Here is an article by Khshetragnya  -our own Ambu-Sundar - on Music. I felt that the piece as one would expect - from anything that comes out of his stable - is a compellingly readable material. Being a kind of expression of his thoughts I am labeling it under the "reflections" . I have edited those portions where he addresses a known friend as You /youngster etc, to just today's folks etc to get into this blog format. The comments can follow in the blog itself. - Vichu   

Ambu's musings on Music:

I could write an “impressive” , relevant note on music  & serve very little purpose except to dazzle .I have a compulsive habit to dive deeper into subjects which I will carefully shun here. If I can’t make  honest sense to a 10 year old on the  subject of  music here then I should avoid talking about it.

I wrote this introduction in my primer for the educational program which I am involved in marketing.“Both Science and spiritual literature stress the fact that the human mind is a complete and comprehensive repository of the entire range of terrestrial and cosmic knowledge. All that is known and yet to be known are neatly tucked away deep inside our minds”. I should add Mystical insight to that. 

Our lives are a constant practice in striving to  draw out   this limitless potential of ours. We are born to delve into ourselves and selectively access minute but incredibly marvelous aspects  of  our deeper self all the time. Music, rhythm, poetry, beauty , artistry , athleticism ,mathematical acumen , oratory , love, power, generosity , deductive- inductive - insightful functions of the mind apart from the range of human emotions –good, bad and the ugly - all reside deep inside us in potential form. Each personality manifests a specific flavor and combination and we are all known for and categorized according to these accentuations . 

The physical brain houses ( or better has perennial access to ) what is essentially non-physical and immeasurable part of our  deeper self.  You , I and the  entire creation  are connected and inseparable at this level.  In our daily life we are all constantly searching for those aspects , experiences , insights that we instinctively feel will make us experience  completeness. 

Some aspects like music , poetry , dance , arts  are a very complex and composite expression of our  myriad emotions, memories, feelings and some us are blessed with a “reach” into these  colossal mental / psychic frequencies. We believe that “Gandharvas” are the masters of celestial music. As we are able to tap deeper into these frequencies like music , dance, we experience an incredible expansion within ourselves. All of us know this.

Coming to mundane plane  , my  father was a very difficult idealist  who saw  certain aspects of life in very black and white terms. He was an intensely spiritual and moralistic person and held that the careless pursuit of music and the sensual pleasures led one away from the path of God - which is the true calling of a human especially a Brahmin who is at the higher end of the spiritual search. All of us were denied music lessons despite our intensely honed musical sense.  

I could convert any song or a musical piece into swars instantly at the age of 6-7 . My brother  was capable of aalap of exceptional merit. We were deeply honed into carnatic music though I have a fair interest in Hindustani as well. To cut back to the present ,  music to me represents a enormous journey which takes us to our deep rooted memories and experiences  ranging from the saddest to the happiest , loneliness to the highest form of togetherness and gaiety. After many years of searching I got what I was looking for- the precise difference between  western music and eastern music. That is for another time. 

Strangely I have been listening to so little of music  for so long . Made up for it by believing that I will retire and see the best of movies, plays and music and roam the world after shedding my identity altogether, one fine day. But fate has strange designs.

Remember the music you love depends on the type of person you are. The film music of 50s and 60s reflected an Indian woman who,  oppressed by millennia of suffering ,  carried it all deep within herself. “ Unko to shkayat hai ki kuch nahin kahte “ has a tenderness which will break even an Aurangzeb’s heart. “Aap ki nazron ne samjha” , “yeh zindagi usi ki hai” , “lag jaa gale “ made us repeatedly break down. Recently after I saw Dor , I came home  and listened to streaming from Raaga.com and broke down repeatedly on hearing “Yeh honsla “. 

We in those days, all  developed a deep love for the unprotected , vulnerable yet mysterious woman . This stereotype has transformed and the modern woman , while retaining her essential feminine tenderness ,and dependency , shuns the tag of the abla naari. There are few takers for the anpadh woman and the Kashmir ki kali. The concept of an unemployed and totally dependant woman has completely vanished altogether.

Today’s  woman ( who  lived in earlier centuries as a submissive  soul )prefers  different expression of womanhood and we have a confident  , strong willed person who is no longer interested in the self denying role that her grand mother wore. She wants to experience life head on and is not embarrassed in any sense of her womanhood or its effect on the world especially  males. The music of today’s modern urban woman has changed. 

A Katrina Kaif is totally charming without the prop of being a child woman in need of silly minded protection. She struts her sensuality without fear of losing her self esteem or legitimate charm. Rafi sang Zindagi bhar nahin bhoolegi and we had a quiet romantic who refused to be boisterous. 

Kishore K changed that with Meri sapno Ki rani kab aayegi too . Today's music is loud, social , orgiastic and even anarchic. Should one bemoan this  ? Hell No. Music and the personality seem to go together and they are open to transformation all the time. Today’s youngsters are so independent, outgoing  that the music  of the 50's will make little sense to them. The ghazals which are so full of self pity ,  deprivation, loneliness  will seem a total anathema to them.

Yet  if you scratch deeper , the basic fact remains- differently ordered music evokes  different experiences – actual and desired  - among its recipients. Today the flavor is “ live it out”, “feel it out” . However  i suspect that  it is only a fleeting aspect. The need for consistently sharp and  intense experiences  eventually  dulls the mind fast . The mind eventually starts  probing  more carefully  from all its collective karmic past ,  the sheer range of  musical experience lying  deep inside .

Today music from across geographical , cultural and time zones is available on the net . Experimentation can also lead to the old and the gold. Is the youngster open today ? In  a way today's guys are fortunate with the endless choices they have . 

To all the youngsters here. Will you let me know how you guys perceive and encounter the world ? Is music to you a temporary celebration of rhythm and the letting down of one's hair all the time ? Is it about freedom from the oppression of old memories and a wave of fresh air - Har ek friend zaroori hota hai ?  . Or is it something more ? Do you guys feel like listening to an old sonata all by yourself and floating beyond the now ? 

Tell me  guys , I am all ears.

Love

Sundar.