Deconstruction In Practice : The Concept Of 'Deconstruction' & Deconstructing The Hindi Song.

Introduction : This blog is a response to the Thinking Activity assigned by my revered professor Dr Dilip Barad sir in concerning the Post-Structuralism and the concept of 'Deconstruction' propounded by a French philosopher Jacques Derrida who sought to lay the ideas of prevailing norms, notions, practices, mythologies and literature in the various fields and dynamics of life from its historical origin to the present time on the whetstone of 'Deconstruction.' In the further course of this blog, I will be discussing two questions as a part of the Thinking Activity.

Here is the link of my another blog regarding the concept of 'Deconstruction,' click here to visit the blog.

Q&A :

(1) What do you understand by 'Deconstruction'?

Answer : In my opinion, the very term 'Deconstruction' is a wide-ranging concept which was propounded by a French philosopher and post-structuralist Jacques Derrida in his three books which have been published in the same year 1967 and entitled as 'Of Grammatology,' 'Writing and Difference,' and 'Speech and Phenomena' wherein he tends to revisit the mythical, social, and historical institutions with a critical insight to read the 'absence' over 'presence' alongside providing the post-modern age with a far more developed critical insight than the structuralists had.

In nutshell, structuralists sought for meaning in everything they came across, in opposition of which the post-structuralists came up with the idea of questing the meaning and the authority of words, especially written words rather than the spoken ones, by which they furthered the idea of 'Deconstruction' pioneered by Sir Jacques Derrida.

Furthermore, I would like to classify the concept of 'Deconstruction' into several characteristics below :

(1) It seeks to question the authority of truth/s and meanings deemed ultimate meanings and truths by pre-established institutes of religion, politics, society, family, socialism, feminism, Marxism, Post-Structuralism, Materialism, etc.

(2) It differs the conventionally accepted truths and focuses on what is kept silent rather than what is narrated in so-called great mythologies and epics of all the cultures across the globe.

(3) It defers or postpones the outcoming truths and meanings in the process of deconstructing given literary texts or any of the prevailing dynamics of given societal and cultural structures with claiming the infinite possibility of various meanings not just one even if accepted by all.

(4) It prefers written words over spoken ones as against Sir Martin Heidegger's preference of 'Phonocentrism' which Derrida further calls it 'Logocentrism' which is the tendency of reading only presence of what is intended by a writer to be understood through written words but not implicitly reading between the lines, this was criticised by Jacques Derrida.

(5) Its firm and irrefutable proclamation of calling language bearing its own critique within itself as and when spoken or written. So, language is auto-critique of its own existence, for it does not tend to fit in any recess carved out by society and culture. And the way language is used, is used with a parallel questioning segment along with generation of meanings in the minds of people belonging to any given social and cultural group.

Further we can analogize the idea of 'Deconstruction' as a snake eating its own tail and creating a shape of infinity, the process which will never end and will constantly be working as long as it exists, although as an abstract but apparently observed concept.

Now, let us try and see that how far we can employ the very concept of deconstructing anything, for which I have taken a Hindi song 'Manak-e-Paisa' sung by Manak-e, RDB, and Selina Shirin Müller from Bollywood or Hindi Cinema. The song was first introduced in the movie 'De Dana Dan' in year of 2009. Here are the lyrics of the song in both the languages - Hindi and with English translation :

क्या बात है क्या चीज है पैसा पैसा पैसा करती है क्यूँ पैसे पे तू मरती है

क्या बात है क्या चीज है पैसा

इक बात मुझसे बतलाता दे तू उस रब से क्यूँ नहीं डरती है

क्यूँ पैसा पैसा करती है, क्यूँ पैसे पैसे पे तू मरती है इक बात मुझे बतला दे तू उस रब से क्यूँ नी डरती है

पैसा पैसा

क्या होता है पैसे का पैसे की लगा दूं ढेरी

"Not the girl you want me to be

My love is priceless baby

Money can t buy me"

दन दना दन दे दन दना दन मैं बारिश कर दूँ पैसे की जो तु हो जाये मेरी मैं बारिश कर दूँ पैसे की जो तू हो जाये मेरी

ना हँसके कहती बोलती पैसे को प्यार से तोलती क्या बात है क्या चीज है पैसा हर बार तेरा इक रूप नया, ना भेद दिलों के खोलती

पैसा पैसा

रब कहता है दिलवालों से ना कर हेरा फेरी

दन दना दन पैसा पैसा दे दन दना दन

मैं बारिश कर दूँ पैसे की जो तू हो जाये मेरी मैं बारिश कर दूँ पैसे की जो तू हो जाये मेरी

दन दना दन दना दन वे दन दना दन

पैसा पैसा

"Boy I m one of a kind you see

Not the girl you want me to be

My love is priceless baby"

है सोना बंगला कार भी सोणी, ऐश बहुत दिल करता है

क्या बात है क्या चीज है पैसा मुझे इक बात की समझ ना आती

दिल तेरे पे क्यूँ मारता है

पैसा पैसा

अब जान निकालेगी तू मेरी क्या नियत है तेरी दन दना दन दे दन दना दन

पैसा पैसा

मैं बारिश कर दूँ पैसे की जो तू हो जाये मेरी मैं बारिश कर दूँ पैसे की जो तू हो जाये मेरी

पैसा आवे पैसा जावे एक का होकर टिकता ना

क्या बात है क्या चीज है पैसा

इक प्यार है सच्चा दुनिया में

बाजारों में बिकता ना

पैसा पैसा

"Not the girl you want me to be

My love is priceless baby

Money can t buy me"

सच मान की कहता दौलत ना तेरी ना मेरी

दन दना दन दे दन दना दन पैसा पैसा

मैं बारिश कर दूँ पैसे की जो तू हो जाये मेरी

मैं बारिश कर दूँ पैसे की जो तू हो जाये मेरी

पैसा पैसा

The English Translation (Loose) of the Song by Me :

What is there in money?

Why do you always talk about money only?

Don't you afraid from that God?

Let me stack up the money,

Let me pour the money,

So that you become mine.

You scale money with love,

Every-time you become new,

And you don't open up your feelings,

God tells that don't play with lovers,

Let me pour the money,

So that you become mine.

The gold, bungalow, and car are there, O love! My heart cheers in wealth,

I don't know one thing that why I love you,

Now will you kill me? What is your intention?

Let me pour the money,

So that you become mine.

Money comes and goes, it does not stick to one,

Only love is the true thing in the world which is not sold in Bazaars,

Believe that money is not either of us,

Let me pour the money,

So that you become mine.

(Loose Translation by Nirav Amreliya)

Here is the video song :

Deconstructing the Song :

First let me introduce the song and its motive to the listeners; the song deals with the wooing conversation between the lover and the beloved, wherein lover tries to woo his beloved's love in exchange of money, but beloved tells that she is not the girl he wants to be for him and no money can buy her but she wants money and love both.

The very song is an archetype of the social structure of male-female relationship in context of financial need. Here the lover (man) represents the powerposition by having money whereas beloved (female) represents the stereotype of financially dependent woman on man who is  breadwinner in the family institutions of any Victorian society.

The lines from very first stanza have the moral and philosophical perspective of the lover as he says :

"इक बात मुझसे बतलाता दे तू उस रब से क्यूँ नहीं डरती है

क्यूँ पैसा पैसा करती है, क्यूँ पैसे पैसे पे तू मरती है"

So, we can find that the singer or lover is asking the beloved that why she doesn't fear of God and always look for money only, this reminds us the Christian tenet of the Seven Deadly Sins amongst one is the Greed or hunger for money in a sense. Even in Asian myths, especially Indian ones, the greed of gold or money is considered as sin and a bad habit which leads a person of holding such tendency to the hell which is rightly put in the primordial great solutions book of Indian mythology 'Bhagavad Geeta' in the 21st Shloka or verse of the 16th Adhyaya or chapter :

Thes lines can also be read as the lines of morality which limits the possibility of one's imagination and the strength to gather as much as one can throughout one's life.

Moving to the second stanza, we find that once again the lover is having philosophical tone when he says beloved not to play with her lover as God says so too!

"रब कहता है दिलवालों से ना कर हेरा फेरी

मैं बारिश कर दूँ पैसे की जो तू हो जाये मेरी"

Now, it is an age-old stereotype of taking God in between of love-affair of male and female. Generally, the presence of God in the matrimonial or loving relationships throughout major cultures of the world is considered as holy and sanctioned by God Himself, that is why in Christianity, wedding rituals take place in Church, in Indian weddings, the ceremony is generally held in the premises of Temple.

The third stanza has some interesting to the song as it reveals the inner love of lover to beloved; even though the lover is doing quite well, still he loves the beloved more than everything he is in possession of. :

"है सोना बंगला कार भी सोणी, ऐश बहुत दिल करता है

मुझे इक बात की समझ ना आती

दिल तेरे पे क्यूँ मारता है"

Implied reading of the aforementioned stanza can also be done in respect of distribution of wealth in field of economy. The lover seems to be belonging to rich class whereas he can pompously put his choices and wishes before anyone at anytime whereas on the other hand, poor do not have this privilege, and even when a poor tries to express his/her choice and wish which may or may not come under his/her ability to achieve, the guy is mocked at by the fellow poor, let alone rich ones.

The fourth stanza again goes to the philosophical discourse of the lover wherein he tells truth about money that it does not remain stuck to one and the same person all the time, but gets passed on from one to the another. :

"पैसा आवे पैसा जावे एक का होकर टिकता ना

इक प्यार है सच्चा दुनिया में बाजारों में बिकता ना

सच मान की कहता दौलत ना तेरी ना मेरी"

He also tells beloved to come around his advances and the falling action attests to this when the lover throws a rose on the other side of the scale on which the money is placed next to the beloved, and beloved weighs more than all the money which shows that her love is not sellable or limited to money but as soon as the lover throws a rose on the heap of money, that side lowers down and miraculously the beloved romps from the scale  and falls into the hands of the lover which symbolises the ultimate power of love over that of the wealth, body, and money.

The Importance of Refrains :

As we go through the song, we find two or three recurrent couplets, one is sung by lover and another is by beloved;

The lover :

"मैं बारिश कर दूँ पैसे की जो तू हो जाये मेरी"

The Beloved :

"Boy I m one of a kind you see
Not the girl you want me to be
My love is priceless baby
Money can t buy me"

So, both the refrains have their own equal importance as both voice the established mindsets of lover and beloved respectively. The lover wants to buy the beloved's love for him, whereas the beloved constantly tells the lover that she is not the girl he is thinking of as, but she prefers love over money and wealth - this becomes the centre and the most interesting part of the whole of the song which is being criticised with the tool of 'Deconstruction.'

This can also be seen as the fine example of primordial men's mentality and so of that of women; men, since the history of monarchy began, always looked towards women as an object of pleasure, be it a literary writing or a canonical doctrines, whereas on the other hand, women always sought for love which is not related to her wealth and physical body, but love of soul - this also reminds us the concept of Platonic Love which emphasizes the love between souls, but not the bodies, for exemplify this we can cite the English metaphysical poet of the medieval age John Donne and his poem 'The Ecstasy.'

Absent Irony of Beloved & Her Will :

Another critical point in the song is that the beloved gets almost lesser or no chance to speak for her will and desire to marry the person of her own choice, quite contrary to the other side, the lover praises her for her charming look and expresses her choice. This can also be seen in context of patriarchal society wherein men have always been put before women whenever the question of priority, choice, desire, and anything of social, religious, and political importance came, this tendency of privileging men over women is what Derrida sets up to criticize naming it as 'binary opposition' and 'gender bias' in the society wherein the role of genders plays a vital role in setting and distributing the task of lifestyles where men is always preferred first ahead of women. This type of archetypes can be observed in the symmetrical arrangement of characters, especially males and females, in certain movies wherein men usually depicted taller than women in order to consciously or subconsciously display their place in the different societal affairs.

Thank You!