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Turning The Clock Back
“I’d give anything to be you and hear that for the first time”.
Have you felt that way before? When you want to go back in time and savor again that first time when you read, listened to or watched something which has since become a life-long passion. Or has the relentless march of time ensured that like everything else, diminishing returns have set in. Do you wonder how would it be to go back and start it all over again with a clean slate?
Coming back to that quote - “I’d give anything to be you and hear that for the first time” – credited to Woody Allen when he watched an acquaintance buy his first record of Sidney Bechet. In his authoritative biography of Woody Allen, Eric Lax speaks about Woody’s life-long obsession with New Orleans-style jazz and the way music seeps itself into his cinema. Woody, himself, is an extremely competent New Orleans-style clarinetist whose knowledge of the history of jazz (New Orleans-style) is unparalleled. Just go back and listen to the soundtrack of ‘Sleeper’ which he recorded with the famous Preservation Hall Jazz Band (where incidentally Woody himself played a few sessions with the legendary trombonist Jim Robinson) to appreciate his life-long obsession. Woody’s passion was, of course, triggered when he first heard Bechet’s passionate arpeggios and vibratos as a teenager. That passion kept a record of the times he spent working his way up the success ladder. So, his wistful desire to be 13 again and experience the thrill for the first time all over again.
So, what are those abiding passions of your life that you wish you could start all over again and rediscover that magic that once so took you in.
I remember like it was yesterday. It was a rainy afternoon in the small hilly town that I lived in as I turned a teenager. As I sat and watched the rain come down across the hills into the garden, I realized that there was something unusual about the music coming from the radio from deep inside the house. My exposure to music till then was restricted to the latest Hindi film or the LPs or cassettes that some of my older friends passed on to me of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones or Led Zep. In sum, the former was the stuff you made fun of with you friends and the latter you liked but lacked any context of either the music or the words. On that afternoon, in wafted the strains ‘Main Zindagi Ka Saath Nibhaata Chala Gaya” as I sat down in a surprisingly pensive mood the reasons for which I don’t recollect even today. May be I was falling behind on my ‘The Sportstar’ collection in comparison to friends. The music was refreshingly light considering my senses were being ravaged that year by ‘My Name is Lakhan’ kind of arrangements. The lyrics, while simple, had a touch of philosophy in it. ‘Barbadiyon ka shok manana fizool thaa, barbadiyon ka jashn manata chala gaya’ – retrospectively speaking, I had hardly seen any ‘barbadi’ in my short stint on earth then but I had a strong sense that these are lines which will hold me in good stead sometime later in life. The song ended sooner than I wanted it to. But it stoked a fire that would last a lifetime. I find it difficult to explain to anyone how I remember that moment so distinctly. But I do and I fell for it, hook, line, sinker and more. And, since then, music and lyrics from what’s often referred to as the golden era of Hindi film music (50s and 60s) have become a lifelong passion. Sometimes, bordering on obsession!
“Main zindagi ka saath’ became a thread that started unraveling for me that amazing tapestry and it continues till date. It has led me to multiple wild goose chases across the land to meet someone uniquely associated with the music of that era or to an almost religious practice of starting the day with atleast half-hour of that music. I have tried to recreate that environment many times over since then – clouds in the horizon in the afternoon and I sit down in the balcony and play the song. But it just isn’t the same. What would I not give to be someone who listens to ‘Main Zindagi Ka Saath” for the first time?
Sometime during those years, I first came across the works of Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse or P.G. Wodehouse. Penguin published Wodehouse in a signature white cover with a golden yellow border running across the edges and a lively illustration of a segment of the story on its cover. That design dominated my reading for over a decade. Unlike many others, my introduction to Wodehouse was not via Jeeves but the more entertaining (personal opinion) Psmith in the hilarious ‘Psmith in the City’. Quite apposite too since Psmith was the first character Wodehouse created (barring the school stories) and was almost autobiographical (especially the working in Bank bits). The elaborate, farcical but tightly-knit plot, the comedic twists which keep entangling the main characters, the dexterity of language and turns of phrase and the idyllic world where nothing can eventually go wrong ensured that in the course of the next decade I would end up reading all but 3 of the total 93 works of Wodehouse. It has provided me and a lot of others solace on bluesy days, helped relieve the burden of an exasperating day as bed-side reading and helped make friends with complete strangers purely based on the Wodehouse affinity. His felicity with prose has never ceased to amaze me and I will illustrate it with an example cited by Stephen Fry (who has his own personal debt to Wodehouse) in his introduction to ‘What Ho! The Best of Wodehouse’ where he describes Honoria Glossop, one of the many fiancés of Bertie – “Honoria… is one of those robust, dynamic girls with the muscles of a welter-weight and a laugh like a squadron of cavalry charging on a tin bridge.”
Over the years, I have also realized that Wodehouse, now, remains primarily an inexplicably Indian public school phenomenon. He seems to have been almost lost to the current generation in England while the rest of English-speaking world look bemused when you speak about him. My own interest in Wodehouse has waned over the years but the pleasure of thumbing through my first Wodehouse remains fresh without paling a wee bit over the years.
In its first year of launch, Star Movies (TM), exposed the Hollywood-entertainment starved India a lot of B-grade commercial flicks. Somewhere in there, tucked away, was Hitchcock’s 39 Steps and The Lady Vanishes. These two films shown on two consecutive Saturday afternoons were my introductions to the world of Hitchcock. While I was yet to understand the technical prowess of the director, it was the way the script unfolded on screen that kept me riveted. The twists in the story weren’t contrived or could be seen coming, the characters remained steadfast to their motives but the circumstances around them changed to provide the thrills and there was sense of respect of the intellect of the audience which had him hold back a little for you to decipher things on your own. Those two films started me on an ongoing journey which has seen me watching all his movies, reading the text of all the “Alfred Hitchcock Presents’ stories, watching all the episodes of the iconic TV program by the same name and making a visit to the house that he lived at the end of his life. And yes, it has helped me laugh at Subhash Ghai’s guest appearances in all his films that much better. I wish sometime to go through the journey all over again and start off again with those black and white images of a man walking down the aisle to his seat at the start of The 39 Steps followed by Levy’s rousing background score.
So, that completes the trinity of things that I have heard, read or watched which I would love to turn the clock back on. But as Thomas Wolfe so eloquently describes it in his book ‘You Can’t Go Home Again’, you can’t ever recreate the same timescape. The twisting kaleidoscope of time indeed moves us all in turn. And, even when you assiduously build to create that time again, you realize that you haven’t remained the same person. More’s the pity.
23 Responses to “Turning The Clock Back”
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it’s listening to charlie parker and miles davis on the bbc for me(jazz for the asking)..and circumnavigating the coast in fishing trawlers( little half drawer clad fisher kids selling me just caught ocean fish from catamarans)..
The first time I saw a live concert at chennai’s music academy..or the time i met susan sontag at the ontario cinematheque..
subrat, you & nostalgia. interesting read as always.
what does it say about me if i can’t think of one turn the clock moment from my earlier years?
i have to go as late as 2003 for Oldboy.
It is reading posts like this that keep me keepin’on, Noble Mon. Really…
Thank you,
Bruce
editor~New Orleans News Ladder
turning the clock back :o
no way
jo lamha ek bar ji liya - ji liya.
<):)
subrat: I share your obsession for Hindi Film music from the 50s and 60s. I was drawn towards it at a time when (to borrow Baradwaj Rangan’s words) Bappi Lahiri and (to a lesser extent) LP were “doing to hindi film music what villains usually did to the hero’s sister”. To this date I’m thrilled like a teenager when I come across an old song I’ve not heard before.
BTW, I’m waiting for the revival of your wheel of time series. It’s been a long time, isn’t it?
Nice write-up, Subrat. Main Zindagi ka saath… love the song. “you can
Hey Subrat… nice read sir! Thanks…
I want to turn my clock back to 15 when i finished my 10th board exam. Social Studies paper 2.
I came home and my mom brought me the complete Ayn Rand works from her time. Its the best gift I ever got. She stood over me and said - “son, read this cos I did when i was 15. But your next couple of years will be much better if you don’t. At some level she wanted me too, the free spirit in her, as a conservative mom, she did not want me too.
I read fountainhead for 3 days. Atlas shrugged next… we the living came last… did not read anthem that time… just never felt ready for it…
It screwed me up big time but man, don’t I want that feeling of reading it again… I would give anything to be there again.
Thanks subrat!! u made a saturday evening…
Hey Vivek… thanks for the video man… never heard that song before so… that’s a first…
thanks guys!
ayn rand
her books are like the mark for cinema world. in film magazines those who have read her book, mention it with pride.
her books are third class. philosophy is third class. it is not even good enough to make me read itself.
years ago, after hearing about her a lot i gave ‘fountainhead’ a try. first attempt was aborted after first few pages. in my second attempt i manage to reach up to 20 something pages. than i can not go further. such a third class book.
=((
about a real book
“P.D. Ouspensky’s TERTIUM ORGANUM. It is a miracle that he wrote it before he had even heard of Gurdjieff. He wrote it before he knew what he was writing. He understood it himself only afterwards, on meeting Gurdjieff. His first words to George Gurdjieff were: “Looking into your eyes I have understood TERTIUM ORGANUM. Although I have written it, now I can say that it has been written through me by some unknown agency I was not aware of.”
Perhaps it was that rascal Gurdjieff who wrote it through him, or maybe somebody else whom the Sufis call the Ultimate Rascal, who has been doing miracles — miracles like TERTIUM ORGANUM.
I said it is a miracle that Ouspensky could write TERTIUM ORGANUM, one of the greatest books in any language of the world. In fact it is said, and rightly so — remember, I emphasize and repeat, rightly so — that there are only three great books: the first is ORGANUM written by Aristotle; the second is THE SECOND ORGANUM written by Bacon; and the third, by P.D. Ouspensky, TERTIUM ORGANUM. ‘Tertium’ means third. And Ouspensky has, very mischievously — and only a saint can be so mischievous — introduced the book by saying, without any ego, simply and humbly, that “the first exists but not before the third. The third existed even before the first came into existence.”
Ouspensky seems to have been spent, totally and utterly spent, into TERTIUM ORGANUM, because he never could reach to the same height again.
Even reporting Gurdjieff in IN SEARCH OF THE MIRACULOUS he has not attained to the same height. When he betrayed Gurdjieff he tried finally to create something better than TERTIUM. As his last effort he wrote THE FOURTH WAY but failed utterly. The book is good, good for any university curriculum. You can see I have my own ways of condemning a thing….
THE FOURTH WAY can be part of a regular curriculum in a university course, but more than that it is nothing. Although he was trying to do his best it is the worst book that Ouspensky has written. It was his last book.
That is the difficulty with all that is great: if you try, you miss. It comes effortlessly or not at all. It has visited him in TERTIUM ORGANUM and he was not even aware of it. The words in TERTIUM are so powerful one cannot believe that the author is unenlightened, that he is still looking for a master, that he is still searching for the truth.
I was a poor student, working the whole day as a journalist — that is the worst job you can do, but that’s what was available to me at the time — and I was in such need that I had to join a night college. So the whole day I worked as a journalist, and at night I went to college.
I have never liked to read books borrowed from others. In fact I hate even borrowing from a library, because a library book is like a prostitute. I hate to see the marks, the underlining of other people. I always love the fresh, the snow-white freshness.
TERTIUM ORGANUM was a costly book. In India, in those days, I was getting a salary of only seventy rupees each month, and by coincidence the book cost exactly seventy rupees — but I purchased it. The bookseller was amazed. He said, “Even the richest man in our community cannot afford it. For five years I have been keeping it to sell, and nobody has purchased it. People come and look at it, then drop the idea of buying. How can you, a poor student, working the whole day and studying at night, working almost twenty-four hours each day, how can you afford it?”
I said, “This book I can purchase even if I have to pay for it with my life. Just reading the first line is enough. I have to have it whatsoever the cost.”
That first sentence I had read in the introduction was, “This is the third canon of thought, and there are only three.
The first is that of Aristotle; the second of Bacon, and the third, my own.” I was thrilled by Ouspensky’s daring, that he said, “The third existed even before the first.” That was the sentence that caught fire in my heart.
I gave the bookseller my whole month’s salary. You cannot understand, because for that whole month I had to almost starve. But it was worth it. I can remember that beautiful month: no food, no clothes — not even shelter; because I could not pay the rent I was thrown out of my small room. But I was happy with TERTIUM ORGANUM under the sky. I read that book under a street lamp — it is a confession — and I have lived that book. That book is so beautiful, and more so now that I know that the man did not know at all. How could he have managed it then? It must have been a conspiracy of the gods, something from the beyond.
- Osho, books i have loved.
here is tertium organum
http://www.esnips.com/doc/a412e62f-76e5-4b87-8ba4-ee1638b1ee19/Ouspensky—Tertium-Organum
:x
i feel like i am going overboard here
its about time
@};-
^:)^
:-h
Subrat,
I watched Logan’s Run on TNT
I heard Beatles for the first time on fadein/fadeout SW signals from BBC radio.
I even managed to see some of the
My first Hollywood movie way back in 1974 when i was all of 5 years old. I remember watching The Poseidon Adventure on Big Screen, in a theatre in my hometown of Vishakapatnam. The experience was unforgettable, the tidal wave rushing in, the ship capsizing, and then the passengers trying to escape from the ship. That was the movie which totally hooked me on to Hollywood.
I grew up in the 70’s, when forget about Internet and Cable TV, the only entertainment we had was radio. I remember sittign in front of the radio and listening to Binaca Geet Mala and Ameen Sayani’s voice.
The first time i recorded my favorite Kishore Da songs on an audio casette and played it. It was something unforgettable. I wanted to have my own Kishore Da collection. As i discovered more and more songs of Kishore Da, it was a never ending journey for me.
The first time i read a book in full fledged version was 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne. And i got totally hooked onto those classic by Verne, Stevenson, Dickens and co.
My first bestseller novel was Alistair McLean’s Breakheart Pass, and that got me on to McLean big time. And then followed Forsyth, Archer, Ludlum. To date i never miss an opportunity to read McLean or Forsyt.
@Vishrant
Nice to find some one who shares my views on Ms.Rand. One of the most overrated writers for sure. Half of the book she tries to push ahead her philosophy, and the worst thing she takes 100 lines to explain something which can be said in 2-3 lines.
hmmmn don’t know what you are talking about…I never felt like turning the clock back for enjoying things for the first time again but thanks to you, I might feel like it from now on! :((
:P
Subrat,
“Dil dhoondta hai phir wohi phursat ke raat din”! Thats what I yearn for the most. As always, reading your nostalgic articles feels like music on my ears :). Thanks!
Shriya.
As usual, a Subrat post is an enjoyable post :d
//Wodehouse, now, remains primarily an inexplicably Indian public school phenomenon.//
So true and so sad..i know many of my friends who claim to be book worms but they haven’t got around to reading PG Wodehouse..
The general perception is that a Wodehouse book is good for improving the English language hence it has to be a tough one to read..They dont know wat they are missing..
^
^
For some strange reason Mithya reminded me of Laughing Gas by Wodehouse.
All - thanks for sharing your interests. And to all Wodehouse and Old HFM fans - more power to us
Hey, gr8 post! u’ve touched the chord…there are so many memories coming back to me…and what is more striking is they are more related to books, movies, and songs than human beings!!!!
Starnge…never paid attention to that aspect…
BTW, the word is “sog” and not “shok”, an equivalent to shok in Urdu.
Interesting write-up. Here is a Wickepedia link for those to know more about P.G wodehouse
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._G._Wodehouse
Awaiting your next one.:)
Subrat…..Excellent post. It is so true, though it never struck me before.
I am a big fan of HFM from the 50s and 60s. I also like a lot of music from 70s.
What would I not give to watch Andaz Apna Apna for the first time. Or getting a chance to read Doctors again for the first time. Had read it after my 12th finals. It totally consumed me at that time. Same with Not a Penny More Not a Penny Less….
Oh well, life moves on…
>>>>>And, even when you assiduously build to create that time again, you realize that you haven
This is the kind of writing I would like to see more, boss. so enriching and intriguing.