Dheena Karunakarane Nataraja…Neelakantane…
A few days back I had written about Rohāmrta’s fascination for ‘The Wheels on the Bus’, an American folk song that turned into a rhyme along the way. Read more about it down below.
As it turns out, the kid has since turned desi. More precisely, Southern desi. His favorite channel (in the 20 minutes of TV time that he has) is Kuldeep Pai’s Carnatic and folk classical renditions on You Tube. He sits back, eyes transfixed, hands sometimes providing the taala on Aigiri Nandini and Rama Nama Tarakam, for the full 20 minutes…
But his excitement hits a peak when Dheena Karunakarana Nataraja comes on. His dad loves the song too, and so dad and son, one running round the place and the other singing loudly, in their own way, karaoke the rendition to kingdom come.
You should try it out too. Here it is:
Ah, before you think the little natkhat Keshava has turned saintly, he has also been subtly introduced the world of Tom and Jerry (the second time around), and happy to say that he loves it! At present, he runs faster than Jerry so fat chance that Tom catches up anytime soon.
Interesting choices!
The wheels on the bus go round and round
Round and round
Round and round
The wheels on the bus go round and round
All through the town
If you haven’t heard these lines before, chances are that you don’t have a kid yet. I have, and this has become my daily mantra. If it was the Gayatri mantra, I would have attained salvation by now, given the number of daily chants achieved. Unfortunately for me, it isn’t, and so the song goes round and round, all in my head.
I did some research on the song, now that I was singing it everyday anyway – so might as well know more about it na?
“The Wheels on the Bus” is an American folk song written by Verna Hills (1898–1990).The earliest known publishing of the lyrics is the December 1937 issue of American Childhood, originally called “The Bus”, with the lyrics being “The wheels of the bus”, with each verse ending in lines relevant to what the verse spoke of, as opposed to the current standard “all through the town”.
Aha- so its survived a hundred years, and entertained kids (and tortured their parents) for generations. And made some YouTubers a truckload of money, given that parents play these on loop!
The song on the bus goes round and round
Round and round
Round and round
The song on the bus goes round and round
And now I just can’t stand the sound…
But when Rohāmrta watches that ‘cocomelon’ logo appear, breaks into a (missing) toothy smile, and looks at me expectantly, what can I do but break into song:) And he does this at multiple instances through the song, as if to compare versions and/or verify if I am indeed joining in. The pressure that one has to live up to…ahem. No wonder some parents return the favor once their kids are in school:))
Na, I am not that kind of parent. I will just torture him with this song, long after he outgrows it. Maybe make it part of his workout playlist or something. Will figure it out..