Bliss, extended?

Have you heard music that stirs your soul, plucks at your heart-strings, and before you can grasp what it is, it fleets away. The way

it comes in the background in some movies, beautiful and fleeting, and leaves you yearning for more. The music that flows in 'Sarfarosh'

whenever they show Naseeruddin Shah doing 'rihaaz' in his 'pushthaini' mahal or the one that flows in 'Devdas' as Madhuri prepares to dance

or the pieces scattered around 'Utsav' or the brief piece of tamil song that plays in 'Kaadhal kavidhai' when Prashanth enters a music shop

in England. All these have a magical quality...

 

I am just back from a Shubha Mudgal concert (part of 'The Hindu' NovemberFest music festival). I first knew that she existed when i saw the

video of 'Ab ke saawan'...and i bought the cassette.When i heard the album, i fell in love with her voice (and more with her song

'Bhai re, rishthon ki dagar hai mushkil'). Today's was a concert of 'Khayal', 'Thumri' and 'Dadra' (semi-classical styles, google helped me

know this). I dont know the next thing about Hindustani music, just went cos i like her voice. When the concert started, the music sounded

like those magical fleeting sounds i had mentioned earlier. Except that they dint go away. To start with, it felt surreal and i could've levitated

if i wanted to. This was what i had always wanted. When those movies used to replace heavenly music with human chatter to take the story

forward, i used to curse the director and wished the music played for ever.But here, as the music persisted, it changed from this magical

soul-stirring music to just good music and an impeccable rendition from a perfecionist. I enjoyed the concert all the same.

 

I guess the impact that those pieces of music i talked about earlier have,  have as much to with their beauty as they have,

with their brevity. Bliss cannot be extended, and if you try to, it ceases to remain bliss, it would be just lazy happiness or

sometimes, boredom. Extremely beautiful music is brief, and so is orgasm and so are flight take-offs, and Tequila shots are small.

It is probably the pattern of the world, and it feels right too.