Happy Earth Day! Which Google doodle informed me of before Amitabh, very strange, Amitabh usually tells me everything. Anyway, rather than being all serious and doing songs about the environment, I want to be fun and do songs that use the word “Duniya” or “Mittee” or are otherwise “earthy” in content.
Starting with the song that taught me “Mittee”!!! Such a great word, my grandmother who grew up on farms always insisted that there was a difference between “dirt” and “soil”, and now I have the “soil” equivalent for Hindi.
And then the song that taught me “Duniya”! A much more common word in Hindi film songs. The “world” meaning of “earth”.
A more cheerful version of “Duniya”!
And then a new word courtesy of Aamir! “Dharti”! Means “earth” in the sort of “land beneath our feet” way.
“Dharti” again from Shahrukh, with a bonus “Des”, meaning “the land, the place, the home, the nation”.
And a really interesting song to end with, that uses “Des” again, and also tries to deal with “earth” meaning both the whole world (which Shahrukh serves through his job at Nasa) and the very particular place that calls to use as home, the soil under your feet and the people that belong to it.
Sun Mitwa will always be my go to dharthi geet. Though I get emotional every time I hear “mitti ki hai jo khushbu tu kaise bulayega” from ye jo des hai tera. How will I ever forget the fragrance of that soil. * Sighs poetically*
LikeLike
What I find really amazing about “Yeh Jo Des Hai Tera” is that it makes me emotional too! Not for India, but the general sense of the soil of your homeland, it somehow hits a universal feeling of homesickness and transplantedness.
LikeLike
Exactly,,,a quasi universal song…I feel the same…and it’s the only Indian ‘homesickness’-song (from those I know) that touches me so deeply.
Btw, without you I would miss a lot of ‘special’ days 😀
LikeLike
I love Ye Jo Des Hai Tera. A R Rahman did a brilliant job and also find that Swades is a really underrated Srk movie
LikeLike
I was excited to see it added to Netflix mostly because I hope it helps more people discover the film.
LikeLike
There’s always “Yeh Duniya agar mil bhi jaye to” from Pyaasa, which is what “duniya” reminds me of, but it’s not really appropriate for Earth Day.
LikeLike
Well, none of these are that appropriate! Although at least most of them take place outside, so I guess slightly more appropriate than “Yeh Duniya”
LikeLike
Margaret, could you please delete the above two posts. I hope the correct link shows up now on the third try:
LikeLike