So, I’m writing about Music again. My escape from the world. Someone once
said, if a person is not touched by Music, he is either divine or insane. This
statement can’t be wrong actually. Music makes us feel, makes us realize, makes
us speak our unspoken feelings, makes us groove, makes us cry, makes us elate,
makes us inspire. It won’t be wrong if I say, Music relates us, what we do,
what we going through, what we want to do. We actually cannot define the magic of it,
it’s like a journey within us, and it gives us expression, it makes our mind
travel through myriad emotions. Music is the language of the
soul. It opens the secret of life bringing peace, eliminating friction. Being at the dominion of Music, I've always
felt its magic. It’s one craziness, one passion! It’s one euphoria that
dominates me, most of the time when I’m at a close proximity of it. During my
short and un-illustrated career as a musician I went through a few crazy
incidents, even a mere thought of which makes me crazy.
To start with I remember, it was Fresher’s Social for the newcomers
from Assam in Pune. It used to be one real opportunity to showcase your talent to
your native people. Practice sessions were full of people, who wanted to
perform. Girls accompanied by their boyfriend, so that they can approach us and
convince us to get the chance for his girl. Overall a fun environment. One fun
day, a girl came up with a song, she wanted to sing. Our keyboardist, Bablu Da
asked, “Bhanti, tumar gaan tur scale ki?” (Which scale is your song?). The
girl, stunned, waited a while and replied...” Dada, moi scale ana nai nohoi!”
(I did not bring a scale with me!). We all just looked at each other with a
smirk and went on with the practice session. And later, when all left we were
rolling on the floor laughing. No pun intended, but we still imitate this feat,
whenever we are in the middle of a boring practice.
Smoke N’ I: I remember growing up seeing smoke machines blowing a sage
effect during live performances. So, one fine day, when the light and sound
engineer asked me, if we need smoke machine for the show, I readily agreed,
fantasying the feel I will go through on stage when it blows up. The ever
excited me! First song of the evening, and as always we started with a
traditional ‘Borgeet’. The light guy, being a local Marathi, had no clue what
we were playing, blew up the smoke machine which was incidentally placed just
below the stool I was sitting. And in a flash the smoke gulped me in. Trust me,
for a minute or two I actually could not figure out where I was.
Dard e Disco: This event happened suddenly. Exams, accident, skinned
palm everything was a part of it. So was I, not to forget SRK and Om Shanti Om.
It was just a day, the movie had released. We had just one day for practice,
and when the singers came in, we asked them to sing common songs, so that it
doesn’t consume much time while practicing. 3-4 songs down, I saw a guy sitting
in the corner, with a wide grin. Finally it was his turn, I asked generously,
“Bhaity, kuntu gaan gaba?” (Which song you want to sing?). The guy retaliated,
“Dada, Dard e Disco tu e gai diu, bor solise”. (I’ll sing Dard e Disco, it’s a
hit) and while saying so he actually showed us some SRK steps from the song.
Though that guy did not sing the song, he actually gave us some respite from
the hectic practice session and my bleeding hand.
We Owned The Night: Agriculture College, Pune. It’s one grand ground
where most of the concerts in Pune used to take place. The crowd capacity, the
atmosphere, the intensity was always there when a concert was there. Seeing
youth events like ‘Verve’ (Fergusson College Fest), I used to crave to perform
on that platform. And one fine day, it happened...we performed in front of
20,000 odd people...chanting, singing and dancing with us. Good feeling isn’t
it. The most amazing part about that show, the crowd gathered there to see KK,
Shruti Pathak (Mar Jawaan, OST Fashion fame) and Neha Bhasin (Dhunki, OST MBKD fame)
who were to perform after us. But the feeling was so amazing, that we actually
forgot that we were just up to an opening act there.
Life for obvious reasons is full of such
amazing moments and memories. We leave behind the moments, but the memories
remain, ever cherished. And Music, it’s one immortal thing that we all need. We
grow, we change but the Music remains same. After a 100 years, we won’t be
alive, but the music we create, we sing, we listen will always be there.
4 comments:
Great post. I can't imagine life without music.
Came here through Rakesh's blog and found your writing very interesting.
Music = The elixir of life!
Nice post...who can better write on the magic of music than a musician himself!!!
Today is a day when I read this. And, today we lost someone who has religiously popularized western music in India. he has done his bit and surely we are indebted to his efforts when Vh1 and downloads were alien. Let this be a token of honour to the great Amit Saigal. Let him rest in peace.
Post a Comment