The music industry has been claiming ,
Sangeet ko na roke deewar
Sangeet jaye sarhad ke paar.
(Nothing can stop music. It travels beyond borders ).
This line proves itself every time we rock our head to the tunes of Strings or sway our hands to Bryan Adam's Here I am. The jury at Oscars that commemorated Rahman or the Afgan in Kabul admiring Kishoreda's melodies would nod their heads on the translation of these lines.
But did you ever contemplate that music creates boundaries at a very subtle level? Instruments like Violins, trumpets etc rarely see the light in a poor man's shop. A college fest cannot host a cultural event without a guitar and a drum. Pandit Ravishankar and his daughter Anoushka are heroes amongst the elite while we need specialized singers for the Bhojpuri audience. The August crowd takes it as a matter of "taste" to get charmed by Pandit Bhimsen Joshi while we make provision of Vithal Umap for our folk people.
Generally and rather thankfully people are open to different types of music. But imagine if these subtle boundaries becomes rigid. Imagine if the flavor of nationalism pours itself into the tender brains of music lovers. Music being a matter of passion has the potential to breed the patriotism type flavor.
My theory is that human brain doesn't take effort in raising doubts. Mind somehow loves the taste of negativity and uses this drug as the prescription of life. Just today I happened to meet someone who was keen on 2012 disaster since according to him it would liberate him off these daily life's problems - clear indications of a mind bred in negativity and hatred. We love to hate someone and eventually live to hate the same entity. So if the nations are at peace, imagine (I know hypothetical but still imagine ) that India and Pakistan suddenly become chaddi buddies. Obama is revered across all Muslim countries. There is no reason for the world now to hate each other. An unaware mind might scout for other reasons to breed hatred. Imagine the Heavy Metal youth forming cult underground societies across the globe to take over from the elite Classicals. The folk music people fighting for their rights to capture the center stage. Imagine the Classical Fraternity of India (CFI) forms a coalition govt with the Jazz Club of India with someone to the likes of Zakir Hussain is leading the pack as Prime Minister . Evidently the tabla lobby being strong within CFI they are currently pushing the bill to make tabla mandatory till school level. There is a strong opposition from the pianist who are always under represented in the house. To revolt against this oppression and the lack of freedom of choice the underground Guns&Dozes is planning a revolutionary attack over the kurta pajama chaps.
Thankfully there is little or no space for the above scenario to be true ever. We all know we have reservations over certain type of music branded by certain type of instrument. These are very subtle and invisible boundaries. I have simply aggravated these subtle boundaries in the picture painted above.
Hatred can be cured by acceptance. Recently in one of the satsangs of Art of Living that I attend, I realized that instrument, music, genre etc is no emotion's monopoly. Why can't a devotional song be a rock song where guitar and drums play an instrumental role? The fusion band Indian Ocean is doing fabulous job in creating a symphony of tabla, guitar, sitar, drums etc. Cultures that create a sense of belonging and a will of acceptance bring a great deal of relief to an otherwise hypocrite society. Thanks to such instrumental efforts that today music today has become a tool to bridge gaps, a tool to appreciate each other & a tool to connect hearts.
Sangeet ko na roke deewar
Sangeet jaye sarhad ke paar.
(Nothing can stop music. It travels beyond borders ).
This line proves itself every time we rock our head to the tunes of Strings or sway our hands to Bryan Adam's Here I am. The jury at Oscars that commemorated Rahman or the Afgan in Kabul admiring Kishoreda's melodies would nod their heads on the translation of these lines.
But did you ever contemplate that music creates boundaries at a very subtle level? Instruments like Violins, trumpets etc rarely see the light in a poor man's shop. A college fest cannot host a cultural event without a guitar and a drum. Pandit Ravishankar and his daughter Anoushka are heroes amongst the elite while we need specialized singers for the Bhojpuri audience. The August crowd takes it as a matter of "taste" to get charmed by Pandit Bhimsen Joshi while we make provision of Vithal Umap for our folk people.
Generally and rather thankfully people are open to different types of music. But imagine if these subtle boundaries becomes rigid. Imagine if the flavor of nationalism pours itself into the tender brains of music lovers. Music being a matter of passion has the potential to breed the patriotism type flavor.
My theory is that human brain doesn't take effort in raising doubts. Mind somehow loves the taste of negativity and uses this drug as the prescription of life. Just today I happened to meet someone who was keen on 2012 disaster since according to him it would liberate him off these daily life's problems - clear indications of a mind bred in negativity and hatred. We love to hate someone and eventually live to hate the same entity. So if the nations are at peace, imagine (I know hypothetical but still imagine ) that India and Pakistan suddenly become chaddi buddies. Obama is revered across all Muslim countries. There is no reason for the world now to hate each other. An unaware mind might scout for other reasons to breed hatred. Imagine the Heavy Metal youth forming cult underground societies across the globe to take over from the elite Classicals. The folk music people fighting for their rights to capture the center stage. Imagine the Classical Fraternity of India (CFI) forms a coalition govt with the Jazz Club of India with someone to the likes of Zakir Hussain is leading the pack as Prime Minister . Evidently the tabla lobby being strong within CFI they are currently pushing the bill to make tabla mandatory till school level. There is a strong opposition from the pianist who are always under represented in the house. To revolt against this oppression and the lack of freedom of choice the underground Guns&Dozes is planning a revolutionary attack over the kurta pajama chaps.
Thankfully there is little or no space for the above scenario to be true ever. We all know we have reservations over certain type of music branded by certain type of instrument. These are very subtle and invisible boundaries. I have simply aggravated these subtle boundaries in the picture painted above.
Hatred can be cured by acceptance. Recently in one of the satsangs of Art of Living that I attend, I realized that instrument, music, genre etc is no emotion's monopoly. Why can't a devotional song be a rock song where guitar and drums play an instrumental role? The fusion band Indian Ocean is doing fabulous job in creating a symphony of tabla, guitar, sitar, drums etc. Cultures that create a sense of belonging and a will of acceptance bring a great deal of relief to an otherwise hypocrite society. Thanks to such instrumental efforts that today music today has become a tool to bridge gaps, a tool to appreciate each other & a tool to connect hearts.
posted from Bloggeroid
