Where has the Jhankaar gone?

“Jhankaar” is the Bambaiyya lingo for the dhin-chak music that is often heard blaring from autorickshaws …. (and yes this phrase was very much in existence before the movie appeared!) …. for the uninitiated its a typical remixed version of regular hindi songs – with a specific “chan chan” sound (like the sound of ghoonghroos) to accompany the myriad of instruments that go into the making of a hit hindi song…

As unappealing as it may sound to connoisseurs of music, I must say the jhankaar music in a rickshaw can lighten up even the longest (and full of traffic) auto ride in Mumbai.

the rickshaw-wala’s for their part say that installing a music system in their rick leads to more trips… customers like listening to music while travelling.. and no wonder; since loads of youngsters prefer to travel with a music-wala rick. However, over the last few weeks in b’bay, i’ve hardly seen music wala rickshaws… or for that matter even heard the jhankaar. which brings me to my question…. where has the jhankaar gone???? have the number of rickshaws increased so much that the erstwhile significant proportion of “music-wali rickshaw” decreased to an insignificant amount?? or can the “Freakonomics” thoery be applied here??? Nokia and other cell-fone giants didnt know they would be causing this effect when they launched cheaper mobile handsets with radio… nowadays practically everyone has a cell-fone with radio… with music available at everyones fingertips… is this the real reason why the jhankaar has disappeared??

food for thought eh!?!

Thoughts of jhankaar and music are invariably accompanied by this incident that always brings a smile to my face….

This was while in college…. some years ago… A friend wanted to hail a rick to go Bandra.. but the condition was that the rick had to have a music system… now usually, there is a whole line of ricks rite outside our college gates.. so my dear friend went peeking into all the ricks.. to see if anyone had a music system… as luck may have it not one of them had a system… so madam stood around waiting for one that did have a system… all this while a rick-wala stood silently observing her… and to our amazement came up to her and said.. “Madam hamare rikshe mein music nahi hai.. par ham gaa denge… aap baithiye to sahi” !!!! …