Facing the Music

I was shifting through some old boxes kept on the loft on a Sunday morning, when in one of those boxes were cassettes filled to occupy every little space .. that was a time cassettes ruled the market, and whether it was the new releases of a movie or devotional cassettes  or any other sort of music it was  bought and it used to be neatly arranged , to hear whenever it was necessary when did it give way, technology  keeps on changing but the love for music has always been there. The word music is very hard to define it is such a broad category including so many music  which almost makes no sense to the layman  but  all music evolves ,crossing paths with other sounds, other people, other ideas, almost any sound out there can connect with our lives

I remember the Radio at home with all the valves and sort of technology which  today you can never imagine that you could have used it  with its limited stations and specific times  that it used to operate. My father once  home used to switch on the radio and some classical stuff would   be playing and he would be busy with his accounts.  Even in his later years he never found it to be a disturbance I used to keep the radio near my head while going to sleep there was nothing to beat it listening to music in bed, and you never knew when sleep hit you  and most of the time I used to doze  off without switching it off.  The sound  that it used to make, becuase the programmes would end early would make anyone come and switch it off . The scolding’s always accompanying  it would be really something, and those were times I would decide, to buy a radio for my exclusive use . At school such thoughts were the order of the day.

Music in some way or other expresses itself and  is entwined with a lot of memories think of the time when there used to be gramophone box at home with those huge records the lever on the side adjusting the pin and the music would flow..and  of the time when I was in Bombay the irani restaurants as  was the order of the day right from fountain  to Ballard pier, opera house or Sion  almost all Irani Hotels used to be in a corner and this particular hotel, the name i do not remember overlooking the chow patty beach  along with the  chai  and bunmaska and  a coin operated music box , where you could listen to the music of your choice ..Wondering whether it is still there.

Music  like so many other aspects of life has made people better,  there are some who have become so famous and  some who barely make ends meet but even in them there is good music and just being successful in the materialistic sense does not necessarily make a person a good musician. It is a passion which makes a person keep on with it . Nearer home there is Nephew of mine who started dabbling with music right from college, started his own band while he was in Pallakad called Fort Natives . Later when he shifted to Bangalore he along with his freinds started another group and called  it  as Maple reed, juggling with work at Dell, and finding time to attend practice sessions and attending programs. Life is not always  a roller coaster ride but he has also managed to conduct stage shows and recorded his works, though the real break he feels is somewhere round the corner. At the same time there are persons who have made it happen very early in their career  like the Kolaveri song sung by Dhanush and  to think that the the composer is someone who is still in his teens...life goes on and it is not just the music you face..