तेनु काला चछ्मा...

"तेनु काला चछ्मा जचदा ऐ, जचदा ऐ ने गोरे मुखड़े ते " (black goggles suit you, whose face is of whitish hue) was the first Punjabi song that I heard at PEC shivalik hostel in first semester. For the Rajasthan bred me, all such songs sounded the same with loud beats and arcane lyrics in a language that could as well have been Greek. But no sir, this song was a sensation at PEC with all daaru parties blaring it on their cheap 1000 Rs music systems. Amit ‘Rao’ and me used to sing and dance(?) to the immortal “गिद्दे विच नचदी नारे नि ( She doesn’t dance with me at party)” after jogging at CCA ground near kurukshetra hostel. We ridiculed and loved Punjabi songs at the same time. We loved their beats and hated their words, because A) we didn’t understand them and B) we didn’t want to understand them. I was to find it out only in 3rd year that my favorite beats were actually lifted from ‘here comes the hotstepper’ , ‘gangsta’s paradise, ’, & ‘we will rock you’ amongst others.

Nonetheless, and as it happens with most things, I started to enjoy the songs that everybody around me liked. Arguably the best amongst them were kala chachma (it isn’t a spelling mistake, they pronounce it as chuch-ma) & आजा नि आजा , both by amar arshi। In every dance party at a disc, it wasn’t my Punjabi friends but rather me who used to pester the DJ for playing out these songs. And by 3rd year I was fluent in karaoke-ing them during my 2nd hand smoke-daaru-shiny disco lights induced stupor. And so was rao. Avneet Singh on the other hand used to sing Punjabi songs with a very very innovative style by mixing/confusing them with English ones. I still remember him mixing ‘escape’ and ‘let the music play’. It was a umm, well, ahhh॥ a unique genre that only avneet could have produced. You’re amazing, Yadav Ji!

Even though I loved these songs, I could never find their videos – no one in PEC had them. IIFT mein to no one even listened to them, so trying to find them would be a futile exercise I didn’t commit. However yesterday night I found it on YouTube – amar arshi’s videos of ‘aaja ni aaja’ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ze6Bmsm4WTI ) and ‘tenu kaala chachma’(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZBFRIFYwJo). And sir ji I was left speechless!!! I could never have imagined that such a great songs will have, so to say, such a FUDDU video. I mean was he out of his mind when he casted that fat aunty in tenu.? And why is that idiotic DJ suddenly dancing in mid of the song on ‘something like a phenomena’? And what are those bhangra dancers for in kala chachma? What are the 3 girls doing in aaja ni? Bloody they could have atleast afforded better glasses than the 20 Rs plastic goggles that children wear in birthday parties!! And finally, why would someone produce such a shabby video at all? Shit man! Down the gutter goes one of my fav memories of PEC :(
Watch them, at least you might have a laugh.