You do not qualify for a singer when you sing in the right pitch
or when you get the rhythm or the tune right. It’s at that moment when you let
yourself free and sing just what runs in your mind, like there is no one in
front of you. It’s when you know music is inside you.
Do a deer is from the classic ‘Sound of music’- sung by a
governess to the children to help them remember the English notes Do Re Mi Fa
So La Ti Do.
It goes like Do a deer, a female deer
Re, a drop of golden sun
Mi, a name I call myself
Fa, a long long way to run
Recently, when I saw this part of the movie for the first
time, I was so uncomfortably deported back by some fifteen years. Many a times when baby
madhu cried, immediately his little brother came up singing “Doe a deer a
female deer, Ray a drop of golden sun…” It worked with the crying but I always
wondered what is the connection between a doe and a ray and why should I call
myself when I have to run far. Sadly
that was the only sensible song taught during music classes at school apart
from the national anthem. And it has taken all this time for truth to hit my
head like a thunderbolt- laughs.
Music at high school went exactly opposite the way it was
supposed to. All I remember about my music teacher was his golden ring with a
dull red stone. Pretty well because that finger came up so eagerly to pinch our
earlobes to derive that sadistic pleasure – for forgetting our music notebook
at home. Perhaps that way he has
brutally reinforced his meaningless version of this song into our brains.
And disaster did not end, the second year he asked us to
bring the same notebook we used before (for the second stanza of doe a deer). I
remember the pinchy! So for all the petit seminarians who would feel meh right
now, guys its alright, and its ‘Do a deer’!
I did not qualify for the choir (which contained almost
half of the entire class) and all my songs at intra-school dint even manage to
change the monotony on his face. But hell yeah! The more he made music so
unreachable the more I tried jumping to reach it, I guess. I believe music is
written in your destiny. When it is supposed to be a part of you, it will –
cutting through all odds! And it did.
I am a great fan of happily-ever-after endings. So, years
later… It was another afternoon outside the auditorium when VB asked me “shall
we make some music?” I was really happy someone asked me that and even before I
could prepare the songs I knew or even think of a song, he was already on the
guitar and strumming. I look around the hall, no one, happy. “what can u sing”
was the next question. And around that time ashish had joined too and I said I
can try carnatic. He connected the mike, thought me a plain tune and then what
happened was just magic. I did not know what raga I sang, no pitch, nothing but
it was a perfect jam. Eldo, drummer heard us from groundstairs and he came up
with the beats. WOW! And that- That was my moment!
The graduation cultural nite. The photo had to undergo layers of
editing due to the continuous instability of my dad’s hands caused probably by
an intense emotional outburst.
Suresh Sangeetha wedding. Awesome moments! Felt really nice to sing in front of a multi-lingual/ ethnic audience. Probably the first time I sang Carnatic somewhere other than a home. I was nervous from top to bottom :D Thanks for the photo suresh n manni!
