Mausam - Nitin Sawhney (Philtre, 2005)

Use your imagination, your fantasy, and help us out here (see it as a thought-experiment if you like). Just take a minute of your day now and relax. Reflect; take the effort to think, to stop for just a moment and see where you are now. Imagine yourself having walked on the same road for ages. All your life you have filled your time with the usual, the safe, the known, that with which you had certainty. Though there is nothing wrong with that, just imagine, if you would have opened up your mind...

If you had tried to understand that one friend's difficulties, and not held on to your own beliefs, would you still have had those fights with him? If you had tried to free yourself from the safeness of your 'home, sweet home', would you not have seen more of the beauties of the world? If you had walked the other road, would you perhaps not have found new joys, new routes to your goal, new friends and new dreams? Yes, uncertainty brings difficulties. Taking the road of the unknown requires guts. It certainly involves risks and making choices in 'the dark'. You might just run into sorrow, into sadness. You could lose it all, you could lose yourself.

On the other hand, if you have had difficulties all your life, if you feel you have been neglected by that wizard some would call God, if you feel like you will have to live in misery for the rest of your life... (it would almost seem that you have been comforted by and got accustomed to pain)... Have you tried letting the sun in? Stepping out in the open?... Having walked on the same road all that time, have you once thought of abandoning the painful road of the past and just take a new pathway to your dreams?...
I would say, use your discrimination to judge where you came from, where you are now, what you can become and how you can hold an open mind to new beautiful opportunities to enrich your life. We get accustomed to walking the road we have walked all our life.

Nitin Sawhney is a gifted musician. He has the talent to blend different styles, genres, instruments, melodies, sounds and grooves… he might be called a master cook in music, a magician if I may say so. Beautiful tracks come to my mind: Nadia, The Conference, Rainfall, Prophecy... and these are just a few. All his musical pieces have a very distinct character. There is a global feeling by the way he blends everything. Or, perhaps, instead of calling it blending, he just lets the music flow…
His last album, Philtre, is a gem to me. The whole album is filled with a unity I cannot grasp yet. Effortlessly he moves from sound to sound, seemingly crossing the whole world and taking the listener on a journey. Both this, and having Reena Bhardwaj (see Yeh Rishta, an earlier blog) sing some of the most soothing melodies I have ever heard, has made him win my heart and mind with this album. Some of the lyrics are like haunting me ever since I first heard them, just like for example the lyrics of the song Mausam, sung by Reena Bhardwaj and Murtaza Khan.

Mausam, meaning 'weather' or 'season', is a song that to me holds a powerful message. Starting of with the confluence of a bansuri (bamboo flute) and strings, Reena takes over almost immediately with the first two lines.

Ek rang me jeena, jeevan ko
To live your life in one color
Aye jaan-e-tamanna, theek nahi
Oh my beloved, is not right

The smooth rhythms together with the strumming of the guitar seem to set the pace for the journey. Walking on the road we walked all our life. But the melodies and the sargam ('notes') sung by Murtaza Khan already show that there is more at the horizon… a new horizon... things we can acquire, dreams we can achieve, happiness we can make our own... And not having to wait too long, Reena shows new possibilities…

Gham aur khushi do raste hai
Pain and joy are two roads
Ek raah pe chalna theek nahi
To walk only one path is not right

Badal jaaye mausam
The weather changes
Khushi aaye, jaaye gham
And joy comes while pain leaves

Murtaza Khan showers the song with his beautiful sargam variations to the likings of a heavenly sweet shower of rain in mid-summer, only to find the sun shining brightly thereafter with Reena's voice. Their confluence in singing the last lines together is incredible. Having the bansuri adorn the visions of a new horizon, the song keeps on going. The torrents of Murtaza's sargam over the bright 'joy comes while pain leaves' is a delight.

The song, with very simple lyrics but with profound meaning, keeps on reverberating in my head. Just remember, there are two roads, and the beauty of life is captured in the changing weather... pain will leave and joy will come. Rest assured...

(Unfortunately, I could not find a full online version for listening. A sample can be found here: Juno Records :: Nitin Sawhney - Philtre. If someone finds a usefull link, please let me know and I'll add the link.)