Binaca Geetmala
Growing up in India in the ’70s and ’80s, one staple that brought our family together was the airing of the radio program – Binaca Geetmala. Along with my father, our family were great fans of Bollywood music. Each weekly episode began with the same greeting – “Behno aur Bhaiyo” – in the magical voice of its host, Ameen Sayani.
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Ameen Sayani was born on December 21st, 1932, in Bombay, now called Mumbai. Both of his parents were freedom fighters. From a very young age, he was interested in the humanities and was fluent in Hindi, English, Gujarati, and Marathi. What struck me even as a child was that Mr. Sayani’s voice was kind. I could only imagine him as a genuinely lovely person. Little did I imagine that I would find the truth behind that surmise.
Ameen Sayani
Mr Sayani brought the most popular songs to a rapt Indian audience on state-owned All India Radio (AIR). At one point, AIR stopped airing Hindi film music as the government believed it was vulgar and westernized. This resulted in the beautiful melodic music being aired on Radio Ceylon from 1952 to 1989 and back to the Indian channel Vividh Bharti from 1989 to 1994. Even without access to audience statistics, before television started encroaching into our lives, we could hear Binaca Geetmala playing from several apartments surrounding us in our home in India. Today, YouTube carries all the episodes of the program in the SaregamaMusic channel.
My Dad
Fast forward several decades from India to the USA. My father had moved in with us in 2014 after our mother expired. My father would often ask me to play old Bollywood music. During car rides when he rode with us, we played vintage songs by Saigal, Shamshad Begum, Suraiya, Mohammad Rafi, Lata Mangeshkar, and others, as well as Binaca Geetmala recordings from YouTube. My children – born and brought up in the USA – slowly grew accustomed to this style of music and started appreciating the songs. My daughter, who was six when my father came to live with us, grew knowledgeable enough over the years to play DJ by picking all of my father’s favorite songs.
In early 2022 my father was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer. We knew our time with him was limited. Since he had dementia, we did not tell him that he was seriously ill but kept him as comfortable as possible. Besides tending to daily matters, I searched for ways to give him happiness.
During rides back and forth to doctor appointments, we listened to Binaca Geetmala on YouTube and it struck me that it would be fantastic if my father got an uplifting message from Ameen Sayani. Though it felt like a long shot, I googled his name and chanced upon an email address. I took a chance and wrote to him.
An End-of-Life Miracle
A few weeks later in June of 2022 – I received a handwritten letter scanned and attached to an email and a voice recording. I was simply overjoyed!
In my heart, I knew Sayani was a kind man, and I experienced that truth in ample measure. I was touched that he referred to me as “beti” and himself as Uncle Ameen.
I sat my dad down and played the voice recording. My father was initially confused and did not understand what was going on. I paused the recording and explained that Mr. Ameen Sayani sent him a personal message.
In my email to Mr. Sayani, I mentioned that my father’s favorite song was ‘Bade Armaanon se Rakha hai Sanam,‘ by two of his favorite singers Lata Mangeshkar and Mukesh from a movie called Malhar. It was made in 1951 when my father was 20 years old.
To my surprise, Mr. Sayani sang a few lines from that song in the recording. My father’s expression was priceless. After listening to the message, he asked to listen to it many times. Each time, the expression on his face relieved all the fatigue I felt. I recorded my father thanking Mr. Sayani for his kind gesture and emailed that back to him.
My father passed away a few months later on November 5, 2022. Uncle Ameen passed away a year ago, on February 20th, 2024, from a heart attack. Two souls who did not know each other on earth found an unlikely connection toward the end of their lives. It warms my heart to imagine them listening to music together in heaven.