The Sound Of Blue

I must've been living the Longfellow reverie that moment  - 'Sitting and watching the changing color of the waves that break upon the idle seashore of the mind'. The canvas before me looked like it had been dipped in a hazy blue hue. The distant horizon was but a mere blurry line. Lost in that haze I wondered, if colors had sounds, what would the sound of blue be like. The answer dawned on me during those few days that I spent amidst the clear blue skies and the deep blue sea.

The sound of blue must be that of the restless waves hitting the shores tirelessly from times immemorial. The hissing noise of the snowy white foam that soaks the shores as the mighty tides come in. The gentle whisper of a receding wave. The gurgling sound of the bubbles from little crab holes scattered along the shore.

The sound of little kids playing splish-splash in water. The whoosh of the wave hitting you as you play "Catch-Me-If-You-Can". The rippling sound of the tides that hit your boat, spraying you all over with the freshness of the sea; and that of the ones that you ride on your water ski. The faint babble of the ripples created by the incessant rain. The sound of the water trickling down the roof  of that little shack you're resting in, watching the downpour soaking the sea.

I had read somewhere that after a while, the residents of the sea cannot hear the sound of waves. How bitter it is, the sound of routine! But for unfortunate souls like us, living amidst constant man made cacophony, it meant all that and much more.

Time to go back to the old cacophony. I'll return whenever I need the sounds of blue to wash away my daily blues again. Till then, so long... :)

Music n Lyrics

The only bearable part of my everyday ordeal of wading through the notorious traffic of Bangalore roads as I commute to and from my workplace, is listening to music. Routine is bitter though, so I change my playlist more often than my wardrobe! (which by women's Shopaholic - O - Meter standards, is a lot! :P ). But every now and then, comes along a song that so resonates with your soul that as you keep looping through it endlessly, each time you're left with a feeling of being a part of an unfinished symphony.

Losing yourself in music is a consummating experience.

It begins when the melody hits your ears and traverses through, as it strikes a chord with your very being.

The magic happens when it encompasses you, compelling you to join in. And you concede, humming and singing along, as each cell of your consciousness aligns and reverberates with the melody.

Then comes the celebration, with your soul dancing it's own little ballet, swinging with the highs and swaying with the lows (It doesn't matter even if you're the Bathroom-Singer types, or the Learnt-Music-Once-Never-Dared-Sing-Again types :P).

And then finally, the transcendence happens when the lyrics touches your soul. The lyrics and the melody blend in so inseparably that the lyrics is no longer just words and the melody becomes it's language.

Quoting one of my favorite lines from the movie Music and Lyrics:

"A melody is like seeing someone for the first time., the physical attraction. But then, as you get to know the person, that's the lyrics. Their story. Who they are underneath. Its the combination of the two that makes it magical."
And its the same magical combination that transports me out of this world as I lose myself in this beautiful song in Rahat Fateh Ali Khan's voice:

Epiphany

It was still daylight outside,

But mind within, a hazy blur.

Weren't you guilty, excuses aside,

Of not listening, when it was all clear?

You dreamt of a library, even before you built a home,

But succumbed to daily grind, the dream at once forlorn.

Didn't you regret, for days to come,

 Not picking up that book, when life seemed a drone?

You set out a wayfarer, treading many a path unknown,

But bridled midway, the flinch eclipsing your zeal.

Wouldn't you often retrospect, when all alone,

If you'd realized sooner, sedentary life didn't really appeal?

The sun by now, had faded into skies ethereal,

But leaving behind, thoughts lucid.

Weren't all those fears mere conceptual,

Since they died out, when began writing finally, you did!?

Photo Credits: David Masters

Breaking Free

It started out as just any other Thursday morning. Though it was only over a month since I started my life as a "married" woman, I had quickly settled down into a perfect morning routine - wake up early, take bath, help mom(in law) in kitchen, pack lunch for my husband and me before scrambling off to catch my early cab to office. I like the routine;On usual 'Oh-hell!Its just-another-work-day's, the morning rush to get things done gets me attuned to the restless pace at which the rest of my day goes by.

However, this day was a little different. I was just out of the shower when the power went out. Though a ceiling fan is no respite from the grueling hot summer in Bangalore, the constant whirring of one has become a must in every home, and ours was no exception. Now that it was no longer whirring, an unsettling silence had befallen the house.

For a moment, the buzz in my mind had stopped too. Not knowing what else to do, I decided to pull down the blinds in the balcony to allow some light into the room. As I did it, I watched R~ turn in his bed, mumbling some techie mumbo - jumbo in his sleep. At times, I felt jealous of him ; I wish I had something that I could eat, breathe and sleep. Being a typical Piscean, I'm constantly on lookout for new, warmer waters. "Will I ever have that one thing in life?" I wondered. "For now, you still have the routine to stick to" I reminded myself sadly and started out the door.

That's when I heard it, the sweetest sound of dawn - A bird chirping :) It sounded so ineffably beautiful! I just stood there hearing the bird's cry as my heart rose, breaking free, from unrelenting routines, the ever familiar waters and soared higher and higher, into the jubilant unknown. Shakespeare explains it perfectly when he says, 
"Like to the lark at break of day arising,
 From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate" (Sonnet 29). 
That moment I realized, that sometimes its good to break free from your routine and take a look at life around you. If routines set your life's pace, a new dawn ushers a fresh beginning into it. As for the rest of that day, my head was no longer buzzing, all I could hear was chirrup chirrup :)