Something damn funny happened yesterday...I was at a friend's wedding reception. Bride was Sri Lankan Tamil brought up in India and groom was Anglo Indian - so naturally when they started playing songs I didn't expect any Sinhalese ones. The only Sinhalese there were two others besides myself anyway.
So it was bit of a shocker when the baila beats came in, and then just after Bombay mere hai, came the unmistakable lines of 'Surangani ta maalu genava'.
We (me and the other two) were quite bemused and asked the groom if he knew what language 'Surangani' was or what it meant. Guy said he didn't know the meaning, but it was like a tradition to sing it in weddings and gatherings ... :D
So it was bit of a shocker when the baila beats came in, and then just after Bombay mere hai, came the unmistakable lines of 'Surangani ta maalu genava'.
We (me and the other two) were quite bemused and asked the groom if he knew what language 'Surangani' was or what it meant. Guy said he didn't know the meaning, but it was like a tradition to sing it in weddings and gatherings ... :D
When I was in the university, lot of Tamil students didn’t want to move with the majority of Sinhalese. (They had a hard time too. Time to time, their rooms were checked, and questioned act). When we went on our batch trip, most of the Tamil people were gathered to a one bus and we called it as a ‘Tamil bus’.
ReplyDeleteSuddenly there was a break down in our bus. Hence the destination was nearby, we have to spread to other buses and continue. Majority of the girls got on to the Tamil bus. The Tamil students were very thrilled and sang those two songs as a welcome! (There was less than 20% of the girls in the batch and lesser percentage among Tamils) As a reply, Sinhalese started, ‘Waanga machan waanga’ song, and ended up with the Hindi songs.
I can say that the friendship lasted throughout the period and still there. Unfortunately, that happened in the 3rd year.
Actually Sunil Shantha had used Bengali music and melodies for his songs like Olu nelala and handa paane! :D
ReplyDelete@කලිකාල
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful story! The fact that its a true one makes it even better :) Being a small batch comprised of 100 odd students, we didn't really have that much separatism and went together whenever we went trips and stuff. Although I do remember that the Tamil people hung out together always...but then again that's understandable, that happens whenever there's a minority I guess.
@Dee
Ah didn't know that - although entirely plausible since a lot of our composers still use Indian music (mostly Hindi ones though). But it's cool when they adopt our (well we have made it ours) baila :D
As I've heard now a long time back, "Suranganee ta maalu gaenaawaa" is one of the songs in the selection of international songs used by the Scouts movements in SE Asia.
ReplyDeleteIt has since been picked up by some people in the region. I have heard Napalese etc singing this song.
Among Tamils, I guess there is a singer named Manoharan who has sung a number of Sinhala Baila and made them somewhat known in Madras.
While at Peradeniya and in trips with fellow Tamils, we used to sing old Sinhala songs with original Hindi tunes. There are Tamil versions of these songs as well and you can sing them back-2-back.
@Kathandara
ReplyDelete'"Suranganee ta maalu gaenaawaa" is one of the songs in the selection of international songs used by the Scouts movements in SE Asia.'
>>>>that's very interesting. I suppose 'Surangani' can be called an International hit in the true sense of the word :D
Did a bit of research and apparently 'Surangani' is an 'open source' song! And look at this Tamil version - looks at least 30 years old:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lUFTMXNzPM&feature=player_embedded