By Rakesh Anand Bakshi
21st of July dawned upon us, my Father’s Birth anniversary, and once again dear Ali Peter John Sir asked me to write something about my Father, Anand Prakash Bakhshi Vaid (Anand Bakshi). Something beyond his expressions that have already been heard through his more than 3000 lyrics.
I did not know where to begin, what to write as it’s difficult to recollect things you hear and see around you as a child while you are busy making grand plans to run down and play with your friends.
I thought of something people ask me often – “How did Bakshi ji get inspired?”
I don’t know the complete nor the exact answer. I do know he was primarily inspired by the film’s story and screenplay. However, the metaphors and expression were his. I miss him and at such times too, as I wish he was around to reply to my curiosity and that of some of his passionate fans, who want to know so much more about a man they heard a lot but rarely saw and never met.
I think I learned from my Father … “Inspiration does not come like a bolt of lightning, nor is it a kinetic, energetic conscious striving, …. but Inspiration can come into us slowly and quietly and discreetly and even all the time, though we must regularly and every day, moment by moment give it a little chance to start flowing, then to keep flowing, provide it with a solitude and idleness. You need not leave your home to write the most awesome or meaningful lyrics. Remain sitting at your table, your bedroom, your living room, and listen. Listen to the words the silence speaks within you. And you need not even listen, but simply wait, just learn to become quiet, and still, and solitary. And the World around you, the Universe will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked in an art form of your choice. The Poet will find his words, the Painter will find his colors. Because then Inspiration has no choice; it will roll in ecstasy at your feet, the feet of the Artist, the Poet, the Musician, the Painter…. At the feet of the one who knows how to welcome it and make it stay.”