We are after all music species
Sunday, 21 September 2008
Maswood Alam Khan from Cockeysville, Maryland, USA
For those in America who don't own or drive a car, subway is their best mode of transportation. Subway, an underground railway system, is very popular in a megacity. As a visitor with a backpack you can buy a week's subway pass and move anywhere inside the city as many times as you wish. For anyone, especially for a tourist, New York subway is an excellent hauler for avoiding traffic congestion while roaming around places of interest. So is in Washington where subway is known as metro.
Life in America, however arduous and backbreaking, goes like clockwork. People don't have time to look back over their shoulders as they run for their work and their living. Many of them bomb in and out of the town every weekday commuting in subways. Commuting takes even an hour in super-fast subway trains in cases where a commuter chooses to live in a far flung bedroom community, or dormitory town in American jargon, a town where rentals are cheaper and from where he travels a long distance to work in a bigger city.
A few days back I was strolling on a sidewalk near the Civic Centre subway station of the city of San Francisco. A sweet tone of a violin alighted upon my ears. I paused near an octogenarian white American. Bowed down because of his old age the little bent man was playing a melody line executing rapid and difficult sequences of notes holding the violin with the left side of his jaw. I couldn't see his face as he was too stooped and too engrossed. A basket was before him where I could find some dollar bills. He would continue playing his violin in the expectation that a passerby would smile hearing his bonbon melody and throw a bill into the basket that he needs to eke out the last dreary phase of his existence.
The truth is that we humans are basically music species. Does music have a biological function? Has musicality mattered in the evolution of our species? Answers to these heavy questions are being fine-tuned by scientists. But, it is true that among many stress relievers like breathing exercises, meditation, guided imagery, self-hypnosis, yoga etc., music therapy is perhaps the best to melt our anxieties away.
Music entertains us in different manners. While listening to a melody one may muse the tone, as if, were rising and falling like a wave breaking on a beach or like a bird soaring into the sky and then diving down to catch a fish. Music enamours our souls. Music is a panacea that fights against our diseases and lifts our mood. Players of, and listeners so, music are both blessed with numerous health benefits. When dealing with stress, the right music can actually lower our blood pressure, relax our body and calm our mind.
Not many Americans can really afford to relax and listen to music even on holidays when they have their other pending chores like laundry and shopping to do. For those who cannot afford an escape for recreation on weekends a charming piece of music wafting from a fiddler on the street is like a cool breeze punctuating their frenetic rush towards their office or home.
In my childhood the street musician that used to beguile me was a snake charmer playing his pipe and swinging it backward and forward before a cobra that used to raise its head and move in the rhythm of the music. Given the knowledge I gathered from my mother that a snake loves music I used to get lost listening to pipe music that also charmed the snake, unmindful of a scolding I would get from my mother for being late. Later, as I grew older, I learnt that a snake cannot hear sounds in air; it reacts only to vibrations. The snake I saw in my childhood moved its body only to keep an eye on the snake charmer's moving pipe.
Street musicians are quite visible near subway stations. Most of them are black Americans. In Bangladesh we come across snake charmers who play music to attract pity from people. Here too in America the street musicians evoke emotions among the onlookers who enjoy listening to their country songs and rock music. Most of such musicians are poor, no doubt. But, they are proud of their mastery over music. Playing music on the streets is their passion and a decent way of earning their bread and butter. They are not exactly beggars like those drunkards who spread out their hats on the streets and vexingly beg alms from passersby.
When it is a long commute, a book to read is the best companion to while away an hour or so inside the air-conditioned environment of a commuter train. A commuter, young or old, carries a book, a novel or any reading material, or a laptop to best utilize the idle time. Engrossed in reading or with works in his laptop a commuter can easily detach himself from the imprisonment of counting time having nothing else to do.
As an alternative to a book, as a filler of a vacuum, as a charming capsule to escape from the maddening crowd, and as a therapeutic instrument to relieve mental stress, a new craze is nowadays sweeping the whole world. iPod is the latest craze captivating the young and the old, the rich and the poor, and in America as well as in Bangladesh. You see this tiny gismo with people everywhere---on the way to work, at the mall, at the gym. The iPod is seemingly everywhere, signature white cords dangling from the ears of riders on buses and trains, students at schools and people walking down the sidewalk; iPods are gaining popularity at an amazing speed.
iPods fit into our busy lifestyles. An iPod allows its user to mix his/her favourites---his/her favourite movies, songs and audio books---in full control of what goes in the memory. No longer has one to listen to only one type of music from one radio station when he is in the car. iPod itself senses its user's tastes by the number of repetitions of a song or a movie played and sets aside those very favourites so the next time the user randomly touches the dial the favourites pop up on the screen ready for entertainment. Not even a satellite radio can offer such variety at once. An iPod is a personalized entertainment tool---a fad that makes you stick out from everyone else.
The other day as I was loitering inside an Apple store in San Francisco fondling and playing with a lot of stuffs made by Apple Inc. I could not believe how an electronic gadget could be so smart and intelligent! Completely captivated by those feathery gismos and entirely forgetting that my friends back home could mock at my wearing those earphones I grabbed one sleek iPod branded "Classic" made by Apple that cost me a fortune.
With the iPod packed with hundreds of songs, movies and audio books and strapped to my waist-belt I am now a free man moving here and there and listening to whatever lifts me up. Not an iota of drag I had felt in my seven-hour flight from Auckland in California to Baltimore in Maryland spanning a distance of 3,700 kilometres from west most, to east most, coast of America as during the long-haul flight I kept my eyes closed and my ears plugged with earphones connected to my newly bought i-Pod while listening to Anton Lesser reading in his metallic voice the whole book: "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens.
The writer is General Manager, Bangladesh Krishi Bank. He may be reached at e-mail maswood@hotmail.com
For those in America who don't own or drive a car, subway is their best mode of transportation. Subway, an underground railway system, is very popular in a megacity. As a visitor with a backpack you can buy a week's subway pass and move anywhere inside the city as many times as you wish. For anyone, especially for a tourist, New York subway is an excellent hauler for avoiding traffic congestion while roaming around places of interest. So is in Washington where subway is known as metro.
Life in America, however arduous and backbreaking, goes like clockwork. People don't have time to look back over their shoulders as they run for their work and their living. Many of them bomb in and out of the town every weekday commuting in subways. Commuting takes even an hour in super-fast subway trains in cases where a commuter chooses to live in a far flung bedroom community, or dormitory town in American jargon, a town where rentals are cheaper and from where he travels a long distance to work in a bigger city.
A few days back I was strolling on a sidewalk near the Civic Centre subway station of the city of San Francisco. A sweet tone of a violin alighted upon my ears. I paused near an octogenarian white American. Bowed down because of his old age the little bent man was playing a melody line executing rapid and difficult sequences of notes holding the violin with the left side of his jaw. I couldn't see his face as he was too stooped and too engrossed. A basket was before him where I could find some dollar bills. He would continue playing his violin in the expectation that a passerby would smile hearing his bonbon melody and throw a bill into the basket that he needs to eke out the last dreary phase of his existence.
The truth is that we humans are basically music species. Does music have a biological function? Has musicality mattered in the evolution of our species? Answers to these heavy questions are being fine-tuned by scientists. But, it is true that among many stress relievers like breathing exercises, meditation, guided imagery, self-hypnosis, yoga etc., music therapy is perhaps the best to melt our anxieties away.
Music entertains us in different manners. While listening to a melody one may muse the tone, as if, were rising and falling like a wave breaking on a beach or like a bird soaring into the sky and then diving down to catch a fish. Music enamours our souls. Music is a panacea that fights against our diseases and lifts our mood. Players of, and listeners so, music are both blessed with numerous health benefits. When dealing with stress, the right music can actually lower our blood pressure, relax our body and calm our mind.
Not many Americans can really afford to relax and listen to music even on holidays when they have their other pending chores like laundry and shopping to do. For those who cannot afford an escape for recreation on weekends a charming piece of music wafting from a fiddler on the street is like a cool breeze punctuating their frenetic rush towards their office or home.
In my childhood the street musician that used to beguile me was a snake charmer playing his pipe and swinging it backward and forward before a cobra that used to raise its head and move in the rhythm of the music. Given the knowledge I gathered from my mother that a snake loves music I used to get lost listening to pipe music that also charmed the snake, unmindful of a scolding I would get from my mother for being late. Later, as I grew older, I learnt that a snake cannot hear sounds in air; it reacts only to vibrations. The snake I saw in my childhood moved its body only to keep an eye on the snake charmer's moving pipe.
Street musicians are quite visible near subway stations. Most of them are black Americans. In Bangladesh we come across snake charmers who play music to attract pity from people. Here too in America the street musicians evoke emotions among the onlookers who enjoy listening to their country songs and rock music. Most of such musicians are poor, no doubt. But, they are proud of their mastery over music. Playing music on the streets is their passion and a decent way of earning their bread and butter. They are not exactly beggars like those drunkards who spread out their hats on the streets and vexingly beg alms from passersby.
When it is a long commute, a book to read is the best companion to while away an hour or so inside the air-conditioned environment of a commuter train. A commuter, young or old, carries a book, a novel or any reading material, or a laptop to best utilize the idle time. Engrossed in reading or with works in his laptop a commuter can easily detach himself from the imprisonment of counting time having nothing else to do.
As an alternative to a book, as a filler of a vacuum, as a charming capsule to escape from the maddening crowd, and as a therapeutic instrument to relieve mental stress, a new craze is nowadays sweeping the whole world. iPod is the latest craze captivating the young and the old, the rich and the poor, and in America as well as in Bangladesh. You see this tiny gismo with people everywhere---on the way to work, at the mall, at the gym. The iPod is seemingly everywhere, signature white cords dangling from the ears of riders on buses and trains, students at schools and people walking down the sidewalk; iPods are gaining popularity at an amazing speed.
iPods fit into our busy lifestyles. An iPod allows its user to mix his/her favourites---his/her favourite movies, songs and audio books---in full control of what goes in the memory. No longer has one to listen to only one type of music from one radio station when he is in the car. iPod itself senses its user's tastes by the number of repetitions of a song or a movie played and sets aside those very favourites so the next time the user randomly touches the dial the favourites pop up on the screen ready for entertainment. Not even a satellite radio can offer such variety at once. An iPod is a personalized entertainment tool---a fad that makes you stick out from everyone else.
The other day as I was loitering inside an Apple store in San Francisco fondling and playing with a lot of stuffs made by Apple Inc. I could not believe how an electronic gadget could be so smart and intelligent! Completely captivated by those feathery gismos and entirely forgetting that my friends back home could mock at my wearing those earphones I grabbed one sleek iPod branded "Classic" made by Apple that cost me a fortune.
With the iPod packed with hundreds of songs, movies and audio books and strapped to my waist-belt I am now a free man moving here and there and listening to whatever lifts me up. Not an iota of drag I had felt in my seven-hour flight from Auckland in California to Baltimore in Maryland spanning a distance of 3,700 kilometres from west most, to east most, coast of America as during the long-haul flight I kept my eyes closed and my ears plugged with earphones connected to my newly bought i-Pod while listening to Anton Lesser reading in his metallic voice the whole book: "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens.
The writer is General Manager, Bangladesh Krishi Bank. He may be reached at e-mail maswood@hotmail.com