I have attempted a favourite song from the Hindi film Junoon (1979), which evokes some.charming scenes traditionally associated with a North Indian monsoon, especially in rural communities. Set to a lilting folksy melody, the lyrics in the colloquial Hindi of Uttar Pradesh describe the feelings that the dark clouds and cool breezes of the monsoon evoke in a young woman, after the searing heat of the Indian summer. The monsoon weather makes her romantic and playful. The singer describes how the buds of the jasmine and bela flowers begin to open in this season and release their heady fragrance. Tree branches sway with the movement of rope swings as the singer and other young women swing joyfully, their green 'chunaris' refusing to stay demurely on their heads, while their bangles tinkle as they move. The singer can't escape the rain and doesn't want to. Apparently complaining, she actually is enjoying getting drenched in the courtyard and terrace of her home. What is more, her lover's bed (placed in the courtyard or terrace as was the practice in the warm weather) also gets soaked in the gently falling showers of the monsoon along with her crisp, dry cotton chunari.

I have attempted a chant of six sacred Sanskrit verses termed the Nirvana Shatakam or the Atma Shatakam, composed by ancient Indian saint and Guru Adi Shankaracharya in the 8th century AD. The verses describe the profound nature of the Supreme Blissful Consciousness or 'Shiv' that is, in fact, identical with the individual Soul or 'Jiva'. A beautiful poetic exposition of the Vedantic philosophy of Advait (Non Dualism), the verses describe Shiv as that unchanging Consciousness that is complete in itself, beyond the body, mind, emotions, attachments, desires, social relationships, Nature, religion, sin, virtue, death and even salvation. And all individual souls are its reflection and therefore also indestructible and sacred. The inner realisation of this essential Unity is true spiritual Liberation.

I have attempted a favourite song from the Hindi film Tamaasha' (2015) which has beautiful and unusual lyrics by Irshad Kamil. The song in the film is a duet in which a woman expresses her wish to always be together with her lover because his presence completes her and causes any sorrows that come her way to slip away. She is immersed in her longing to be with him through the daily hustle-bustle of each passing day and wishes that she could find a way to make hin stay with her a few more moments each time she sees him Her lover however, while attracted to her, seems to cynically question the adequacy of their togetherness to actually take away from the painful realities of life, which must be faced regardless of whether they are together or not.

I have attempted this haunting Punjabi folk song which draws on the old legend of Soni and her lover Mahiwal. In simple Punjabi with a lilting melody, it recounts how Soni , who used to secretly visit her lover at night by swimming across the river Chenab, using a large earthen pot to carry her across, is faced with a fateful choice one stormy night. Her sister-in-law, learning of the affair, conspires to replace the baked clay pot with a raw one. That stormy night, Soni has an irresistible urge to visit her lover and pleads with the pot to take her across. The pot reveals that it is raw and incapable of supporting her but she insists, saying that she so ardently wishes to meet Mahiwal that even if her corpse reaches the other side to meet him, she would take that risk knowingly. Was this her stubborn foolishness or her complete surrender of self to a greater emotion: an overriding Love in the face of which death was a small matter?

I have attempted a geet-numa-ghazal (a ghazal sung in light, song form) written by Late Nasir Kazmi (1925-1972). In this romantic poem written in simple Urdu, an ardent lover voices both his longing for his beloved as well as the apprehensions this love arouses in his mind. His fears indicate both the depth of romantic love as well as its fragility. He engages in gentle irony by wondering if he may at some date, weary of even she who has so besotted him. The rest of the couplets however contradict this fear by describing how, when he meets her after a long time, he fears that the day will end too soon. He solicitously advises her not to engage with sad people lest her beauty scatter in their burdensome company. His deep desire is that she come to him and then not leave for their entire lifetime. He keeps fretting about attaining his love, and what its fate will be, and, again, ironically comments that even this habit of tormenting himself with such thoughts is perhaps a skill not to be wasted. In the last couplet, there is a sense of melancholy where he invites his beloved to spend a little time with him just shedding tears together, lest the swelling river of emotion recede leaving them stranded.

I have attempted a favourite thumri composed in Raag Bhairavi by Hindustani music maestro Late Ustad Faiyaz Khan of the Agra Gharana in the 1920s-30s. The words, in the colloquial Hindi of Western Uttar Pradesh, express the hurt and anger of a woman whose beloved has been neglecting her. She chides him and asks why he is making false excuses for not visiting her when the real reason is that he has been callous and betrayed their love. She tells him that he should not come to her but rather should go back to his home and spouse where he spends all his nights anyway. She asks sarcastically if he was unable to move around because he had applied henna on his feet like some coy bride or whether it had been raining (just for him), that he couldn't visit her. If like he claimed, he couldn't get any opportunities in the day, didn't he have the night to make time for her!

I have attempted a favourite song from Hindi film 'Taal' (1999) , written by Anand Bakshi with haunting music by A.R. Rahman. Sung in the film by Hariharan accompanied by Sukhvinder Singh, i have modified it for my simple amateur solo rendition accompanied by the electronic Tanpura. A favourite of mine, the song 's melody bears the stamp of Rahman, with its harmonious fusion of Indian semi-classical and Western musical styles. An intense love song, it has an undercurrent of spiritual soul-longing for the beloved.

On the auspicious occasion of the ninth day (Navami) of Ashwin Navaratri 2022 I have attempted this energizing ancient Sanskrit hymn to the Devi in her form as Vindhyeshwari or Vindhyavaasini: she who resides in the mountains of Vindhyachal. Vindhyeshwari is a very old form of the Goddess refered to in the Mahabharat and various Puranas. She is also called Vanadevi or the Goddess of the forests. According to one narrative, the primal human Manu prayed to Vindhyeshwari and was granted the boon of having progeny. The Puranas also recount that Devi forecast that she would reside in Vindhyachal and when the demons Shumbh and Nishumbh create misery on earth, she would slay them in Vindhyachal. The sacred temple of Vindhyeshwari near Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh is a renowned Shaktipeeth where the Goddess is believed to be present in her complete form. Vindhyeshwari is a brave, aggressive but benevolent Goddess. The Vindhyeshwari Stotram is composed in the Panch-chaamar meter which is a lively meter indicating her bravery. My small attempt is inspired by the masterly rendition by Pandit Chhannulal Mishra ji of Banaras.

I have attempted a beautiful Sabad Kirtan, comprising of couplets composed by Shri Guru Nanak ji in the 15th century. This traditional Bhajan/Kirtan was featured in Hindi film 'Halla Bol' (2008), sung by Sukhvinder Singh. The couplets, set to the traditional lilting melody of popular North Indian devotional kirtans, are composed in an amalgam of mediaeval, colloquial dialects and nascent veranaculars of North and West India such as Awadhi, Brajbhasha, early Punjabi, Sindhi, Rajasthani, other 'Apabhramsha' (popular spoken simplified forms of Sanskrit) and Arabic. They were thus composed in the language of the common people of that time, as was the practice of the Bhakti saints of the period. The words testify to the deeply mystic spirituality of Guru Nanak. They stress the crucial importance of the 'Satnam' (True Name of the formless God), 'Satguru' (True Guru) and of loving devotion to both of these in order to attain the Divine.

I have attempted this famous song which belongs to the Celtic folk ballad genre, lyrics of which were ironically composed by English lawyer-songwriter Frederic Weatherly, in 1910. They were set to the tune of a haunting old Irish melody called 'Londonderry Air' in 1913, which is supposed to have been discovered in the mid-19th century by a collector of old Irish music, Jane Ross, but the roots of which probably go back to 17th century Irish harp music. 'O Danny Boy', with its poignant lyrics and melody, became popular during World War I and over decades, it became an identity-song for the Irish-American diaspora, evoking a feeling of nostalgia for the homeland amongst that community. The ballad was first sung by English opera singer Elsie Griffith in 1915 and has subtle operatic overtones. The lyrics are varyingly interpreted, often, as expressing the longing of ageing Irish parents for sons gone to war, but the song may equally, especially when sung by a woman, express the painful longing of a country maiden awaiting her lover and calling out to him amongst the glens and mountains of her beautiful native land, knowing all the while that she may never see him again.