ve never claimed, and will never do, that the classics are better than what is being produced now. What antagonizes me is that the same music that your mother listened to when you were in her spa-like womb is now being ridiculed and mocked at. These were the same words that many of your antecedents dedicated to each other.

Maybe Manna Dey is right when he says (here) that the present condition of the Indian music is so because of the void that has been created with the passing away of glorious personalities like Mohd. Rafi, Naushad, R D Burman, Sahir Ludhianvi, Shakeel Badayuni etc. The mellifluent ‘Haaye!’ that Mohd Rafi could pull out (here) is an impossibility for anyone living on this planet now. The point is that it ain’t because the people have changed their tastes that we see this humiliation happening to their legacy. Rather, it’s because of the absence of those people who gave life to music that their work has become a past. I’ve exhaustively gone through the works that have been released lately and tried too hard to find the traces of the kind of emotions that the classics tincture (say here). Failure is what I’ve faced throughout. I’ve told this before and I say this again. Keep your lame-ass music with yourselves and stop judging something you cannot even manage to understand. Yes, I did poke fun at your music in this post and for a good reason. I shall not waste my time to do it ever again as long as you shut your trap.