Feminist research lyrics of Punjabi songs

"Dream is not what you see when you sleep, dream is what does not let you sleep!" Sadly, the famous Kalam-quote that was meant for people who would change the country for good disappointedly shakes its head at me, sitting up at two a.m. planning Monu's wedding.

Yeah she got hitched and the wedding's December though the bride and groom are not ready and the parents are letting them think they have a choice there though they too, on the face of it tell random people who tend to call up congratulating them on their daughter's roka that the final date is not yet fixed. So let me make it all easy for your baffled self and say they are getting married December 01.

Now I am going to dance and then some more at this wedding. Let the others do that work, as always. So Punjabi songs. I love them. The most senseless group of words strung together to beats that do "tikk-a-tikk-a-took-a-took-toook-toook-dhaddd-dhaaddd-dhaaaddd-DHAADDDDD" and then even more ridiculous rapping these days. Good fun. Plus you cannot overlook that fact that they are designed to cater to the needs of a bunch of drunk folks who are not really listening at all.

From a feminist point of view Punjbai lyrics would be nothing less than extremely offensive. The songs tend to put women in an inferior place to men. So in this song,

"नि woofer तू मेरी, मेरी
मैं तेरा amplifier , fier"

the man being the amplifier is the louder, stronger of the sexes while the woman is thudding in the background.

Furthermore, the lyrics

"तेनु की दिल डा हाल सुनावा
तेनु मैं इतनी बात बतावां
तेनु मैं दूर कहीं ले जावां
तेनु मैं अपनी हीर बनावां"

Now I ask you: what if the girl is really in no mood to listen to the guy wrenching his guts (they always mean the heart but they mean the guts) out or cannot really take leave from work to go even to a local pub with the guy, let alone somewhere far away? Preposterous I say!


Then there is the expected behaviour of the type of "ideal girl" that the songs are written for, and who will drive men insane to the extent that they write and sing- and then actually go ahead to sell after making even more ridiculous music-videos of- Punjabi songs.

So there are the girls who

"कुड़ियाँ दे विच फिरे हसदी खेडदी
हो गुत्त दी परांदी तेरी नाग वांगु मेलदी"

Loosely translated, the girl is laughing and chit-chatting with a bunch of her girlfriends (as no modern day girl is prone to doing- they just dont seem to get along with each other anymore) and her hair made into a plait is swishing like a black snake as she does the laughing and chit-chatting. So does that mean a girl like me who will usually be found sitting amidst a bunch of drunk guys bellowing louder than any of them on embarrassingly derogatory jokes and who has short hair cropped in terribly bad taste stands no chance of having a meaningless Punjabi song written about her?

Add discrimination to that list too!