All the characters you find down there are purely non-fictional. Any resemblance what so ever is not because you are completely crazy. Anything that appears like typo or a grammatical error or a watermelon is purely intentional, and it might be holding deeper meanings intended for further sinister purposes. If you did not understand it, then it is totally your problem..Name something that just happened to be universally loved. One of the easiest answers is- music. It is very rare to find someone who does not like to listen to one of its varied kinds. -I feel special that I know a person who does not, but let that identity be secret ;-) . Now About the reasons why! I've thought about that a million times now. All I could say is I am not smart enough to answer that.
The answer might even drift into one of the secrets of the fabric of universe. How is it possible that those mere rhythmic vibrations of air can produce such a profound effect on human beings even influencing how one feels! It even helps one to choose how one should feel, which is really big a deal. It does affect every-thing mostly in a pleasant way. May be we all, have an innate tendency to appreciate order and patterns. May be an order in chaos is what is divine. Ask me why am I pocking on the love of music! It’s just because of something wonderful and completely new to me that I stumbled on recently.
I always found fun in tracing back the reason why I ended up finding this, or doing that etc. Call it the desperation of another bored, dejected Associate Consultant. These little things always proved worth it. That is really important because I find it extremely difficult to identify anything worthwhile among the things I have been doing recently.
Well so to make it easy of every one who reads this I will put it in an order for a change. Well it happened some time back. I happened to go for this German movie called 'The lives of others' with a friend of mine (Hey buddy thanks for trusting me with the choice of the movie!). While watching that I felt like it is one of the best I have ever seen so far. Experiencing something great knowing it is great is a different and wonderful feeling. Watching a great movie knowing it is one of the best u ever gonna see is a very exciting thing if u realize that. It gives a special indescribable emotion, like living a life of a legend.. I wonder how it would be like for those who already knew they are legends! Will they feel contempt for the lesser mortals? Or will they feel sorry that there is nothing more left for them to achieve, simply because it wont make much of a difference? It is funny but this was the closest I could feel to them. Well so much for the 200 bucks spent on the movie!
The movie was beautiful. The conspiracy.. The love.. The betrayal.. The sacrifice.. The unasked but dangerous favor.. The strange gesture of gratitude!.. It was beautiful. It had one of the best climaxes ever. Every moment I could connect to the movie in a strange way. Not saying much about it as it is totally worth watching thyself. The language was a problem though. German sounds cool. The language sounds like a rock song lyric. It is indeed the language of anger. If some one comes and speak to you in German, I bet it will sound quite like swearing which you cannot possibly understand. French is indeed a language of love, but unfortunately I don’t talk French too! But Dutch, it is sexy!
Whilst watching the movie, many a times there was this conflict whether I should go after the scene or the subtitle. It was too difficult to manage especially in the big screen, U know. I remember this sequence in which the main actress (Martina Gedeck) talking to her boyfriend the writer, in a shower. Then she started saying a few key dialogs of the plot. It posed quite a dilemma! A tough choice, because the woman is damn gorgeous and she is naked! What she says is important to understand the plot. If I have to understand it I got to read the damn subtitles. They are just the usual plain white letters and absolutely did not stand a chance compared to the chic! Cant have both because the screen is damn big! I desperately focused and re focused until I felt sorry for my eyes. I could hear my brain telling me “Buddy, stop doin tht!”. I wished for a bigger pair of eyes like the aliens have. I totally understood the meaning of the word Dilemma at that moment! Experiencing is the best way of understanding isn’t it?
Well the point is not that. It is just something I heard, or more exactly read in the subtitles of that movie. About Beethoven.
If I say Beethoven’s music is good!, the most logical response of a sensible human being reading that will be… ’So what!’.. It is that well known. It is like telling Shakespeare used to write good plays! Everyone knows it. But there is a catch in it. How many really know it and how many have simply accepted it as like they believe 1+1=3?. Simple, how many might have actually read one of his plays, the original version? I have not. Even if I try I am pretty sure that I wont reach the third page! So I simply shake my head in approval when some one says King Lear rocked! Or Romeo and Juliet were the best love story ever. I just kept myself satisfied with the abridged versions for kids.
The case is different about Beethoven now. I actually listened to all of his compositions I could get my hands on. I consider it quite an achievement because that is something that even Beethoven could not do. He could not listen to any of his last works. May be in his minds eye he did. But it does not count.
I happen to read about him first back in the school, when I was forced to study a chapter in English about him. I still remembering feeling pity for the dude who was unable to know his own creation sounded in reality. He was deaf when he created his last works. It is one of the most terrible things to ever happen to someone. It will be a wonder if the person did not go into a mental breakdown. And in fact he did. Strangely never did I venture in to listening to his music back then. May be because it is not for a restless soul. It will take a lot of patience to listen and appreciate works like that.
It took some 10+ yrs and a dialog in a German movie to turn my attention into the music! Life it is!.. Well In the movie I read a character say about listening to Beethoven’s music. He said this quoting Lenin.
“If I keep listening to that music, I will never be able to lead a revolution. No man of reason ever listened to Symphony 9 will never be able to commit any act of brutality. I am needed to be brutal. As a price I will miss something remarkable down here”. Well he said that in Russian, in the movie the general said it in Germen, and some dude translated it in English for the subtitle and I am writing what I remember of it. It did travel a long way but it still had the thing. It made me to listen to symphony 9! So the very next day I called up a friend of a friend of mine and his brothers classmate and by the end of the day I got a few of his symphony’s And I was determined to listen this time.
It is very difficult to listen to a symphony for the first time completely. It is slow, it has no words, and basically it is boring. And it is like alcohol. Tough to have it, but once had, what follows is heavenly! (Non-boozers go to hell!) I don’t know about Mozart, I don’t know about kuttappan chettan! But I know about the symphony 9. Every one has heard it many times either knowingly or unknowingly. Our filmmakers have used its bits and pieces repeatedly without any worries (No one will come with a copyright violation!). It is there in advertisements, and it is there everywhere. But the entire thing is quite an experience!
The Lettre r Elise is there in your minds already. I am sure you had heard it many times. I was in my happy place when I listened to that. It was just amazing. On the other hand, I got different fingers and the symphony 9 takes the listener through a wide variety of emotions too. You can feel peace and serenity, horror, passion, hope, desperation all of it if listened apt. All of these without even a single word in it. That is the magic of music. It’s like a roller coaster ride of emotions. I had experienced something similar only once before that. But I cannot mention it here because of some legal issues ;)
A fluke or a glimpse of complete genius. That’s the 9th symphony is all about for me. The facts favors the later. Simply cannot believe that he created it when he was completely deaf!. Without even having a faint idea how each note will sound in reality. That is a wonder as far as I am concerned. Well I had a wish to write about it when I listened to it fully for the first time. So that is it!. I feel happy. The rest of you go to hell. Correction, try to listen to it once and go to hell, else you will be missing one of the wonderful things out here. I have said what I felt obliged to.
And out of the chaos, a voice spoke:
"Smile and be happy, for it can always be worse".
And I smiled, and I was happy, and it did get worse.