Au soleil

I studied for a real long time for my bread and butter, along with the bread and butter, trying to learn tricks of trade with limited means in office (as there were few or rather nil translators when I joined, that part of job was subcontracted or freelanced) and with courses that enhanced my French. At that time with a ‘jhola’ having my usual stuff, I trudged almost bi monthly to alliance francaise de Bombay, getting my hands on much as I can on grammer related books, some easy reads and of course CDs. When I got these CDs and copied the songs on my system in the office and happily spent my time musically translating. (Which I still do at times). I had heard first time “I drove all night” of Celine dion using the skull phones (the ones that covered your ear completely minusing the outside noise and letting you drown in music). One fine day I saw a CD. It had a lady frolicking in sea , the face was not that visible but I remember her in white and a chain with blade hanging in her neck. I just remembered that the CD had ‘jenifer’ written on it. The songs were amazing, (the sing along kinds) with lovely beats and the singer good, even to my limited knowledge in French, I could appreciate the words. In course due course of time, the CD absolutely had to be returned and the system resubmitted with my manager maliciously stating that the data couldn’t be transferred ( I didn’t know that a datatemp existed at that time or that data transfer facility is available). Some songs left the hard drive of the brain and others stayed in bits and pieces. The CD was later never available in the alliance française whenever I visited. The singer’s name got formatted but the cover remained in the head along with almost forgotten the songs that didn’t leave my brain. Then slowly as I became more technosavvy and started (ab)using Wikipedia and google, I searched high and low , I used combinations like french singers (huge collection) French lady/female singers (confusing), I searched high and low with jennie alpha, jane birkin and Vanessa paradis. By now I had forgotten the exact name of the singer, and though I thought I knew her name was jenifer, it got me confused with all others. Then one fine day a small part of the song got enlivened like a live wire in my head “au soleil (to the sun)”, I searched on google and I found a song in that name !! my excitement knew no bounds as I clicked on youtube… I had found the singer finally. I used Wikipedia successfully at that time and went to music album section, and there she was lady in white shirt and blue jeans, frolicking in water, sunny climate and of course the chain with blade pendant adorned her. Excitedly I clicked on another of her songs, which I had liked at that time “j’attends l’amour (I wait for love)”, je garde (I save/ I treasure), les choses communs (the common things).. Yes I had found the pearls again.

Trivia : Jenifer Bartoli aka Jenifer is a pop singer who has, since 2002, had a number of hit singles in the French, Belgium and Swiss charts. She gained fame through her participation on the French television show Star Academy France (something like sa re ga ma pa in India)