Mile Sur Mera Tumhara!

It is festive season again, and the music is on.  I had decided that this season, I was going to catch a lot of concerts, and enrich my musical brain.  The first of the concerts I went for, was a jugalbandi with the blend of the north and the south.  I had a friend tell me sometime back, it is not necessary to know music to enjoy it; how true it was, I realized when I saw how beautifully the notes touched  a chord in my heart.  I do not really understand  Hindustani classical; for that matter, my knowledge of Carnatic music is also abysmal, though my exposure has tuned my ears to appreciate good music and filter it from bad performances! 

So, to come back to this concert.  The ambience was awesome, and I felt transported to a world where the stars shone dimly, the lighted pillars created by the event management team reflected the mood and spirit of the evening.  Music, especially soulful music, chokes me, whether I am singing or listening. This evening was no exception.  I choked and had tears rolling down my face, as the notes brought memories, nostalgia and emotions to the surface.   Someone had told me, when you sing and you can’t sing a high note because you are choked and emotional, you are having a musical seizure.  Well, I was having a series of them that evening all right.  Music blends all right, I had enough proof of that that evening.  Or, did I?

 

 

The person sitting next to me was a young girl, maybe in her late twenties, and she was also enjoying with her eyes closed.  But I noticed, that she would appreciate only when the Hindustani artist was singing, and would not even join in at the end of a particular Carnatic number when the whole hall was resounding with applause.  I found that extremely strange and a narrow appreciation of music. Maybe she did not really understand Carnatic music; but I am sure, a lot of the people, even me, did not really understand Hindustani music either;   but did that stop us from appreciating music? This was one sore spot on an otherwise perfect evening!

I believe that music does not know boundaries; why do we create them in our hearts then?  And the end of the concert was beautiful  with two lines from a nation-wide popular song which  conveyed that if your note and my note blend, then we create a fresh, new note!