My Dearest Komal, Anjli and Amar,
After a wonderful and eventful summer in London with all of you and the extended family as well, it was great to re-immerse ourselves in our Swiss environment with the gigantic A.R. Rahman concert at the Hallenstadion in Oerlikon.
What a buzz and what an amazing concert. I could have mentioned many other Indian/Asian/Hindi musical artists and you would all have shouted, Who? But I hope A.R. Rahman is now renowned enough for you to recognise him.
His mother tongue is Tamil and he initially became famous in southern India, but these days after his success with Slum Dog Millionaire , he has earned himself world recognition. What a talented and creative individual. Even though this was day 2 of his 2-day tour, it was jam packed and that too with 80% young Tamilians from Switzerland(mainly), who were all singing along at the top of their voices.
When I was young, I always knew the names of the singer(s), the music director and the lyricist of any Indian musical item. My knowledge would have been derived from hours of listening to the radio.
Listening to music is quite different these days. Most of my music is via the app JioSaavn (mostly hindi)and I listen to it using Sonos, the home sound system. Oh what bliss.
As all these platforms are controllable on the smart phone, you can even see the album cover of the music you are listening to. …..but the names of the singers, directors, or even the lyricists are just too many clicks away. I am well aware that seeing album covers is quite the norm for you and you probably have no interest in all the other information, but that is such a disservice to all the other talents involved in creating these music pieces. The next step would be to listen via the air-pods, like you all do. Air-pod listening definitely makes the music experience more intense but I am always mindful of preserving my hearing organs as should you be too. Over the years, many English words have crept into Hindi songs, my pet hate, AND these days ALL Hindi songs have English words in them. Oh yes, I am beginning to accept this latest phenomenon.
The song I am listening to at the moment has the lyrics: Mein zindagi ki window seat pe, chala hun dilki mast beat pe.……..I am on the window seat of life, walking to the beautiful beat of my heart.?*? An amalgamation of languages? There are millions of such examples. I guess all music, wherever it originates from, tries to conforms to the same selling formula. The K-Pop music is a perfect example.
A few years back I did a Futurelearn online course titled `Music Psychology`. It delved into the power of music. The course deconstructed the famous song: Bohoemian Rhapsody (https://youtu.be/fJ9rUzIMcZQ?feature=shared), a beautiful song by yet another very talented artist, Freddy Mercury, of the Queen fame. Many well-known formulas were used and Freddy Mercury insisted on also using his unusual ideas to create the song. For the song to become popular, Freddy was asked to shorten it, which of course he did not. Today, this long piece of music is one of the all time hit. The Futurelearn course also used a popular 1960`s Hindi song to demystify the power of music. It conveyed that the origin of music, including the language, played no part in moving an individual- it was more the manner in which the music was created.
Music is a mood enhancer. A statement that is applicable to all of us. The main difference being: I enjoy Indian/Hindi music and you are all moved by Western/English music. That is all because of our different upbringing. The aim now is to enjoy each others `playlists`.
Lately Daddy and I have got hooked on to the B.B.C. quiz show, `Richard Osman`s House of Games` There are always many questions on music, which is always western music. Last week as one of the contestant was blind, there were many more questions on music. Even though I can hum many of the tunes, I fail miserably in these questions. Remembering song titles and artists could become my new brain workouts. On the whole, we are both suckers for quiz shows on the TV.
Anyway Amar will be pleased to know that both Daddy and I have joined the local gym. So far, at this early stage, we have managed to go at least a couple of times per week.
It is almost the end of 2023, and I am eagerly awaiting your arrivals in the next fortnight. Up until then, all my love, hugs and kisses,
Yours Vishfully,
Mum