A Lucky song tale

All of 16, a teenager’s heart skipped a beat to the tunes of an indie-pop singer and created an archetype in her head on new standards for handsome men! His earthy voice bracketing pyramids of Egypt, archaeology, a desert that yearns - in total of a little over four minutes; just enough to dream of ultimate love-travel. It was 1996, and I was in love with Lucky Ali in his blue shirt and bedouin head-gear for his first song O Sanam from his album Sunoh. Such was my first step in youth, love, and life. Then came a song, “Dekha hai aise bhi….and the words “Dil ke kisi kone mein bhi kuch aise hi vaadein hai” it was a track on traveling and revisiting somewhere without judgments. All you had to look for was a message, ‘on working towards your goals… without caring less’. Meet new people, let them be, they may or may not come around, but life will go on. At 17, for someone who felt a tad bit lost and yet confident; this song gave hope. Cut to Bollywood, Lucky Ali sang for Hrithik Roshan in a blockbuster hit. A master dance - step, velvety tone, locales of New Zealand and soaring towards Y2K (you can’t forget this) – it’s time to make a choice between your heart and mind – choose what you love or learn to love what you will study for the next four years! I am sure every 90s kid would agree with me on his charming yet rugged looks that made a smooth transition into mainstream world – just like how I had learned to be different, yet join the race later. Life takes its course, and so does your love, which never fades away; only to make rounds from where it was, behind shadows of time. ‘Sur’ was an experience. Onscreen, background score and a choral Lucky Ali was a delight to watch, and another milestone that coincided was a lifelong commitment of wedlock. A journey that has milestones and no destinations… Such were his melodies that rang attune to what I was living… He was often heard, loved and appreciated in years to come for Anjaana Anjaani… Aahista Aahista…. And Hairat. I think it was Safarnama, early last year, when I felt the same long lost connection; with what he said in the song, after a hiatus of personal nature. More on lines of ‘life does go on’ and making peace with that. It wouldn’t be entirely wrong to mention that each of his songs has a special place in my timeline of growing up. Lucky Ali’s music and his mystic renderings are the sketches, which outline the magic he sings with; he has colored my spells of happiness, sadness, anxiety, bewilderment, and at times solitude. His lyrics had stories; his music is still fresh to my ears as it was, in the decade before the last. Why this, today? I heard him at a concert this weekend, live and still exuding the same sharp charisma that hits you in the most unexpected way possible. Behind his silvery mane, melodic eyes, captivating resonance, and alluring performance, song after song – I witnessed myself from times that were my own, once upon a time!