Lucky Ali- the man of the ’90s, every time you hear his voice, it evokes nostalgia, over and over again.
I was perhaps born a decade later. It all started with Anjaani raahon mein tu kya doondhta phire, and since then all I ever wished for, was to transcend back in time, to buy his album and play it on the radio while going on long drives. His songs rescued the trapped minds of the generation, teaching them you-only-live-once. His songs taught an entire generation that ek din bikharna yahan….
Bollywood failed in acknowledging him, his talent was brushed aside. I wonder whether we lost a gem in the materialistic, mad rush for money. I stumbled upon a video by Girliyapa and one of the main characters said, “Raat ko khali sadak pe, thandi thandi hawa pe, sau ke speed mein, bina kisi signal ke, pahadon ke andar, taaron ke neeche, it is like you are in a Lucky Ali music video”. As the decades pass by, I fear he would be lost in the galaxy of the undiscovered classics. But, as John Keats said, “A thing of Beauty is a joy forever,” and Mr Ali has been the beauty embellishing our lives for years now.
Every time you listen to his music, you feel a sense of belongingness. Belongingness not a to a person, belongingness not to a place, but to a time that has passed by. He taught us to seek and crave, not for someone else, but for thyself. He inspired an entire generation to travel and explore the infinite possibilities of the universe. He taught us what ‘wanderlust’ truly meant. This generation has limited wanderlust to Tinder and Instagram; the true essence was on understanding your inner self, which got lost in the millions of photos flooded with #wanderlust.
Do you ever see or hear something which makes you cry? You do not even know why you are crying, you just sit there speechless trying to make sense of the world? That is what this man has done to an entire generation. Every time I have felt alone, his voice has strengthened me to go on, pyaar ko manke hi chalte jana, dekha hai aise bhi, kisi ko aise hi, apne bhi dil mein kuch basaye hue kuch irade hai, dil ke kisi kone mein bhi kuch aise hi vaadein hai… everything is white noise, and at the end of the day, all you have is yourself and the people closest to you.
The current Bollywood songs boast of remixes and remakes of the golden eras. My heart aches as I see his youthfulness transforming into a man who has lived and inspired a generation to live!
From the one-sided love stories of O Sanam, Gori teriaankheinkahe to the self-discovery of Dekha hai aisebhi and Safarnama, his words echoed Kitni haseen zindagi hai yeh, na tum jano na hum….
We shall never have anyone like him.