THE MUSIC OF SILENCE

 

“When I am with you (talking) we stay up all night. When you are not there I can't get to sleep. Praise god for these two insomnias! And the difference between them" 

                                                                                        - Jalaluddin Rumi”

·        I have no idea why I called my blog spot “Silent Music” about a decade ago when I started it.

·        Early this month, I am trying to reach my spot and Google takes me to the news spot with headlines “His Music Fell Silent” about the star vocalist Pandit Jasraj’s demise. What?!!

I stand-up instantly and observe two minutes of silence; in my room, alone. There is no one around.

Being one among his million fans, the Panditji didn’t even know that I exist.

·        Last month, in Ahmadabad, the homely, Govan, “La Bella” restaurant owner, Mrs. Fernandes died. In the beginning years of NID, she used to feed the hungry NID students, with love and accepted whatever they gave. The touching fact is that till her death last month, the old lady had been lighting a candle every day without fail for the students well being of these students.

Surprisingly the students were not even aware of it.

·        While I was teaching at NID; everyday a bunch of wild flowers used to greet me on my table, as I enter my office room. It was not done by any staff or worker. I enquired but got nothing beyond “some student”. By the sensitivity of flower arrangement, I felt that it was by a girl student. She wanted to be anonymous. I wanted to thank her for making my day colorful and fragrant.

But I never discovered who that wonderful person doing this was.

·        While I was teaching at NIFT, Hyderabad as adjunct professor, I used to stay in the campus and in those days there was no canteen in the campus. A student used to replace the rubbish of sandwiches provided, every morning, with fresh Tiffin from home.

For a long time, I didn’t know who the person was.

·        Presently, as soon as I get up each day morning, I go to my dog called “Coffee” who is sleeping in “Upadhyaya’s chair comfortably; and pat her. If any day I do not pat, I miss her and keep thinking of her the whole day.

The lazy one would hardly move her tail when I pat. I stopped expecting.

·        In my recent book “Design Values”, I left two blank pages in memory of my sweet friend Suresh Immanuel. This fact was not printed in the book deliberately, just like the upside –down line drawing of a baby, in the book. I prefer subtlety.

The world does not know about the blank pages. Only I know.

·        Two blank pages, two minutes of silence, a pat, a candle, a bunch of flowers!

Plain silly and useless!

Who gives a damn?

Does it really make any difference?

I don’t know!

To me, somehow it does! Verily.