پاپا کہتے ہیں Papa Kehte Hain — Papa Says

Majrooh Sultanpuri

1919– 2000

Geet

A boy is sitting on the last day of college, and everyone around him has decided what his life is going to be. His father says he will make a great name. His friends each have their own plan, engineer, businessman. And the boy, who has said nothing all song, keeps coming back to the one honest line in it: nobody knows where my destination is, and that includes me.

Majrooh Sultanpuri wrote it for Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak in 1988, one of his last great songs, and it became the song of every Indian middle-class son who has ever sat through that conversation. Three passages ahead. The third one finally says what the boy actually wants, and it is the smallest and largest thing in the song.

01 — papa kehte hain bada naam karega

پاپا کہتے ہیں بڑا نام کرے گا
بیٹا ہمارا ایسا کام کرے گا
مگر یہ تو کوئی نہ جانے
کہ میری منزل ہے کہاں

पापा कहते हैं बड़ा नाम करेगा
बेटा हमारा ऐसा काम करेगा
मगर ये तो कोई ना जाने
कि मेरी मंज़िल है कहाँ

papa kehte hain bada naam karega
beta hamaara aisa kaam karega
magar ye toh koi na jaane
ki meri manzil hai kahan

Papa says he will make a great name. Our son will do such a deed. But nobody knows where my destination is.

The refrain sets the family's future against the boy's present. Papa speaks in the third person, beta hamaara, our son, which is how families talk about a child who is sitting right there. The last two lines are the boy's entire counter-argument, and it is not really an argument: nobody knows where the destination is. The word manzil, destination, is the word the whole song circles, and the boy never claims to know it either.

منزل manzil: the destination

02 — baithe hain milke sab yaar apne

بیٹھے ہیں مل کے سب یار اپنے
سب کے دلوں میں ارمان یہ ہے
وہ زندگی میں کل کیا بنے گا
ہر ایک نظر کا سپنا یہ ہے
کوئی انجینئر کا کام کرے گا
بزنس میں کوئی اپنا نام کرے گا
مگر یہ تو کوئی نہ جانے
کہ میری منزل ہے کہاں

बैठे हैं मिलके सब यार अपने
सब के दिलों में अरमान ये है
वो ज़िन्दगी में कल क्या बनेगा
हर एक नज़र का सपना ये है
कोई इंजीनियर का काम करेगा
बिज़नेस में कोई अपना नाम करेगा
मगर ये तो कोई ना जाने
कि मेरी मंज़िल है कहाँ

baithe hain milke sab yaar apne
sab ke dilon mein armaan ye hai
voh zindagi mein kal kya banega
har ek nazar ka sapna ye hai
koi engineer ka kaam karega
business mein koi apna naam karega
magar ye toh koi na jaane
ki meri manzil hai kahan

All our friends sit together, and every heart carries this longing: what he will become in life tomorrow. It is the dream of every gaze. Someone will do an engineer's work. Someone will make his name in business. But nobody knows where my destination is.

The passage widens the family to the whole class. Har ek nazar ka sapna, the dream of every gaze, is the sentence that does the work: the boy is being watched into a future by everyone who looks at him. The professions are listed with their exact words, engineer, business, and the list is the middle-class promise and the middle-class trap at once. The refrain lands after the list like the one true sentence in the room.

ارمان armaan: a longing held on to for years

03 — mera toh sapna hai ek chehra

میرا تو سپنا ہے ایک چہرہ
دیکھے جو اسکو جھومے بہار
گالوں میں کھلتی کلیوں کا موسم
آنکھوں میں جادو، ہونٹوں میں پیار
بندہ یہ خوبصورت کام کرے گا
دل کی دنیا میں اپنا نام کرے گا
میری نظر سے دیکھو تو یاروں
کہ میری منزل ہے کہاں

मेरा तो सपना है एक चेहरा
देखे जो उसको झूमे बहार
गालों में खिलती कलियों का मौसम
आँखों में जादू, होठों में प्यार
बंदा ये खूबसूरत काम करेगा
दिल की दुनिया में अपना नाम करेगा
मेरी नज़र से देखो तो यारों
कि मेरी मंज़िल है कहाँ

mera toh sapna hai ek chehra
dekhe jo usko jhoome bahaar
gaalon mein khilti kaliyon ka mausam
aankhon mein jaadu, hothon mein pyaar
banda ye khoobsurat kaam karega
dil ki duniya mein apna naam karega
meri nazar se dekho toh yaaron
ki meri manzil hai kahan

My dream is a face: the spring sways when it is seen. The cheeks are a season of blooming buds, the eyes are magic, the lips are love. This fellow will do a beautiful deed: he will make his name in the world of the heart. Look from my side, friends, and you will see where my destination is.

The boy's answer to the family is a face, and the face is described in the language of seasons: cheeks as a season of buds, eyes as magic, lips as love. The passage then does something sly. It borrows the family's own grammar, kaam karega, naam karega, the great deed and the great name, and applies it to the heart: the beautiful work, the name in the world of the heart. The last line asks the friends to look from his side, meri nazar se, which is the whole song's request: the destination is only a mystery to the people who are not looking where he is.

بندہ banda: a fellow, a person; literally a servant of God
جادو jaadu: magic

Reading it whole

The song is a family conversation with the boy's interior monologue running underneath it. The father speaks in the refrain, papa kehte hain, and the father's sentence is all ambition: he will make a name, he will do a great deed. The boy's answer is the same in every passage and it never changes: magar yeh toh koi na jaane, ke meri manzil hai kahan, but nobody knows where my destination is.

The second passage is the world's version of the future. The friends sit together with their ambitions, and the song hands each profession its line: someone will do an engineer's work, someone will make a name in business. The detail that keeps the passage honest is the first line, baithe hain milke sab yaar apne, all our friends sit together. The boy is surrounded. The plans are being made around him, not with him.

The third passage is where the real answer comes, and it arrives in the form of a face. Mera toh sapna hai ek chehra, my dream is a face, one whose sight makes spring sway. The cheeks are a season of blooming buds, the eyes are magic, the lips are love. The boy's great deed will be in the world of the heart, dil ki duniya, and the last line hands the whole debate to the friends: look at it from my side, and you will see why the destination is where it is.

Udit Narayan's voice and the film's college setting made the song the anthem of the last day of school, which is what it was always about: the day the plans arrive and the heart has not been consulted.

Recordings

Udit Narayan

From Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988), composed by Jatin-Lalit.

Text and rights

Devanagari text supplied and checked by a reader who knows the language. The Urdu script and the transliteration follow that reading.

The song is from the film Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988), music Udit Narayan and Lalit Pandit's Jatin-Lalit, lyrics Majrooh Sultanpuri. The film version opens with a spoken dialogue before the first passage.

Majrooh Sultanpuri died in 2000, so this poem is still in copyright. It is quoted here as the subject of Harf's own criticism: the translation, the reading of each passage and the essay around them are original work written for this page. If you hold the rights and would like something changed, tell us on Instagram.