The son of the soil is back!

It has been nearly a month & a half since I posted anything. This long gap has ensued due to a plethora of factors, the most prominent among them being my laziness & my tendency to procrastinate. Anyway, better late than never.

For what follows below, you will need to install Kannada fonts for your computer (that is, if they are not already installed). The same can be downloaded from the Baraha (which is an excellent freeware for document creation in Indian languages) website which can be reached by clicking here.

Sample this :-

"ಎಯ್, ಏನು ಹೇಳ್ತೀಯಾ?

ಎಯ್, ಏನು ಹೇಳಲಿ ನಾ?

ಕೇಳು,

ಹೇಳು,

ಬರ್ತೀಯಾ ಖಂಡಾಲಾಗೆ?

ಏನು, ಮಾಡಲಿ,

ಬಂದು ಖಂಡಾಲಾಗೆ?

ಅಯ್ಯೊ, ಅಲಿಯೋಣ, ಸುತ್ತೋಣ, ಕುಣಿಯೋಣ, ಹಾಡೋಣ,

ಮಜಾ ಮಾಡೋಣ ಏನಂತೀಯಾ?"

Well, that was the literal (almost) translation of the popular Aati Kya Khandala song from the Hindi movie Ghulam into Kannada. This movie starring Aamir Khan & Rani Mukherjee was directed by Vikram Bhatt & was based on the English classic On the waterfront by Elia Kazan. This song was sung by Aamir Khan himself along with Alka Yagnik. Anu Malik was the music director & the lyrics for this particular song were composed by Nitin Raikwar. Aamir himself was asked to lend his voice for the song because the song is basically a lyrical conversation between a tapori (from Mumbai, where else?) & his 'posh' girlfriend and the director felt that a natural approach would be best. The rest is history.

For the benefit of those who cannot read or understand Kannada, an English translation follows :-

"Hey, what do you say?
Hey, what do I say?
Listen,
Tell,
Coming to Khandala?
What, will I do,
after reaching Khandala?
We will roam 'n' wander 'n' dance 'n' sing;
generally have fun, what else?"

I have refrained from reproducing the actual Hindi song here, for the simple reason that if you have never heard the song, you won't know, literally & figuratively, what I am talking about.