A New Experience...

I am writing again after a long long time. Maybe even longer. My faculties have been taken up by engineering and studies and hardly anything interesting has come up. The routine goes on, and its only when one moves out of it, does one encounter interesting topics which in turn can be converted into blog posts :P
So it was of the most convenience when my family and I planned a trip for my semester vacations to Gujarat and Rajasthan. As it happens with most Hindu families, the trip was planned around a plethora of temples and we managed to sneek in a few interesting places, in the radius of those temples.
This trip was coming after almost 8 years (with family) and around 4 years (with school to Goa), so I was looking forward to travelling again.
The part of a journey I look forward to the most, are the train journeys. I love sitting at the window, listening to beautiful songs, which make the world seem so perfect. This is of course before I remove my earphones, just stare absently at the scenery passing by, trapped in the recess of my mind, thinking over philosophical questions, which I don't have answers to. What would the life of these villagers be? So different from us! They hardly have any electricity, and when night comes by, its darkness which surrounds them for miles and miles. The only light and noise comes from the rumbling of the trains that pass by. What would it be like to be so alone in such darkness?
Of course that's not how they think of it. We city people are so used to human company , that we can never imagine life without it. It shudders me, personally, to think of living alone in a house, isolated for miles. Thinking such similar, deep thoughts, we reached our destination.
We went to a place called Srinathji in Rajasthan, where there is a particularly important temple of Krishna, which our caste believes in. There are 8 darshans there, starting from 4 am to 3pm. Getting up early in the morning at 3.30am, in the chilly cold was the biggest task !
Another thing I noticed there and which holds true for any religious place are the number of beggars living around the temples. I dont know whether the beggars come there because there is a temple, expecting food/ money or whether that place is just poor. Both scenarios are plausible. A narcissist atheist would go with the latter, since it would give him a chance to blame God and question his existence. I did my fair share of donation to the poor people there and I had very mixed experiences!
I was having tea at the tea stall and this person came by with his child asking for something. I offered to buy him tea for him and his kids. But he insisted on getting kaccha (unboiled) milk. My father refused coz he believed that he would then sell the milk and do something with the money. And there were many such people who asked for food products rather than cooked food. I relented and gave them oil, wheat and sugar to help with heir household groceries. All we can do is hope, that they used it for themselves.
But what struck me most and what was the highlight of the trip was the image of a poor old man who I saw everyday as I came out of my lodgings. He was pretty old and he had two rotis with him. As a cow passed by, he gave one of his Roti's to the cow. That a man would give half of his food, and very less food at that, to an animal cemented my belief in humanity. I know, one might say that he gave it to the cow coz cows are considered holy by Hindus. Whatever the reason be, he gave away half his food to an animal even when he was starving.
Maybe kindness, gratitude have nothing to do with your financial status. Gratitude is a state of the mind. Giving, is a state of the mind and a state of the mind of very few people. For me, the old man's donation to the cow was much much more than any donation done by these billionaires. Because you can always donate when you have a lot, but it shows your character, when you donate even when you have very less for yourself.
With these thoughts in mind, and my new found experiences, I came back home, filled with hope and rejuvenation, vowing to be a little more like the unknown old man, who taught me a lesson in life.

The Charms Of Music...

There are only a few things in this world that tell us the real mood and feelings of a person. This, increasingly in a world where we are advised sometimes not to let our feelings out. Where we are taught diplomacy. Where letting people know things is not appreciated sometimes, especially as I often hear, in the 'Corporate World'. Eventually, a part of our generation is being taught to be fake, phoney and this good word 'diplomatic'. I love how animals are so honest. They'll scratch you or growl at you when they don't like your presence, but will shower love on you unconditionally when they do. Getting back, one of the few things that really help us express our feelings (sometimes those that we do not even know about) is music, poetry, art and of course writing. 

Recently I have surrounded myself with music the whole time. It was a lot before too, but I guess it was limited to listening to songs. Listening to songs of just one artist that I liked. So while music formed a big part of my life even at that time, I couldn't fully appreciate the beauty of music. 

Its been a year and a half since I wrote my last post and a lot has changed since then. I have gotten a lot into my guitar, into different kinds of music, into composing some juvenile music and appreciating the importance of music and the effect it can have. I found a different outlet to let out my feelings. Previously I used to write, now I convey it through music. There's a different beauty in conveying it through music. The joy that you get when you're neck deep into every note that you play, the emotion, the pain, happiness that every chord has associated with itself, the emotion with every lyric which mean so much to you. Its indescribable. And the best part is, that the guitar can't lie. When you're feeling blue, what you will play will indeed sound bluesy! When you're depressed, the tune or the notes you play will be sad. You might play a sad sounding progression. It leads to a sad tune. And the icing on the cake are the lyrics. A perfect reflection of what you feel. There's no way in which the guitar will lie to you. And that's the beauty of music that I am so awestruck by. In a world where one really struggles to find true emotions, music is one of the few outlets where you get true emotion. It all just comes together magically.

Of course, not all music is inspired and expressive. In the corporate scene of things, an artist might be forced to compose music to oblige with his contract. But, you can always make out. Between real music and fake music. You can make out through the lyrics, through the performance (live performances) etc.

There's a difference in singing a song, singing it passionately and just drowning in it. Any instrument for that matter. When you see Eric Clapton sing Tears In Heaven and well up after the performance, you know it was special. The song was written for his 9 year old son who died after falling from his house. Or when you see Eric Clapton play that guitar solo in Old Love from MTV Unplugged, you can see how involved he is with his instrument. Its just him and his guitar. Same goes with Rahul Ram and Susmit Sen from Indian Ocean. Or when you see Louis Armstrong singing What A Wonderful World. The examples are endless. 

I'm a purist because that is what I use music for. I hope music remains pure. That's its used to express feelings that can't be expressed with words. Of course, there isn't any music left in the times that we live in, is there? I would love it if anyone knows good artists of our times, making melodic, meaningful music! I mean there will be many, but I bet none of them are famous :P

P.S- Blues! I am so in love with that genre :)

P.P.S - Wow! Really rusty from a year!