WALKING AND THINKING - 3

After a fairly long lethargic break, which might qualify to be called a sabbatical, with shades of siesta going into it, I am back on a different wave length of thinking. I have now been constrained to walk once  again in a very humid environment, with heat topping it up in the range of 26 to  33 degrees Celsius.

It is never that easy to embark on this mission to walk the same number of steps with zeal as I was doing when I was residing in Sydney midway between the Equator and the South Pole.

Earlier the self - imposed target range was 6000 to 11000 steps per day. I was able to do it with ease and elan.. even establish an individual career high mark of 12,137 steps on 21st May 2023, without quite planning it that way when I opened my eyes that day ! It just happened ! That's how life springs and also surprises.

Now pegged  back in my home city Kochi, I have had to reduce the daily target to the lower range of 5000 to 8500 steps per day to avoid fatigue.

But "thinking" does not get any respite or reprieve  ! That gets switched on fairly automatically  ! !

"If music be the soul or spice of life, it is sensible to play on and be cheerful while the process of walking is underway". I have used the saying of the  well known bard with some modifications as deemed necessary to fit into this context.

Usually in film music, the standard practice is to have the Chorus or the opening lines of the song ( "Mukhdaa" ) at the start with or without "prelude music";  followed by the Verses or Stanzas  ( also called "Antaraas" ) with the interlude music. What is called "postlude" music is also used for enhanced effect and embellishments.

It does seem strange how music of one's choice elates and elevates, while what isn't one's cup of tea does the very opposite to depress and deflate.

A song which appeals to the ears and the heart generally stays in harmony with our inherent musical senses for extended spells, save for some age related corrections. It is generally seen that bouncy or noisy numbers tend to go down the ladder of approval as age surges ahead. I would have never believed this fact as a teenager or even when I was in my twenties and thirties. 

I guess it all boils down to the fact that a person in his/her seventies, after getting softened up with the barrage of bouncers faced during the lifespan tends to become milder and wiser. Weakening of the various fittings or pre - loaded applications in the body and the brain could be seen as the primary  reasons.

I candidly remember that period of time during the 1960s when I used to feel that the clock tended to slow down needlessly from 7.57 am to 8.00 am while listening to Radio Ceylon ! My mother would really be enjoying each and every single second of these 3 minutes when the songs of K L Saigal would be playing. I would be wishing that the ordeal would be over faster so that "Aap Hee Ke Geet"  could take over !

By 1982, I had personally recorded about 24 solos of the ace singer on one of my audio cassettes using my Sonodyne stereo system.

By now some of my gentle readers would have started wondering whether I had gone off the track in paragraph 6 hereinabove. 

Here's the continuation of the thought process that was initiated there but left to ferment a bit !

Take the superhit song "Aaj phir jeene ki tamannaa hai" sung by Lata Mangeshkar under the baton of S D Burman for the film GUIDE of 1965. When the song starts with the words  "Kaanton se kheench ke yeh aanchal" at a high pitch, does it not feel like this number has started with the first "antaraa" rather than what is the usual practice ? Perhaps the lyricist Shailendra had put in some cogent and coherent  thinking while writing in order to smoothly  and seamlessly blend the song with the narrative.

Tailpiece : The melodious song "Saathee bolo kyaa tum mere ban ke rahoge" written by Asad Bhopali and composed by Usha Khanna for the film SARDAR of 1967 in the voice of Lata Mangeshkar is lost !  Does any one have it now in the personal collection ?