Music and Memories

"Nasha yeh pyaar ka nasha hai" (This is the intoxication of love) crooned Udit Narayan. I was lost in ecstasy, immersed in the music. I had actually bought an audio cassette of Mann, just for this song, which is totally unlike me. (I rarely buy new Hindi movie albums. I listen to it, but refrain from buying it). I was trying to get my sister to listen to it and enjoy it. She and I have very similar tastes in almost everything, including music.
But she listened to the song with me, and said, "Yes, it's very good, but nothing to go crazy, raving mad about. Why do you like it so much?"
I was stumped. "But it's such a lovely song! Don't you see it? Come on, listen to it again, it has such an atmosphere!" I said, and tried to stuff the notes into her ear.
"You probably have an association with this song. Where did you hear it first?" she asked.
Ah, I said.

I heard it for the first time when I had just moved out of home into the hostel. A very nice couple, our family friends, lived in the same city. They used to pick me up from my hostel, take me to their home, ply me with goodies, and drop me back to the hostel. They realized that I was lonely and missing home, and did all they could to make me feel comfortable.

I heard the song sitting in their car. Cocooned in the comfort of the A/C car, protected from the burning heat outside. "Nashe mein yaar doob jaao" coaxed Udit Narayan (Drown, my friend, in the intoxication). I did. I did drown in the intoxication of that moment. That moment of peace. That moment of cool comfort. That moment where I felt I was not alone any longer. A small drop of home in an ocean of unfamiliarity.

This feeling of comfort, of assurance, envelops me whenever I listen to this song. Each time. Even after all these years. Little wonder that I like the song so much!

Same is the case with Sonu Nigam's "Deewana". I heard it for the first time in Gangtok. While driving in a jeep through narrow winding roads. The chill in the air, the mountains and the greenery. The snow. The feeling of ecstasy, of camaraderie. The thrill of seeing the wheels of the jeep just inches away from the edge of the road, and knowing that one wrong turn means certain death. The feeling of recklessness. Of satisfaction. Of joy.

Even after eight years, the first few notes of any song from Deewana takes me back. Gangtok gets merged with Darjeeling, which we had visited right after Gangtok. I can feel the chill. I can see Kanchenjunga. I can smell Darjeeling Tea, and I can taste hot veg momos. I can hear the chanting in the monastery. Added to it, I can feel the mountains, the clouds, the snow. If I want to revisit Gangtok and Darjeeling, all I need to do is close my eyes and listen to Deewana.

There have been unpleasant associations too. Like the song that was playing early in the morning, when the newspapers came full of the news of Rajiv Gandhi's assassination, with gory pictures splattered all over the pages. Even now, that song makes me uncomfortable.

That's why, I never call a song or a piece of music good or bad. I just say "I like it" or "I don't like it". For every person who doesn't like a song, there is surely a person who has a pleasant association and so loves that song.

Google tells me that many Alzheimer's patients have retrieved lost memory through listening to particular types of music. Apparently, processing music involves the use of memory and also aids in the retrieval of past memories. Obviously, there must be a strong connection between memory centers of the brain as well as those that process music.

Continuing with this assumption, listening to music regularly might stimulate the memory centres, and improve your memory! Now that's a great memory enhancer for you!

There must be research going on in this area, somewhere on earth. Wonder if they would like a volunteer? ;)