They say there is a song for every mood… we sing when we are happy, when we are sad, when we are embarrassed, when we celebrate, when we are bored, etc etc…..
I happened to enjoy an hour and half of enthralling folk music which I must honestly say that without the sub titles would actually be Greek and Latin to me, but never the less enjoyable. The theme of the hour was like I said folk music and it was an absolute revelation when you can actually depict the countries plight through music. The music/poem having the distinct local flavor, heartfelt and to the core dealt with the problems of a particular region sung in the dialect and yet in its own subtle way help you understand and feel/sympathise with the singer.
The musical began with a poem or rather sur about a slum dweller, whose mother happens to be a prostitute, and this little slum dwellers life from birth to death. In the beginning he has a carefree life then during his teenage years he asks who his father is, the mother tells him something and in his 20’s as an angry adult the mother rudely asks him if she is going to remember who his father was among her several thousand long list of clients. This further aggravates the youth and turns him against the city and all that it represents, namely wealth. The poem shifts drastically against the term wealth and all that it stands for, the young lad sees it as the cause of all his problems. Looking at it from his point of view the kid’s very existence or rather his presence in the city is because of money. Then it is followed by the usual melodrama of the mother passing away and the youths aimless existence in this world until the day he to passes away carrying with him and his ideas of the cruelties of wealth.
From this realistic yet materialistic world the focus shifts to a the heartland of the nation where an old man sits in a very small living space teaching a small yet really loud group of kids the lines of why there is indifference in this world and who is going to resolve them. The question asked is who would eradicate the world of inequalities? The elitist’s? The government? Education? The question remains unanswered.
This unanswered question is what provides entry for the next poem from the cotton fields of Andhra. A man puts forth a question with this solo on caste based separation. Why is it, he asks, there a different rule for a person of a lower caste and a totally different set for another? The song takes the path of a question format imploring the people to give answers to the questions raised. Questions like if you wash your hands after touching a lower caste person would you rather stop breathing in the air we so need for our sustenance. The song goes on to comment that there are a set of people who think themselves above the law and that they do what they please as and when they please and then happily hide behind the law coz they are the privileged. Well of course they are even if you actually thought the law is blind and we frequently see the blindfolded lady with the scales sitting mighty pretty in any court of law, the law doesn’t shun the people based on their caste but the society does.
Does it sound right if the society thinks it is wrong to do something and it automatically becomes right, that when the law is the same for all? This is the inequality that the person in the song was pensively humming out, an inequality based on the caste systems of our country. Some of the very thoughts we stick on to so vehemently is sadly what denies us the freedom to think and act like we like to. A point the person sing the song was particularly concerned about was that the elite cotton farmer and his offspring (touché) had no qualms about satisfying his sexual needs with a person of a lower caste. Now with all this talk about an upper caste and a lower caste why not this time? Beats me too. Double Standards?
With talks about the inequalities in wealth and inequalities in caste the scene slowly but cleverly shifts to the conflicts of the north - eastern states. Namely the Nagas and the Manipuris…. Don’t know if I am using the term right. The shot of the people who have given up their lives fighting for a cause they believed in and the supporting songs by the theological society actually makes you feel sorry for the people. The very idea of the fight is still a mystery to me. Well that’s just my opinion but then if one state actually fights over the central government claiming their independence then it isn’t too far behind when the other states to follow suit. Times come and times go but then the very action the British Rulers put into action before our independence is what is being witnessed in these present time. The policy of, “Divide and Rule”. How long do you think a small state like Nagaland is going to hold out against a mightier power once they attain their freedom? Just my opinion.
Thinking about all the emotions that a simple song, evoked in someone like me, is actually quite enough to understand the power of a song. What is a song but a few lyrics and some strong emotions? I for one must agree with Kalil Gibran when he said that in my soul is a wordless song. Hmmm just hoping that the song in me never dies but renews itself every day.
Leaving you in the words of EY Harburg, “Words make you think a thought. Music makes you feel a feeling. A song makes you feel a thought”.
I happened to enjoy an hour and half of enthralling folk music which I must honestly say that without the sub titles would actually be Greek and Latin to me, but never the less enjoyable. The theme of the hour was like I said folk music and it was an absolute revelation when you can actually depict the countries plight through music. The music/poem having the distinct local flavor, heartfelt and to the core dealt with the problems of a particular region sung in the dialect and yet in its own subtle way help you understand and feel/sympathise with the singer.
The musical began with a poem or rather sur about a slum dweller, whose mother happens to be a prostitute, and this little slum dwellers life from birth to death. In the beginning he has a carefree life then during his teenage years he asks who his father is, the mother tells him something and in his 20’s as an angry adult the mother rudely asks him if she is going to remember who his father was among her several thousand long list of clients. This further aggravates the youth and turns him against the city and all that it represents, namely wealth. The poem shifts drastically against the term wealth and all that it stands for, the young lad sees it as the cause of all his problems. Looking at it from his point of view the kid’s very existence or rather his presence in the city is because of money. Then it is followed by the usual melodrama of the mother passing away and the youths aimless existence in this world until the day he to passes away carrying with him and his ideas of the cruelties of wealth.
From this realistic yet materialistic world the focus shifts to a the heartland of the nation where an old man sits in a very small living space teaching a small yet really loud group of kids the lines of why there is indifference in this world and who is going to resolve them. The question asked is who would eradicate the world of inequalities? The elitist’s? The government? Education? The question remains unanswered.
This unanswered question is what provides entry for the next poem from the cotton fields of Andhra. A man puts forth a question with this solo on caste based separation. Why is it, he asks, there a different rule for a person of a lower caste and a totally different set for another? The song takes the path of a question format imploring the people to give answers to the questions raised. Questions like if you wash your hands after touching a lower caste person would you rather stop breathing in the air we so need for our sustenance. The song goes on to comment that there are a set of people who think themselves above the law and that they do what they please as and when they please and then happily hide behind the law coz they are the privileged. Well of course they are even if you actually thought the law is blind and we frequently see the blindfolded lady with the scales sitting mighty pretty in any court of law, the law doesn’t shun the people based on their caste but the society does.
Does it sound right if the society thinks it is wrong to do something and it automatically becomes right, that when the law is the same for all? This is the inequality that the person in the song was pensively humming out, an inequality based on the caste systems of our country. Some of the very thoughts we stick on to so vehemently is sadly what denies us the freedom to think and act like we like to. A point the person sing the song was particularly concerned about was that the elite cotton farmer and his offspring (touché) had no qualms about satisfying his sexual needs with a person of a lower caste. Now with all this talk about an upper caste and a lower caste why not this time? Beats me too. Double Standards?
With talks about the inequalities in wealth and inequalities in caste the scene slowly but cleverly shifts to the conflicts of the north - eastern states. Namely the Nagas and the Manipuris…. Don’t know if I am using the term right. The shot of the people who have given up their lives fighting for a cause they believed in and the supporting songs by the theological society actually makes you feel sorry for the people. The very idea of the fight is still a mystery to me. Well that’s just my opinion but then if one state actually fights over the central government claiming their independence then it isn’t too far behind when the other states to follow suit. Times come and times go but then the very action the British Rulers put into action before our independence is what is being witnessed in these present time. The policy of, “Divide and Rule”. How long do you think a small state like Nagaland is going to hold out against a mightier power once they attain their freedom? Just my opinion.
Thinking about all the emotions that a simple song, evoked in someone like me, is actually quite enough to understand the power of a song. What is a song but a few lyrics and some strong emotions? I for one must agree with Kalil Gibran when he said that in my soul is a wordless song. Hmmm just hoping that the song in me never dies but renews itself every day.
Leaving you in the words of EY Harburg, “Words make you think a thought. Music makes you feel a feeling. A song makes you feel a thought”.
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