Yes, I like ABBA, but this isn't just about that. This is about the other magic that exists in our lives. This is about the second inexplicable phenomenon that takes over our hearts.
Music. That Music exists is perhaps one of the few virtues of the world. It is said that Music and Love have a deep connection because they both originate from the heart of beings. Music is borne out of Love. Out of strong emotions. When we make love, we make Music with our bodies. Music is when our mute soul expresses itself through vibrations and sounds. It is the Andante and Allegro pouring out from the deepest, most obscure corners of your soul. It is your life's slow Waltz. It is the smile that hangs around your lips when you close your eyes and sit back in your chair in the local coffee shop, and let the Moonlight Sonata take over you. Music is the adrenaline in your veins and the synapses in your brain. Music is You. You are Music. And it is timeless. Music is the perfect cast for emotions to be poured into, set and preserved. Through lifetimes, generations, civilizations.
Mozart's Don Giovanni was born out of his anguish, guilt and pain at the death of his father. The Reprobate Punished, as the title means, still makes the World shake as this Music takes over their mind and soul with its brilliance. You can still feel Mozart's pain as the chords and chorus hit you, and you carry it in your soul as if it were your own wound. There are many other examples, but I choose to share this one because it is close to my heart. I am Mozart's libertine, and when it all ends, I want forgiveness because I am pained and anguished.
Because of this intricate connection of Music to our very Being, it is very powerful. Music is, thus, also sacred. This can be especially well understood in the context of Indian classical music. It is believed that the seven basic notes, also called Sargam, were revealed to ancient, learned sages/priests/hermits by the Gods themselves. They prayed to God to be given a means to bring themselves closer to God and to their inner self, and they were given Music. They were given the ability to create instruments from trees and gourds, and produce sounds that could move mountains. Sometimes, not even metaphorically. Literally. The Indian history is full of records of musicians being able to perform miracles with their Music. Tansen, for example, could calm animals, light lamps, and even make it rain when he took to his Sitar.
When we hear a piece of Music that hits home with us, we undergo a transformation that changes a part of us forever. It opens up new avenues for looking at the World, contemplating life and even lifestyle. We are never the same again. Every piece of Music, when it hits our ears, causes the little cells in our ears to give a slight nudge to your nerves. These auditory nerves then carry this music to your brain, and every little bit is transferred through a chemical reaction. This chemical reaction is a physical alteration in your brain. It forms connections in your brain, synapses, that weren't present before, and it creates small molecules that preserve this Music in your head as a memory. In short, we are our own LP record, our own Vinyl, CD. Cool, eh?
With in invention of portable music players, headphones, iPods etc., our Music now travels with us everywhere. It is as if we were in our own Musical. When you walk down the street on a particularly nice day, and "I believe I can Fly" comes up on your mp3 player, the spring in your step gets a tad bit springier. We celebrate with Music, let it feel our loneliness, our joy, grow up with it, grow old with it, overcome our heartbreaks with it, share our victories with it. Our Life, really, is a soundtrack.
My life is a soundtrack too. A vibrant, ever-changing soundtrack generously stows away my emotions, my ups and downs, my fears and joys, my very soul in the secure folds of its warmth, its serenity. I am because Music is. I am fortunate to have heard those sounds and felt those vibrations and been swept by those powerful waves of Music that have moved the World since the beginning of time. For me, it all ends when Music ends. There is no world, no existence without Music. And my Music will stay with me. In this world, and the next. Like a Guardian Angel.
Thank you for the Music.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Sunday, November 01, 2009
An Ode, In Prose
Another Ode to Love.
I think the world will never grow weary of people writing about Love. Painting about Love. Making music about Love. Making Love.
80% of cinema and theater is about Love.
Many wise philosophers have risen to the challenge of making sense of Love in the context of our lives, the most common and favorite explanation offered being that of concept of Soul Mates. For those unfamiliar with this, let me give a brief overview and my sources are mostly Coelho and Murakami, for better or worse. According to an ancient Greek myth, it was believed that God created every human being as a combined entity - a four legged creature that was either half male and half female (male/female), male/male or female/female. Each of these human beings were happy until one day our race did something terrible, much worse than the Original Sin from what I understand, and God split the two halves. Since then human beings have been considerably less happy, and spend a fair amount of time thrashing around the world looking for their other, separated half, also called a Soul Mate. Because in this myth human beings were born and re-born and split each time, each person has many Soul Mates, but may come across only one, or if they are lucky -two, in one lifetime. These Soul Mates are found through Love, and until one finds that Soul Mate, one is never complete and never truly as happy as possible. The Soul Mates feed each other's souls with Love and infuse each other with life, joy and energy. So they say. And admittedly, why Love is able to do these things remains beyond our grasp still. Especially when this love is not for another human being, instead for an idea, a dream or even an inanimate object.
Humans usually obsess over things they don't understand, ideas they can't grasp, money they don't have and people they can't date. We obsess over Love because we don't understand it. And also because when its grace passes through our lives, we experience heaven and hell, all in one memory, one season. It is almost like existing on another plane for a while. No other emotion has no much power, or so much complexity.
Thus, I am intrigued with Love. Plagued with it. Chained by it. Freed by it. Just like every other human being. Whether you realize it or not, at any given point in time, you are in Love. With something or the other. With or without your knowledge. Human beings are social animals and Love is essential for their survival, their motivation. If your soul is devoid of love, a switch goes off in your Being and you realize that for some strange reason, you are feeling empty. It is almost like clockwork that our maker buried deep inside of us.
Love is for different reasons. It comes in our lives as an answer to our prayers that were heard. It comes in our lives when we need to grow and learn in different, new ways. When our body is exhausted, it looks for water. When the soul is exhausted, it looks for love. In its most recognizable form, Love is because of another human being.
Thus, I am in Love. And I truly feel blessed. The universe is finally beginning to conspire to heal my soul, to color me bright and fresh. All those books talking about the magic of Love are finally beginning to make sense. I am beginnging to experience the broad, yet specific physics and chemistry of Love. Bear with me here. I can explain, I swear.
Geekily speaking, when the natural frequency of two hearts beating is in sync, this resonance is called Love. It is two human beings, two different individuals interacting at the same wavelength with the effect being a powerful, synergistic energy. It is this energy that makes you think you can take over the world when you're in Love. And this energy can neither be created nor destroyed; it merely passes from one individual to another. So when we feel Love, we infuse each other with its brilliance and power. The results can be tremendous and highly impactful.
Love and Greed are the greatest motivators in the world, and thus, this emotion is capable of creating so much change that sometimes, its power becomes forbidding. When that happens, we tend to turn to solitude for some calm. Yet, Love continues to tug at our subconscious just like that clockwork. It is like a radioactive isotope that once you come in contact with, some part of it always stays with you like a beam of radiation hidden in some corner of your heart. Of course, this radiation does have a sort-of half-life and with enough time it dies out. However, living in the world that we do, we are constantly hit by these radiations without even realizing it. You can walk down the street and feel completely and hopelessly in Love with the colors you see on the leaves in autumn. You can be standing in the crowd at a concert and be so overcome and moved with Love for the music that tears well up in your eyes. Yes?
Thus, Love, actually, is all around. You can feel it in your fingers. You can feel it in your toes.
Love is all around me
And so the feeling grows.
[Love is all around by Wet Wet Wet. Check it out.]
I think the world will never grow weary of people writing about Love. Painting about Love. Making music about Love. Making Love.
80% of cinema and theater is about Love.
Many wise philosophers have risen to the challenge of making sense of Love in the context of our lives, the most common and favorite explanation offered being that of concept of Soul Mates. For those unfamiliar with this, let me give a brief overview and my sources are mostly Coelho and Murakami, for better or worse. According to an ancient Greek myth, it was believed that God created every human being as a combined entity - a four legged creature that was either half male and half female (male/female), male/male or female/female. Each of these human beings were happy until one day our race did something terrible, much worse than the Original Sin from what I understand, and God split the two halves. Since then human beings have been considerably less happy, and spend a fair amount of time thrashing around the world looking for their other, separated half, also called a Soul Mate. Because in this myth human beings were born and re-born and split each time, each person has many Soul Mates, but may come across only one, or if they are lucky -two, in one lifetime. These Soul Mates are found through Love, and until one finds that Soul Mate, one is never complete and never truly as happy as possible. The Soul Mates feed each other's souls with Love and infuse each other with life, joy and energy. So they say. And admittedly, why Love is able to do these things remains beyond our grasp still. Especially when this love is not for another human being, instead for an idea, a dream or even an inanimate object.
Humans usually obsess over things they don't understand, ideas they can't grasp, money they don't have and people they can't date. We obsess over Love because we don't understand it. And also because when its grace passes through our lives, we experience heaven and hell, all in one memory, one season. It is almost like existing on another plane for a while. No other emotion has no much power, or so much complexity.
Thus, I am intrigued with Love. Plagued with it. Chained by it. Freed by it. Just like every other human being. Whether you realize it or not, at any given point in time, you are in Love. With something or the other. With or without your knowledge. Human beings are social animals and Love is essential for their survival, their motivation. If your soul is devoid of love, a switch goes off in your Being and you realize that for some strange reason, you are feeling empty. It is almost like clockwork that our maker buried deep inside of us.
Love is for different reasons. It comes in our lives as an answer to our prayers that were heard. It comes in our lives when we need to grow and learn in different, new ways. When our body is exhausted, it looks for water. When the soul is exhausted, it looks for love. In its most recognizable form, Love is because of another human being.
Thus, I am in Love. And I truly feel blessed. The universe is finally beginning to conspire to heal my soul, to color me bright and fresh. All those books talking about the magic of Love are finally beginning to make sense. I am beginnging to experience the broad, yet specific physics and chemistry of Love. Bear with me here. I can explain, I swear.
Geekily speaking, when the natural frequency of two hearts beating is in sync, this resonance is called Love. It is two human beings, two different individuals interacting at the same wavelength with the effect being a powerful, synergistic energy. It is this energy that makes you think you can take over the world when you're in Love. And this energy can neither be created nor destroyed; it merely passes from one individual to another. So when we feel Love, we infuse each other with its brilliance and power. The results can be tremendous and highly impactful.
Love and Greed are the greatest motivators in the world, and thus, this emotion is capable of creating so much change that sometimes, its power becomes forbidding. When that happens, we tend to turn to solitude for some calm. Yet, Love continues to tug at our subconscious just like that clockwork. It is like a radioactive isotope that once you come in contact with, some part of it always stays with you like a beam of radiation hidden in some corner of your heart. Of course, this radiation does have a sort-of half-life and with enough time it dies out. However, living in the world that we do, we are constantly hit by these radiations without even realizing it. You can walk down the street and feel completely and hopelessly in Love with the colors you see on the leaves in autumn. You can be standing in the crowd at a concert and be so overcome and moved with Love for the music that tears well up in your eyes. Yes?
Thus, Love, actually, is all around. You can feel it in your fingers. You can feel it in your toes.
Love is all around me
And so the feeling grows.
[Love is all around by Wet Wet Wet. Check it out.]
Sunday, October 04, 2009
Fortuitous Fortunes
[Because I always lose them in the pockets of garments and purses, I am going to collect my fortune cookie fortunes below. A Work in Progress.]
Calamity is the touchstone of a brave mind.
You will have a wonderful wife.
Don't be surprised by the emergence of undiscovered talents!
A distant relative will phone you soon.
A house without books is like a room without windows.
Memories make what we are. Dreams make what we will be.
Pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win.
Stop searching forever, happiness is right next to you.
Plan your work and work your plan.
Calamity is the touchstone of a brave mind.
You will have a wonderful wife.
Don't be surprised by the emergence of undiscovered talents!
A distant relative will phone you soon.
A house without books is like a room without windows.
Memories make what we are. Dreams make what we will be.
Pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win.
Stop searching forever, happiness is right next to you.
Plan your work and work your plan.
Saturday, October 03, 2009
Confessions of A Caffeine Addict
In Defense of Coffee
Circa 2009. A time of quarks, uranium, satellite universities, steel, skyscrapers, instant messaging, online social networking, global collaboration, and multitasking. And caffeine.
Or Coffee, if you will.
Coffee is more than just a beverage. In times such as these, where we are all trying to be super human, perfect and accomplished, Coffee is a lifeline. It is the blood that runs in our veins. It is the green dough that sits in Starbucks' vaults. It is also a propagandist tool, for we all know how noble Starbucks is, and by drinking their coffee, you are helping them help the needy in Africa who they cheated out of the fair price of beans in the first place.
It is a cruel mistress and an impudent servant who knows it is much needed. It is a disease and a cure. It is a much loved and hated flavor. It is a color and a culture. It is the identity and pride of nations. It is a harvest and a celebration for the farmer, the plantation worker, the mother who gives their day and night just to see those magical beans on precious branches. Tea's got all its royal patronage, but its coffee that has all us masses rooting for it. It is a reticent, subtle activist, making you feel good when you drink Fair Trade coffee from your local coffee shop.
Coffee is the illusionist emperor of a kingdom of over-achievers, a Pope of a religion of caffeine addiction. And I am here to spread its gospel. I believe in Coffee.
It is my addiction, my lifestyle, my social tool, my midnight-oil burner, and my stress reliever. Coffee is to me as make-up is to an actress. Coffee is a part of identity. When I walk to my lab and classes with a cup of Coffee in my hand, I feel like all those working people crowding the subways and roads every morning at 8 a.m. with cups of coffee in their hands, their car cup-holders. I feel like I have a purpose too. Without Coffee, I would not have my friends. Without Coffee, I would not have my boyfriend and many of our subsequent dates. If you think I sound like some sort of an eccentric artist, with Coffee as its muse, you are right. Coffee is my Mona Lisa, whose cryptic charm I like to contemplate and savor with all my senses. Just contemplating Coffee, in all its elegance and fragrance gives me calm. And energy. And thoughts. Ideas. All at once. My brain is on fire and my body at ease. If I sell my life away for something, it would be Coffee. If I invest in anything before the world economy crashes, it would be Coffee.
If you say you don't like Coffee, then you have never loved, never lived, never taken a risk. Find your nearest local, Fair Trade Coffee shop before the world ends.
[Post begun: 7/22/08, finished: 10/03/09]
Circa 2009. A time of quarks, uranium, satellite universities, steel, skyscrapers, instant messaging, online social networking, global collaboration, and multitasking. And caffeine.
Or Coffee, if you will.
Coffee is more than just a beverage. In times such as these, where we are all trying to be super human, perfect and accomplished, Coffee is a lifeline. It is the blood that runs in our veins. It is the green dough that sits in Starbucks' vaults. It is also a propagandist tool, for we all know how noble Starbucks is, and by drinking their coffee, you are helping them help the needy in Africa who they cheated out of the fair price of beans in the first place.
It is a cruel mistress and an impudent servant who knows it is much needed. It is a disease and a cure. It is a much loved and hated flavor. It is a color and a culture. It is the identity and pride of nations. It is a harvest and a celebration for the farmer, the plantation worker, the mother who gives their day and night just to see those magical beans on precious branches. Tea's got all its royal patronage, but its coffee that has all us masses rooting for it. It is a reticent, subtle activist, making you feel good when you drink Fair Trade coffee from your local coffee shop.
Coffee is the illusionist emperor of a kingdom of over-achievers, a Pope of a religion of caffeine addiction. And I am here to spread its gospel. I believe in Coffee.
It is my addiction, my lifestyle, my social tool, my midnight-oil burner, and my stress reliever. Coffee is to me as make-up is to an actress. Coffee is a part of identity. When I walk to my lab and classes with a cup of Coffee in my hand, I feel like all those working people crowding the subways and roads every morning at 8 a.m. with cups of coffee in their hands, their car cup-holders. I feel like I have a purpose too. Without Coffee, I would not have my friends. Without Coffee, I would not have my boyfriend and many of our subsequent dates. If you think I sound like some sort of an eccentric artist, with Coffee as its muse, you are right. Coffee is my Mona Lisa, whose cryptic charm I like to contemplate and savor with all my senses. Just contemplating Coffee, in all its elegance and fragrance gives me calm. And energy. And thoughts. Ideas. All at once. My brain is on fire and my body at ease. If I sell my life away for something, it would be Coffee. If I invest in anything before the world economy crashes, it would be Coffee.
If you say you don't like Coffee, then you have never loved, never lived, never taken a risk. Find your nearest local, Fair Trade Coffee shop before the world ends.
[Post begun: 7/22/08, finished: 10/03/09]
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)