Sunday 29 May 2011

Silence or noise?



When i was somewhere near finishing the first draft of this sketch, i was reminded of that scene from the movie Dil Chahta Hai (oh how i just adore that one!!), where Sid (Akshaye Khanna) shows his work to Tara (Dimple Kapadia) and she, while half wondering to herself, observes certain particularities about each canvas, one of which is about this man's eyes in one, "Inn band aankhon ke peeche kya chuppa hai, kaun jaanta hai?"
Funny how certain things remain dormant inside us and then flash across our minds so vividly that the time lapse seems to pale. How events scattered so randomly across time and space, with no obvious relations as such, suddenly click, fall in place and seem like long lost brothers (or sisters, for the feminists) meeting again.

I firmly believe that our minds don't miss a thing. Not even the whisper of the walls. How aware we are of that data mine, lies proportionately to how much in tune we are with our own selves. Do we focus on the noise or the silence? And when an adequately aware event of past collides with one happening right here, boom!
How often does that happen with you? And it's not strictly deja vu that i'm talking about, of which i've had eerily high number of instances.
And needless to say, closed eyes intrigue me as much they do when light filters through them.


Tonight i leave you with a classic, Billy Joel's signature song, which never ever fails to enthrall me. I'm sure it won't disappoint you either. Mind you, it's a bit long and you can only do justice to it if you quit everything else that you're doing and close your eyes (ahaa!) and let the words carry you away. Ladies and gentleman, the Piano Man...


It's nine o'clock on a Saturday
The Regular crowd shuffles in
There's an old man sitting next to me
Makin' love to his tonic and gin

He says, "Son, can you play me a memory
I'm not really sure how it goes
But it's sad and it's sweet and I knew it complete
When I wore a younger man's clothes.



Sing us a song, you're the piano man
Sing us a song tonight
Well, we're all in the mood for a melody
And you've got us feelin' alright

Now John at the bar is a friend of mine
He gets me my drinks for free
And he's quick with a joke or to light up your smoke
But there's someplace that he'd rather be
He says, "Bill, I believe this is killing me."
As the smile ran away from his face
"Well I'm sure that I could be a movie star
If I could get out of this place.



Now Paul is a real estate novelist
Who never had time for a wife
And he's talkin' with Davy, who's still in the Navy
And probably will be for life

And the waitress is practicing politics
As the businessmen slowly get stoned
Yes, they're sharing a drink they call loneliness
But it's better than drinkin' alone

It's a pretty good crowd for a Saturday
And the manager gives me a smile
'Cause he knows that it's me they've been comin' to see
To forget about life for a while
And the piano, it sounds like a carnival
And the microphone smells like a beer
And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar
And say, "Man, what are you doin' here?"

Sing us a song you're the piano man 
Sing us a song tonight
Well we're all in the mood for a melody 
And you got us feeling alright..."

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