The soiree called life
Of course, every evening cannot be a night on the town. There are practical issues, you see; the inevitable trip to the office the next day, the kids’ homework and their school, the guests for dinner, the lassitude that creeps in after reaching home from work, etc. etc.
Begging excuses from the friends and acquaintances who are endowed with a well toned and pleasant voice, I would like to express my deep love for music. Though not exactly a technically or practically qualified person to go into the minute nuances of this art, I do enjoy music in all its forms. Many a day, many a night, many a moment has been made beautiful by the sometimes-forgotten, sometimes-remembered rhapsody of notes that till date rustles deep down in the path of my life.
Lazy evenings after the predictable evening classes and tutorials in medical school, when the strings of someone’s guitar and the baritone of someone’s voice added colours to the twilight sky! Yes, the familiar hill-top with the dreamy rocks where we sat, where the sound of music made our young hearts feel the feelings that we never felt before. At times, the rendition of the popular songs by friends sounded better than the original soundtracks! Life again blossomed, again opened its arms, to take me on a journey along the familiar path treaded about a decade ago, when we, the Class of ’97 of Gauhati Medical College, met last month. And again the music created magic, wove golden threads of nostalgia and for a moment, we were again on the hill-top, guitar, the watery tea on glasses and all.
On Saturday, 23rd of March, I took my kids to Connaught Place on a whim, just like that. The usually bright place seemed dimmer, but bathed in the earthen glow of a beautiful yellow hue. Suddenly, my sons were shouting; they were looking up at the sky. No, there were no meteors, no full moon, no aeroplane with blinking lights. Instead, what I saw really amazed me; there was this lantern like baloonish thing, with a well lit small but bright fire in between, and it was blowing up to the sky from the heart of the Central Park! I had never seen anything like this before, and they come in quick succession, one after the other, and made the Delhi night sky glow in its warm luminescence. It took me some research to fish out the name for the ‘thing’, which is called “Komfire” in the Thai language, though its English synonym still eludes me. Just then, I heard a young girl utter the words “Earth Hour”. Earth Hour is a worldwide event organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and held towards the end of March annually, encouraging households and businesses to turn off their non-essential lights for one hour to raise awareness about the need to take action on climate change. It was by sheer coincidence that I had reached Connaught Place in the Earth Hour, and the Central Park housed an audience mesmerized by the husky voice of Rekha Bharadwaj, the so-much talented singer. Ms Bharadwaj sang for quite some time, and we all were spellbound. Earth Hour 2013 was held across the world on Saturday, March 23 at 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. local time. The event, conceived by WWF and Leo Burnett, first took place in 2007, when 2.2 million residents of Sydney participated by turning off all non-essential lights. And that evening, sitting on the grass, just idly, and dreamily thinking of all the good things in life, I again felt the rush of emotions that songs stir up within me.
And as I find myself unable to think of any more words to describe my feelings, the SOUND OF MUSIC fills up my mind and heart…………..
The hills are alive
With the sound of music
With songs they have sung
For a thousand years
The hills fill my heart
With the sound of music
My heart wants to sing ev’ry song it hears
My heart wants to beat like the wings of the birds
That rise from the lake to the trees
My heart wants to sigh like a chime that flies
From a church on a breeze
To laugh like a brook when it trips and falls
Over stones on its way
To sing through the night
Like a lark who is learning to prey
I go to the hills
When my heart is lonely
I know I will hear
What I’ve heard before
My heart will be blessed
With the sound of music
And I’ll sing once more
Begging excuses from the friends and acquaintances who are endowed with a well toned and pleasant voice, I would like to express my deep love for music. Though not exactly a technically or practically qualified person to go into the minute nuances of this art, I do enjoy music in all its forms. Many a day, many a night, many a moment has been made beautiful by the sometimes-forgotten, sometimes-remembered rhapsody of notes that till date rustles deep down in the path of my life.
Lazy evenings after the predictable evening classes and tutorials in medical school, when the strings of someone’s guitar and the baritone of someone’s voice added colours to the twilight sky! Yes, the familiar hill-top with the dreamy rocks where we sat, where the sound of music made our young hearts feel the feelings that we never felt before. At times, the rendition of the popular songs by friends sounded better than the original soundtracks! Life again blossomed, again opened its arms, to take me on a journey along the familiar path treaded about a decade ago, when we, the Class of ’97 of Gauhati Medical College, met last month. And again the music created magic, wove golden threads of nostalgia and for a moment, we were again on the hill-top, guitar, the watery tea on glasses and all.
On Saturday, 23rd of March, I took my kids to Connaught Place on a whim, just like that. The usually bright place seemed dimmer, but bathed in the earthen glow of a beautiful yellow hue. Suddenly, my sons were shouting; they were looking up at the sky. No, there were no meteors, no full moon, no aeroplane with blinking lights. Instead, what I saw really amazed me; there was this lantern like baloonish thing, with a well lit small but bright fire in between, and it was blowing up to the sky from the heart of the Central Park! I had never seen anything like this before, and they come in quick succession, one after the other, and made the Delhi night sky glow in its warm luminescence. It took me some research to fish out the name for the ‘thing’, which is called “Komfire” in the Thai language, though its English synonym still eludes me. Just then, I heard a young girl utter the words “Earth Hour”. Earth Hour is a worldwide event organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and held towards the end of March annually, encouraging households and businesses to turn off their non-essential lights for one hour to raise awareness about the need to take action on climate change. It was by sheer coincidence that I had reached Connaught Place in the Earth Hour, and the Central Park housed an audience mesmerized by the husky voice of Rekha Bharadwaj, the so-much talented singer. Ms Bharadwaj sang for quite some time, and we all were spellbound. Earth Hour 2013 was held across the world on Saturday, March 23 at 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. local time. The event, conceived by WWF and Leo Burnett, first took place in 2007, when 2.2 million residents of Sydney participated by turning off all non-essential lights. And that evening, sitting on the grass, just idly, and dreamily thinking of all the good things in life, I again felt the rush of emotions that songs stir up within me.
And as I find myself unable to think of any more words to describe my feelings, the SOUND OF MUSIC fills up my mind and heart…………..
The hills are alive
With the sound of music
With songs they have sung
For a thousand years
The hills fill my heart
With the sound of music
My heart wants to sing ev’ry song it hears
My heart wants to beat like the wings of the birds
That rise from the lake to the trees
My heart wants to sigh like a chime that flies
From a church on a breeze
To laugh like a brook when it trips and falls
Over stones on its way
To sing through the night
Like a lark who is learning to prey
I go to the hills
When my heart is lonely
I know I will hear
What I’ve heard before
My heart will be blessed
With the sound of music
And I’ll sing once more
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