Would you?

Would you believe me
if i told  you about,
a little girl, a boy and
the world above a cloud.

She thought that she could
never ever learn to fly.
She had no wings how could she,
soar above the sky.

She was a lonely creature,
in a dark and lonely place,
and if someone would teach her,
she would fly so far away.

He was a silly boy,
just jumping around.
Smiling and shining,
chasing after silly sounds.

And then one day he heard,
a song divine.
A different colour every,
line after line.

He heard the lonely creature,
in a dark and lonely place,
and he knew that he would reach her,
so she could fly so far away.

The little boy he went and
touched the little girl.
He told her of the sky and
how her wings unfurl.

She was so scared that
she could hardly leave the ground
And then he held her hand and
she turned around.

She was a lovely creature,
with the world beneath her feet.
And she knew that she could fly now,
to that world so far away.

The Death of Music

Ask yourself seriously…

When was the last time you heard something and concentrated on listening to it just for the pleasure it gave you?

When was the last time you listened to a song being played by someone who was playing it just for himself?

When did you last go on a trip and come back with memories of not just the sights but also the sounds?

When did you last listen to something other than conventional rock or Bollywood music?

When was the last time there was music in your head that you made yourself?

I talk about the death of not the music that you hear but of the music that you do not. Imagine the time before the internet and CDs or cassettes became the only source of music for the majority of people. There were small villages with small village centers where small groups of people played their music for a small audience. Making money was not the major motivation for making music. Now with such easy access to a wide variety of music for so many people, a wide variety of musicians have prospered. But the music of the small time musician of the streets has died its death.

Musicians make music for themselves foremost. But it is also the way they share some of their emotions with other people. With no audience they have no one to share it with. The musician needs an audience to survive. His music is always in his head. He brings it out only to see how many others feel the same way as him when they hear it.

The first question. When was the last time you heard something and concentrated on listening to it just for the pleasure it gave you? Many of us have forgotten that the sense of sound can give us just as much pleasure as any of the other senses. The twitter of a bird is something to be enjoyed when you hear it early in the morning. The sound of the sea, the sound of the wind rustling the leaves of the trees, these are all things that are worth listening to with your eyes closed every once in a while.

The second question. When was the last time you listened to a song being played by someone who was playing it just for himself? The next time you do listen to it carefully. You will get to know a lot more about the person playing it than by any other way. You might even feel the same emotions he is trying to express.

The third question. When did you last go on a trip and come back with memories of not just the sights but also the sounds? Pay more attention to the music of the place next time. Every different place has a different flavor to offer. And you will come back fresher than ever before. Try it.

The fourth question. When did you last listen to something other than conventional rock or Bollywood music? Try not to restrict yourself with some specific genres or bands. India is a great repository of music. Try listening to some classical and folk music once in a while.

The last question. When was the last time there was music in your head that you made yourself? Every one of us is capable of making music, great in its own way. Make music in your head. You don’t need any instrument or a great voice. It’s something you create and will forever be yours. All the best and enjoy.

The Beach

I’ve been hesitating to start a blog for almost a year. I don’t know why but I just didn’t know how to start, what to start with and most importantly why??? Maybe because I wanted to start off with an earth shaking blog that would perhaps change the world and attract attention to it from around the globe. But then today I finally realized that im just kidding myself. First of all the best pieces of imagination that I could come up with are already submitted for checking and will get me my grade soon, and let me assure you all my brain power is used up coughing up new theories about how machines work and inventing new phenomenon. And secondly I think this blog is about writing what’s in your heart and not caring who is going to read it anyway.

So let me start off with an introduction. I am crazy. I think that is the best word that describes me. But then just a word is never enough and since I don’t want to end this just yet, ill talk about the one thing that best brings out the real me. That’s the beach. That one particular beach in Chennai where I go to when I feel I just can’t take what life throws at me any longer.

I first saw the beach in my 1st year. I am kind of an electronics freak and we had a project to make in our 1st year, it was a walking speed measuring device, and I needed some components for it. So I took out my trusty photon and went searching for an electronics shop. I usually have a “keep left” policy when roaming around and so that I take the first left turn I get to and keep going so that I can come back anytime by just going right. Well I cycled for quite a while, about 15 – 20 mins till I came upon some residential area. I knew there was no hope of finding a shop there but somehow I just kept on going. Well after a while, I found myself cycling under a beautiful canopy of trees, but this wasn’t like a road that goes on forever, at the end of the tree tunnel there was nothing, absolutely nothing. Just clear blue sky. And it just drew me on and on like a magnet. And at the end of it that’s when I saw it for the first time. And it was beautiful. The sun was just about to set and even though you can’t see the sunset at the beach it felt like heaven. I kept my cycle away and sat down doing nothing, just taking in everything, the sights and sounds and just the feeling of absolute peace. I forgot everything else, I just didn’t care about anything but the beach at that moment. The sea always takes my breath away and this was a moment I would never forget.

Well eventually I got hungry and it grew quite dark, so I came back. But the beach never left me. Since then I’ve been there countless times. When I got 4/40 in my thermodynamics course, when I got 20/20 for the first time in a quiz, when I had a fight with a close friend, when we made up again, the beach has always calmed and I’ve always gone to it whenever I needed to get away from everything. It’s like a real person to me. It understands what I feel, takes away my anxieties and gives me peace.

And sometimes it makes me do crazy things. As I had told you right at the beginning, I am crazy. One fine day I was up chatting till around 1 am and since it was a Friday we didn’t have classes the next day, so I proceeded to see a movie till 3:30 (Shawshank’s Redemption, if you haven’t seen it yet then see it right now). The movie moved me and I don’t know why but I felt like running after seeing it. You see I’m not a fan of jogging or any other physical exertion, but running felt like an expression of the sense of complete freedom I felt, not a form of exercise. I had first decided to run on the route that professors took early in the morning, but as I took out my cycle I changed my mind. I wanted to go to the beach. And so I went, I reached there around 4am. There was such beauty hidden in that serene darkness, you could see white waves crashing against each other and see some small light from a ship far away but other than that nothing. In the morning there is always a clear distinction between the earth and the sky, there is always a definite horizon, but at night there is nothing, all is one. The whole beach was empty, just me and the black sea. And as I walked up to it the feeling of joy that rushed through me is indescribable. I felt like I owned the beach. I walked right up to the water front and although I didn’t get wet, I sat down quite close and closed my eyes. Now, my mother has tried to teach me how to meditate quite a few times, but that time when I closed my eyes, I think that was the closest I’ll ever get to meditation. I just listened and felt the cool breeze blowing on my face for almost half an hour. And then the sun started to come up. I’ve seen quite a few sunsets but very few sunrises over the beach. And this one topped the list. But as I sat there watching the sun rise I suddenly remembered why I had come to the beach in the first place. And so I started to run, and I ran and ran and till I could almost collapse, which was by the way just about 15-20 mins. Then I went back to the water and splashed some of it on my face. The coolness of the water revived me completely, and I stood up again and looked around. By this time the beach was quite crowded, but the people here all keep to their own business, which is just the way I want it to be. And the sun had finally risen fully and was shining brightly. So I went back to my cycle at about 5 am. But I wasn’t finished yet. I cycled fast, very fast, the whole way and as I almost reached the back gate I let out a roar of perhaps victory, (I don’t know why) which startled a guy I passed by who was brushing his teeth. I came back to my room, took a bath and after an almost perfect start to my day, went to sleep.

Yes the beach brings out the real me. I don’t have to hide myself from it within a shell, like I have to from people. I can open myself up in front of it and rest assured that I will always walk away absolutely at peace. It helps me concentrate, helps me think clearly and sort out the things that are running through my mind. It helps me understand better (I went up to it a day before my end semester physics exam). And that brings me to what I am. I understand stuff. I am not an engineer, not a researcher, not an aspiring MBA, not even a guitar player. As I said, I understand stuff. Or at least try to. I try to understand everything. How things work, how nature works, how people think, what people think. I ask a lot of why’s (just like I did at the very beginning). Why this happens, why this does not happen, why someone did what they did and what caused it. I empathize, I understand. That is what I am. Told you I was crazy didn’t I?
Well that’s that for my introduction and about the beach. But more will follow about the beach. I still have at least a year and half more here. And I’m sure I’m going to beach again quite a few times. I love it.