Two events last night made me remember her…

One of them has to be my friend Archie’s blog on singers, and the other one was the video I happened to see on MTV …

It brought back the memories of 1995. I always listened to songs but never really had a favorite voice that I used to hear often. Mom had many favourite singers, but I was just about listening to songs that pleased my ears.

I remember in 95, Anupama Verma did a video for Biddu. The song and video somehow became my favourite. I got the CD a few years later as a gift for buying an audio player.

Guess I got loads of pop Indian music collections, and this album was placed right after Alisha’s “Made in India” in the gift wrap.

I wasn’t aware it was the remix version for three years running since 1995. I was in love with the song more than the video. I know Anupama Verma was hot that time (she looked great in last year’s Big Boss as well), but it was the voice that kept me interested. After watching Alisha, Anaida, and other female pop singers, my usual foundation was Anupama Verma to have sung this song.

Till I got hold of the CD and to my surprise, it wasn’t Anupama Verma who turned out to be the singer. I didn’t know much about this singer.
I asked my brother about her; he mentioned a couple of movie references… most notably Qurbani made in the 1980s starring Feroz Khan, Vinod Khanna, and Zeenat Aman. Hmmm, I loved those songs, and when I listened to the Qurbani album all over again, I could connect the voice.

I am talking about the Pakistani Sensation, Nazia Hasan.

I never wanted to know about her life except that I was fida over her voice, especially the ‘Boom Boom’ song.

I didn’t have Internet at that time. Even when I had an opportunity in the late ’90s, searching about Nazia Hasan was not the priority considering the amount of money I spent on Internet café.

In 2000, I got a collector’s edition copy of Film fare that listed all the previous winners from the 1950s when the award was instituted.

In the archives, Nazia Hasan – 1980- Best Playback Singer, and later that day, I got to know she was born in 1965. I wondered the whole day; she was as old as me when she picked up the award.

Later, I saw the picture of hers, and; I was so attracted to her…. I said to myself, “Man, I am sure she is not going to go out of my memories.” She will be there, I was a big fan of her voice, but now I was a big fan of her, period. You can call it to crush if one wants for my fascination towards Nazia.

All I had listened, was remix songs of hers, barring few originals.

In 2000, came a song – sometime in May during my holidays…. I remember the song that goes this way, “Aankhen Milane wala…”. I knew it was Nazia Hasan’s voice.

Sadly, a few months later, I got to know she passed away. That was one of the days wherein we had our colleges shut because of Rajkumar’s kidnapping episode, and when I heard this news for the first time, I was shocked, and I expressed my dissatisfaction to my brother, who was equally hit by this news.

She continued to live on….memories of many like me.

In 2003, when MTV was showcasing a unique program on retro Hindi music, I happened to see a video of Rati Agnihotri (audio was muted because of a phone conversation I was having). I just ended the phone call, and what I hear, Yes, the familiar words… Boom Boom….

I was like, OMG, is this the original song? All I got was the last 40-50 seconds of that song. Of course, the saving grace was the movie title that appeared in the end. The movie’s name was” Star.”

I happened to see the video later that week. Maybe, I was destined to see it because; I was so desperate to see the original video.
As soon as I got the taste of the original, out went Anupama Verma’s remix song. From that day till date, I love the original and continue to so.

Thanks to YouTube, I can have this song – In fact, I have tried many video shops for this movie… I wasn’t lucky. Considering the money I spend on buying movie DVDs, I must admit, this, as a big failure on my part.

Today early morning after a goof-up concerning surprising one of my friends on his birthday, he surprised us and made me sit at home rather than barging our way to his house early in the morning. I was a bit sad that I couldn’t wish him personally (which I have done over the past many years). Anyway, I just laughed at what happened.

After a while, from nowhere, I was thinking about Nazia and wondered, “I haven’t seen many people of my age appreciate Nazia’s talent.”

While the song ‘Boom Boom’ is playing on my player, I am giving the final touches to this, on one of the fascinating women I have known, never mind if it wasn’t in person.

Afterall she was just 35…. when she said… Alvida….for one final time.