Dil Jigar Nazar Kya Hai

body parts in poetry about love? gross if you think about it

One of my favorite songs of all time is दिल ढूंढ़ता है (Dil Dhundhta Hai) from the 1976 film Mausam. The song is sung by Bhupinder Singh, composed by Madan Mohan and it is written by Gulzar.

I should mention that there is another version of this song, which is actually the main version of this song and it is a far inferior rendition. Both songs are composed by the great Madan Mohan, who is most famous among Bollywood junkies my age as the composer whose music was used in Veer Zara. The music used for Tere Liye was first composed 50 years ago for Dil Dhundhta Hai, but then they went with another version. There is an incredible recording of Madan himself singing the song set to various tunes.

But my god, I am two sentences into this post and I already have had to do a four sentence side bar🤦.

So anyways the song goes like so:

दिल ढूँढ़ता है फिर वही फ़ुर्सत के रात दिन

बैठे रहें तसव्वर-ए-जानां किए हुए

जाड़ों की नर्म धूप और आँगन में लेट कर

आँखों पे खींचकर तेरे आँचल के साये को

औंधे पड़े रहें, कभी करवट लिये हुए

roman: dil dhundhta hai fir wahi fursat ke rat din

baithe rahe tasawwur-e-jaana kiye huye

jaado ki narm dhup aur aangan me let kar

aankho pe khinch kar tere aanchal ke saaye ko

aaundhe pade rahe kabhi karwat liye huye

trans: the hear yearns for those days of leisure and peace,

lost in thoughts of your beloved,

lie around in the backyard in the sweet warmth of the winter sun,

in the shelter of your shadow,

lie face down, turning lazily

The first couplet is taken almost directly from a gazal by Ghalib, मुद्दत हुई है यार को मेहमाँ किए हुए (Muddat hui hai yaar ko mehmaan kiye hue). And I learnt this only a few months ago. This is one of the shers (couplet) from it:

करता हूँ जम्अ' फिर जिगर-ए-लख़्त-लख़्त को

अर्सा हुआ है दावत-ए-मिज़्गाँ किए हुए

roman: Karta hun jama phir jigar-a-lakht-lakht ko

arsa hua hai davat-e-mizgan kiye hue

I didn’t understand what jigar-a-lakht-lakht meant. Jigar I knew….jigar means courage…right?

“Jigra chaiye….” is Hindi slang for “you need balls…”

There is also that unbearable marital arts film with Ajay Devgn called Jigar.

But then wait … what does the song “Jigar Ka Tukda” mean? So jigar probably means heart …right? But then there is also that song Dil Jigar Nazar Kya Hai which I sometimes catch myself singing because I was once stuck in a cab where the driver played this song atleast three times, and has since been embedded in the deep crevices of my cranial folds.

So what the hell does jigar mean? Let alone what jigar-a-lakht-lakht mean!

Because I was reading the gazal on rekhta, which has a helpful feature where you can click on words and it will give you definitions, translations and pronunciation guides - I found out that jigar means liver. So the movie Jigarthanda and the beverage Jigarthanda means something that cools your liver??

The entire sher translates to

I collect the shredded pieces of my liver,

as it has been a long time since i have feasted on your eyelashes

Liver and eyelashes? Well eyelashes I get. Eyelashes can be considered attractive and it is at least an externally visible feature of a person’s body. But liver? The dil I understand (heart), it has been used for centuries, across cultures, as a meatphor for love, as the seat of emotions, versus the brain which is associated with cold logic. And therefore I have no problem with Gulzar, Ghalib or Sanjeev Kumar’s dil searching for anything, even abstract concepts like peace and leisure. But hell! Collecting pieces of liver? The only time someone should be collecting shredded liver is from your favorite non-veg restaurant. And then 15 synapses fired at once (is 15 synapses a lot of synapses? I don’t know how the brain works) - minced mutton liver is called keema kaleja. And I had never thought about the phrase “kaleje me thandak padna” which means “are you relieved?”. I am sure in 6th or 7th grade, in my Hindi paper I would explained the meaning of “kaleje me thandak padna” for a 2 mark question, but why did I never think of what kaleja means. And why does the liver need cooling? Why the hell is there a drink specifically made for cooling the liver. None of this makes sense. And it makes me furious. Oh my god that song from Karz dard-e-dil dard-e-jigar.

The world had opened up to me and I was only spotting weird non-English organ names in poetry and songs everyday. It is like those videos where people with colorblindness wear those glasses and their minds are blown. I discovered several examples, and thought of writing a post about it. But while researching, I came upon this excellent blog post from a couple of years ago and there is no point in trying to best it - so here it is:

https://anindecisiveindian.blogspot.com/2022/07/dil-and-jigarthe-heart-and-liver.html

It doesn’t really provide an explanation but walks us through some really great examples, garnished with a healthy dose of humor.

If you have any other reading/listening/watching material on why we use these body parts metaphorically in this way, send em my way.

Also what is your favorite poem or song with a slightly off putting use of a body part?(ankhiyon se goli maare doesn’t count)

Bye!