Roshay — Upset with me, my beloved has left..!
Has it ever occurred to you!? When you are randomly scrolling Instagram, you find this non-trendy reel with a different yet familiar background music. Instantly you Google it up and it’s now in your Playlist i.e. “Favorites”.
I don’t know about anyone else, but it happens to me very often. Par Chana de, Daylight, Until I Found You, Kaahe Kanha… the list goes on!
One such tune that instantly mesmerized me was ‘Roshay’. The Insta reel I found was a cut-to-cut scene from season 1 of the Hindi web series Made in Heaven. Yes, Made in Heaven, a show whose second season is stirring up a lot of talks recently. Zoya, Reema, and Alankrita have done justice by adding amazing musical pieces throughout the show. Be it Ae re Sakhi, Roshay, Mehndi Song, or So in Love; All of them are so good! Above all this, I haven’t even watched a single episode of this widely popular show and I’m already in love with the music they are using in the background.
Okay, coming back to that reel. It was a wedding scene and Roshay was playing in the background, a satirical way for the writer to tell something. The music starts along with entries of Bride (Shweta Tripathi’s character) and Groom (Ravish Desai’s character). After I saw and listened to Roshay in the soothing voice of Vibha Saraf (music by Dub Sharma ), I was stunned. My hands involuntarily reached for the “Save” button. Then what!? I knew it was not Hindi for sure and yet it sounded so familiar to me. That’s when I started to Google and learn about the song, language, lyrics, and information about it (Yes! I do that kind of Nerd research stuff).
The Moon, the Light, the Lady of Art — Habba Khatoon
After some scrolls, I got to know it is a popular Koshur (Kashmiri language) folk song. Other most famous versions of Roshay are- Zeb Banghash’s Roshe (Coke Studio’s Version), Noor Mohammad’s Roshey and Choloma, and Ali Saffudin’s Chol Hama Roshay for the film ‘No Fathers in Kashmir’.
That’s all about music and voices, but the purpose of this post won’t be served if I don’t talk about the lyrics. Thanks to Sandesh Kalantre for explaining the lyrics in his post. The lyricist of the ode is Habba Khatoon, a woman who lived more than 500 years ago!
Habba Khatoon, a peasant queen, is the greatest Kashmiri Poet known as the Nightingale of Kashmir. Her birth name was Zoon — meaning Moon in Koshur. She was known to be the queen consort of the last independent king of Kashmir, Yousouf Shah Chak. Chak was arrested and imprisoned by a Mughal Emperor. With that separation from her beloved, she started writing songs filled with emotions attached to grief, anger, and love. She became a reflection of the pain of separation.
The word “Roshay” actually translates to anger or upset. The words from the land of Kasheer filled my heart with delight and deluge. Roshay, a song retelling the tale of Zoon & Chak, a “laol” poetry containing lines filled with anger, sorrow, melancholy, and love — all at the same time, made me restless! The song evoked deep emotions within me and bound me to it.
Then I thought why not write about this experience, or even better why not write it again in my way? (I mean I might have made a ‘failed’ attempt to translate it into Hindi.) So this happened,
(Hindi Translated Lyrics)
Chal o sajna kinaare
Duniya sogayi chup se
Duniya sogayi chup se
Ruske.. ruske sajna yun chala
Ruske.. ruske sajna yun chala
(Original Koshur Lyrics)
Walai ve’si gachhvai aabas,
Dunya nendri ta khaabas,
Roshe.. roshe madeno tcholhama
Roshe.. roshe madeno tcholhama
Isn’t it painfully beautiful!? A Moon, a Queen of Kashmir eventually became an ascetic and merged along with a sky full of starry night. Her sorrow gave out the pioneering poems of Kashmiri literature that are so soothing to hear. Even after half a millenium her art is echoing and inspiring this era’s naïve writers like me. If that’s not Legacy, then what is!?
~Yashaina😉
I do not claim any credit for the song, its lyrics, or the background of the picture used. I tried to translate it with my perceived knowledge and any mistakes rest with me. Loads of thanks to dear Prapti for helping me to write this post.
