Sunday, May 16, 2010
The stillness of this night invigorates me in a different way. The sweet fragrance of Parijata flowers wafts up in the air and I wonder whether the night air carried the fragrance along, or the Parijata seduced the air to follow its fragrance. The night is chilly, and I continue to sit by the balcony of the Victorian bungalow-turned-guest house that we rented. He sits opposite me, gazing at the sky, trying to search out the hazy moon hidden behind the smoky clouds. A firefly glides ethereally past my eyes and I decide they are born just for this night.
I look at him. In his eyes, I catch the moon, now slowly reappearing from the clouds. 'Is that your reflection up there?', he asks. 'You are hiding me', I say. 'Yes. I would not want to share your beauty with the earth, so I embrace you'. It is in his nature to make me feel we are celestial beings who left our souls up there and descended upon the earth for a divine cause.
A soft breeze brushes past me as if to confirm my feelings, and causes the wind chime inside our room to tinkle mysteriously. My mind pulls me back to the reason we are here. 'Any luck as yet?', I ask him. 'Hmmm....the tunes just come by and go like the soft breeze; does not firm up in mind.' 'I have an idea', I say. 'Why don't you take your violin and let us both go out and sit under the Parijata tree?'
As he tunes his violin, I inhale the night air soaked in the sweetness of Parijata flowers. I softly hum a tune, not knowing whether I have heard it before. The look of wonder in his eyes tells me that this is an unheard melody, conceived a moment ago in the mind. As if by miracle, he plays the rest of the melody. 'Rest' of the melody? But how did I know the rest? 'Never mind, a tune is finally born', I think. He plays sweetly, and I hum beautiful as the night, to accompany the melody that is now OURS.
Something in the tune makes us go on and on and never stop for absence of knowledge of what follows. Is it us after the melody or the melody after us? Or maybe it is the charm and magic of this night. 'This must be the most beautiful piece of music that man ever conceived', I think. Our music perhaps changed the course of nature, for the chilly breeze once again gives us company, the fireflies glitter to the rhythm of our music, and the Parijata tree showers us with its delicate flowers.
It is now well past midnight and we are back inside the warmth of our room. As we sit by the fireplace, we become two musical notes melting in the warmth to form a chord.
Tomorrow, we will play our newborn tune to an invited audience of great musicians from around the world. We achieved what we aimed for: we will not play studied and practiced music before the audience. We will plan a getaway to inspire creativity, wait for the spontaneity to strike, compose a melody and perform it the very next day. We did it. Now, the musical vibes around the place will sing us a lullaby, as the night, now illuminated with melody, besides fragrance will fill our souls as we dream sweetly. The magic will continue..
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