DailyOh! Sajid-Wajid’s Wajid Khan no more, but who were Bollywood’s first composer duo
Hint: Ek Dil Ke Tukde Hazar Huye.
Hey there,
You may have spent the weekend alone but the virus met new people. In fact, it met as many as 8,392 new people between Sunday and Monday morning. It must have met them earlier but the meeting was confirmed between Sunday and Monday. Coronavirus has so far entered over 1,90,791 human bodies in India, it has left 91,855 of those it entered. We mean these people have recovered. Close to 94,000 are still carrying the virus and we run the risk of running into them as we step out with restrictions easing because these are active cases. The gap in numbers - close to 5,400 - is the number of people who have lost the battle to the virus.
Among those who died of the virus is music composer, director and singer Wajid Khan. The 42-year-old died on Monday morning after being tested positive for the virus a few days ago. How did the virus defeat someone so young? Well, Wajid was also suffering from kidney ailments. He had, in fact, undergone a kidney transplant a few months ago.
Wajid Khan, however, doesn’t ring a bell in our heads as the mention of Sajid-Wajid. The mention of Sajid-Wajid rings a bell and then gets the music flowing. From Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kya (1998), to Tere Naam (2003) and most recently Dabangg 3 (2019), the duo gave us some nice peppy and foot-tapping music. Also, they kept the tradition of composer duos going. But who were the two people who started the tradition of duos in Bollywood?
The answer is: Husnalal-Bhagatram. The duo made their entry into film music in 1944 with the movie Chand. But it was the 1948 movie Pyar Ki Jeet’s song “Ek Dil Ke Tukde Hazar Huye” which many might remember listening to on the verge of breakups, in the middle of separations, or for sometime even after parting.
But breakup or patch-up, the song is what it is - pure melody.
But we started talking about Husnalal-Bhagatram because we were talking of Sajid-Wajid, who of course, we were talking about because of Wajid’s unfortunate demise due to Covid-19. So, if you had any doubt about the severity of what we are dealing with, we guess your doubts stands cleared.
But Imran Pasha still isn’t so sure about it. The Padarayanapura corporator in Karnataka went to hospital after testing positive with full fanfare risking passing on the infection to his supporters. But the drama started much earlier. When Pasha was told he has tested positive he insisted “only seeing is believing”. So he refused to go to hospital until he had seen the report himself. Having seen the report himself, Pasha reportedly resisted administration’s efforts to take him to the hospital. As a corporator, Pasha is administration himself. Coronavirus doesn’t differentiate between the administrator and the administered but Pasha won’t believe unless he sees that in writing.
Now, when Pasha realised there was no way but to go to hospital, he ensured it became a spectacle. Hundreds gathered to see him off. At one point, Pasha turned and touched the feet of an old lady for blessings. Pasha got his blessings, but we wonder what the woman got from a corona-positive Pasha.
Banglore Padrayanapur JDS Coroporator Imran Pasha celebrating with huge crowd after getting tested Positive for Corona. pic.twitter.com/ABI9wN2KJX
— ???? Jaat ???? (@RamJaat0) May 31, 2020
We need no more proof to say Imran Pasha is a Covidiot.
But two Pakistan High Commission assistants were spies. So says the Delhi Police. In fact, Abid Hussain and Tahir Khan were both Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) operatives. The duo was caught in Karol Bagh yesterday.
They were in Karol Bagh to meet a person to obtain documents with information on Indian security installations. They were reportedly caught red-handed giving the third person Rs 15,000 in cash and an iPhone in exchange for the documents. National secrets available for just Rs 15,000 and a China assembled iPhone? Maybe it’s the slowdown impact. The person who received the money and phone in exchange of the documents was also apparently a Pakistani, named Javed Hussain. He too has been caught. Apart from all the charges that are slapped on them, we suggest the police slap them with a case for venturing out for non-essential activities like espionage when people can’t step out even for essential activities in most parts.
The law would deal with them like the law deals with such cases. But remember all countries have spies and they sneak into each other’s territories for information. Like, Sehmat (Alia Bhatt) did in Raazi (2018). Not everybody manages to make it back like Ajit Doval. Some are caught too. Let us tell you about one such person, though there are many, who was caught - Mohanlal Bhaskar.
In 1965, Bhaskar gave a speech on Bhagat Singh, which reportedly convinced people looking for spies, that Bhaskar was driven enough by patriotism to enter enemy territory to collect information. Now, when a spy is caught, countries mostly have to disown them because you can’t own up to the fact that you were spying on another country. Your families are also mostly in the dark about what you do. Who wants that life? The patriots, they say. Additional qualifications could include huge appetite for adventure.
So, when Bhaskar had convinced people about his drive for espionage work, the training began. Bhaskar was supposed to enter Pakistan and gather information on the country’s nuclear programme. So without the knowledge of his family, Bhaskar underwent circumcision, converted to Islam and took the name Mohammad Aslam. He went to Pakistan as Aslam.
His cover was blown because of one of his colleague, who was a double agent. Once that happened, Bhaskar was put behind bars. He stayed there for 14 years. Then he was released as part of a prisoner exchange programme. What is that? It’s a understanding between nations, “you release our spies, we release your’s”. When Bhaskar came out back home in India after serving the country in Pakistan, he wrote a book, An Indian Spy in Pakistan.
Read it if you have time and an inclination for reading.
From India-Pakistan spy games, driven by their hostilities, let’s take you to the hostilities tearing apart the US for about a week now over the death of a black man, George Floyd, at the hands of a white police officer. People in about 40 cities of the US ignored the curfew and lockdown restrictions to come out and protest. Many, not all, have been burning property and looting shops in the name of protests.
Protesters reached White House on Friday and so President Donald Trump had to take refuge in a bunker in keeping with his security protocol.
On Sunday, Trump roared that the far-left group Antifa would be designated as a terrorist organisation by his government. Antifa is supposedly leading the protests, which many say is spontaneous.
The United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 31, 2020
The inconsistent President has however spoilt his records of being inconsistent by being a bit consistent on what he thinks of Antify – “a terrorist organisation”.
Anitifa hit headlines in June 2019 when its members clashed with those of a far-right group called Proud Boys in Portland, Oregon. Clashes leave injured on both sides, mostly leaving out those who instigate clashes. In this case too, the same happened.
Antifa has, however, been around for several decades. Though which decade exactly it dates back to, remains unclear. We may not know the date, but we have some clue about the place of its origin. It could be Germany because antifa is the borrowed shot form of German antifaschistische, which means ‘anti-fascist’. Oxford dictionary defines the word thus, “a political protest movement of people who are against fascism.” Antifa, as you would have guessed by now, is our Word Of The Day.
Who are Antifa’s members? They are those who are members or movements like Black Lives Matter. As in there are no formal members. The movement has existed in the US since about 1980s, but shot to prominence after the election of Trump in 2016. The ‘shot’ to prominence saw Antifa members hit streets with protests and demonstrations that were violent in nature.
Are you intrigued why protests turn incontrollable right ahead of elections in many countries? We too are. We leave it to US to answer that for now.
Back in India, coronavirus has taken the country to the seventh spot on the global tally in terms of the spread of the virus.
Should you worry? No, because chinta ta chita chita (worry is a way to pyre). Wajid Khan has been buried. His songs live on.
Here’s one for you:
For his other contributions and the role Salman Khan played in those contributions, you should read this.
We will see you tomorrow.
Stay safe, stay chinta-free.