A warm, restless loop of desire wrapped in minimal Punjabi pop.
Certain songs carry the feeling of late-night thoughts—the kind that refuse to switch off even when the world does. Khayaal, one of the standout tracks from Lost Stories and Jai Dhir’s Marigold Soundsystem II, sits exactly in that emotional pocket. It’s warm, restless, a little hazy, and very human. While other tracks from the EP lean into expansiveness, Khayaal tightens the frame. It doesn’t try to be bigger than its sentiment. It tries to feel like the mind when it can’t stop circling one person.
To understand Khayaal, you have to understand the project it lives in. Marigold Soundsystem II is built on a fusion ideology—Punjabi melody lines, contemporary pop writing, and electronic production shaped for today’s streaming ecosystem. Lost Stories have spent years refining that blend. They know how to honor cultural tonality without slipping into cliché, and how to build electronic beds that feel emotional rather than synthetic. Khayaal is one of the clearest reflections of that approach: rooted in bedroom-pop intimacy, dressed in soft electronic textures, and carried by Jai Dhir’s quietly expressive voice.
The first thing that hits you is the mood—a blend of warmth and tension. The song feels like a held breath. There’s movement, but no urgency. Like walking in circles inside your head. That emotional undertow is the core theme of the track: fixation. Not dramatic obsession, not film-style passion—just the quiet persistence of someone occupying every empty corner of your mind.
The sentiment of the track is a kind of gentle unrest. It’s not crushing. It’s not bleak. It’s simply… constant. The emotion feels lived-in, habitual. The production reinforces that. Lost Stories don’t build peaks or drops here. They create a loop, a sonic pattern that mirrors the mental loop the song describes. Light percussion ticks like a clock you can’t ignore. Pads breathe in slow, warm waves. Nothing pushes forward; everything circles.
The track sits somewhere between Punjabi pop, indie-electronic, and modern desi romantic music. It avoids the high-polish commercial sound that dominates YouTube Punjabi hits. Instead, it opts for minimalism—more urban, more restrained, more playlist-friendly. This isn’t a track meant for big speakers. It’s meant for headphones, where small details can whisper directly into your chest.
One of the most interesting structural choices is how the song is built around emotional inertia. There’s no narrative arc in the traditional sense. No rise and fall. The writing doesn’t move from conflict to resolution. Instead, the emotional world stays steady, which reflects the psychology of fixation. When someone lives in your thoughts long enough, the feeling stops behaving like an emotion and starts behaving like a condition. Khayaal taps into that—intentionally or instinctively.
Jai Dhir’s delivery is crucial here. He sings as if he’s thinking. Not performing. Not confessing. Just… processing. His tone is clean, grounded, unembellished. He doesn’t reach for big notes, because the song isn’t about scale. It’s about frequency. His voice sits in the exact pocket where longing and fatigue meet—tired from feeling too much, but not yet willing to let go. The restraint makes the track feel honest.
The writing—without quoting excessively—hints repeatedly at the same idea: one person becoming the axis around which everything else rotates. The phrasing reflects dependency, but the emotional coloring is soft, not dramatic. It's the kind of yearning shaped by routine rather than heartbreak. You sense that this feeling has lasted a long time, long enough to feel normal. That’s what makes the sentiment believable. The song doesn’t show a heart breaking. It shows a heart looping.
Musically, the production chooses intimacy over spectacle. Lost Stories lean into their softer instincts here—muted drums, atmospheric synths, and warm reverb. Even the bass is gentle. Everything is softened at the edges, like the emotional equivalent of diffused light. There’s a subtle shimmer in the mid-range that gives the track its dreamlike haze. It’s not glossy. It’s not raw. It sits in the sweet middle where emotions tend to blur.
A defining part of the song’s sonic identity is its circular structure. Sections return with almost identical energy. The chorus doesn’t lift; it sinks inward. Repetition becomes the emotional engine. This is a bold choice in a market that favors explosive hooks. It signals confidence—not in the production, but in the emotion. Lost Stories trust the sentiment to carry the track.
There’s also a beautiful tension between clarity and fog. The vocals are crisp, sitting at the front of the mix. The instrumentation, meanwhile, feels somewhat clouded, like morning mist around the melody. That contrast mirrors the feeling of thinking intensely about someone while the rest of your life blurs out. It’s a small production detail, but an emotionally smart one.
Another fascinating dimension is the cultural interplay. Punjabi romantic music traditionally leans into big sentiments—grand devotion, sweeping emotion, strong metaphors. Khayaal takes that heart but wraps it in modern minimalism, creating a hybrid emotional grammar. The longing is Punjabi. The expression is 2025 global pop. The result is a song that feels culturally familiar but aesthetically fresh.
Thematically, the song explores the idea of love as mental occupation—the kind that eats into your routines, your focus, your sleep. Not destructive, but undeniably disruptive. You can feel the singer trying to function around it but failing. The repetition of a single emotional point—this person is always on my mind—isn’t lazy writing. It’s intentional emotional realism. When you’re fixated, you don’t evolve your thoughts. You repeat them.
That’s why the song’s emotional architecture works:
● A steady pulse instead of narrative movement.
● Warmth instead of melodrama.
● Soft production to cushion the heaviness.
● Repetition to simulate mental fixation.
● Minimalist instrumentation to leave space for emotion.
● A looping structure to mimic internal cycles.
By the time the song ends, nothing has changed. And that’s the point. You’re left exactly where the singer began—caught in the same loop, humming the same feeling. The track doesn’t guide you out. It keeps you inside.
This is where Khayaal succeeds most: it doesn’t try to resolve the emotion. It just tries to live inside it. That honesty makes it linger longer than songs that chase climaxes.
In the landscape of modern Punjabi-influenced music—where production often leans loud, glossy, and hook-driven—Khayaal feels like a deliberate slowdown. A breath. A pause that becomes a mood. Lost Stories and Jai Dhir build a world out of one feeling and stay committed to that world from start to finish.
The result is a song that feels quiet but heavy. Soft but insistent. Warm but restless.
A song that feels like thinking too much about one person on a night when you should’ve been asleep hours ago.
That’s the real charm of Khayaal:
It doesn’t rise.
It doesn’t fall.
It circles—
just like the thoughts it came from.
Lyrics & Meaning
Tere pichhe tur aai akkhan
My eyes trail behind you wherever you go
Sb chhad tennu takkan
I drop everything just to look at you
Dil ch vasaake rakkhan me
I keep you settled deep in my heart
Mera ikk hi sahara hun
You’re the only thing I lean on
Dede tu kinara hun
Give me a shore to rest on
Karlan guzara jithe me
A place where I can finally breathe
Hath fadle tu mera
Hold my hand and steady me
Naale chhad de hanera
And push away the dark around me
Tere vich jedi taazgi
There’s a freshness in you
Oh sawere ch vi nai
That even mornings can’t match
Disda e hun chehra
Your face is all I see now
Akkhan band kr v tera
Even when I close my eyes, it’s you
Or dil te dimag rahe
My heart and mind stay glued to you
Kise kam de nai
Good for nothing else anymore
Tera khayaal ae
You’re all I think about
Tera khayaal ae
You’re all I think about
Tera khayaal ae
You’re all I think about
Tera khayaal ae
You’re all I think about
Tera khayaal ae
You’re all I think about
Tera khayaal ae
You’re all I think about
Tera khayaal ae
You’re all I think about
Tera khayaal ae
You’re all I think about
Me katt reha jind tere aasre kude
I’m getting through life on the hope of you
Tu karde khatam eh faasle kude
Come close and end this distance between us
Me rab to na manga tere siwa kuj hor
I’ve never asked God for anything but you
Naa manga hor na manga
Nothing else, nothing ever
Ik chhota jeha kheda
A tiny little world
Jitthe hona ae basera
Where we could build a home of our own
Dowe milke kattange hona
Just the two of us, living our days together
Hor koi vi nai
No one else in that space but us
Disda e hun chehra
Your face stays fixed in my vision
Akkhan band kr v tera
Even with shut eyes, it’s only you
Or dil te dimag rahe
My heart and mind stay trapped in you
Kise kam de nai
Useless for anything else now
Tera khayaal ae
You’re the thought that won’t leave
Tera khayaal ae
You’re the thought that won’t leave
Tera khayaal ae
You’re the thought that won’t leave
Tera khayaal ae
You’re the thought that won’t leave
Tera khayaal ae
You’re the thought that won’t leave
Tera khayaal ae
You’re the thought that won’t leave
Tera khayaal ae
You’re the thought that won’t leave
Tera khayaal ae
You’re the thought that won’t leave
Tere pichhe tur aai akkhan
My eyes still follow every step you take
Sb chhad tennu takkan
I still forget everything when I look at you
Dil ch vasaake rakkhan me
You still live in the quiet center of my heart
Mera ikk hi sahara hun
You’re still the only anchor I hold onto
Dede tu kinara hun
Give me somewhere safe to land
Karlan guzara jithe me
A corner where I can finally be okay
Hath fadle tu mera
Take my hand again
Naale chhad de hanera
And keep the darkness away
Tere vich jedi taazgi
There’s a spark in you
Oh sawere ch vi nai
Brighter than any sunrise
Disda e hun chehra
Your face fills my whole mind
Akkhan band kr v tera
Even with closed eyes, it’s still you
Or dil te dimag rahe
You’ve taken over my heart and head
Kise kam de nai
Leaving me useless for anything else
Tera khayaal ae
You’re the only thought that stays
Tera khayaal ae
You’re the only thought that stays
Tera khayaal ae
You’re the only thought that stays
Tera khayaal ae
You’re the only thought that stays
Tera khayaal ae
You’re the only thought that stays
Tera khayaal ae
You’re the only thought that stays
Tera khayaal ae
You’re the only thought that stays
Tera khayaal ae
You’re the only thought that stays
Audio Credits
- Composer, Vocalist, Videowriter, Lyricist: Jai Dhir
- Recording Engineer, Producer, Composer: Lost Stories
- Mixing Engineer, Mastering Engineer: Mukul Jain
- Mastering Engineer, Mixing Engineer: Rishab Joshi
