What's there in a song?

There are quite a few times I have come across a thought; but am not sure whether those thoughts are so universal that I should write about them and share them with others. However personal they might be, at some point the readers should relate to them. If my thoughts are weird and meaningless then its really no point trying to share those with others. But then I find echoes of many of my thoughts among different people. In one of the blogs, I wrote about the feeling of loneliness in a crowded football stadium. The other day I was watching a documentary in Youtube about Mecca. There one person said how he felt lonely even when he was in a crowd of millions in Mecca. In another writing, I vented my opinion on Indian universities and the newspaper reporting; some of my friends wrote to me how they shared the same view as mine. All these give me the confidence to nurture my thoughts and develop them to a well-composed piece. Today's thought is something that has been doing rounds in my head for quite a few months; its only when my younger brother said something similar last week that I felt the thought is universal. And I decided to pen down that thought - a difficult thing, but let me give it a try!

Orange candy! Ah! Thats what my favourite ice-cream is. And I think its the best ice-cream in the world. I know its a bit too much, but thats the way I like it to be. But why do I think so? Because when I am down and stressed, an ice-candy sort-of relaxes my nerves, wipes off my tension and anxiety and I feel so relaxed. Perhaps, nobody else feels so having the same orange candy! Even the most rigorous scientific tests would reveal that there is no such chemical in an orange candy that can act as a stress reliever. Actually, to me, an orange candy is more than an ice-cream. When I have it, it reminds me of my childhood days - the days when there was no tension and anxiety in my life, everything was so jolly and happy-go-lucky. The taste of ice-candies reminds me of those days, of those times...and I am happy again!

Similarly, a particular smell. That smell may bring to you certain memories, certain times - good or bad. Certain food or certain movie clippings.

One of my bad times in the recent past is the time in Calcutta, working for IBM and I have no qualms saying so. Perhaps thats the reason I have developed a hatred for the city. Whenever I think of Calcutta, the life there, whenever I see any Bengali (language spoken by the people of Calcutta) TV channels, they remind me of those days. I no longer see the Bengali TV channel, but visualise my life during that time, instead. And I dont want to see them.

And then there are songs. It just amazes me how a song can have so many different meanings to so many people. When we (brother and I) were school boys, we used to listen to songs of a Bengali singer, called Anjan Dutta. We were die-hard fan of his. I thought, "Yes! Now I have got somebody who speaks my language, understands me." After more than a decade, his songs no more appeal to me. And yet once a month I just play his songs when I want to re-live those younger days of mine. When I listen to his songs, actually I dont listen to his songs, but take myself to those days. And I still remember, when I went to USA the first time in 2002, I used to listen to at least two Bollywood movie songs - one from "Kaante" and the other from "Devdas".
During my last days in Cranfield things became a bit confusing. I was dilly-dallying with the idea of whether I should go back to India, or should I stretch myself for some more months to find a job in the already-squeezed job market of UK. At that time I listened to songs from some other Bollywood movies called "Race" and "Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na". When I listen to those songs I cant help but get those feelings inside me again. What appears in front of my eyes is the Fedden Flat studio apartment of mine; the yellow bulb at the centre of the room, the big windows, the community centre view from my room, the car-parking lot...I get goose-bumps. And these same songs have different meaning to different people. Some may remember these songs as it was played when he/she was going on a certain journey or may be it was being constantly played by the local club at a function or simply his/her better half gifted a collection which had those songs!

So, even though I dont find any good sense to the songs of Anjan Dutta today, which at one time I simply loved, I still listen to them when I want to re-visit my adolescent days. My wife did not find any meaning to his songs at any point in her life. So, today, even though we both share the same opinion that those songs are too childish, she fails to understand why I listen to them, anyway!
Isn't it strange how we live in the present and then occassionally some incidents take us back to our past? For a moment or two we go back and live in a different world, which may be good, which may not be so good. But, nevertheless, it is a world we once lived. It is a phase of life that we passed.
One day in my newly-bought home in Bangalore I was relaxing on the terrace, when a parrot's twitter suddenly caught my attention and what immediately flashed in front of my eyes is the gorgeous mango tree that we had in our house. When the mango used to ripe, parrots used to come in flocks and nibble at them. I was too familiar with that twitter then, as a child. Alas! Today that mango tree is not there. Needless to say, those sweet childhood days have also quietly sailed to some distant fairytale land!