Ik bagal me chaand hoga

“When I heard the first few lines of the song, I felt it was just another song, big deal!  Then I saw Piyush MIshra’s name, and knew there is more to the song than what I see at the surface. And I found this video and the lyrics and its interpretation posted along with it. Though I do not completely like the interpretation, but that put the whole song in a completely different perspective! 

Now I recognize the subtlety in the song and its beyond words! (I took inspiration from the  interpretation of the song posted with the video so I cannot take complete credit for the interpretation of the song.) For each line there is the literal meaning and the interpreted/subtle meaning. 🙂  

I read somewhere that this song was originally written (before being used in the movie) keeping in mind an underprivileged family where the mother sings this song to her daughters. So the song could be just as simple as it sounds,and as innocent as the actual words (chaand, roti, seepi) used. But I like to dig deeper into words and sentences for subtleties 🙂 🙂 …so here it is “Ik bagal mein” from the movie Gangs of Wasseypur 

Ik bagal mein chaand hoga, ik bagal mein rotiyaan , 
Ik bagal neend hogi, ik bagal mein loriyaan,
Hum chaand pe roti ki chaadar daalkar so jayenge,
Aur neend se keh denge lori kal sunaane aayenge  

Literally : One one side is the moon and on the other side there is bread (food) , On one side there is sleep and on the other there are lullabies, We will cover the moon with the flat bread and tell “sleep” that we will sing a lullaby tomorrow.  Interpretation: On one side are dreams (moon) and one side are daily needs (food). One one side are will be peace of mind (sleep) and on one side will be the means to attain it (lullabies). But we will always choose to fulfill our needs while ignoring our actual dreams completely, and as for the peace of mind, we will choose to walk on that path tomorrow (i.e. sometime later)  

Ik bagal mein khankhanati sipiyaan ho jayengi, 
Ik bagal mein kuch rulaati siskiyaan ho jayengi
Hum seepiyon mein bhar ke saare taare chun ke aayenge
Aur siskiyon ko gudgudi kar kar ke yun behlayenge 

Literal Meaning : On one side there will be tinkling oysters, one one side there will be cries and sobs. We will gather stars and fill the oysters with them and we will pacify the sobs with tickles.  Interpretation: One one side there will be happiness (the oysters) and one side there will be worries and tensions in life. We will collect/gather all the happy moments and treasure them  (just like pearls in oysters) and we will turn the sobs (sad moments) to happy ones with smiles, giggles and tickles.  

Amma teri siskiyon pe koi rone aayega,
koi rone aayega
Gham na kar jo aayega wo fir kabhi na jayega,
wo fir kabhi na jayega 
Yaad rakh par koi anhoni nahi tu laayegi,
laayegi to fir kahani aur kuch ho jayegi  

Literal Meaning : Oh mother someone will come to weep with you as you sob, and don’t you worry once that person arrives he will not leave you. But remember you will not bring anything improbable with you, as then it will be a different story all together.  Interpretation: There is a hidden hope that someone someday will definitely help us out of the situation we are in no matter how bad it is! Someone will come to share our sorrows and then probably stay with us and support us for the rest of our lives. However we need to be careful we do not make choices that spoil our life to the point of no repair, because then its a different story all together. (Then there might be no support, no help and probably no life, we might be just be left to die)  

Honi aur anhoni ki parvaah kise hai meri jaan 
Hadd se jyada ye hi hoga ki yahin mar jayenge 
Hum maut ko sapna batakar uth khade honge yahin 
Aur honi ko thenga dikhakar khilkhilakate jayenge  

Literal Meaning : Who cares about the happenings and mishappenings, the worst that can happen is that we will die here, we will call death a dream and stand up again, and will mock at the happenings and laugh our way out of it!  Interpretation: I think this last stanza is written as a continuation of the previous one, but on a positive and carefree note, stating the fact that no matter how hard we try we all know we cannot get out of here alive anyway!  So whatever happens or does not happen should not worry us! Worst come worst we will die (that we will anyway), so for now think of death as one long dream and stand up as if nothing happened! And laugh at whatever just happened. (This is something we all must have experienced at some point in life! At one moment a problem might seem so big that it might just kill you, and then probably a couple of days later, we might be explaining the problem (that got resolved) as a funny story 🙂 …atleast I have done that many times)  

I must say each stanza now feels like a complete story in itself! Love the finesse and the completeness of the whole song! The way I see the song, its a very practical take on how we all live our lives, how we always have some reasons to be happy and some others to be sad, its about that confusion that exists in all our minds, the confusion between what we like to do, and what we have to do, and how we always choose what we have to do (roti over chaand), how we can always keep ourselves happy in spite of the compromises, and the end of the song mocks at death and the tolerance and patience of mankind to bear all that happens to us and still continue with our lives as though nothing happened.”

(Write up courtesy: Ayush Garg)