Sushmita Srivastava
On Friday 30 October my new original song, Sahare, comes out on Spotify, Apple Music, JioSaavn and every other music app. The full video follows on my YouTube channel on Tuesday 3 November at 7 PM IST. It is my first new original since Aa Sama Le in June, and before you hear it I want to tell you what it is about, what the words mean, and who made it with me.
What Sahare is about
Sahare is an emotional and soulful Hindi song about love, vulnerability and heartfelt connection. The word sahara means support: the person or the thing you lean on. The whole song comes back to one line, “Jeena ye mera jeena, hai tere sahare”: this life of mine is lived leaning on you.
It is not a song about a grand romance or a perfect love story. It is about how completely one person can come to depend on another, and how open and how fragile that makes you. That vulnerability is what I wanted people to feel when they listen.
How the song opens
The first lines set up the whole song:
Tum phool kahoge, khil jayenge
Tum dhool kahoge, bikhar jayenge
Tum paar kahoge, tar jayenge
Tum doob kahoge, utar jayenge
Call me a flower, and I will bloom. Call me dust, and I will scatter. Tell me to cross over, and I will reach the other side. Tell me to drown, and I will go under. Whatever you say I am, I become. It is a very simple way of saying something very deep: that one person’s word can decide how you feel about yourself.
The chorus
Kuch baat zaroori
Lagti adhoori
Jab jab tumse ho doori
Something important feels incomplete whenever I am away from you. The next lines admit there is no choice in it: “Karu dil ki huzoori, hai majboori, aisi hai teri fitoori”. My heart is at your service; I cannot help it; that is how deep this madness for you goes.
Then comes the line I find the most beautiful in the song:
Jaise hai tu bigaade
Hai tu hi saware
Hai dhoop din ki tu
Raaton ke sitare
You are the one who unsettles me, and you are the one who puts me right again. You are the sunshine of my days and the stars of my nights. The same person is the cause of the trouble and the cure for it, and that is exactly how love feels when you depend on someone.
“Hawa me tu uchaale, kabhi tu utaare”: you toss me up into the air, and sometimes you bring me back down. And each time, the chorus lands on the same answer: jeena ye mera jeena, hai tere sahare.
The second verse
The second verse is about trying to read someone whose moods keep changing:
Pal pal badalte, andaaz tere
Khelu mai kaise, ye baazi meri
Hai kitne saare ishaare tere
Bas mai pehchaanu awaaz teri
Your ways change from moment to moment; how am I supposed to play this game? You give me so many signals, and the only one I truly recognise is your voice.
And then the promise from the opening comes back, stronger:
Tum raaz kahoge, chup jayenge
Tum shaan kahoge, akad jayenge
Tum zidd jo kahoge, add jayenge
Tum maan kahoge, sudhar jayenge
Tell me it is a secret, and I will keep quiet. Call me your pride, and I will walk tall. Ask me to be stubborn, and I will dig my heels in. Ask me to listen, and I will change my ways. By the end of the song there is nothing left that the other person cannot shape.
The full lyrics are on the Sahare page of this website, along with the teaser.
The people who made Sahare
A song like this is never one person’s work. Bhrigu Parashar wrote the lyrics and composed the song. The words above are his, and so is the melody that carries them.
The music is by Benny John at Widespectrum Productions, who gave the song its sound. Samiksha Banka managed the music side of the release.
The video was shot by Prince Pratap Singh. Many of you will know his work from my earlier originals: he wrote and composed Ishq Ye Hua, Baarish Ek Ehsaas Hai and Bahon Mein Bharlo, my first original song in 2023. It means a lot to have him with me again on this one.
Where Sahare fits
I trained in Hindustani classical music at Prayag Sangeet Samiti in Allahabad, under Pandit Rajan and Sajan Mishra, and I won the Akashvani All India Radio Competition. Today I live in Delhi and release my music independently.
For a long time my channel was mostly my versions of songs people already loved. Over the last few years I have been putting more of myself into original songs: Bahon Mein Bharlo, Mai Awaari, Kade Kade, Ishq Ye Hua, Baarish Ek Ehsaas Hai and Aa Sama Le. In September I put six of them together in one nonstop jukebox, Love & Longing. Ishq Ye Hua alone has now passed 12 lakh views on YouTube, and every message I get about it tells me that people want songs that are new, not only songs they already know.
Sahare is the next step on that path: a new song, new words and a new melody, sung the way I feel it.
How to listen
From Friday 30 October: Sahare is on Spotify, Apple Music, JioSaavn and all music apps: open it in your music app. Before release day you can pre-save it from the same link. If you use Spotify, please follow me there and add Sahare to your own playlists. It helps an independent song reach more people more than anything else.
On Instagram: from 30 October you can find Sahare in the Instagram music library and use it in your own Reels. If you do, please tag me, @sushmita_officials_, so I can see them.
Tuesday 3 November, 7 PM IST: the full song video premieres on my YouTube channel. I will be in the chat during the premiere, so come and say hello.
When you have heard it, tell me which line stays with you. For me it is “hai dhoop din ki tu, raaton ke sitare”.
