SD Burman - The Singer

In the late 80s when I was a young, just out of school kid, I had to undertake a long train journey from New Delhi railway station. The most technological advanced thing in those days was what was called a walkman. It was a portable music player that came with a head phone and played audio cassettes. It ran on batteries that exhausted after 4-5 hours of play time and you have to replace them after that. I had plenty of audio cassettes and needed to buy the batteries. As I had 3-4 hours before the departure of the train, I went to buy them from Connaught Place. There was this music shop and I just went inside to pass time. I came across a cassete called 'Sun Mere Bandhu' it had songs sung by SD Burman. But what surprised me was the cost of this cassettes. When ordinary T-Series cassette came for about ₹ 20, this was priced ₹ 100. On asking the sales person told me that was a collection of some very rare songs and HMV (later Saregama) has restored them using some special technique. I asked for some sasta T-Series alternative for it. (In Madhwan voice) To usne mujhe aise dekha jaise maine uski kidney maang li ho. He said it was for high-class music lovers, not for kids.

I was kinda offended and just to prove that sales person, whom I haven't met again so far, that I'm a high-class music lover too, I finally bought that after battling with my conscious for over an hour (and also imagining how my father would've reacted, had he seen me spending that money).

Whatever, but that was the best investment of 100 ₹ I have ever made. It introduced me to one of the most magical voices. I never had any doubt about what a genius composer Burman Saab was, but he was an equally great singer too. Nothing soothes your soul more than his voice in unmistakable Bengali accent.

The cassette had about 10-12 songs. I have been able find eight of them. I don't remember the other songs but if you haven't listened to him, do give it a try.

He has sung many Bengali songs too. Possibly he started with them. Maybe our in-house resident Babu Moshai will recommend me some of those songs.

Edit: Adjusted imgur link

Edit II: That high-class music lover thing reminds me how something, some movie or some piece of music, we like suddenly becomes 'high-class' if others don't like it. How it suddenly becomes incomprehensible to lesser mortals. And also, how some movie or some song liked by some other person, but not by us, suddenly makes that person 'having low-taste' and 'not fit to live'. I am saying this because of my recent experience on this sub.

There's nothing strange in this though. It has always been the way of this world and it will always be. I and the things I like have always been and will always be better than you and the things you like.