Veronica's Songs and my Lahore Memories :-)

You know some people might have wondered, why am I so obsessed with Veronica's songs? Even I have wondered about that a lot of times. I was thinking about this the whole day actually. Obviously, I was listening to her songs at the same time as well. Actually, let me just reiterate a bit and add Kajra Kajra Kajraare in here as well. Why am I addicted to Veronica's songs and this Kajraare song? I finally found the answer.

You know what they say, we human beings have such an amazing and a powerful mind. In most cases, we can do whatever we set our minds to do, albeit it might take some while to accomplish what we want to do. We also have an amazing gift given to us by god within us. It is our senses. We have the power to see, register things in our minds and remember them. At the same time we can taste things and smell delicious tantalising fragrances and aromas. However, we also have the awesome ability to hear things.

If we close our eyes and just hear about what is going on around us, we can probably, about 80% of the times, guess accurately what is going on around us. This is when we are not even seeing what is happening around us. Close your eyes, you are in a park, sitting on a bench. A bird flaps its wings and lands on the grass next to the bench. If you are concentrating enough, you will know that without even seeing.

These days it is way common for us to see a person with headphones/earphones on them, listening to music while doing any number of things that can be imagined. Walking, driving, swimming (yes swimming, I do that), strolling, sightseeing, shopping. People listen to music. It has become a part of our daily life to a certain extent. Majority of the people listen to at least one hour of music a day, in my opinion. When something becomes this common, we tend to associate things that we are doing with it. 

Certain memories in our minds are triggered, when we listen to a particular song because maybe, that was the song we were listening to at that time. Maybe we were listening to it on our mp3 player, our Blackberry, our iPhone/iTouch, in the car or somewhere outside in the background. You listen to the song again later on, only to have those memories come back to you, only to remember what you were doing when you were listening to this particular song. 

Similarly, when I listen to Veronica's songs, I remember things that I was doing when I heard them. These things are not limited to small things, I am talking about associating her songs to memories like visiting a place, eating something nice from somewhere etc. Veronica probably does not even know, how happy her songs make me. She probably does not even know why I am addicted to her songs. Come to think of it, until I realised this memory association phenomenon, I was in a dilemma too. Why Veronica? 

You know some people say that they get tired of listening to the same song, over and over again? Not me. Not when it comes to Kajra Kajra Kajraare and Veronica's songs. It is because the memories associated with these songs are so powerful, I listen to these songs just to evoke them sometimes.

I came across the Kajraare song and Veronica's album RUSH, one day before I had gone to Pakistan for my summer holidays. I transferred the songs to my Blackberry and while I was in Lahore for two months, I continuously listened to these songs on repeat. Whatever I did, whenever I went out, wherever I went, these songs would be playing and this is why I am hooked on to them. I will list now and explain what I remember when I hear each one of these songs. It is going to be interesting. 

• Aja Mahiya by Veronica - My house in Lahore is joined on one side by another house. Whenever the electricity would go away due to load shedding reasons, I would go sit in the terrace and listen to songs. One day, I saw a HOT DUDE in the terrace of the house next door. Kind of developed a crush on him. The lyrics of the song Aja Mahiya kind of suited the occasion so I would listen to this song, whenever I saw him. My siblings and cousins also started to tease me about the guy and sing lines from this song to annoy me. It was an amazing and fun 2 months in Lahore, where I would always stare at that hot guy from the terrace. Not only when he used to be in the terrace, but coming and going out of the house and in other situations too. Now when I listen to this song, I always remember these fun moments from Lahore that I had with my cousins and I remember that hot guy's face. I wonder what he is up to these days! 
• Gall Sun by Veronica - This song has a special memory attached to it. I drove for the first time in Pakistan in the summer and that also a manual car. There was a lot of traffic but my cousins wanted me to take them to Defence shopping area. We wanted to eat Pizza and Shawarmas from our restaurant and buy a cricket bat. I drove that day and boy! did I drive. Windows open, Gall Sun blasting from the speakers and my cousins - all 9 of them - making as much crazy noises as they could. Still, I managed to go to Defence and back to Punjab Society and I was so happy of my achievement. Throughout the drive, I kept on hearing this song and singing it. Then when we were playing cricket, I was hearing Gall Sun on my Blackberry using earphones. Now whenever I hear this song, I remember that amazing drive, that amazing weather, the girls and people staring at me particularly, me driving a manual car in Lahore, the feeling of shifting from first gear to the second, eating pizza from our own restaurant and whatever I experienced while listening to this song. WHENEVER I listen to this song, I listen to this song with eyes closed and it is like I am transported back to Lahore and then I have tears in my eyes. I miss Lahore so much. 
• Kajra Kajra Kajraare by Himesh Reshammiya - I was already addicted to this by the time I reached Lahore and was hearing this on repeat in the plane too. The beat of this song is just awesome and so are the lyrics. It was the hot song of the summer. Wherever I went in Lahore, which restaurant, whichever shop, this song would be on. Driver uncle was a lover of this song and whenever he would drive me to places, this song would be in the car. I remember a lot of things when I hear this song, I remember going to Kasur, I remember going to Wagah border, I remember going to Lahore Fort, I remember speeding on Lahore Ring Road at 220 kmph, I remember going to Shahdera to see Jehangir's Makbara, I remember literally everything of my summer through this song. This song made my summer. I listen to this song whenever I am missing Lahore and my cousins a lot. 

There is another reason why I love Kajraare song too. Whenever I listen to this song, first thing no matter what, I can see eyes. If my eyes are closed I can imagine eyes or even if my eyes are open, I can just see eyes flash across my mind. A beautiful pair of eyes. This song is about eyes, hence it would remind me of eyes and like I stated somewhere else before, eyes is something which attracts me in a person. I am a sucker for a good pair of eyes. I would faint if someone would look at me intensely with beautiful eyes. Too much information on eyes and what I think about them, I reckon. 

There was another song that I listened to a lot too in Lahore, but I did not actually list it because I did not listen to it enough. My main songs to listen to in Lahore were those three. Aja Mahiya, Gall Sun and Kajraare. This other song is also by Veronica and it is called Manja Soniye. It features Hunterz in it and it is really nice. So now I know and you people know why I listen to Veronica's songs so much. It is not that I am addicted to UK Bhangra, which I am, it is not that I particularly like Veronica's voice or songs a lot, but it is because it reminds me of a beautiful summer in Lahore, which I will not forget. If I start to list down everything that I did in those two months, I could probably publish a book. Music, songs or some lyrics from a song do evoke emotions and memories. Does make you remember. I love it when I remember and go through a roller coaster ride in my mind. Reminiscing about all the good times. 

This blog entry has already become far too big, so I best stop writing now. Later. xx