Careful Effortlessness

[DISCLAIMER: The following ramblings are from the distorted point of view of a recent PhD victim and should not be taken seriously!]

There are two kinds of scientific research (says I) - 1. boring and often useless research and 2. interesting but (mostly) useless research. I am a careful seeker of the second kind. Individuals of the first kind can be seen sitting stooped down, working continuously on their laptops in their dark, little, damp offices. As opposed to that, individuals of my kind can be found sitting in their chairs with their feet resting on the desk while they are "thinking", in their well... dark, little, damp offices. Both the species believe in hard work - the first kind works hard to reach an actual physical state of being successful while the other works hard to reach a certain mental/metaphysical state of effortlessness. It consumes so much energy to reach this state that sometimes it feels imbecilic to miss on the success part. Nevertheless, once we strike that sweet saddle point of not working while working, we tend to stay in the suspended state indefinitely, unless kicked by an external source. Often, there is a constant or at least a sporadic source of noise that keeps disrupting that balance. But sometimes we find a crack, almost like a split through the space-time continuum where we can at least simulate and practice and taste the sweet blandness of "know-all" state. In some way it is like a stage of introversive depression, so mild that it actually keeps you high - a morphed reality that is always unchanging yet pretty. I think that is the reason we resist sudden changes, hate surprises, despise most pop-music, don't mind waiting or failing, like unfinished pieces of art, travel light through life - without mindless weights but with weightless minds.

The Great Master

In its classical form, the relationship between a musician and his music is very symbiotic. Music offers him an abode where he can feel the flux of its power, explore its subtle nuances and immerse in the immense abundance of its various forms. Often, during the process, the musician creates new compositions and renditions of some particular genre of music, thus contributing to its enrichment. One could surely agree that up to this point, the relationship between the two sounds being more scientific rather than artistic. However, very rarely, a musician crosses the boundaries of tradition and develops a new form, a new school of thought, a new amalgamation of different genres, transforming smoothly from one style of singing to another, carving new masterpieces and scaling new heights. It is here when he becomes indistinguishable and inseparable from his music. This is what I call the romantic form of music.


Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was one such musician. He had successfully blended the free-flowing, prodigious energy of the Qawwali style of singing and the spine-tingling magnificence of the Sufi lyrics with his deep understanding of the Hindustani classical music to create a continuous fabric of beautiful, captivating music. Being a master of Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi and Persian, he composed countless masterpieces in all these languages. His songs cover a wide spectrum of moods - from humble devotion all the way to the immense pain of separation. Even after listening to a song numerous times, it is very hard not to feel stirred inside and motionless outside. I like to think of his music as air - sometimes flowing gently like a breeze, creating torrents and causing shivers in the next instance and embracing warmly in the next. Its absence causes vacuum and its presence - sound... life.

preliminaries...

After some deliberation, I have decided that like many others, I would start giving some space to my thoughts in the form of a blog... well at least a few kilobytes, peacefully resting somewhere on a Google server. This blog is going to be about my experiments/observations in life, research and music. Although it is not supposed to be very factual on any of those. The entries penned here are more like  musings on my way through life, searching to consummate the understanding from partial observations, contradictions and half meanings.

सृजन का आरंभ, विध्वंस का सारांश
अन्ध्कार का संग्रह, प्रकाश का आग्रह
संघर्ष के परिवार में आसक्ति ग्रस्त सदस्य
अनंत के शून्य में एक अचंभित नाद
सम्पूर्णता के भाव से लिप्त अधूरापन
शब्द परिभाषित, परिभाषा पराजित
स्वयं के अभाव में, स्वयं के समक्ष
स्वयं को समर्पित एकांत का यथार्थ - अर्धार्थ