In this age of technology and e-communication, it is not unusual to come across various cover versions of a popular song. Pankaj Jha’s musical debut on YouTube, however, brings something new to the table.
Pankaj, who is pursuing his PhD in Sanskrit grammar at the Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeetha, has sung Dheere Dheere Meri Zindagi in the ancient tongue and his video is going viral online.
But how did Pankaj come upon the idea of melding Bollywood music and Sanskrit – both characteristic factors of apparently divergent worlds – into a single entity? “I came upon the idea in class. A student wanted to know if Sanskrit dealt only with old stories and shlokas. I told him there were songs as well. The kid then challenged me to render a Sanskrit version of the recently released song Dheere Dheere Se Meri Zindagi by Honey Singh. I translated the entire song in the class,” says Pankaj.
