Unka Khayaal, a song that takes you back to the era of Jagjit Singh and his ghazhals.
It is said that the one who loves to sing, will always find a song. Perhaps, sometimes he can carve out a song as well!
This song, written, composed and sung by Neelesh Misra, is no different. This 2011 song, released under the album ‘Rewind’ of the ‘Band Called Nine’, is one of the very first songs sung by your favourite storyteller! This was the first and the only album released by the band.
How Neelesh Misra and Shilpa Rao created a band
I shall share the approved lyrics of the song and the song itself later in this post, but first the background story. You can also hear many more of his songs here, and read his lyrics from film and non-film albums here.
Mr. Misra always wanted to sing, but could never train as a musician or singer. He got an opportunity to sing much later in life when he formed a band, Band Called Nine, and had extremely accomplished colleagues in the band — Shilpa Rao, Amartya Rahut, Abhishek Nailwal, Aditya Pushkarna, Hitesh Modak, Ankur Mukherjee.
But the band got a chance to do an album, thanks to the incredible Atul Churamani, the Oracle who was a pioneer for what later came to be known as independent music in India. He used to then head the music label Saregama India and when Band Called Nine got the opportunity to create an album, Shilpa encouraged Mr. Misra to sing two songs for it. One of them — Unka Khayal — was something he had written and composed and hesitantly sung before her earlier.
Mr. Misra says: “I shall never forget how she encouraged me and that led me to singing at the mike for the first time. In that way, she was my first music teacher.
“Sadly, not learning music is one of the biggest regrets in my life and I hope that at some point I can let go of all other entrapments and focus and learn,” he says.
“I had just composed it in a very amateur manner and then she embellished it with aalaaps. So that was how this song was created,” he added.
The man who made the music album happen
Mr. Neelesh Misra also fondly mentioned Mr.Atul Churamani who had started with the music label Magnasound in 1988 and worked with Virgin Records for four years before moving to Saregama India.
Whilst talking about Mr. Atul Churamani, Mr. Misra stated: “He is one the Bheeshma Pitamahs of independent music in India. He has helped musicians build careers and changed lives. He created the whole non- film revolution in India. He heard our songs and he quite loved the scratches.”
So before becoming India’s most favourite storyteller, Mr. Neelesh Misra had tried his hands on various things. Singing was one of them.
He gleefully recalls, “I remember it was Aslam who used to run a studio and we were practically living out of that studio. We recorded nine songs at that time and I was like, as it is said in the mountains, “kacchi pok ” — normally the kid or the weaker player who has a privilege and never gets out in the game. While everybody was an accomplished musician, I was, and still am, totally untrained in music. So I was really hesitant to sing amongst all the other worthy and amazing people.”
Being a part of an album, the song has gracefully lived beyond it. Unka Khayaal still continues to house the hearts of the enthusiasts of melodiously poignant music, like you and me!
“Somehow the song had struck a chord with a lot of people. I sing it at almost all my live performances. So perhaps that song has sort of lived on beyond the album and I am… very delighted about it!” Mr. Neelesh Misra says.
The approved lyrics of Unka Khayal
Here are the lyrics of the song, approved by Mr. Neelesh Misra (his lyrics listed on other websites often have a lot of mistakes and we shall slowly publish the lyrics for all his songs here):
उनका ख़याल आते ही एक और ख्याल आया
मुद्दत हुई है यार का कोई ना हाल आया
सावन में रुत ना बरसी ना बसंत फूल लाया
तेरे प्यार में तेरे बिन ऐसा भी साल आया
चाहोगे भी तो मुझको अब ढूंढ ना सकोगे
माज़ी की क़ैद में मैं ख़ुद को सम्भाल आया
तस्वीर देखता हूँ हर रोज़ मैं तुम्हारी
क्या तुमको भी कभी यूँ मेरा ख्याल आया
जितने भी ख़त लिखे थे शिकवे शिकायतों के
मैं आज सुबह तेरे दरवाज़े डाल आया
उनका ख्याल आते ही इक और ख़याल आया
मुद्दत हुई है यार का कोई ना हाल आया
And finally, why don’t you hear the song yourself! Here is Unka Khayal by Neelesh Misra and Shilpa Rao:
