Theloopylululog

What’s a song lyric that has stuck with me forever?

Forever seems too big a shoe to fill, no?

I will tell you about the songs whose lyrics have stayed with me ever since they touched my eardrum and made their way into my very Soul.

I say songs as I have one for you in every language I speak.

English: Stand by me by Ben E King

Some life lessons come by often, repeated in every chapter of our lives. But we don’t learn them. Skip it in every chapter giving it the classic excuse, I will learn it the next time please, now if you will just excuse me, I have got places to be!!

Not until they whip us and crush us under their weight do we we finally decide to begin listening and make the damn change.

In my case, seeking my anchor elsewhere has been kinda my unpaid job since childhood. I was afraid of my emotional world which by the way was too MASSIVE for me to comprehend and hence the endless seeking.

I have probably sung this song inwardly to every person in whom I sought to drop anchor.

I am a passionate woman and everything tends to become too intense too quickly with me. So much so that being around me begins to feel like you are in the vicinity of a tornado.

Obviously no one person stood by me. They tried for a while and quit.

Especially the men in my life. I handover my suitcase of emotions to them the minute they say I will stand by you L and make them the bank locker that guards it with their life.

Any wonder that they couldn’t? I had to turn 40 to finally wake up to the fact that they needn’t. They shouldn’t have to.

Now it has become an anthem of self love in my 40’s. One I remember often, atleast once everyday. Sometimes sing it too.

It’s always good to have friends and trusted ones having your back. BUT…Some journeys are meant only for us alone. Undertaken, prepared for and best navigated alone.

It is not about trusting others less, it is about trusting ourselves more.

There is a difference and that is exactly what the song whispers to me. Especially these lines,

No, I won’t be afraid
Oh, I won’t be afraid
Just as long as you stand, stand by me

I am my anchor and no one else need be burdened with it.

I need to stand by me forever and that is all that matters.

---

Hindi : Teri galiyon mein na rakhenge kadam,aaj ke baad( I will never set foot in your lanes after today )

This has been a childhood favorite. For it’s emotional core first. Then for the big reveal that happened much later.

It’s melancholy and sung by my favorite singer. I needed nothing else to fall in love with a song about love, loss and betrayal.

I probably learnt the full lyrics of the song before I knew what romantic love was! I empathised with the betrayed man and sang along with him every other day. I literally grew up listening to this song. Everyone who knew me even as a kid knew this was my go-to song for everything.

Happy, sad, angry, anxious, furious; you name it and I could deal with it with the song in the background.

Only much later did the lyrics take on a new meaning. When I myself loved, lost and was betrayed, the song took me by the hand to it’s deepest trenches of pain and opened the doors to a world of healing.

Today it’s another anthem of self love I swear by for life.

When I sing it for myself now, I mean this:

I will not walk down the same lanes of my past again.

I will not walk by the lanes of people who betrayed me, abused me and disrespected me for being who I am.

I will not walk down paths that were never meant for me.

And I will never walk down that path that takes me to a place where I begin to believe my life is worthless and needs to be ended by my own hand. Never again.

It’s a song that softly sits next to me with it’s evergreen comforting words; keep dying to your past Lulu dear, keep dying to your past.

---

Tamil : Chithirai Nela

Although my mother tongue is Tamil, I don’t listen to Tamil music. I never grew up or lived in my Dad’s native place. So Tamil music or films didn’t really have a chance to open themselves to me.

In my 30’s when I tried to learn to write in my native language, I exposed myself to music from Tamil movies.

Many made an impression. Some left their mark but this song decided to build itself a home in my heart.

A deeply philosophical song about human grit, resilience and hope.

The only song I learnt the lyrics of in this language and to this day remember these few opening lines.

Chithirai nela
Orae nela..aa..
Parantha vaanam
Padacha kadavulu
Yellaamae othaiyilae
Nikkuthudae
Nee kooda othaiyila
Nikkuradae
Ettu vai makka
Ettu vachu aagasam
Thottu vai makka

I sing. But only to myself and my God. But for this one, I made an exception. I sang it for someone very special on the first day he began his journey into becoming a journalist.

A song that motivates, inspires and gets me off the floor every.single.time.

---

Telugu :

Appudo, Ippudo, Eppudo Kalakannane Cheli

Akkodo, Ikkado, Ekkado Manasichane Mari

Roughly traslated Then, now, or some time, I dreamt of you, my love? There, here, or somewhere, I have surrendered my heart to you.

It captures the timeless, spaceless nature and beauty of love.

Love defies time, space and dimension. A lover cannot really pinpoint the exact moment or place the feeling sprouted. It feels as though it has always existed.

Not a song of the golden era but to me it’s a song that personifies the gold in me. A song with the lyrics, rhythm and beat that somehow to me feels just like ME!

With the golden attitude to dream about everything with elan, experiencing everyone and everything with the fluffiest parts of my heart, giving my heart away in a heartbeat…just living here, there, everywhere fearlessly with passion and curiosity.

Falling in love with life itself anytime, anyday, anywhere.

---

What are lyrics of a song but life itself, opening itself to us. First through whispers then a chorus, ultimately reaching a rising cresendo revealing the universe itself. Leaving us SEEN, probably for the first time ever.

Any wonder they stay with us defying time and space?