My Musical Journey

I am kind of excited when I write this words coz the topic is close to my heart. I do not know whether I can really document the true spirit of music and its influence in my life. I owe a lot to my dad who is a true connoisseur of music. One object which he bought with his first salary was a gramophone record player. It is still there gathering dust in a corner of our house. Everybody has moved on to CDs and other digital gadgets. I also remember my friend Shenoy who used to share his cassettes with me. He is also the one who introduced me to western music. I have listened to George Michaels Wham – The Best a hundred times which had the lovely track – Last Christmas. Then it was Shenoy again who introduced me to one of my favourite band till date – MLTR. Shenoy moved away from our colony and I don’t know where he is now.
My Dad had even managed to find a place in the city of Calicut where they recorded music and rented cassettes for a nominal fee. If I remember it was 2rs per cassette. The name of the shop was Ragini Music. I used to make frequent trips to this shop and dad supported me irking my mom. Most of my evenings were spent sitting in front of the Fischer player either listening to radio or playing my favourite tape.
My love for western music took a new turn when DD2 started a trial transmission of MTV for two hours every evening. I became a voracious viewer. I still remember some songs which came in MTV during that period. Oasis with Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Enya – Time (which mom liked) and Michael Jackson’s Earth Song. I found a shop near Nadakkavu market which recorded music from CD. The shop name was CD FX.They charged a hefty 50 bucks for each cassette, but it was worth it. Jon Bon Jovi enthralled me with Its My Life and MJ with Heal the World. This is also the time when A.R Rehaman became part of my life. I also remember forcing my dad and mom to sit watch Yanni performing at the Taj Mahal
It is only after I started earning on my own that I got the freedom to buy music and try out new things. I owe a lot Sahaya Illam Chezhian who introduced me to the world of New Age music and Trance. He had a lovely collection and sometimes if he is in a good mood used to describe the songs to me. I still remember one CD which was titled – Chants of India by Ravi Sankar which he made me buy from Landmark – Chennai. It was worth buying. In many ways musically I owe a lot to Che (in Spanish it means mate or partner). I cannot forget the day when me and Che played Enigma – Principles of Lust on a stage that was supposed to be the altar for Maundy Thursday services at Loyola. Che also introduced me to the exciting world of movie soundtracks. The next person who influenced me was my own student – Manickvel. He used to do part time work at Music World at Spenser’s and he had a mammoth collection of songs. I used to sit with post midnight and record songs. We had planned project to record the songs of all artists according to the alphabetical order but some how the project got fizzled out. We started with Aerosmith, did BSB, Corrs, and then ended with Dire Straits.
At MCC, it was Shainu, Prince, and Vimal who shaped my musical sensibilities. Shainu and Vimal took me to the world of 70’s and 80’s of Western music with artists like Peter, Paul, and Mary, The Doors, Billy Joel. There is one person in MCC who is still a bachelor and is the greatest music lover I have ever met in my life. We all call him Suri sir. I like him for three things – First he is still a bachelor, second – he spends large sums of his salary to buy music and thirdly I like him for his possessiveness about his music collection. He never gave me music CD or a DVD, but still I do not have any grudges against him. He is the one who got hooked me into Travelling Wilburys and the legendary Beatles.
The more I got to know the world of music, I feel all the more deprived. I am more like Einstein who described himself as a small child standing on the shore of knowledge picking a pebble or two while the vast ocean of knowledge is stretched out in front of him.