Some Comments:

In a previous post, where I translate Taba Chake’s brilliant ‘Shaayad’, I note that “the opportunity to sit back and think about the self we become, are becoming, is hard to come by as we’re living our accelerated lives.” This is a point I often make in conversations about reflection. In the post, I go on to say that, “a brilliant way to think of the self, or so I’ve found, is to consume art that questions the self.” Picking up from there, another very interesting and, admittedly, beautiful song about the self,, is A.R. Rahman’s ‘Tu Koi Aur Hai,’ from Tamasha, 2015. The song evokes alienation from the self, a separation from one’s own self. Here’s a link to the song.

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy says “the basic idea of alienation picks out a range of social and psychological ills involving a self and other,” and in the case of alienation from the self, the self is the self and the self is the other. This sounds weird, and the translation hopes to make it clearer, but a good way to think of alienation from the self will be to think of Ved in the movie Tamasha. Ved, with his two versions of the self, the Corsica Ved and the Delhi Ved, is alienated from himself. He is separated from, not another, but the self. If the Ved in Corsica was to look into a mirror and see the Ved from Delhi, he would not know that it was him. Ved in Delhi would be an alien for the Ved in Corsica, and Ved in Corsica would be alien to Ved in Delhi. I could have written this more simply using weird notations such as Vc and Vd, but I quite enjoy the repetition.

In the song, the singer is addressing a person, who is, seemingly, alienated from themselves. The artist tells this person that they should not wear masks in front of this world, that they are something different, some other, and that they must come forth and speak to be their self again. I must, at this point, note my discomfort at artists wilfully becoming a tool of reflection; the mirror does not talk back and address the self in front of it as ‘you.’ What I’m trying to say is that in the case of alienation from the self, it has to be the self who observes it, the observation cannot be sung out to the self by a mystic singer, seemingly all knowing, no different than a God. But, anyway, the person being sung to, is Ved and the listener. As the song currently plays in my ears, the singer is currently addressing me. I am that person, the self which is not itself.

Tu Koi Aur Hai//You are another.

You are, somebody else;

you know. 

In front, of this world,

you, are a mask.

You, are somebody else, another.

Why aren’t you, what you are.

You, do not, 

for this world

forget your self;

do not, upon yourself

bestow such unjustice.

Undo these knots, which

you’ve wound up in yourself.

Speak that you are another.

The faces, which you wear, 

they aren’t yours.

Come forward and open up; 

speak, all there is in your heart.

Come forward and become;

speak, of everything in your heart.

Your dreams of the future,

they are paths, not straight.

Those, who walk, 

with you for an age,

hug them, pull them,

close to your chest.

You are, another;

There are no limits to you.

You are the sky.

A thought, an idea,

Without example, or precedent.

You are joy. You are,

brightness that delights.

You are, all you want.