A few days ago there was a band (Thermal & a Quarter) playing in our office. Listening to them was sheer joy. I lost trace of time. It kind of made me sit back and think about my passion for music over the years and how it’s been an integral part of my life. The passion hasn't changed, only the medium has.
I've been fascinated by music from quite a young age. But it really got to me in my teenage. I was influenced by my uncle who was a big music buff himself. At one point of time, his collection had reached at-least a 1000 tapes. So when he moved out, he passed his whole library to me. My joy knew no bounds. I remember sitting among the pile of tapes and trying to sort them out by genre. But it was all ROCK. So I sorted them out alphabetically and prepared a catalogue, which was borrowed by one of my friend, never to give it back. Grapevine has it that he used it to impress the fairer sex!
At one point of time, I used to save all the pocket money I could, to get a tape recorded, after planning the playlist meticulously. In the later years, as soon as my savings would reach Rs.125, I would rush to the old music store to buy the new bon jovi or the NSync album (Yeah, NSync indeed! In my defense they were a pretty popular boy band and I was really not that embarrassed to listen to boy bands then). I used to listen to all kinds of music ranging from ACDC to BoyZone. Janis Joplin to Madonna. Beethoven to Enigma.
My parents and friends would say that it was really frivolous of me to spend so much on music. But even then I did it, because it used to make me very happy.
As I sat there in office that day, listening to the fusion rock the band was playing, I started thinking how much their life is different from my life. The lead vocalist/guitarist told us about the places they've been around the world, the cultures they've experienced, the people they've met, the passion that they've witnessed. Wow, all that must have thought them a thing or two about life.
I looked at each of the guys and could see how much each was into whatever he was doing. Be it the guitarist, bassist or the drummer, I saw a great deal of joy on their faces. Their work was bringing them happiness and satisfaction.
As I walked back to my work, I wished, if only I could feel the same.
