Woods to World of Music

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Dusk…. At a sea shore… sitting in the sand……watching all the waves ….. looking at the sun … Feeling the pleasantness to the possible extent…
That’s how I love to spend my evenings.. and that day I was enjoying my day as I always wish
Was listening to the wonderful music that’s being played by the waves of the sea ……
Enjoying that music in the twilight of SUN …..
Brain stopped functioning long back… its all heart…. Brain doesn’t have anything to do with my state of that moment….
Somewhere a mild music was being played…. A sudden excitement ….. it was a splendid tune …I was trying to figure out with what instrument is its being played..
Saxaphone??? Noooo
Flute??? Nooo
Bass Flute??? Nooo
Veena??? Certainly not…
Guitar…. Who knows….
Then what is that ..
Became desperate to find it out…
Stood up and started in search of the place from where its being played….
Walked altogether for 15 minutes to figure out the place….
Was shocked when I have seen that urchin …he was standing at the end of the shore and got several instruments in front of him….
He got a saxaphone… a flute… Guitar…. And a keyboard…
He is playing all simultaneously and was singing a old film song…..
People passing by him were staring at him for a while..clueless of his intention of standing there at such a public place and playing those instruments aimlessly.
I stood there mesmerized ..not sure for how more time I stood so…
Enjoyed each and every chord he played….
Came back to my senses when he stopped playing them…
Observed him for a while..he got brilliant and confident looks…
He was looking into the keyboard and was writing down something…might be westren staff notation
Other than the waves and its music….Nothing else was audible at that moment .
Breaking the silence, without raising his head from the book…without even stopping writing the notation… he started talking to me…
And the first thing he said was……
“Music and Nature are the best combination..Isint it, what do u say”
Without my knowledge, I responded to him with a “Yes”
The conversation continued for a while…
“I want to buy a Congo… but its expensive… will buy it one day….”
“okay… do u know how to play it?”
“hmm..never played it…can play once I get it”
“where are you learning music “
“from the nature”
“no traditional way of learning it?”
“thought of going to a music school or a college… but everyone wanted music to be paid”
“whats wrong in that… even that’s their livelihood..”
“nothing is wrong ..nothing is right…everything depends on perception”
“so you don’t want to learn in a music college only because they want you to pay”
“No,I cant afford”
“what do your parents do”
“Who knows? I was born to them but brought up on my own…., people call me Orphan.. i call it Freedom”
“Freedom from what? “
“Affections..N..attachment”
“How are they going to bother you”
“Affection …That is the root cause of all the suffering of man kind…, when you are not attached to anyone then you don’t get to see any pain”
“oh !! then are you not attached to anything”
“I am”
“To whom”
“Music”
“Then you yourself are contradicting your philosophy…”
“Philosophy?? I even don’t know how to spell it”
“Smart enough to deviate “
“I am very much fine to answer you”
“would like to listen to that”

“Attachment towards a person lets you have the happiness of being with them, grief of having a rift with them, fear of loosing them….. , but attachment towards a art form as if MUSIC..it can show you only Happiness, nothing else, no Greif, no pain, no fear.
passion towards an art will raise your energy levels to achieve something..do something..feel something….
You can always feel music…it can always be yours …you don’t have a fear of loosing it… you don’t have a concept of having a rift.. only thing you experience is Happiness.Joy..Ecstacy….,
”Music --A Complete Bliss” that’s what I prefer to call“ “

“Then a positive attachment..isint it”
“might be”
“so what do you do for your livelihood”
“I work in coal mines, nearer to this place”
“where do you live”
“there in that woods”
“By any chance, Have you had your education??”
“Life taught me more than any school and college”
“So you call yourself educated”
“I don’t find a reason to think about that, education is not the criteria for intelligence”
“you sound quite philosophical, how old are you”
“not sure, might be 20, life is very short”
“why do u say that? You are hardly 20, and you have 50 more years to go with”
“Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music”
“True, where did you get these instruments from”
“they are all mine, I bought it, from past 6 years I have done savings to get all this”
“that sounds very interesting, you got a great inclination towards music, from when do you have this interest”

“from the day when I have first seen a Kuku singing ,sitting on a tree, I felt it very melodious, I started imitating it… it started reciprocating… that’s how I started with Music.. my debut with a tune… Kuku taught me what music is…
Whenever I fail to find a good music teacher, she comes for me into those woods, early in the morning and she starts singing for me..
Giving me a lot of strength and assurance , I feel like she is trying to tell me “Music is not a language to be learnt …Music is not a subject to be taught… what all happens in Music Schools and colleges is ..people transferring what all they know about Music to people who feel they hardly know what music is…
I get reenergized…I feel happy about her.. and I gift her back with a tune..that I compose for her then and there itself”

“oh !! do you compose?? “
“Yes I do”
“how do you know the composition techniques?”
“Harmony, Pitch, Melody, chords.. these are all the technical jargons that you all educated musicians make use of
I am unaware of any such things…
A simple tune gets into my mind and I keep it on paper and will decide which instrument I can use for playing what…
That’s how I compose….”

“sounds interesting, but ,I have seen you writing down western staff notation”
“I don’t even understand what you said just now… you might have seen me writing down something few time ago and you would have mistaken that for something else”
“might be, then what is that you were writing”
“I just make a note of what all the tunes that came into my mind. I do maintain them on a paper and I write it the way i can remember”
“Then how come you even got to know those technical musical jargons? You said you are uneducated”
“Did i? “ he chuckled
“I think you did”
“ No madam, what all I said was, Life taught me more which I prefer to call education.
Well, I haven’t done any schooling but learnt from my senior at work, to read and write, felt that’s enough.
I wanted even that, to read some articles about musicians, which I do find in nearby musical stores.
I am exploring on ‘how to become a musician’ “

“oh!! Then do you want to become a film music director?”
“if films are the only media for my music to be exposed, then yes I want to do that initially
Later on, I have a lot of other plans as well, to let people have more wonderful music in much different ways, other than film music.
In our country, film music became the only medium for music, I will change that”

He sounded quite confident and determined while he said that.

I asked him “ do you know how difficult it is to get into film music, work there and withstand everything and prove yourself”

“7 years ago when I thought of playing an instrument, daily I used to go to Musical store where all instruments were on sale…I used to play them there for a while….. I dreamt of buying them.
When my friends at work came to know that, they sounded the way you did now, I was told how hard it is to buy everything and how difficult it is to make out time and learn music and how hard its to compose.
They even said that I know nothing about the genres and trends of music and its market now.
They talked about all the impossibilities, and I have seen all the possibilities
And now, I own all these musical instruments, and I own 89 tunes which are ready to be released for people who feel music”

“You sound very confident”

“that’s what drives you to your goal.
And achieving what you wanted to is the real bliss
I believed that I will buy them, I bought it.
I believed that, without any understanding about technical aspects of music, I can compose. I did
When ever I believe myself, I have done it
I made things possible
I overcome the difficulties and that’s how my rest of the journey will go
If I think I can, I can”

“I wish you all the best…”

“ Thank you.. wait for the day when you will see all the media rushing their headlines ‘A boy from Woods to World of Music.. ‘, a day when all the music stores will be out of stock for all of my albums, a day when film music is no more the alone medium for music, a day when trends in music inspires the youth, a day when people will come to know that ‘Believing oneself will turn all the impossibilities ,possible’ ”

I went speechless, felt a sudden jolt.
Breaking the silence, he started playing a tune on his keyboard.
Magnificent , all my senses felt the tune. Then, probably I came to understand why he sounded so confident. He got the caliber, and this world will come to know it soon.
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At any time in my life, when I was down, when I felt defeated, when I really felt something is impossible, I was reminded of his words
‘Believing oneself will turn all the impossibilities ,possible’
And it always worked for me.
Every day in the morning, I wake up to see the paper with the head line “Woods to World of Music”
That day when everyone will come to know that ‘Believing oneself will turn all the impossibilities ,possible
I tune the Music channels to see the documentary on how a urchin tunrned into a World class Musician
From past 5yrs I am waiting for that day….…
I believe, that day is nearer and I will come to see him again and I will be the one rushing to the music stores to get his collection.
After all, he believes himself

NOTE: This is a work of Fiction....
Instigation behind this work is Ilayaraja and his attitude towards life..,but it bears no resemblance with anyone including Ilayaraja- The person who is the inspiration