Blame it on the bad pitch!
World peace (Wp) is the most famous ghost of all time. Everybody talks about it. Most genuinely believe in it. A whole lot more know for sure that it’s never going to happen. The ever-shifting dynamics in our geopolitics can’t afford to have Wp. It simply doesn’t have a place on our planet. When a tiger catches hold of its prey, it’s doing so for its stomach’s sake. An overwhelming majority of our species do a lot of things for its stomach’s sake. The only difference between these two samples is that the former neither holds any grudge against its prey nor disturbs the equilibrium of nature. Whereas the latter doesn’t care about the environment and sows all possible types of human weaknesses and reactions detrimental to earth. This is a primal recuse for Wp. If we had learnt to share with those who don’t have, we might have had a better shot at Wp.
Well, not happening anytime soon. With absolute disregard to all those beauty queens who have made Wp their motto in life (to win that damn tiara) conveniently.
Here’s what i think is also an impediment to Wp: Our collective lack of a singing voice. Very few among us can sing. The rest can only wish to sing. Wondering what this dismal statistical reality has anything to do Wp? Well, imagine there’s no heaven. No, i mean, imagine if you had the voice to sing that gorgeous song. Don’t you think you’d have appreciated yourself more and maybe, by default, stopped seeking others for validation? OK. This hypothesis is a bit stretched by all measures but if everybody could sing, more and more prayers would have been answered. As of now, most of our messages are going directly to God’s spam folder. There was a reason why the people from the past prayed to the Almighty in a lyrical fashion. Remember how Tansen’s master refused to sing for Akbar? He sang only for his Creature. Also, that’s the only way she listens to you!
Lame jokes aside, one can come up with a lot of excuses for the non-existence of Wp. This, that and everything in between. I shared the above theory with my friend who falls in the voice category as opposed to my noise category. She promptly said, “If everybody would sing, who would listen?” Fair point. Worse still, i feel sad for people like me who know all the lyrics but have the kind of voice that would make a frog want to hump you. Our only consolation is humming the songs silently under our breath so as not to disturb the world. Or its peace. Perhaps that makes us hmmmkar instead of sangeetkar.
PS. As a young boy, we had a radio and we listened to old melodies. Many a time, my dad used to ask me to sing some of them given my command over lyrics. Compared to his accented Hindi, mine must have sounded like Rafi to him. He used to praise my voice, fooling me in to presuming that i had a good voice while growing up.
PSS. Hostel was an embarrassing revelation.
PSSS. Somebody asked me who is my favourite singer recently. I was about to say Adele when i thought of MS Subbulaxmi. The reason i like MS has to do with the notion that she reminds me of my late grandma. Like her, MS’ songs are very devotional in outlook and touch deep subjects. Once you start listening to her, you are lost in her vocal charm. And like my grandma who taught me a lot through her stories and memorable quotes — “We find our God in hunger…” being my all-time favourite; also, happy Ramadan, folks — MS’ songs are a lesson in humility. Ostensibly, most of them have extensive dialogues with gods. That’s the beauty of Indian classical music (Hindustani as well as Carnatic); you talk with god, not just sing praises about her. You must have be familiar with Suprabhatam; the most famous of MS’ renditions. In it, she’s basically asking Venkatesha (Lord Balaji) to wake up. Imagine a mortal asking the celestial to wake up and smell the tea! In many other songs, she is talking to gods for different reasons. Like in Kurai Ondrum Illai, she tells Govinda (Lord Krishna) that she doesn’t have any sorrows left. She has seen and been through all kinds of sadness and she is thankful to the lord for making her sustain. There’s almost a hint of sarcasm in there. KURAI ONDRUM ILLAI, GOVINDAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA…
PSSSS. Enough singing for one day.
