Norah Jones: Don’t know why

It was 2002, I guess, when I heard this arbit song by some fresh singer on Channel V. Don’t know why I didn’t come… that was all I could make out. Smooth voice, like from a glass flask, I thought, and moved on.


That was the year when some bad things happened. Earlier, I couldn’t make it through JEE in the first go.
That was the year when monsoon failed.


My days were a sultry mixture of confusion, depression and sweat. I had decided to drop another year but had little idea what to do with it. Parents were concerned, friends were bored and I was a mess. I spent my afternoons either painting or thinking, tuned in to V when one afternoon… instead of kneeling in the sand, catching tear drops in my hands. The same evening I rushed to the store buy this cassette, Come away with me, Norah Jones.


It was the first song on the album. From what I understood, she was talking about her dilemma and a sense of loss, for not taking the plunge, not making the right decision. It was full of irony and heartbreak. That clicked with me, as if she described my own situation, and I kind of related to it.

Something has to make you run
Don’t know why I didn’t come…
I, feel as empty as a drum (I guess)
Don’t know why I didn’t come…

Till this day, it remains my most favorite song of hers.


Rajveer Sangha
IIT Roorkee
Uttaranchal
India