On the whalesongs of Bollywood, sentiment, and the lyric familiar
Chhoti Bahen, Hindi Film, 1959
"Listening to Mukesh"
Pooja Nansi
Driving to your block, I slide in my father's cassette of old Hindi songs and I am humming in twilight to the legendary playback singer's baritone releasing those sounds in that language that makes me feel like I am home. In the back of my throat, I can taste my grandmother's translucent thin chappatis that as children we would hold up to the light, the dough so evenly rolled out by her hands that not one lump would show.
