 "Baba Sehgal")
When all efforts to reach the music composer and singer Baba (Harjeet) Sehgal were in vain, I put up an update on Facebook to request for help. In the 1990s, Sehgal was a household name for his quirky lyrics, where he could string the most mundane things in a rhyme. His claim to fame came with "Thanda Thanda Paani", or Ice Ice Baby, a song that has been stuck in my mind ever since I began my attempts at contacting him. I distinctly remember the cover of the cassette with the song - Sehgal seated on a chair with a Michael Jackson-styled hat.
Sehgal responded with his personal number on Facebook. If there was any doubt in my mind that it was his correct number, the caller tune of his latest song, "Chicken Fried Rice", tells me I should put all my fears to rest.
Looking at his videos, I expect a different voice than the suave, well-spoken one I get. Sehgal is all too aware that people are curious to know what prompted his comeback of sorts this year. "It was a chance interaction with a friend who told me that a dedicated YouTube channel could be a hit," he says. He is no stranger to the Internet, either. He tweets regularly in his trademark rhyming style and was even invited on the panel of a conference that Twitter held for micro-bloggers. His bio for his Twitter handle reads "Calorie burn karo, salary earn karo". "Cute is cuter but mute is not muter, configuring windows updates, do not turn off ur computer...," says a recent tweet. Popular listicle website ScoopWhoop, too, picked up Sehgal's tweet that was widely shared on social media. This one reads: "Hello @ladygaga, crow is kauva & kauva is kaga, go & watch bahubali, it's an indian saga."
Besides Twitter, Sehgal has been active in the south Indian music circuit after the Indie Pop scene took a hit in the early 2000s. "They call me the 'power singer'. I'm quite popular there," he explains. Much to my surprise, he also seems quite aware of the music industry today and his videos, he says, are an attempt to keep him relevant. "My central focus is Internet because the shelf-life of a song is very short now. It's like buying clothes - you get easily bored and want something new to replace it with," Sehgal expounds. In his opinion, his videos have gained great popularity without spending the big bucks on production and promotion. All videos are produced at the Baba Sehgal Academy of Hip Hop in Hyderabad and launched on his channel on YouTube. "You look at all the Salman Khan songs - at the core of it, they're all the same. I try to offer some variety and I think that is what clicks with youth like you and me," says the 50-year-old.
What clicks, perhaps, is the comic value his songs afford. I discovered his recent song, "Going to the Gym", on social media. The lyrics are thus: "Going to the gym, going to the gym, going to the gym, then go to the gym." Another gem is from his latest video, Aloo Ka Paratha: "Thank you bolo god ko, har din ki daylight broad ko". Another one rhymes ghamand (ego) with mutual fund. I shared these videos on social media for gags and the replies I got were to the tunes of "why did Baba take a break from taking a break". But Sehgal is glad that people have "accepted" him. "I think this will show the way for other composers," he says. The 90s are back, it seems.
