350: The diwali Musings

The Diwali Musings

One Tune, Many musics!

I wonder about many things all the time. There were moments when I used to relish questions. Later I would have my vanity massaged by answering them. These days my favorite mode is to wonder. Age does it I guess! Not question, not answer, but just wonder. Almost aloud. It is fun. Questions are a burden. Answers are a pressure. Wondering is liberating.

This Diwali, I wonder if two people listen to the same music, do they really listen to the same music; Or do they listen to something beyond that music – something that the individual creates along with the music while she listens to it, something only she could create, something that music could create only with her. This musing is that wonder.

# 1. The guitarist on the streets was playing a beautiful tune. It was something that even the Gods would have liked. It was something that made the ones passing by get hooked by helplessly. She was one of them. She was transfixed. Like most, she was not a virtuoso in any kind in music, nor was she an expert, or even an amateur even. She just felt a good music when she heard it. She felt it then. She stopped.
She looked around and saw there were many who were standing there – at different states of captivity. The sight of others stuck to their places lost in the music broke her own delirium. She wondered what so many people, different people found in the same music captivating. Was it the same thing or were there different things? Were others feeling what she was feeling, even when she was still figuring out what she was feeling.
Listening to a stranger in a strange country playing a strange tune and seeing so many strangers all hooked together with the same music made her wonder.

The guitar bellows out one tune. Two pair of ears hear it. Is it really one tune?

# 2. The Mumbai locals is a world in itself. There are those who have heard of it but never travelled in it – they don’t know what the fuss is about it. There are those who have travelled in it once or a few times – usually they are the ones who are intimidated by it. Then there are those for whom these locals have become lifelines. The experience, like most other things about Mumbai grows on you – almost like love. Like love, Mumbai locals is painful, irritating, often crowded, sometimes claustrophobic, and mostly overrated – but you are still better with it, than without it.

Like many couples in the city, both had big jobs, small houses and long commute. Time was always short and time together precious. Existence often is a full time job. Everyone is being driven crazy in unique ways but is searching solace through common methods; shopping, eating and holidays. Everyone has lost something. Everyone is losing something every day, inch by inch and moment by moment. There is an attempt somehow to compensate the loss of moments by acquiring something or the other. Square feet’s and reward points are usual methods. They rarely help. The loss of moments can only be compensated by salvaging moments, stealing them. We must be accomplished in such theft to be happy.

They had learnt to be thieves of small moments over time. So when they would travel to work together on the Mumbai locals, while others jostle for space, they create their own. They took the seat side by side, put one ear plug each in one ear and listen to some music. Those songs would be their moments together, souls welded together by the wires of the headphone. She would often wonder.

The phone bellows out one song. Two pair of ears hear it. Is it really one song?

This Diwali, it is a good thing to wonder and wish for all. May we all hear the same music and may it touch us in many similar ways. Should it happen, the light all around will be a tad brighter and who knows, each one us may also shine a wee bit more. Is it not what we all want eventually?

Happy Diwali