Music........

Listening to music is such a relief from the hectic lives we live. Many would echo this sentiment. For some people like me, there are no boundaries for music. We can listen to just anything , as long as it pleases the ears.

Well, choice varies among listeners. There are some who like to listen to music which other's find utterly revolting. Well most music is heavenly to my ears. Yes, even that earthquake inducing metal rock, that seems nice sometimes. Loud, soft, fast, slow, all work for me. Well, most of the time they do.

Music works towards a balance in the mind. Lots of good music has been composed for any and every type of mood. And it does not come as a surprise that music is the healer of the soul. Well, of course with other things like time and love and the other stuff too, the soul is healed. But, I will just dwell on music.

Music calms, soothes, invigorates, energizes and does a lot of those things to the human psyche that other things cannot.

The next thing I write you about music will go against all I ever thought about music. No, no, music is just the same for me always. It's just this kind of music that i am going to talk about. Well, the place where I heard this dreaded music was in the Art Room, back in school. Boy! Did we all hate it! The music was supposed to help us channel our creativity and sketch our hearts out. In fact, right now I am listening to some, pretty loud, music. But it's fueling the creativity. Unlike the music that was almost heart rending and did just the opposite to our creative flow.

I will indulge in some grovelling and complain about that music that grated on the nerves at a time when the requirement stated a calm and balanced environment. I am not able to put a finger on the culprit of our discomfort, but I can enumerate the suspects. The music player that played the music was a suspicious specimen that probably dated, or that's what I thought then, to prehistoric times...... Fanciful thinking....... I suppose the music played pretty well on any other player because our art teacher rather liked that piece of music and played it despite our protests to change the music to hip hop or rock.

The recording could have been faulty. Turning the more deeper sounds to scratchy noises that put our teeth on edge. Some of the tunes sounded like someone was scratching in the surface of the blackboard........ It was not our fault if we did not get our proportions correct on the drawing sheets if everytime the music took a high turn and our pencils flew out of our hands!!

Another suspect, I believe, would be the acoustics of the room. Whatever it was. Whether it was the cement- brick ratio, or the cement- sand ratio, or the glass in the windows that threw back such tormenting sound at us, I do not know. We were tortured. Unable to defend ourselves of the horrible sound, we were accused of not appreciating music if we covered our ears!!!!

Till today I feel that if I had to listen to that music again, I would flatly refuse. Not because I would not like it, but because it will bring back memories of mental pain that was endured at the hands of this music. However, if you made me listen to it without my knowing that it is the same music I do not know what I would think of it.