There are many habits that can be imbibed
from one's profession. Mine being a teacher provides way too many takeaways,
one of them being keeping a record of roughly everything - from the words you
speak in the classroom, those you hear, the way you teach, the objectives with
which you teach, the assignments you give, the activities you conduct, the
expectations you have and so on. The list is never complete. The most all this normally does is make a
record and thus, keep all those moments alive, at least on paper – alive, ready
to be bothered with anytime in the future. A record of significant events of
one’s life is equally important, I at this point realize, owing to the
imperfect nature of human memory.
A
very special routine that will definitely get into the list of life-changing
events in my autobiography, if it gets worth it in the future, is my walk
around the Jalpari Lake. I have been walking around here since my middle-school
days. I have lived different lives here. I have been different persons here. I
have walked alone and I have walked in groups. I have won and lost friends. I
have conceived stories. I have turned into my present form. The evolution,
necessarily, never stops; to remember all those things I have been is indeed a
tedious task and thus I begin to note these stages down, so it is easier for me
in the future to craft a mobile version of my life.
The most significant of all the mates I
have been there with is Mr. T and he was my companion tonight as well. We talk
about a diversity of topics – from politics to poems and songs and psychology
and (rarely) love (as a concept).
Growing up
Friends with similar tastes in music are
often improbable to be found. When your own taste is weird, the friend becomes
rare and precious. Discussing retro songs, we came to two conclusions:
1.
Not everyone admires it when you send them Tum Itna Jo Muskura Rahe
Ho by Jagjt Singh on Whatsapp.
2.
They will surely admire the same song a few years hence.
This brought us to the incredibly simple
and transparent conclusion – that taste in music changes with age. If this is
to be seen as growing up from Honey Singh to Arijit Singh to Jagjit Singh and
Kishore Kumar, then I and he have indeed aged. But what has this “growing up”
to do with moving towards retro songs? The answer may lie in what one searches
for in music.
A 10 year kid (I have seen class III kids
rambling Honey Singh and class IV kids shouting Despacito) is most
probably going to go by the music – that is to say, one which amuses them. A
grown up kid, with his inquisitiveness and tendency to follow the crowd, often
finds herself listening to English songs. “What’s there in Bollywood songs?”
she may shoot up to her friends; there may indeed be nothing in the Bollywood
songs but she, note me, doesn’t know this. She doesn’t understand the English
songs either. What marks, then, the tendency to retard to retro?
Retard to Retro
I have listened to French, Russian and
Spanish songs along with English in my college days. I know none of the prior
three languages and have hardly understood any but a few pristine English songs
thoroughly (Guaranteed). But still I listened to them. I did so
religiously.
Only a personal awakening, I believe, can
bring about a change in music taste. It is largely related to what one’s going
through in life. I bet Mister Sherlock Holmes could have inferred a great deal about
a person from her musical taste.
Others who don’t understand why the
majority likes retro songs, I have a hint. The answer has got something to do
with lyrics and life. Modern songs can either not press the sore nerve or if
they do, they do so in a very mainstream manner (exceptions are everywhere – Dil
Diyan Gallan). Retro songs did so in both an accurate and intricate manner.
Take this with a pinch of salt for I am no expert and am doing this essaying
for the very first instance in my life.
Here’s a proof for you:
Ye roshni k
saath kyun,
Dhuan utha
chirag se?
Ye khwaab
dekhti hu mai
Ki jag padi
hu khwaab se?
(“Ajeeb
Daasta Hai Ye” by Lata Mangeshkar)
The setting of the song is serene and
simple. The protagonists are seated on a boat with a band and passengers
aboard. The movie was shot in monochrome. All the scene has to provide is this
and the actors’ expressions. The effect is a chill that creeps up your spine
whenever you listen to it.
Basic Rationalism
The conversation went awry and religion
entered the scene. We were talking about sorrows when I remembered the Four Noble
Truths of Buddhism: that world is full of sorrow; that sorrows have a cause
which generally is desire, ignorance or attachment; that sorrows can be removed
by destroying the cause; and that this can be done by the practice of the Eight
Fold Path.
This is no advocacy of any particular
religion but this is the ultimate scientific and rationalist approach I have
seen in any religion (again, I have little to no knowledge of what other
religions teach). Mr.T found this incredible – for this was no rocket science!
Indeed, every action has a cause; so do sufferings – what’s new? That every
action has a cause is rationalism. Still we believe that walking all the way to
a religious shrine barefoot (or any other concept readily believed in by
believers) will wipe out our sorrows. Why so? What has this journey to do with
sorrows? In this regard, Buddhism can’t be treated as a religion. The Buddha was
silent on the existence of God – the very basis of all major modern religions.
Buddhism started as a way of life and now, like all others, can be regarded as
just another religion. This is not to blame any religion or God in particular –
but to blame us.
Symbols and Methods
The truth is that we have always been
substituting the real thing with symbols. Give us a symbol and we are ready to
defy all odds for its love. In the hassle for these symbols, the real thing is
long lost. The practice of non-violence is lost amid the huge statues. Vasudeva
Kutumbakam is lost amid the construction of certain temples. Similarly,
respect for national symbols is seen as equivalent to patriotism. A reason
behind this is that the real thing is often cumbersome and difficult to
maintain. Additionally, there is no suitable or unified method to obtain it.
Non-violence, for example, is an element of the Eight Fold Path to liberation.
It is against the very nature of human beings. Sustaining it is even more
difficult. After all, one can’t even notice all their endurance reaping any
gains. Who is going to prefer it to a very systematic and ideal pilgrimage,
however difficult it may be, when it is going to give you the feel that you are
at least doing something?
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