Sunday, February 17, 2013

Music plays a critical role in my life, and always has…


Every song, every album has a memory attached to it – it may be the first time I heard the song, it could be the song I sang to my loved one, or it could just be a song I heard with friends over a drink. Given my really bad memory, I don’t remember a lot of things, especially my past. But these songs take me back – take me back to that time and usually I have an emotion attached and sometimes, miraculously I even feel that emotion… I made a playlist for a party and I included Let’s Enjoy, The Namesake and the Night Song in this playlist. I have NO idea who stars in this Bollywood movie Let’s Enjoy, but for those who don’t know, it has a fabulous soundtrack. Some of you may have heard Dhol Wajda; and trust me that’s the most mediocre song in that album – there are some good fusion numbers by Midival Punditz and a couple of good numbers by Ankush Tewari. You would have guessed that these three albums have a fusion influence – and it was supposed to be a Indian fusion playlist.

The playlist being on shuffle I heard Let’s Enjoy first, then Namesake followed by Night song, these albums have a slightly different chronology in my life (ofcourse relevant to their releases). Night song reminds me of Namu’s apartment in Colaba – a bunch of 18 year olds architecture students (me being the only Accountant amongst them) listening to Nusrat Fateh Ali. This was one of the early exposure to fusion music. The Night song reminds me of days and nights spent in ‘town’, J.J. school of Architecture, trains to VT, rain dance party’s at US club, and a teenager life – something which I thoroughly enjoyed… every bit of it. Let’s Enjoy takes me to a 24 yr old boy, driving home every night from a dream job in investment banking in a brand new car his father bought him for becoming a Chartered Accountant; and every night trying to beat his own time of driving from Churchgate to Prabhadevi. The Namesake happened only 3 years later, but this time it was a 27 yr old man. And one thing which The Namesake’s soundtrack reminds me of something I blogged about 5 years ago - about how we try to live our 'lives' in this foreign land (and shown in the bengali parties in the movie), celebrating festivals in complete fanfare (to the extent of playing holi with colors & water), having elaborate weddings, having the cricket or bollywood gup over booze or chai, only to realize that once its time to go home, we have to take our large coats, drive out in left hand drive cars and eventually sleep on spring mattresses!

And while I type this another of my FAVORITE song plays in the background…
Waqt ki qaid mein zindagi hai magar
Chand ghariyaan yehi hain jo aazaad hain
Inko kho kar meri jaan-e-jaan
Umr bhar na taraste raho

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