A few weeks ago, I walked over to the art department at work to discuss a layout with the designer. She had earphones plugged in and when I tapped her on the shoulder, indicating that I had to say something and could she please pause the music , her face darkened. She quickly rearranged her scowl into a smile and said, “This song is so good, I don’t like being disturbed when it’s on.
” I glanced at her screen. ‘Taambdi Chaamdi’. “Taambdi, what?” I exclaimed.
“Chaamdi,” she laughed. “It means ‘brown skin.’” I forgot about this incident until a few days later when YouTube queued up the song on my playlist without warning.
It began ordinarily, with an EDM beat that you would expect to hear in a David Guetta or Skrillex composition. A little bit of ‘Gangnam Style’, if you will. Then, unexpectedly, a flute.
Then a voice rapping in Marathi . “Taambdi chaamdi chamakte unatna lakalakalakalakalakalaka”. I watched the song from start to finish once.
Then twice. Then thrice. When my partner came home and saw his Metallica-loving wife grooving to Marathi music, he looked nonplussed.
Over the next few days, I asked everyone I met if they had heard the song. Like me, they first looked confused . After I forced them to listen to the song in front of me to see their reaction, they, like me, were entranced.
It seems like people around the world have caught the ‘Taambdi Chaamdi’ bug. Ranveer Singh has used it on his Insta Stories. So has Shraddha Kapoor.
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