After a hard day of entertaining guests (admittedly Sharmila and her mom did all the work 🙂 ), my father-in-law and myself taking it easy at our favorite bar watching a World Cup Soccer game. He hid his wine so that my mother-in-law – who has gone with the girls to yet another party – won’t see it in the pic 🙂
Remember the Afghan cab driver I had chatted up in DC who was startled to find out that I knew about Ahmad Ali – who happened to have learnt music with him in Kabul together and escaped from Afghanistan together? And remember how I had struggled with a particular song of Ahmad Ali that I was sure was the same tune as a Nazrulgeeti that I had heard in my childhood and for the life of me, never could remember which?
Well, I had called my sister, held the phone next a YouTube blasting on my computer and she could not figure it out either. I reached out to a few more people who I thought might know. And completely hit a wall.
Enter my mother in law.
Last Friday, I was listening to songs and practicing some tabla when she came to the music room. So, we started listening to songs together and then out of a whim I had her listen to the Ahmad Ali song and asked her if it reminded her of any other song. To my complete amazement, she said she did. But struggled to remember the song. I was t*h*i*s close!!!
She kept giving me hints – male singer, words were like “laas dhuiyo laal paani diye” etc etc. Furious Googling led to nothing. Whatsoever 🙁
Saturday morning, as she walked into the kitchen, she said softly (she is a very soft spoken person), “I think it starts ‘Jedin Lobo Biday'”. Coffee be darned, I immediately jumped onto Google and YouTube. SURE ENOUGH!!! She had nailed the song. Found out the song on YouTube. Compared the tunes. Exactly the same!!!
Evidently, she had stayed up the previous night for sometime trying to rack her memory cells till she could remember the song!!
Now, that is my kind of mother in law!!!
You can check for yourself.
The Ahmad Ali song can be found here (start from 5:55 Mark) http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=o37CBES5cE4
And the Nazrulgeeti can be found here: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-H5xFEqFSxc
Uncanny, huh?
Driving on a long road trip with three high school girls in the back and one elementary school girl in front has its own perks. Some of the most hilarious discussions are going on. Sharmila and the inlaws – not to speak of the dog – in the car behind are so missing this…
Example:
Me: So, Jordan, if you were the President for a day what would you do?
Jordan: I would change the school system to be like the ones in Finland.
Me: How so?
Jordan: They pay their students to go to school.
Before I could internalize what I just learnt, Almudina interjected “You cannot do that. That is a state issue. You have no power over that”!!
Ah! High school and those social sciences classes!!!
