Of Sounds and Smells

Wow, this blog's gotten old now, and it's been a long time I actually wrote for this blog. For one, the extreme freshie-ness of the blog's URL was embarrassing me, but I didn't want to change it. Secondly, stuff like Buzz and FB have ended up nipping most blog ideas in the bud, but this was one thing I always wanted to write about and I am finally doing it now! I announced this post back in April 2008, and it is finally seeing the light of the day after more than 2 years.

It has of course been established that sensory inputs like sounds and smells are very potent in triggering memories, but never have I experienced it so strongly as in the past few years. I will talk mostly about songs in this one - there isn't a lot to talk about in the smells department.

I wasn't too much into songs when I was in school, and although we did play music at home and in the car, they never had lasting impressions. In the past 5-6 years, however, I have come to associate songs very strongly with memories, and it is amazing how quickly and effortlessly you are transported to a particular mood simply by listening to the song you have associated it with.

Quite a few of the songs on this list are actually very random ones - songs that I might not ordinarily like. When I look back, I smile at myself for having gotten into them in the first place, but well, such are the ways of life. These songs matter because I have amazing memory associations with them, and those people who were part of these memories will be able to truly appreciate this post. It's my way of reliving the past few years, a sort of quick review - and of course, hindsight is 20-20.

1. Jaa sanam mujhko hai - Class VIII school trip to Manali. I had just joined DPS Jodhpur back then, and this Na tum jaano na hum had been released that time. Keeping with tradition, I had not watched this one either, but this song somehow stuck on. It singularly encompasses the anxiety of being in a new school, the sweet group of 20 we had on the trip, the first time I was staying away from home, taking pictures with the point and shoot film Kodak Kroma - everything.
2. Meri zindagi mein aaye - Two weeks at Mauritius - start of Class IX. This song used to be played on their radio, like, 5 times a day, and it has such a firm imprint in my memory that I am instantly transported to that beautiful country. 14 amazing days. Hotel Gold Crest. Rainbow in front of the hills. First time I flew alone, and it was an international flight!
3. School Chale Hum - This one's magical. Going to the School Bus pick-up point in winters at 6 in the morning, when it would still be pretty dark. This song made me loyal to the NDA government. I was totally heartbroken when UPA came to power!
   
4. Bulla ki jaana & Kaisi Hai Yeh Rut - Class XII songs. When I entered 12th standard, a sudden fear, not unlike one experienced by many fourthies, seemed to overpower me - the fear of losing it all - the fear of entering a completely different world. The comfort I felt in my school was soon going to be over and there was this whole anxiety of doing well in all the exams made in hell. One of those you've gotta prove yourself to yourself periods, and these songs take me there.
5. Main Jahaan Rahoon & Veeraaniyaan - JEE! It's funny that a Reshamiyya song should make its way into this list, but we just had to go watch a movie on the day of the JEE. We went to Provoked and realized that we were the only four people who had turned up. Realizing that a good but depressing movie was not really what we wanted to watch after giving JEE, we went to Namaste London. The feeling of relief mixed with anxiety - I had not yet calculated my expected score.
   
6. Smack That & Belly Dancer & Maula Mere Maula Mere - Some of my strongest song associations. Before I left for the Astronomy Olympiad Camp (after class XII), I got a CD with MP3s, and just transferred a few songs to my cellphone. I lived those 18 days listening to the two Akon songs several times daily - enjoying everything I did but wanting desperately to go back home. And then the 12th Board result on the 23rd of May - the feeling of relief more than anything else, followed by elation and phone calls. I heard Maula Mere Maula for the first time on Ralph's iPod. It's this beautiful cocktail of sentiments that I am immersed into whenever I listen to any these songs.
   
7. Alvida & Un jour en france & Wo Ajnabi & Les Mistrals Gagnants & J'ai demandé à la lune - Freshie year, first sem! I had heard Alvida a few times before coming to IIT, but it registered for the first time when it was sung in the Freshie Music Orientation. Thanks to Red FMs chaar gaane chipak ke and Malishka, the only good RJ I've ever heard, this song and Wo Ajnabi have left strong impressions - walking from the main gate to H3 in a downpour that completely drenched me - the freshie naïvety of assuming that the Harry Potter quiz that I had wanted to go to must have been canceled due to the rains (!) - the irritation of the transition from a place where everyone knew you (and where you could get work done in a snap) to a place where you were a non-entity (and had to run around in the Acad Office to get a simple document signed) - and the occasionally damp walls of my room. Un Jour en France was when I got assigned NCC instead of NSS because of some SAC office goof up. Those tense days as I ran around everywhere I could to get it changed - MA105 Quiz - Coming to terms with the fact that scoring 6/10 is a totally accepted thing - telling your parents that above average marks are good enough - downloading French songs from ESnips using Pranjal's ancient laptop - 100 ml of orange juice - society tea -attending French classes in the institute - Les Mistrals Gagnants was in fact given to me by Delphine.
   
8. The Wall - Aditya Birla Scholarship - I heard snatches of this song in the Taj Ballroom, and tried to find out what song it was, but didn't succeed for 6 whole months! It was when this song suddenly played as the ringtone on Arpit Agal's cellphone during a Bridge Workshop in H3 that I was finally able to put my finger on it. And it took me back to that memorable evening.
   
9. Kabhi Kabhi Aditi & L'hymne de nos campagnes & Une belle histoire & Nasha hi Nasha hai & Lambi Judai - Summer after freshie year. The joy of a single room. BJC. The sound of rain splattering on the window. The smell of wet grass and the freshness in the air that only monsoon can bring. Going for meals to the H13 Mess. And listening to Nasha hi Nasha hai played at 3 a.m. (at a volume so high that the whole wing could have heard it) by some random college guys staying in the room next to mine while I was down with cold and desperate for sleep - going to Mayank's room to burn Windows Vista onto a DVD (first time we met) - a weird collection of memories, all bursting out the moment I play any of these songs.
   
10. The masochism tango & Un coup d'oeil dans le metro & Hasta la vista mi amor - 2nd year is when I started listening to songs while studying, and The Masochism Tango somehow stuck on in my 3rd sem. Harish had told me about this song. The lyrics is hilarious! Don't miss this one. This was also the time I started listening to French rap artist MC Solaar, again courtesy Harish, who introduced me to Hasta la visa, mi amor, a rap in Spanish and French.
11. Dream On - SciTech Quiz at TechFest in Sophie Year. At school level I had won lots of quizzes, but freshie and sophie year didn't go that well on that front. SciTech was therefore a pretty big thing for me; we had not expected that we would make it to the finals, and this song, which was on repeat while we stood next to the OAT for like one hour before they actually began the quiz show, got branded into my memory. Every time I hear it, I am taken back to that OAT stage.
12. La tribu de dana - I discovered this on Harish' laptop, and it is probably my most played song. I have recommended it to lots of people and there has rarely been someone who did not like it. With rich folk music in the chorus and lyrics rich rap style singing, this is also one of the few songs I played in my French sessions. I don't know what they meant to others, but for me, they were high points of the entire week. It was also the time when I was suddenly bored of acads and all courses seemed very dreary. In those days, I literally used to count days down, awaiting those two hour sessions that mattered so much to me.
13. 99 Luftballons & Le tourbillon de la vie - I heard 99 Luftballons for the first time at a Karaoke at Madame Tussaud's wax museum at Amsterdam with Amil. I sat there for half an hour just listening to this song which seemed to have ensnared me. Apart from having great lyrics, this German song has probably been heard more often in the world than all of Rammstein combined (well, that's what a comment on YouTube claims, but I seem to agree :D). I made Sangram listen to this song last month, and he tells me that song will also always remind him of that nature trail we did along the river. Le tourbillon de la vie is a microcosm of the summer of 2009. I chanced upon this one while I was randomly hunting for French songs on YouTube and it instantly reminds me of the best summer of my life. Everything - Cooking, Travelling and even the Hostel room allocation mess I came back to. The lyrics of this song and its simplistic music are etched deep in my memory.
14. Hallelujah and Ironic - I think it was Nikunj that told me about this song. There are lots of versions, but I love only the Rufus Wainwright one. Lots of 5th sem memories with this one. Ironic - the song that brings back all the awesome memories of the Reading Literature course we did - Ankur's diligently made summary document - complaining about how much fluff there was in Copan - Travels with a donkey.
15. Jos sä tahdot niin - I can never thank Harsh(vardhan) enough for introducing me to this song - one of the best foreign language songs I have heard, and boy I have heard many! Don't miss this one. The video is simply divine and the voices amazing. Susmit (and I think Mayank too) would remember me making him hear this song, like, 10 times in a row before he conked out. And whoever I recommended this too, I would make a fuss, makign them promise that they will watch it on full screen and use headphones.
16. La forêt des mal-aimés - Whenever I went to Claire's place, we almost always ended up playing this song. Cooking at Claire's would always be associated with Pierre Lapointe's songs.
17. La corrida - Teaching French at KV IIT with Claire - I had this song in my laptop for more than a year, but it was when I heard it being performed for the school kids by the French group led by Baptiste Daleman that I really developed a liking for it. Also, Ankur accompanying me one day to the school - teaching the kids animal names.
18. Halo & Time Flies & Fireflies - The Porcupine Tree concert @ MI '09 - coming back from the concert with Mayank and Susmit dead tired and then listening to Speed of Sound - Flight journey to Delhi with Anasuya for the Honda YES Award - learning Hiragana in two flights - sitting at the Delhi airport and making a list of friends we wanted to treat - realizing how I had very few good friends but that they were very valued ones.
    Edit: I can't believe I forgot Fireflies! I often ask Kovid to suggest songs to me, and generally, our tastes match. He told me about Fireflies in January, and I have heard this song hundreds of times. It's one of those songs that you like a lot but can't explain why. Lots of 6th sem memories with Fireflies. Thanks Kovid!
19. Lovelinesse & Jimmy - I couldn't attend the Moriarty concert during MI, and a couple of people gave me very terrible reviews after that, so I didn't bother listening to the songs. It was when I read Ms Jaya Joshi's review of the concert and her experience of staying with the artists for a few days (or rather, the artists staying at her place for a few days), I was struck by how deeply she seemed to have been impressed by the group. Quoting her, when you listen to these songs, you get the impression that these guys are just singing for themselves and are having a great time. It's as if they don't care if anyone's listening; they are having too much fun already. It was late in the 6th semester (endsem time) that I heard these songs and instantly fell in love with them. They seem so effortless, and the girl's voice sort of haunts you. And there's ths beautiful use of the harmonica. These songs, along with La Corrida were on permanent repeat all through the endsems.

So, well, here was a quick flash-back. This was one of those posts that you write more for yourself than for anyone else... and I am sure that, a few years down the lane, I will enjoy reading it even more than I enjoyed writing it today.