This is a telugu folk song (yenki paata), written by sree Nanduri Subba Rao and composed by Sri Chittibabu. This is a song that is special in more than one way; my dad was a student of Sri Chittibabu, and he is my biggest inspiration to learn music. This was also one of the songs I would pester my dad to play ever so often, because of the beautiful ‘kooo’ (the call of the cuckoo bird) that he could make with the veena (the trick is that you have to use your thumb and the forefinger to pluck the string simultaneously – which can be quite tricky since you have to get it right every single time…). This was also the first song that I learnt to play on the guitar (other than a crappy version of raghuvamsa, which I had learnt to play on the veena anyway so that doesn’t count). Finally, though it isn’t in anyway related to the song, it gives me pride to know that one of the most eminent writers of telugu poetry is part of my lineage albeit not directly (my mother’s dad’s uncle..phew!)..

I don’t remember all of the lyrics, but it goes like this..

kommalo kokila kooyantadi,
raagathanamo emo,
baagogulu erugade…

enki dooraanunte,
yeti dari nenunte,
saavaasam inkevaru
sandadevaro yenki,
(kommalo…)

Anyway, here it is…
kommalo kokila