I am not a music expert but I love listening to music. I listen to it all the time, during work, when I have a break, when I wake up, before going to bed. I listen to all kinds of songs, old and new. This is the advantage of being 73+ years. I have so many memories of songs to recall from the past to the present.

I am somewhat trilingual - Bengali, Urdu/Hindi and English. Even if I don't understand them, I listen to songs in two or three other languages, and enjoy it. When I wake up, I hum some song in my head. I don't stop humming until I hear it in real music.

I like classical songs most, not the lyrics but the melody. It's not because I learned a little at one time but my ears are a little developed from my childhood singing. The first song I learned and sang in my life was a Rabindra Sangeet that I had heard on the radio, "Amar onge Onge ke bajay Banshi" sung by Kanika Banerjee.

I hadn't listened to Rabindra Sangeet for a long time but recently I have gone back to it. "I have lit this final lamp of all my sorrows..."

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I don't have a TV or radio but I have a computer where I listen to music. My favorite songs come back from my past through the device.. Many lost and forgotten faces and voices return but every day new artists come, the old ones move away a little, someone else takes the space. And one day he too will be gone.

Not all are as lucky as Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, whom today's Shreya Ghoshal or Jagjit Singh will honor as the greatest guru of them all.

In our country too, many singers and many songs are no longer listened to by anyone. But they were great artists and the songs were the same but they are just a memory that no one recalls, lying in a corner without listeners. Many of their songs have already been lost, never to be found again. But It is inevitable...

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Take Anwar Uddin Khan. His songs were very popular at one time and I liked them enormously. One song was a real hit, which was sung by Ferdousi Begum and Sabina Yasmin and many others too- "People say love and I say agony (Loke bole pre mar ami boli jala)... .." Do you remember the older ones? Do you listen to any such songs young ones? Almost none do to his or any other of his songs. He is almost gone. So here is a link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbw98fiEId4I

He has many more songs but no one listens to them. I searched for my favorite song but did not find it. The song is ... 'I remembered his name through the water's rhythm in the rain. I wrote a letter to him in the alphabets of rain. I think this wonderful song will never be heard again, by me or by others...

What about the person? Who was he? What did he do? What was his profession? Where is his family? I searched a lot but couldn't find anything in the digital world. Someone must know but they probably don't Facebook so we don't know. This is how the disappearances start and one day no one keeps track of them. This is how their oblivion begins.

As far as I knew, he used to work in Shilpa Bank. He came to our home a few times for musical soirees. Now he has disappeared.

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But not only singers, songs also get lost, as has happened in my case. The name of my music teacher was Ustad Mohammad Hossain Khan, a member of the famed music clan of Brahmanbaria. That is, music legend Ustad Alauddin Khan was also of that clan. He has many students of our age, who used to sing as well as play the tabla. When Alauddin Khan came to Dhaka in the 60s, my Ustadji was on the table accompanying him.

He used to teach singing to my eldest and table to my immediate older brother. He took me as a student after listening to my singing in 1957. Before teaching me Sargam, he said that I need to train my ears so I just learned to sing first by learning with my ears. I learnt three songs which are still my most favorite.

The first is, "Godhuli Lagane Ke Ele Chupi Chupi Ranga Paye", a song based on raag Puriya dhanesri. The second was, "Tum Jago Mohan Priya". This is a popular song, sung by many, very well known. The third was, "Allah Hu Allah, Jalle Shane Allah," in the tune of raag Bhairavi. I searched for the songs but I couldn't find the first and last one even after searching for years. But one day I found...

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I still haven't found the first song even after endless searching. From the melody and style of the song, it seems to be a Nazrul song, but I haven't found anything on YouTube. I don't know if I will ever find it, most probably not. If anyone knows anything about the song, please let me know.

But I did find the last or third song which has made me indebted to the digital world forever. One day, I was watching a documentary video on the great Sanai player Ustad Bismillah Khan on YT. Many people would know that he also sang songs. While chatting, he sang a song, one of his favorite songs. And this was my favorite third song, 'Allahu Allah".

I went on a frenzied search with his name and song, but I didn't find anything. Not in Bangladesh, not in India either. I felt very bad because after hearing that snatch from the old song, the desire to listen to it increased even more.

And then one day the song suddenly appeared on my feed. The singer was Ustad Ajay Chakraborty, famous Indian singer Kaushiki Chakraborty's father,a famous classical musician.

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I clicked on the link in my "I don't believe it "mood and then the full song came. Ustadji first introduced the song and then sang it. Needless to say, I listened to the music hypnotized. I was not just listening to the song, I was listening to the song of my childhood, of my childhood itself.

I have heard it many times, I have appreciated it in my heart many times. I had learned the Kelawati Dhang version, which is a little more elaborate, that is, the style of the singer of the song was different, but the song, melody, raga are the same. It's so beautiful, so very beautiful.

Thank you Pandit Ajay Chakraborty, thank you my Ustadji. Thank you world of music and thank you YouTube and algorithms.