Bas ek ‘pal’ – remembering KK; the friend in need.

Leaving this tribute incomplete and unpublished will haunt me forever. It’s nearly a month since he said Alvida to the world of music and everytime his name pops on my Google feed or his song plays on the radio, my heart skips a beat with guilt and grief. So let me finish on paper what I’ve started in my heart.

To be honest with you, I googled some idioms to express shock but turns out nothing can suffice, so I’m going to verbalise my feelings in whatever way I can..

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Had written the above piece in June but never got to finish it…I think at that time I believed the words weren’t right and then the right time never came back.

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I’m going to do it now. Right now. No matter what.

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It was past midnight and I was with the family at our cousin’s home waiting for an extremely energetic and enthusiastic band of boys to wrap up the haldi ceremony! The words “One laaaast song” had punctured my already numb ears at least ten songs ago!!

I was scrolling through the photos of the event and laughing at the madness I’d captured, when a message from my bestie in Canada popped up on our otherwise dormant WhatsApp group. One glance at the headline of the forward and I went blank.

Suddenly I was no longer a part of that happy night. There was this horrible sensation I felt inside me, like I had been knocked out. ‘Singer KK dies.’ Did I read those words?

I had to break the news to someone who would share my sentiment but where in this marriage house was I to find such a person? The drive back home that night felt the longest and loneliest because l couldn’t risk telling it to Pratik who was behind the wheel after crazy hours of dancing, while my heart yearned for some of KK’s songs desperately.

Upon reaching my room I released the breath I’d been holding. I told PP the news and his reaction was as just as I had suspected. He was absolutely shocked but as he was still in the gala zone, that emotion didn’t last long, unlike in my case.

When I say KK, the first song that would come to the minds of many would be Pal or Yaaron. For me it’s always been Tadap tadap. I chose to play that song and it was followed by several YouTube suggestions, from Beetey Lamhe to Dil Ibadat to Alvida. An extremely hyper Shlok screaming around at 1.00 a.m. wasn’t exactly conducive to the ‘Tadap tadap’ atmosphere though, so I decided to let it go that night.

I spent the following week searching up KK songs to play, reading up nearly all the tributes covered in newspapers, yet it could hardly do justice to the singer. There was this one article that really touched me and also an inspiration to complete mine because there were some parts of it that you could totally relate to, that KK’s real fans would be able to connect with and say, “I know, right!?”

KK’s passing on was difficult because it felt like the loss of a friend, albeit a long-lost one. He was like one of those friends that you never meet but you just know they’re there for you, like you know he’ll catch you if you were to do a trust fall!

You know, I connected with KK on one more level. ‘Tamara’ was the name I’d chosen for a girl child and I knew from a long time that KK’s daughter was named so 🙂

There are so many out there who’ve listened to his songs, sung his songs when in need, without even knowing or realising that the voice lent to the emotions and feelings they’re experiencing, that voice is KK. Even me for instance, for a long time I never associated ‘Sach keh raha hai deewana’ with KK because wasn’t it more like a Maddy song!?

I may have had an Amit Trivedi phase but at any point in time if I were to make a list of limited songs to last a lifetime, it would definitely have more from my early decades than AT.

I’m listing down ten of my KK favourites that will stay with me forever. (Order of favourites is intended and based on my emotional attachment.)

Tadap tadap
Bas ek pal
Beetey Lamhe
Sach keh raha hai
Tujhe sochta hoon
Soniye
Tu hi meri shab hai
Dil ibadat
O meri jaan – Tum Mile
Aashayein

Thank you KK for giving us the much needed songs that we can spend days listening to and nights crying to and most importantly for each of us to believe that ‘this song was made for me and me alone.’

P.S. OBVIOUSLY I appreciate and acknowledge the music directors and lyricists because if not for them, these songs wouldn’t have been.

Article reference – KK: Remembering the voice that touched millions of Indian love stories,
Zoya Mateen
BBC News