My Relationship With Music

Like cricket, I can divide my life into various innings. Life after every exam, every challenge, or, for that matter, every mistake feels like a second innings. Be it life after leaving badminton behind, or be it after leaving home to study my way through India’s toughest entrance exam, or be it life at my undergrad college - and so on. In every phase, along with this feeling of a new life, there is something else common - My Love for Music.

Let me make it clear - I know I am no artist; I learnt it the hard way after a failed attempt at learning guitar for 3 months. However, I am a self-proclaimed curator. Collector of good music. I listen to everything from “Mukesh Kumar” to “Metallica”. From Sea Shanty to P-Pop (Punjabi-Pop; yeah, it’s a thing now). This admiration for good music engendered when I was a kid and every step was taken to seem cool. So listening to “Linkin Park”, “System of a Down”, “Green Day” made me cool - 100% inside my head, not so much outside. They were a huge part of my teenage years. Reciting the lyrics of “In the End” in front of my friends was my idea of being cool. Despite my lack of understanding of the song's true meaning, I couldn’t care less. Listening to Iron Maiden’s Dance of Death on my Digital Walkman while bicycling sits vividly in my memory - especially that humm in the end.

Then came the era of Eminem. Because anything less wouldn’t have pushed me to keep at it and make it to IIT. I would listen to his entire albums, a trend that for better or worse is a thing of the past now with more and more singles or EPs being released. While Eminem’s hard-hitting beats and lyrics kept me energised, the soundtrack of Interstellar helped me calm my nerves and transported me to a different world that was outside the confines of my 10*16 room. Solving differential calculus while listening to its “Cornfield Chase” track had a different feel to it. Then there were all the heavy metal giants like Metallica, Iron Maiden, Megadeth, Queen, Guns N' Roses, Cradle of Filth, Marilyn Manson, and Black Sabbath, which helped me get past the not-so-motivating results of weekly and monthly 6-hour-long tests.
“I am not afraid to take a stand, Everybody come take my hand, We’ll walk this road together, through the storm”

Between these bands I somehow never came across the world of “Pink Floyd” and psychedelic rock - as they would call it, until I was introduced to their music in my first semester at IIT Roorkee. “Comfortably Numb” instantly became an on-repeat song. Pink Floyd was a gift that kept on giving as I explored their music from time to time till the end of my 8th semester. So much so that “Time” became my anthem for the placement semester. I would listen to it on loop while I crammed my way through the lines of C++ algorithms at a well-reputed firm.
“You are young and life is long, And there is time to kill today, And then one day you find ten years have got behind you, No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun”

During the same time I was also introduced to artists such as “Sia” (listening to “Cheap Thrills” takes me back to the summer of 2016, to this day), “Arctic Monkeys” (“Do I Wanna Know”, “Why’d You Only Call Me When You Are High"), Tame Impala ("Less I know the Better" and “Mind Mischief"), and EDM artists like DJ Snake, David Guetta, Martin Garrix, Nucleya - whose music would make me look like a drunkard on the dance floor while I would headbang continuously and regret it the next day.
“Do I wanna know, if this feeling flows both ways, Sad to see you go, Sorta hopin’ that you’d stay”

I used to resist Punjabi music in my childhood because everyone around would be listening to it - so uncool in my eyes. But as I lived away from home, it became cool to listen to Punjabi music, and honestly, beats became way better and catchier than they used to be during childhood - with heavy influence from American pop and hip-hop music. As I started gymming regularly, I was drawn towards the upbeat and synth music of “AP Dhillon”, and so began my love affair with Punjabi music. This experience was combined with an ease of access to high-quality sound through a 2.1 sound system, a pair of AirPods for the gym, and a pair of Sony XM4s headphones for traveling. These devices made my life much more bearable during Covid. Listening to “Unforgiven” by Metallica or “Takeover” by AP Dhillion on my AirPods in the gym would pump me up to the next level. While this continued for a couple of years, there was a gradual increase in the threshold of getting that same kick through the music - overstimulation as experts would call it. AirPods in the gym won’t give me the I AM THE HERO OF MY PICTURE vibe anymore. There was an overdose of music. So much so that now I don’t carry AirPods while exercising - well I do, but only on leg days. So now the sound systems’ usage is restricted to certain occasions.
“Gaddiyan de kaafle aa, Jeban vich note pare aa, Dabbi hathiyar tange ne, Pistol te nag jade aa”

A genre that has gained popularity in the past 7-8 years is Desi Hip-Hop. Desi Hip-Hop had been brewing underground for a while before it burst into the mainstream with the release of "Gully Boy" in 2019; cinema is probably one of the best ways to mass-market a new idea. The likes of “Divine” and the duo of “Seedhe Maut” started gaining a lot of traction, especially among GenZs. This wave benefited the artists across the border as well. Artists like “Farish Shafi”, the duo of “Young Stunners”, “Hasan Raheem”, “Shamoon Ismail” started generating never-before-seen numbers in this genre. The lyrical prowess of Urdu as a language is unparalleled. “Shikwa” by “Talhah Yunus” was my on-repeat song while I prepared and prepared and prepared for the GMAT.
“Kya hi shikwa karein fir, Meri galti nahi hai, Har ghazal se mutaasir, Ye duniya jalti rahi hai”

In my mind, Punjabi music was specifically for partying and gymming - the beats of which warrant physical movement. However, during the MBA admission cycle, on days when I needed the motivation to start my day or to write one more paragraph, I would listen to “AP Dhillon”, “Shubh”, “Karan Aujla” to get the same pump as I used to get in the gym. To my surprise, it did wonders for my attention span and my concentration. So, I guess sometimes it’s better not to strictly associate music with certain situations.
“Jatta deaan derean te udd de aa baaj ni, Tave rehan ghumde te sunde aa saaj ni, Kadi Chamkila kadi sune Sartaj ni, Te garmi ch modhean te parne rawaaz”

The other solution to overstimulation of recorded music is to attend live concerts. It helps to break the monotony of recorded music. And, of course, it creates a hell of a lot of memories. God bless student days, when there was a concept of free entry during college festivals. I have seen “Farhan Akhtar”, “Local Train”, “Nucleya”, “Amit Trivedi” among others perform live for free. There is something magical about attending live concerts when you the artist performing live in front of you, whom you have been just listening to through a device your entire life. It was ecstatic to see AP Dhillon perform “Takeover” live (maybe lipsync, but who cares when you are 23). I couldn’t stop myself from headbanging while “Slash” played the solo of “November Rain”.
“Take me down to the paradise city, where the grass is green and the girls are pretty”

As my tryst with music continues, what began as a way to be cool has now matured into a personal escape that makes me feel at home.