One of the things, God left on the earth while packing all the good things for the heaven was – music. And I am lucky to have two sound ears to feel that.
Story goes back to one hot afternoon at Navodaya Vidyalaya, Purnea. Near to our hostel, there was library cum art room. In front of building there was green grass with a shadow as the afternoon sun was behind the building (earlier used to be fire brigade building) , that was my favourite hang out to spend with librarian sir, Rakesh sir or art sir, Gupta sir.
One day habitually strolling there, I saw art sir making abstract arts on paper with pencil sketches. That day, I was just following his slanting pencil strokes just like another teenage boy. While making human figure, every artist have his/own inclination towards specific body parts. His were head and shoulders. Of course, I too have some ЁЯЩВ .
In the background, on a portable cassette player, there was playing, instrumental music by Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma on the Santoor accompanied on table was Shafat Ali Khan. The album was “A Sublime Trance” and track was “Raga Mishra Shivranjani”. And that afternoon when I was really sent into a trance of art and music. If you need something really, you pick up the right thing at right time. That time may be I was in class 8 or 9. Though learnt strokes from him, but remembered the details of the cassette well. I tried to find the cassette at my small town shops, it was not available.
I ‘grew up’ like everyone, means I passed out 10th. And I found same cassette pair of the album after ordering from another town’s music shop. And there came the days when I was playing only instrumental music for hours. Don’t know why that soothes my soul ultimately! And came a unknown thirst for the instrumental music tracks. While solving math problems or doing any creative things that became that best companion on those days. The sound without words, the cords of Santoor, Veena or Guitar used to struck the chords of my soul. The beats and bass of tabla or drum use to thump my heart beat and put them in rhythm again. The harmonica instrumentsal and tabla specials were again additions later.
Now I have a good collection of instrumental music to suit every state of mind, from the feelings of calmness to energising ones to the extent of the feelings of lust. Though the collection is in form of .mp3 format, and I find the difference between CD format and .mp3 format. In later case the quality decreases slightly ( only if you have a ear of perfection. The timeless instrumental music makes me feel sitting in valleys, near to rivers, in the forests and all those place where this poor soul really exists !
And instrumental music has become indispensable part of my life.
Music to be continued…..