Wednesday, January 19, 2011

The Sound of Music

Yesterday night as I was surfing through the TV channels, the remote stopped at a music channel that was showing old Hindi film songs. And I was transported to the past – bringing alive myriad memories which had somehow gotten lost in the present stressful life.
Some songs transported me to peaceful long summer holidays, where the whole day was spent in reading books, playing with dolls or just lounging on the sofa with LP records playing in the background. And then again, flashes of images came zooming in of sitting in the monsoons with hot pakoras and music.
And to whet my appetite of old songs, I logged on to the internet to download the old favourites and getting nostalgic… there were some songs which I liked just like that … and others which me and mother used to sing. Few songs that I shared with my Nani and others which were common favourite with my Masi like KL Saigal.

The year I was giving my 10th class boards – woke up at 3am in the morning 2 days before the exam – and the faint strains of bhajans sung by Lata Mangeshkar flowed through the still-dark morning, it was the day of Maha-Shivratri. And my mother traced the cassette and bought for me the same day! And a Amitabh Bachchan song that was my sister’s favourite became my favourite too …
And then came TV and VCR, along with it Doordarshan’s Chitrahaar and black& white movies … and the music got an imagery to go with. Binaca Geetmala or Radio Ceylon died its natural death!
Yesterday I promised myself – to trace more songs of my childhood so that I can with the play of a button can go back in past and relive those memories. While I had always believed in the power of visual or taste, never realized that the Sound of Music evokes such powerful emotions that touch the heart and make you weep or laugh.
Listening away to old melodies,
Pooja
January 19, 2011