I know nothing under the Sun will be sufficient to reward Bubu for what he taught me...I used to be a passive listener of music, until one day I met with him when I was at the 9th standard...one batch senior to me...but some how(I can't remember exactly how) we crossed over the standard barrier...what I remember is he have had a music system and a huge collection of music cassettes, starting from English rock, pop to classic Hindi songs...from old Assamese numbers to classic Bangla numbers
As his family rented a house just next to us, we used to spend most of our loose time together listening to the songs from his collection...we experimented with the speakers, and sound boxes...we used to surf the electronics market searching for speakers that produce best speakers at the cheapest price...at one point of time we manage to fix eight speakers at different positions of his room...then search for the points on the floor from which we can hear the best stereo effect...sound of drum beats rolling from one speaker to the other...there was hardly any concept of Dolby digital sound effects then...these were the technical sides of musical journey
The best of Bubu was his command over many lather instruments, starting from Tabla to triple and then to drums (but what I inherited was the sense of rhythm)...at the later stage he gained command over strings too
As I said earlier, I was a passive listener earlier...Bubu taught me active listening ...going to the heart of music...splitting apart each and every beat of the rhythm...feeling each drum beat matching your heart beats...find out each and every fibres of the lyric...
I can recall listening to Lenon's "Imagine"...the first song in his lyric book...that was the time when none of my friends have had even the concept of Internet and the search engines...so collecting Lyrics used to be one of greatest achievements...collection of lyrics used to be a status symbol among the music lovers as it does the music collections...first he made me to listen to the song, one line at a time...after playing one line, he read out the line from the lyric book...(at times he referred to the dictionary for meaning of a word!)...he took the pain of repeating the song thrice to print it permanently on my heart...ready-reckoned...Eagles' "Hotel California", Elton John's "Sacrifice", Dylon's " Another brick on the wall", Eric Clapton's " Wonderful tonight"....all went through the same treatment. Brayan Adams featured in many of the sessions.
I still remember our first encounter with AR Rehman's music...Roja, it was really difficult to hold breath with the kind of sound effect our music system created...first time any Hindi music did so...in a month we repeated the music cassette over and over again...just listen to the base guitar covering the background...each pieces of flute and synthesizer...Hariharan's vocals, harmonies...I can't forget when I saw Bubu weeping one day, listening to Chitra's "Dil Hain Chota Sa"...even today I too feel like crying when I listen to the song...we decided not to watch the movie as it would wipe out images we have created about the songs in our hearts...
Slowly many Malayalam songs (music by AR ) started featuring our sessions...it was not possible for us to decode the meaning of the songs...but that in now way stopped us from enjoying the melody, rhythm and the spirits of the songs.....
Profession and realities of life took both of us in two different paths. Our musical sessions dried out...I do not know what happened to our music system...Bubu's cassette and lyrics collection...drums and strings...
One thing has not changed...music still make me laugh...make me weep...make me sleep...make me stay awake till late at night...I still envy AR Rehman for his extraordinary musical abilities...
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