"If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician.
I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music.
I see my life in terms of music.”
~Albert Einstein~
Ever since I can remember,
music has been an integral part of my life...
The whisper of crickets in the leechi trees in Dehradun
The loud drone of fighter planes in Basra
The koooo-koooo chook-chook of train from Mumbai to Benares in the summer holidays
The incomprehensible yet loving loris of Daddaji in chaste punjabi
The gurgling sound of Ganga at Laxman Jhoola and the swish of the paddle boats
And Lata Mangeshkar- Kishore Kumar duets on Radio Ceylon
I was a dreamy child and sought music wherever I was!
Sawant dadaji in Theosophical society, Benares, astutely channelised my love for singing
and introduced me to Gayatri Mantra and Hanuman chalisa at a very early age
Getting up at 4.30 am to hear the vedic chants reverberating in each and every cell of my body,
was the highlight of my summer holidays.
I can almost hear them even today
Bandra East, Mumbai was where I was introduced to the wonder of playlists
Those TDK cassettes zealously purchased from the duty-free shops,
Our old antique-looking German tape-recorder
And my brother and I painstakingly writing the name of the each song neatly
with our black Schaefer ink pen...
Chitrahaar, Movies and Antakshari made me the original acapella specialist, even before the background sounds were in vogue!
Though I did not know it then,
learning Hindustani Classical at that age, was a gift given by my parents to me at that tender age!
I ofcourse, resisted the alaaps and the bhaavgeets that time, as I could hear my friends enjoying their evening play when I was practicing the aaroh- avroh ...
and struggling with passing Music exams
while my spirit was dying to participate in the unstructured play in the colony playground!
My love for gaana continued in my dating days with Uday
where his Meri bheegi bheegi matched my Beeti na beetaayi raina
and our romance blossomed over our eclectic choice of music:
his old Kishore Kumar numbers to my Disco Station...how we laughed at the differences...and yet the deeper almost divine bonding
and Soumya was born in a very musically alive home!
Cooing rehashed and remixed versions of nursery rhymes to put her to sleep
Converting the cups of water to jaltarang
It was hardly a surprise that my toddler was soon swaying to songs,
making playlists and swooning over Jonas brothers and Miley Cyrus!
The first playlist she made for me was the sweetest gift anyone had ever, ( and since ) given me,
each number meticulously woven in the necklace of a pretty playlist which Mom could wear and listen to anywhere, anytime....specially when she missed her moppet!
Her tradition of this gifting of love and connection still continues for me in my life ....
I make playlists whenever I want to gift a part of me to someone
and my love affair with Music continues unabashedly, unabated !
Every song with a rhythm , a heartbeat and woven with the richness of life or the ordinariness of it :)
Happy
Sad
Slow
Classical
Old
New
Rock
Jazzy
Dhinchak
English
Hindi
Regional
Global
through the ups and downs of life
bringing me closer to emotions and feelings : the aliveness of life...the joie de vivre of existence
When I look back at almost five decades of my musical moments,
they encompass it all -
the voice, the breath, the melody
and the silence between the notes
the said
and the unsaid
I am blessed to have lived and hope to continue living in this cauldron of notes...till eternity !
Check my playlists in this youtube channel
My Playlists
