by Anupama Krishnakumar
[box]When she listens to a favourite playlist on her iPod, Anupama Krishnakumar travels to a different world created by music—far away from the one we exist in. In this world, music sparks memories and ignites imagination. She shares the experience through a poem.[/box]In a world cut off
From screaming door bells
Or a knock on the door
Or the wail of a restless child
Or a ringing phone
Or a beeping mobile
Or a tense whistle of
The haughty pressure cooker
All I hear is a deep throated voice
A bunch of laughing violins
Cheering her on
A male voice jutting in
Compounding the magic
A beat that makes me
Drum my long fingers
And tap my aching toes
Excitedly, semi-consciously.
After a brief pause…
When the flute weaves in
In beautiful soliloquy
And the violins join in
To rise mesmerizingly steep
To reach a scintillating crescendo
Giving just enough way
For the voice to trickle in
And knock gently
At the chambers of my
Cackling heart.
After a brief pause…
I fall prey to the magic
Of a spellbinding humming
That flows, bounces along
Turns smoothly sometimes
And wildly at others and churns
The insides of his hapless listener
Lost like a clueless child in the threatening
Yet captivating wilderness –
Only that this is a thickening jungle
Of a myriad emotions in all its
Nuanced shades.
After a brief pause…
Longing, dreams, hope
Linger in the dripping sweetness
Of her voice and I shiver
With delight and musical frenzy
When I am drawn
Into this emotional cave
That the voice, the beats
The brilliant strum of a guitar
And the tinkling sounds off giant
Piano keys and a sweeping sound
That moves from one ear to another
Come together to build.
When music unleashes
Memories of times
Long gone, never to come back
The faces that filled those times
Pop incessantly, those faces
Some that I never ever saw again
A few that still linger but have
Changed nonetheless.
When music is the flint
That lights up imagination
Of a creative soul
It brings to life, stories
Fragments of musings
Silly, serious and contemplative
Of human nature and people’s
Sane, insane or bland lives.
I am tied, I know
I don’t wish to leave
This world that I have
Come to inhabit
In a matter of few minutes
Away from the worldly cacophony
Amidst which I almost always
Sit like a nearly invisible dot.
This gripping world that my
iPod creates when I sit with
Earphones on, eyes closed
The mind wide open
To embrace the minutiae
Of soul stirring music
As the black beauty
Slides from one song
To another, of a playlist
Created with childish delight
An impish smile and twinkling eyes.
Ah, the joys, hear my dear friend,
Of dwelling in a music-soaked
World. It’s pure, innate, unparalleled.
It’s a find and oh,
What a worthy find indeed!
What a worthy find indeed!
Anupama Krishnakumar loves Physics and English and sort of managed to get degrees in both – studying Engineering and then Journalism. Yet, as she discovered a few years ago, it is the written word that delights her soul and so here she is, doing what she loves to do – spinning tales for her small audience and for her little son, bringing together a lovely team of creative people and spearheading Spark. She loves books, music, notebooks and colour pens and truly admires simplicity in anything! Tomatoes send her into a delightful tizzy, be it in soup or rasam or ketchup or atop a pizza!
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