Like any other evening, my friend and I were driving home, music on shuffle, discussing random things, two people dealing with their own battles.
We all joke about how phones listen, Any other day, I’d dismiss it, but not this evening.
The playlist shuffled, and suddenly, Der Lagi Lekin from Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara started playing. Shankar Mahadevan’s voice, powerful, makes any song hit differently.
I had heard this song countless times before, but never really listened to it. To me, it was just another track with great music. But oh boy, I was so wrong!!!
My friend, already lost in thought, casually said,
“This song hits really hard.”
And then, she zoned out.
I didn’t interrupt. I let her be.
I still didn’t pay much attention to the lyrics. I dropped her off, went home, continued my evening.
But later that night, as I played my playlist again, this was the last song. I played it because I wanted to know, what made her zone out?
This time, I listened, not just to the music, but to what it was saying. And then it hit me.
Der lagi lekin, maine ab hai jeena seekh liya
2021 flashed through my mind. It’s 2025 now, and suddenly, I saw the distance I had traveled.
Four years.
Four long years to get here.
Fighting sickness. Pushing through pain. Managing relationships. Controlling how people saw me, hoping they wouldn’t see me as fragile, making sure they didn’t pity me. I used to care too much about how they saw me.
But was I like everyone else? No.
I fought that battle alone.
And yet, today, no one would guess what I’ve been through. Four years. That’s what it took. But I made it. I’ve learned to live with it. And now? I don’t care how people see me. I’m okay with that.
Jaise bhi ho’n din maine ab hai jeena seekh liya
Exactly this.
Life throws surprises, good, bad, and everything in between. But I’ve learned to handle them. It doesn’t matter to me now. Whatever day brings, I know how to deal with it. That’s what matters.
Ab maine yeh jaana hai, Khushi hai kya, gham kya
Dono hi do pal ki hai ruttein, Na yeh thehre na ruke
Zindagi do rangon se bane, Ab roothe, ab maane
Yehi toh hai, yehi toh hai yahan
Life is a coin toss, happiness on one side, sadness on the other. No middle ground.
You flip, and you get one or the other.
Happiness is fleeting, gone before you fully realize it.
Sadness, though, overstays because that’s how we’re wired to process it.
But neither is permanent.
That’s the thing, life doesn’t have a full stop. The only one is death. It only has commas. One phase follows the next. Always.
Aansunyon ke bin Maine ab hai jeena seekh liya
Tears don’t come easily anymore.
And when they do, I remember the exact day, time, and reason, because it’s that rare.
That one lyric? It sums it all up.
I’ve learned to live without them. And when they do come, I’d rather they be happy tears, not just for me, but for everyone around.
Ab maine yeh jaana hai, Kise kahoon apna
Hai koi joh yeh mujh se keh gaya
Yeh kahan tu reh gaya
Zindagi toh hai jaise karavan
Tu hai tanha kab yahan
Sabhi toh hai, sabhi toh hai yahan
Before moving to this city, I thought I was leaving behind everything, good friends, family, familiarity.
I braced for loneliness, convinced I’d be stuck in my past, carrying it alone.
But I got lucky.
I found a great friend, the same one I was vibing to this song with.
She introduced me to people who felt like home.
And just like that, I knew, I wasn’t alone.
I thought I was leaving everything behind.
Turns out, I found it all again.
I just didn’t realize it until now.
Koi sunaye joh hasti muskurati kahani, Kehta hai dil main bhi sunnu
Aansu bhi moti ho joh kisi ki nishani, Kehta hai dil main bhi chhunu
Baahein dil ki ho, Baahon mein hi chalta chalun
Yunhi raahon mein, bas yunhi, Ab yahan, kab wahan
Now, I listen. To everything.
The good, The bad, stories people carry.
I want to stand beside people, the way I once wished someone had stood beside me.
Somewhere along the way, I stopped thinking about what my first tattoo stood for.
Have Faith. Have Hope. Love Everyone.
Maybe I didn’t forget it, but I wasn’t living by it either. And then, this song played.
It didn’t teach me something new. It just reminded me of what I already knew of what I had once believed. Life is about walking with the people who matter. Standing by them. Hugging them when needed.
In the end, that’s all that counts.
Takeaway
I later came across comments under the song, stories from strangers about how this track had shaped their lives.
Why they turned to it.
When they turned to it.
Turns out, I wasn’t alone in this realization. Many others had felt it too, at different points in their lives, through different struggles.
Happiness and sadness will always trade places. But in the end, neither stays forever. Life doesn’t pause, it just moves forward, one comma at a time.
Looking back, I realized this song wasn’t just playing that day, it was mirroring my own journey.
It’s about how realizations take time. About how we slowly step out of the barriers we once created for ourselves.
Sabhi toh hai, sabhi toh hai yahan
Sabhi toh hai, sabhi toh hai yahan
Sabhi toh hai, sabhi toh hai yahan
For me, ‘Der Lagi Lekin’ isn’t just about overcoming struggles, it’s about making peace with the time it takes to understand life.
And that’s exactly what I had been doing, I will be doing……
*************************** THE END ******************************
Jotting down with Rishi! 