November | 2015 | EverythingShafqat

7593381e4c50fca34246a2c4d0717d96

The Law of Attraction

“And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

I sat in the waiting area of the music institute, waiting for my daughter to finish her guitar class when the happy sound floated into my ears- A young child singing the sargam accompanied by a harmonium. It was surreal! Learning Hindustani classical music was one of those things that I had always wished for, but also knew was highly unlikely to happen. Growing up in a middle class family in small towns of Himachal meant that music training was never on top of any agenda list. Studies was always the focus and culturally too, knowing music wasn’t very essential to be considered accomplished, unlike how it would probably be if you were growing up in a Kolkata, a Chennai, maybe.

The closest I came to even trying was walking up along with a friend to the local girls’ college (the only college to offer evening music classes) while I was studying medicine and inquiring about the music course there. The clerk looked flabbergasted- you are studying to become doctors and you want to learn music? – he shook his head in disbelief. We returned feeling rather sheepish and guilty. Attempting to learn music with medicine seemed like a crime.

And then I never had any false notions about my singing… all I had was a good ear which could catch a tune quickly and all I ever sang was when we played antakshari in the college bus…and the bathroom of course! What interested me was not the singing alone but the music as a whole. I would naturally get attracted to Raag based film songs even without really knowing that they were raag based then.

Two examples come to mind. One was this song by Lata Mangeshkar. I have a memory of it playing on the radio somewhere…I am not more than 5…standing in the verandah of my home in Kasauli…the sky is overcast, it is about to rain. It is simply magical. The song is based on beautiful Khamaj, I’ll learn much later

Fakira was a typical Bollywood drama- the music was quite a hit, especially the title song. But what captivated me was this one…and I would always stop and listen each time it would get played on the radio. It was Bheempalasi that was calling out to the 6 year old me.

My father has always been a Bollywood aficionado – One of the games he played with us as kids was guess the music director- a Hindi film song would be playing on the radio and he would challenge us to name its music director. The reward would be 5 rupees for a correct answer, 10 if it was particularly difficult.

A 2- year long relatively lighter assignment in his otherwise rather hectic and strenuous career gave him an opportunity to explore his love for music further and this is when Hindustani classical music entered our home with a big bang. An expensive music system was purchased and installed in the living room . Dozens of Hindustani classical music cassettes were purchased and played. We protested, just like teenagers do. But slowly and surely, some of them were subconsciously seeping into our minds and souls