Indigenous Dubbing

Weekend ... I'm in my room, taking it easy & listening to Eminem's "Cleaning Out My Closet" when my mom pops her head in tells me that I need to tidy-up my room ... dad's orders. Sighing, I get up and just as Eminem is done cleaning his, I start with mine and come across some old audio cassettes in one of the drawers. One of these contains the title songs of yesteryear tv serials ... Street Hawk, Duck Tales, Talespin, Alice in Wonderland, Potli Baba Ki so on and so forth. I forgot I even had something like this which by the looks of, had survived my dad's numerous attempts at cleaning out and discarding my closet ( i am a collector, u see). I stick it in the 2-in-1 and suddenly, I am back in pre-primary school, it is a Sunday, I am up early all set for my fav tv shows ... Potli Baba Ki, Gucche, Gaayab Aaya, Jungle Book, Duck Tales, Talespin, Alice in Wonderland etc.

Potli Baba Ki depicted a wizened old man who could hardly walk, let alone speak, travelling from town to town sharing his stories. The title song was penned by none other than Gulzaar and went "Potli me hari bhari, pariyo ke par; Mandiro ki ghantiya, khalisao ka baag; Aaya aaya jhenu wali jhunnu ka baba ..." He also contributed towards those for Gucche "Guccha hai bhai guccha hai kahaniyon ka guccha hai, kahani lelo; Bin daato ki daadi amma, kopan mooh ki naani lelo ..." & everybody's all time fav Jungle Book - "Ek parinda hoy sharminda, tha woh nangaa; Bhai isse to ande ke andar tha woh changaa; Arre soch rahaa hai baahar akhir kyon niklaa hai; Chaddi pahan ki phool khila hai, phool khila hai; Jungle jungle pataa chala hai, chaddi pehen ki phool khila hai ..."

Not far behind was Alice in Wonderland with "Tap tap topi topi tap, tap tap topi topi tap; Tap tap topi topi top me jo doobe, Far far farmaishee dekhe hai ajoobe; Ulat palat ralat salat sai, jubilee chinak jaai ..." Now what Alice or for that matter Wonderland has got to do with this i dunno, and i doubt Lewis Carroll would have been able to shed light on this either.

Two of the best dubbed cartoons were Talespin which went "Ghumao, ba ba ba ba baba ba ba ba ba baba ba; Oiye talespin, oiyo talespin; Dosti hamari hain jaan se pyari chal sune kahani; Oiye talespin, oiyo talespin, jo bhi kahani hai saath, museebat nahi laati ..." & Duck Tales with "Zindagi toofani hain, jahaan hain Duckburg; Gaadiyan, lasers, hawai-jahaaj, yeh hain Duckburg; Rahasya suljhao, itihaas banao, duck tales woo hoo hoo ..."

And so it goes on for half an hour till I'm done listening to my collection. Even though most of them make no sense whatsoever & i watched these more than a decade ago, I still remember the lyrics & recall them fondly- a window into my childhood, i guess.

Back in the present, I dust the cassette, clean the case and tuck it back neatly in my drawer.