Learning Sargams in the City

I had written this sometime in the middle of third sem (over two years ago). Just regurgitating it as I realised that this blog is named "Money, Music and NLU" and I have written nothing about music yet! Here it is:

Music is coming out great…I go across the city thrice a week and sit cross legged along with Pd, playing the sargam. Our Tabla guruji, Satish Ji charges 400 rupees a month and I should say it’s worth it. Every evening after coming back from college at 4:30 pm we sleep for an hour and somehow wake up in time to catch the college bus to Paota. Then we take a public bus to Jalori Gate. We have ganne ka ras at some tiny juice corner and walk into the old city. The street is narrow and very crowded. It is the main road apparently and we wind our way avoiding the bicyclists and the scooters; bikes and cars haven’t made their entry into this part of Jodhpur. The first three days, we always got lost. But we loved it nevertheless. This was the real Jodhpur with the blue houses and strong smell of cement and sand mix.

Satish Ji’s house is near the baori (water tank).Our guruji is tall and slightly on the heavier side. But his speed lay in his nimble fingers. In our first class, he spoke to us about music and what it really meant i.e. its universality. He explains eloquently:

“Right from the time when a child kicks in a mother’s womb, our love for rhythmic sounds grows even beyond our lives. There is music in everything we do. Our steps are in succession: left, right, and left again. Our heart beats 72 times a minute for years together. All the genres of music; be it western classical, rock, jazz, Hindustani, Carnatic or Hawaiian, they all have the same fundamental beats to them. The differences are merely variants of the same. The moment we realise these superficialities, music becomes part of our soul.”

He then told us about how he was a state level football player for Rajasthan and described the holy trinity of all round education. Indeed, academics, music and sports are primary requirements needed to achieve the balance we all crave for.