The1967 song Mast Bahaaron Ka Mein Ashiq has been on replay mode in my head for the past many weeks. Especially its refrain: Saara jahaan hai mere liye, mere liye (the whole world was made for me, for me). I don’t know where it came from but it stuck, and it pops up every time I see or hear something wondrous.
So when I cuddled in my rajai one early morning, the kids just having left for school, a delicious sensuous warmth washed over me and I sang, Saara jahaan hai mere liye, mere liye. And when a burst of the most amazing fireworks I’ve ever seen lit up Bangkok’s Chao Phraya river the last night we were there, the view from the 64th-floor restaurant I was sitting in offering me a perfect view, I muttered smiling, Saara jahaan hai mere liye, mere liye. And a few days ago, as I negotiated my way up the stairs leading out of a Metro station, a huge bunch of pigeons chose that very moment to welcome me into the sun by suddenly flying out above me in a flutter of enthusiasm. Saara jahaan hai mere liye, mere liye.
In the song, Mohd Rafi sings in his unforgettable voice: “Darling, if I leave, then Nature will leave too. It was all made for me, for me.”
Genius really. This world is made for me, for me.
100 Paths 