In April 2009, four months prior to his death, Gulshan Bawra, one of the lyricists of Harjaee [1981], recounted how another song in the film was created:”We had gone for the shooting of a film in Kashmir and dusk had fallen over the valley. Near a ropeway, I heard two locals call out to each other in a language I did not understand. One of the silhouetted men seeded to ask a question and the other seemed to reply in the affirmative. My panic swelled as the only recognizable word sounded like “shoot”. I interpreted this as “Should I shoot?” and “Yes, shoot” respectively. I hurried away from the scene, understandably quickly. A couple of days later a friend of mine in Bombay clarified amidst relieved laughter that what I had heard was “Kherishu?” and “Varishu” which meant “How are you?” and the reply “I am fine”. When I told the two words to Panchan, he asked,”Which language is this? Russian?” “No, this is Kashmiri,” I replied. An amused Pancham used the words for an Asha Bhonsle-Kishore Kumar duet and the song “Jeevan me jab aise pal…Kherishu, Varishu was born.
From – ‘R.D.Burman The Man, The Music'(2011) by Anirudha Bhattarcharjee and Balaji Vittal.
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The two Kashmir words were finally passed off in the song to mean I love you and I need you.
BEAUTIFUL SONG BY ASHA BHOSLE AND KISHORE KUMAR FROM FILM HARJAYEE (1981) MUSIC BY R D BURMAN