Anjan Dutta-r Gaan

Being from the North East means that you have strong reservations about the Bengali culture. For one thing, the culture of Bengal, including the language, has always played the role of a ‘big brother’ to the culture and language of the North-Eastern states, especially Assam. For example, we also celebrate the Durga puja, but the Bengalis will say, Durga pura is their tradition. I mean, whatever. Yet, at times you become defensive. Especially when they ask you if you are Bengali, because of your name, and your accent. They have never heard of the place called Assam.

Given this circumstances, it was utterly, utterly surprising how I fell in love with the music of Anjan Dutta, and how, I am still in love with his songs. Yes, I cannot still get over the fact that even 10 years after I first heard his 1995 album ‘Purono Guitar’, his songs still touched me, a handful of them, like Roma, Ranjana, Purono Guitar, Tumi na thakle, and the haunting Mr Hall.

Recently, when I heard his two albums, ‘Purono Guitar’ and Keu Gaan Gaye (1997), I was transported to the days when I first heard the songs, in 1998, at a friend’s place, on a cassette players. It was the time when Suman was already a hugely popular singer of the newly-developed modern Bengali music; the graph of Nachiketa Chakraborty was on the rise (I used to love his song, Tumi ki amai bhalobasho). But Anjan Dutta was something else — how he invoked the middle class milieu in a few words, and his dispassionate obsession with memory and nostalgia in songs like Purono guitar and Mr Hall, and his clear voice.

When I heard him 10 years ago, he spoke to me about my childhood, my adolescence; 10 years later, he still spoke to me with the same memories, memories I thought I have already forgotten. That’s what probably being a classic means.

His songs opened a whole new world to me: He introduced me to The Hooters in the song Mr Hall: If you miss the train I am on... and Pete Seeger in the Bengali translation of ‘Little Boxes’, and most importantly, he told how to tell about other people in poems. Unlike the abstract content of most popular songs, his songs are populated with people and their stories — the Muslim boy in love with a Hindu girl in Ranjana: “Ranjana, I’m not coming to your lane, I don't want to get my leg broken...” Roma, who decides to run away with her lover because it’s her life, not doll’s play, and the man who had travelled from Kaling Pong to Kolkata so that he can earn some money to marry his beloved Kanchan, there are many more such characters.

The Begali lyric of the song Mr Hall:
Kane baze akhono purono shai pianor jonker
Nikotine holde hoye jowa dosta angul
Sari Badhe dariya 100 miler ganta
100 bar suneO 100 ber hoto vul
Janalar baire kuyashay sada school ta
Poketer vitore adkhowa parhari fol
Hat pate bet khete hoyache tomar kache kotobar
Amar ganer suru Mr. Hall

If you miss this train I’m on
You will know that I’m gone
You can here the whistle blow
A hundred miles
A Hundred miles, A hundred miles, A hundred miles, A hundred miles,
You can here the whistle blow
A hundred miles

Sudhu ai ganta aktai gan proti shonibar
Tarikta jai hok hok ta se je kono mash
Par hoye gachi koto hajar hajar mile
Tobu thamenito konodin amader cholar chol
Tokhoto buzini boro hoya boroi shokto
Boysher sate sate kome jay chokher jol
Thame jate chay aaj kotobar amar monta
Tobu Thameni ja ami akhono Mr. Hall

Not a shirt on my bag
Not a penny to my name
Not I can’t go back home
This a way
This a way This a way This a way This a way
Not I can’t go back home
This a way

Paharer gondho amar nake chokhe
Brandir nashay tomar du’chok lal
Kokhon je chigarate thame jeto thoter fake
Tobu thame galo akdin hothat pianota tomer
Akta shonibar holona kono roll call
Suro kore deye tumi amader poth cholota
Kothay je chole gale hariya Mr. Hall

If you miss this train I’m on
You will know that I’m gone
You can here the whistle blow
A hundred miles
A hundred miles, A hundred miles, A hundred miles, A hundred miles,
You can here the whistle blow
A hundred miles

Lord I’m one Lord I’m two
Lord I’m Three Lord I’m four Lord I’m five
A hundred miles away from home
Away from home Away from home Away from home
Away from home
Lord I’m five
A hundred miles
Away from home

From Wikipedia: Anjan Dutta is a popular artist of the 1990s Bengali music scene defined by anyodharar gaan (alternative songs). Anjan Dutta's style of music is different from the others in the sense that it has simple tunes, one that is reminiscent of western folk music. His lyrics are simple and more natural. Anjan's music is somewhat influenced by blues, bluegrass, folk and country music. He is the first Bengali artist to depend more on the saxophone. He is an admitted fan of Bob Dylan and his Bengali contemporary Kabir Suman.