This week I am listening to “Chiso Chiso Hawama” by Danny Denzongpa. As I sit here typing this, drinking my tea ☕ listening to this beautiful and chilling song in the Canadian winter air, my childhood memories with my parents come flooding back like flashing lights. This song in particular takes me back to many precious moments spent with my parents as we hopped on my baba’s red Kawasaki motorcycle and made our way from Kathmandu to the cottages in Nagarkot 🏍️. Sometimes baba would let me ride in the front, and sometimes my parents would sandwich little me in the middle to keep me warm on colder, windier days :) 🌬️. Nagarkot wasn’t so developed back then, and the cottages preserved the natural charm and simplicity of village life.
Nothing beats Nagarkot’s dense and dewy morning air, beautiful sunrises, and endless skies at night filled with shooting stars. I used to take my cassette player with me and listen to a lot of music in the morning ambience, bust out my pencil and notebook, and keep hitting the rewind button until I had every lyric written down to the songs I loved. After a long motorbike ride from the city and a nice hike around the area, we would end up back in our room extremely hungry. Mama would bust open her tiffin with delicious khasi ko mutton kebabs and crunchy beaten rice #chiura. My mama is a hardcore vegetarian now, and the memory of her munching down mutton kebabs saying “kasto mitho!” makes me chuckle 🤭🍢. After that, mama and baba would sip on some taato pani and whiskey 🥃, and we would all cuddle up, and little me would fall asleep in mama and baba’s warm, comforting embrace.
Revisiting this song after many years, it brings me a lot of joy to sing it for you today. This rendition is one I used to perform a lot in my earlier shows, which some of you may have caught back in 2008. Some of you might also find influences pulled from Robin Dai’s rendition of this song.
With lyrics and music by Ranjit Gazmer, here is Danny Denzongpa’s 1976 release, “Chiso Chiso Hawama”.
#chisochisohawama #dannydenzongpa #ranjitgazmer #songsthatmademe
Listen to the original here:
