The Gilded Melodies that Grew on Me

Music is a universal language. There are many songs in my collection whose lyrics are not always very clear to me though they are in Malayalam (my mother tongue), English, or Hindi. While I drive, the meaning doesn’t matter to me; the rhythm does.

All the songs on my pen drive – and there are a few hundred of them, apart from instrumental albums without any lyrics – have very gentle, soothing music. No chaotic, noisy genres.

When we listen to reflective, slow-tempo music, our brain enters the Default Mode Network (DMN). This is the state for self-reflection and waking dreams. DMN is active when we are relaxed. It gets deactivated when we are engaged in focused, goal-directed tasks. I usually listen to music while driving. So, I’m not sure whether my brain enters the DMN. Driving requires concentration. But the soothing music in the background does help to keep me cool.

Music must provide me a soothing feeling. That’s the only rule I follow while adding albums or songs to my pen drive. Religion has no role here though there are plenty of devotional songs in my collection, particularly of Christianity and Hinduism, two religions that grew on me by sheer coincidence.

Christianity was given to me at my birth: I was baptised exactly a week after my birth as was the custom in those days. Infant mortality rate was extremely high in India in the middle of the 20^th century: 146-190 deaths per 1000 live births. In my state of Kerala, which has generally been more advanced than the rest of India, the rate was 100-120. No one could predict whether a particular infant would survive its first month on the planet. [Honestly, I wouldn’t have minded…] An unbaptised child would go to hell – every Christian was sure of that. So, in order to save my soul from potential perdition, I was baptised – just like all other Christian infants around me then – when I was still peeing in rags that served as diapers.

Christian songs ran in my veins more than my mother’s milk. I learnt, as I grew up, that my mother used to sing dirges while she rocked me to sleep. No one told me that. I observed that my mother sang dirges while she rocked my younger siblings. When I grew up further, I learnt that dirges were my mother’s favourite songs. They do have a very soothing impact on listeners. As soothing as eternal rest.

Listen to this song, sung by the inimitable Jim Reeves, and see if you can get what I mean. Of course, certain religious backgrounds and personal childhood ‘accessories’ do make a huge difference to one’s taste for music.

My mother sang Malayalam dirges. But language is no barrier when it comes to music.

Music knows no creed either. One of my most loved songs is a Hindu devotional addressed to the Goddess of Mookambika. You can listen to that and feel its impact on your being, your very soul, with its ethereal melody, rhythm, and harmony. Maybe, my knowledge of Malayalam does make much difference. Because the lyrics are profoundly meaningful.

PS. Written for #BlogchatterBlogHop

PPS. The image in the post is contributed by Gemini AI.