dil to bacha hai ji

From the same people who brought you the album of Maachis some 14 years ago, Gulzar and Vishal Bhardwaj:

This is a fun and fantastic song. It’s about an older person falling in love. Interesting thing is that Gulzar (dude who wrote the song) himself is 73 years old now. When I grow up, I want to be like Gulzar.

There’s a line in the song that really got a hold of me. But it turns out that it doesn’t mean what I had wanted it to mean. At 1:55 into the song:

kisko pataa tha pehlu mein rakha, dil aisa paaji bhi hoga
hum to hamesha samajhte the koi hum jaisa haaji hi hoga

The lines are in reference to his heart. How he had thought his heart was always guarded and gentle and it turns out that it’s actually pretty ‘naughty’ (that’s how most translations on the net have translated ‘paaji’).

hum to hamesha samajhte the koi hum jaisa haaji hi hoga, the context here is the heart, where ‘haaji’ means gentle/gentleman-like. But the way it is said, ‘haaji’ can also refer to ‘one who performs hajj/pilgrimage’. A pilgrim. A person who journeys and wanders. That’s what I wanted it to mean.

hum to hamesha samajhte the koi hum jaisa haaji hi hoga, I wanted this not only to be in reference to his own heart, but also to refer to the person he was falling for. I wanted this translated as: I had always thought that she would be, like me, a pilgrim.

Still a good song, nonetheless.

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