A kid with a notebook in his tiny
hands, sitting down in eagerness of what he would learn that day, discovering
the difference between a nice sounding shruti
and a bad sounding one, moving his fingers over the lines of the song on his
notebook while singing even though he hardly knows how to read, relating what
he has learnt to cartoon characters and the great Indian stories, correcting
himself to stay in taalam and layam, laughing when he knows he isn’t getting
the pronunciations right, clapping in joy after finally getting it on the
keyboard, touching my feet before leaving (after demanding a chocolate!) and
humming the tune all along his way back home- Ah! One of life’s most satisfying
experiences has been teaching music to a 5 year old kid.
If music was a science, it would
be about pitch, timbre and harmonics and I would have required extensive
theoretical and practical sessions to get the funda across. If music was only about creativity then any creative
child would have acquired and mastered it all by himself. If it was just an
abstract concept, it would require ages to cognize what the soul of music was.
It’s amazing how any skill is a beautiful confluence of god-giftedness, training,
upbringing and observation which ought to be passed on and cherished in the
process!
Talent can only be enhanced by
spreading, by having the humility of knowing that the ocean of knowledge is
boundless, by maintaining the spark of curiosity on with passing years and by
keeping the ears open to let any fresh new tune in! Try mentoring a child,
teach anything that you know, instill skill and ethics with the additional
benefit of being able to stay a child forever! Act as a value adding nutrient
to this sapling that will eventually grow into a big tree and hold the soil of
this world!
