Life in song

If life were a song, I’d make it noisy and raucous and loud and loveable. And each breath would have meanings that needn’t always be understood but whose beauty was understood. And the notes of each second would hit high and low, and each note would know its history, and know its place in the world.

A few days ago, I asked a friend whether modern songs had become less memorable, or were we just getting older? She explained to me that songs had changed because this was earlier the domain of poets and writers immersed in poetry. Then standards dipped in the 70s before dying in the 80s – this I can confirm, for the classic of my childhood was a Jeetendra musical called ‘Mama Mia! Pom Pom!’ This left us with Gulzar and, to a lesser degree, Prasoon Joshi, who can write some wonderful songs. But these are only two – there must be more – in an industry of average work.

But I wonder if writers who don’t write for a living can be moved enough to compose songs of their own. Song-writing, from what I hear, can be a personally rewarding experience. With blogs sprouting everywhere, it seems like every other one of us wants to publish a book. A bit of help, and many could adjust to creating songs. It’s exciting to imagine that there’s a talent waiting to be exposed so we can all be blown away and feel songs and music again. But who could? Or should? My nominations are Chandrahas and one other, who I'll link to later. I haven’t read too many blogs, but of the few I read everyday, there’s something of the poet in this bunch.

There's also one more, but she doesn't blog.