Readers Write In #869: “Dance-u, Song-u, Fight-u”

By Jalabulajugs

“That song that has fight and dance!” he said eagerly.

Prahlad, my four year-old son, and I were in the midst of our usual playlist toggling during the ride to his classes. I had asked him which song he wanted next, to which he replied as above.

I couldn’t place the song immediately and asked him to sing it.

“That dance and fight song! One aunty wears shorts and sits below a big tree!” Prahlad reaffirmed.

It was clear that either he didn’t want to sing or was not confident of singing since he started to give additional information about the song.

“Does the aunty fight and dance in the video?” I asked.

“Nooo! She simply sits and does not do anything for the full song,” he was firm in his reply.

My mind started picturising possible songs that are about a dance and fight, with the thumbnail of a lady wearing shorts and sitting under a tree. I couldn’t place any song even near such a description.

Prahlad continued to plead with me to find the song. Meanwhile, we had reached his class and our search had to be paused temporarily.

As he shuffled into his classroom, I resolved to find the song by the time he returned. Unfortunately ChatGPT or Gemini were of little help other than diverting me to other random prompting unrelated to my pursuit. And just like that 2 hours went by and he returned from his class with an expectant smile. 

As we sat in the car for our ride back home, he resumed his plea.

“Did you find the song, Appa?” he questioned.

“You need to sing the song, Prahlad. I am not able to find it,” I said rather sheepishly.

He was irritated.

“It comes like that, no! Fightu fightu, weightu weightu,” he said impatiently.

Something clicked in my head.

Fightu, weightu, danceu…

“Ada paavi! Is this the song?” I asked him as I played it on YouTube. The thumbnail was evident.

Prahlad nodded vigorously as his eyes shone with happiness.

The song was an underrated number from the movie Va, Quarter Cutting that was an absolute favourite of a small group of us during college.

It goes like this:

“Saarpu saarpu ji, weightu weightu ji, saarpu dhan maama weightu

Satta weightu ji Pantu tightu ji, danceu la Cheeta fightu”

I was very happy that Prahlad caught on to this little gem with just a single listen more than a week ago.

More than that, I was relieved that he identified a magnified bottle of rum as a tree.