Maaeri moment: Palash Sen weeps as Lucknow crowd sings his classic back to him

Two decades after its release, Palash Sen’s classic Maaeri still lives, not just in playlists, but in hearts. At Repertwahr theatre and music festival in Lucknow, a sea of millennials lifted the song’s opening lines, perfectly, as if they’d rehearsed it yesterday. The lead singer of Euphoria stood frozen, then choked up.In a voice thick with emotion, Sen shared his thoughts with the crowd, “Isse bada compliment koi ho nahi sakta hai. Meri maa iss sheher mein tab aayi thi when she was seventeen years old. Aaj raat aap sab meri maa ko yaad kar rahe ho by singing this song with me. I just want to say thank you. I know a lot of you only know one song from Euphoria.” He paused, then added, “Support Euphoria because we are the flag bearers of independent music in this country. Hum log film walon ke saamne kabhi jhuke nahi. Kisi ko bikay nahi kabhi. Kisi label ke saamne kabhi jhuke nahi. Shayad aap logon ko hamare naye gaane pata bhi nahi hain, but that’s okay... agar aapke dil mein hamare liye pyaar hai. Aur yeh industry yeh ek mafia hai... Aur shayad har din Euphoria haar jaata hai. Lekin Lucknow walon, aaj aap sab ne milke Euphoria ko jeeta diya hai. So I thank you guys a lot.”In a deeply personal post, the singer-songwriter known for singles like Maaeri, Dhoom Pichak Dhoom and Aana Meri Gully, reflected on his long, often lonely journey in the Indian music scene, one he calls ‘a thankless job’ and ‘a lost battle.’ “Yesterday was one of the biggest nights for Euphoria. I am very emotional and I wear my heart out on my sleeve,” Sen wrote, adding that he’s an ordinary man with an extraordinary life. He described himself as a “middle-class man who still dreams the impossible dream” and a “sensitive poet who has only loved and lost.”The post, raw in its honesty, lays bare the struggles of an artist who’s lived life on his own terms. “The film industry never gave me a fair chance, the labels didn’t find me commercially viable enough, and the brands needed filmy or Punjabi stuff,” he shared, calling himself “always the outsider, too educated, too upright, too honest.” - with inputs from Manas Mishra