Music on wheels

Its been over a year I am in Mumbai and its not a new thing for me when I see beggars on stations and public places. I've become kind of immune to the fact that they are poor, suffering a lot, etc...etc...I've stopped showing sympathy to them.

But what happened last week was something that I had never thought of. I dropped mummy in Koyana express and was going to class from Dadar to Andheri. On the next station a teenege boy boarded the train with a big box-kind-of covered with a shawl. Two girls of around the same age followed him in the compartment. In a split of a sacond he settled himself down on the fourth seat and unwrapped his treasure. It was a harmonium, an old one. One of the girls took out a 'dafli' with ghongroos on its perimeter and both of them started adjusting their instruments. And then they started playing a song together : 'Shirdiwale saibaba...' a common one amongst the beggars. It wasn't a new thing for me and normally I would have ignored them, but the fluency in his fingers made me glance at him through the crowd.

I was standing in the door until then, but now went over to him. You won't believe this guy was playing the hrmonium at thr rate of 6-8 keys per second and I'm not exaggerating. I had never seen anyone playing it at that speed and so perfectly. Along with that he was singing and the girls were giving chorus. The girl's fingers too were hiting the 'dafli' as though they were made of spring and not bones. The trio was playing such amazing music together that I just couldn't help myself from enjoying. My hand automatically went inside my pocket and I removed a Rs.10 note and handed it to the girl. She took it gratefully, touched it to her forehead and lips and kept it in her pocket.

They played two three sogs in a row, each time giving me a fantastic musical experience. I don't know much about music as in the sur, taal, pitch, scale, raag, etc. but what I knew was it 'felt nice to the ear'. I found myself tapping to the beats. These guys, without any proper training, can play so beautifully that they could easily oerpower today's leading music-makers if provided with proper guidance.

They don't have any resources, and yet they are utilising their skill to the fullest and how lazy I am to explore my qualities in spite of getting all the luxuries in life! I just hope that someday, some concerned person, with a love for music sees them and hears your performance and adopts them so that the nation won't be deprived of these good musicians in the future. Because if I would have had a lot of money, that would be the first thing I would have done. The train arrived at Santacruz station and they got down and climbed the next compartment. I did the same.



.....short story by Rohan.