Mein Tenu Samjhawan Ki....

 Chamba was driving at a subtle and gentle speed now. It was June, 2011. The road to Nubra Valley did not seem to be a comfortable ride in the making at all. I was seated at the rear of the car which I remember to be a Scorpio. Seating on the third row of cars had become my routine the past 5 days travelling more than 750 kms through devilish roads with angelic sights. Six of us were exhausted immensely with the road travel, but somewhere within we were excited to know what came next to us.

All of us were in the drowsy state of mind, when the driver turned on what he called 'LEH FM' only to realize later that he was ridiculing us in our tired state of mind. The FM played a song which I had heard for the first time on the trip. I could not recollect if I had heard it on this trip as well ( Except mountains of all shapes I could hardly recollect anything in that phase of the travel). Suddenly as the song played everyone got tilted sitting upright on their seats (falling down frivolously in the car had become our way of life). One of my friends started humming the song. I was still trying to figure out the movie for this song (as we always do listening to songs when we cannot fathom the planet from which the song came). The song went as -

" mein tenu samjhawan ki

na tere baajo lagda ji

mein tenu samjhawan ki

na tere baajo lagda ji

tu ki jaane pyar mera

mein karaan intezar tera

tu dil tu yun jaan meri "

 By this time I figured out it was Raahat Fateh Ali Khans voice and I was enchanted beyond any explanation at that moment while the car was descending surrounded by the blissful mountains and mirthful breeze. I had forgotten my travelling ordeal by now. We all had started singing that song and it was a moment like 'You Need To Be There To Know That'. 

Now it was June 2014 and someone had posted a song online from the movie 'Humpty Sharma ki Dulhaniya'. As the song began, I heard the lyrics " Mein Tenu Samjhawan Ki..." and flashes of the magnificent Leh trip was all across the mind yet again. But this time I realized it was the voice of Arijit Singh rather than Raahat Fateh Ali. Over the years the song had become our trip anthem, but it was long since I had heard it and although nothing could match the original song from the movie 'Virsa', it definitely brought a gleaming smile on my face ( It's hard to smile these days as you would know :) ). The song made me travel right into the mountains, flying by the great Pangong Lake and gliding down the Nubra Valley. The song finished and I was back to reality. The song came by as a touch of Serendipity for that day, keeping the joy all over my mind.

It was two weeks since i heard that song and someone played a song, and this time again it was "Mein Tenu Samjhawan Ki.." I just could not stop smiling listening to it. But this time it was a female singing it! The voice seemed not of a singer but it felt good as the words flew in with very little music as it was a Reprise Version. Later realized it was Alia Bhatt who had sung this one. I was wondering, how the hell did she pull that off? ( Shraddha Kapoor started this female lead turned into a rockstar singer with 'Galliyan' but Alia took that feat to mountains for me). The song this day has remained etched in my mind with versions of it coming in inspite of 3 years passing by. Everyone who was a part of the trip, truly flies away with this song. Though everyone argues that the Bhatt version is the best, my heart still stays with the original version as it imbibes within me memories from some other world.

With one more good version of this great song - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1A9pm8WOBg,  I take a leave from this article. Hope everyone keeps humming, - ' Mein Tenu Samjhawan Ki..' all day long :) .