lalita larking

An obsession with cryptic crosswords. Everything else falls in place.

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Location: Kolkata, India

Friday, May 25, 2007

One lives and learns

One filler post, coming up!

Look, I'd rather not tell you about my woes, so I will tell you of my misfortunes. For all my accumulated years and wisdom it seems I am a simpleton; an idiot, imbecile, a cretin even.

My cousins used to listen to music other than what used to be on offer on All India Radio and I heard this song way back when the world was young. I loved it; the refrain and the weary mood all touched a chord and spoke to me.

'Daylight come 'n' 'e' wan' go home' sounded poignant to me. It spoke of physical toil, bad work conditions, monotony and the need to go back to the comfort of the familiar. 'Come mister tally man, tally me banana', I used to sing to myself as I counted my day's achievements.

Then I heard Pradeep sing it. He was a whale of a man, and the only safe place I could offer him to park himself when he visited was our bed. (he broke a chair when he came wishing us a happy married life and sang a brilliant version of 'ek chatur naar' and those were days when he was merely overweight) He'd stretch out in imitation of Lord Vishnu on his bed of time serpent and sing to us.

Banana Boat was a song he loved to sing. He'd give it his full-throated baritone soul, voice soaring to make the room shiver and walls throw back echoes, but he always got the pensiveness right. When I hear the lines 'day, me say day, me say day, me say day' in my head, I can almost see him. A mountain of a man lolling on my bed, fat fingers snapping time as his voice freewheeled, soared and captured the mood; grinning as he sang 'a beautiful bunch of ripe banana' and went on to the deadly black tarantulas. Man, I'm tired, his voice would say; I need a break, his voice would say.

Now, I have searched a bit for the song and I could only find a paltry few seconds of Harry Belafonte singing it. I prefer remembering Pradeep sing it, though. But life is full of rude shocks. I came across this link, which rather reinforces my belief that when correctly viewed everything is lewd. The mind boggles.

Cheers!

10 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

The banana boat song has been ruined forever, Lali( Big fat Tears) I'm also old school simpleton, cretin etc etc.. Boohoo

1:55 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

How your affection for friends shines through in the description, Lali. I could see the man sprawled and singing. But you have ruined the song for me too.

8:03 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Auntie Lali, that link was hilarious. So you are feeling better?

9:20 pm  
Blogger Lalita said...

Dipali- Why should I suffer alone? Let me spread the shock around and all that. :-)

Ash- Yeah, I loved that man. What a voice and range. For the rest, refer to comment above.

Rajesh- Child. You would think so, wouldn't you? I am no better, not a lot worse, whatever. Thanks for asking.

10:18 pm  
Blogger Rimi said...

Even *I* stop and stare at this our man Jerry. and that's saying a LOT> After all, my signature tee says "Mind in the gutter, and proud of it!"

Good lord, Lali. Worth the suspense :-)

10:22 pm  
Blogger Lalita said...

Rimi- You really have a tee that says that? The mind boggles.

10:54 am  
Blogger Priya said...

Well, as I love to say, Good, Effing Lord! ;-) It's N's favourite song too. And, am sure, even he won't like the "interpretation" :) And lady, what kind of research you do wonly, for your posts! Ze mind boggles :P

5:12 pm  
Blogger Lalita said...

Priya- It's a free world and all that, but you need to clean up your language to set an example to your child. And really, I stumbled upon the link while searching for the lyric, I didn't go hunting as such. Serendipity, alas.

9:59 pm  
Blogger Alien said...

Serendipity... Lol..

11:22 pm  
Blogger Lalita said...

Alien- Sigh. It is not funny.

11:17 pm  

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