Change

                   I've always been fascinated with the idea of change. To me change is like testing unsure waters , sometimes it may turn out well and at times the worst may happen, but there is always the adventure to savour.  For better or worse, all of us undergo a lot of change as we move forward in our lives. As a college student, I too have my share of changes and the occasional exhilarating drives to change many of my habits and attributes on occasions like New Years & often after many flunked exams. It may range from small things like changing the society, ending corruption etc. to mundane tasks like waking up early, start studying on a regular basis (uhh..), working out  ...basically anything under the sun. But like many other people, I end up ditching all these plans and fall back to my good old ways. 
                         
                             In case you are wondering, No... this is not an article in which I go all poetic about change. Rather, I'm going to talk about a few events I came across recently which I think portrays change in different aspects . The first among those being the 'Shuchitwa Keralam' or 'Clean Kerala' campaign recently held in my college. It was conducted by a popular news channel as part of a state wide campaign aimed at creating an awareness among youth about the harms of non-biodegradable wastes and the need to safely dispose them. I have no clue whose 'brilliant idea' it was, but all the audience were given balloons with handles made of straws and small stickers pasted on them for publicity. Balloons..! I mean, seriously? Needless to say, when the programme ended after a handful of speeches stressing the importance of not littering plastic wastes, the floor was filled with the same.  The other one being the conviction of  the actress turned corrupt politician Jayalalitha for owning disproportionate assets. Even when read along with the fact that it took almost 18 years and most others in the group are still out in the open, it was a monumental judgement in many ways. It rekindled the common man's faith in our Judiciary since Jayalalitha is sort of like a demigod in Tamil Nadu. And it made most Indians realise the existence of the Prevention of Corruption Act . This incident happened over a week ago and the fact that Jayalalitha is still behind the bars is a bit surprising (cos a week in jail equals a year in celebrity jail time. Bet her lawyer is dying to take notes from Sanjay Dutt's lawyer on getting year long paroles and stuff). However it may turn out, it was inspiring. 

                               The two events mentioned here gives forth a lot to ponder about. It may be the pessimist in me speaking but I don't adhere to the popular belief that a single person is capable of bringing about a huge change. What I do believe is that, an effective change, like many other things, can only be brought about through a collective effort. Even if some of those acts may seem silly, the results will leave many dumbfounded. It may be small things like wishing our teachers, thanking a guy at a shop or writing an assignment on your own for once (on second thoughts, strike out the last one). At a time when people do crazy things to bring about a change in their lives made up of status quo, why not do something absolutely normal and achieve the same?

My Unruly Partner

            There are some things in life which you never get along with. It’s not that you can’t change it if you put your ass behind it, there seem to be some kind of unwritten law which states such and such are never meant to be. The topic I am referring here is my relationship with musical instruments. To say that it has been a bumpy ride would be quite an understatement. My laziness, crappy teachers… whatever may the reason be, we just didn’t click.

                              My first tryst with this ‘untamable partner’ happened a few years back. The child in me believed that not knowing to play even a single instrument was pitiable and I decided to do something about this. Thus I joined the nearest music academy to learn Organ. The choice of instrument was a random one for any instrument would have sufficed. Classes started and I kept aside a few hours of my precious Sundays for this purpose. Slowly I fought through the ‘A’s, the ‘E’s and the ‘G’s and reached the (drums roll) ‘Twinkle-Twinkle-Little-Star’ stage. As my teacher deemed it very important I fervently mastered it. For the next few classes all I was allowed to do was to play this over and over. I was starting to get a bit annoyed by this. But then I happened to watch the movie ’The Karate Kid’. There is a scene in this film in which Jackie Chan makes Jaden Smith pick up a jacket from the floor, hang it on the wall and throw it back down repeatedly for hundreds of times. And through this simple action he taught the kid karate. Watching this I had a moment of clarity, if you will. And in that moment I realised that Twinkle-Twinkle-Little-Star was my ‘jacket’ and the reason why I was made to play it over and over was because the day my teacher tells me to stop, I would be something close to a local Mozart. With this in mind I tried even hard at mastering the rhyme. But the recognition day remained elusive and eventually I called it quits. I think it would be apt to say that the only thing that improved during those classes were the high scores in the mobile game my teacher used to play.

              We refrained from contact for the next few years until my recent semester break. This time I decided to try my hand at guitar. Unlike the first time, this instrument was chosen because of a few reasons. The major one being the fact that I was really captivated watching Antonio Banderas in Desperado and I decided that I should at least learn to play guitar (I would have liked a guitar box full of guns like those in the movie a lot better…but that ain’t happening). My decision was also backed by the fact that Guitar is one of the major brownie point winners out there. So I rang up a couple of my friends who had an awful amount of time to kill, who thought along the same lines as me and joined to learn guitar. The first week went really well. We attended all the classes and put up an effort at learning it. There were even days in which our fingertips became red and bloody due to strumming the guitar for very long stretches. It was around the time we all got to the B string that our attention began to falter. Our days became filled with trips to not so known yet picturesque locations and waterfalls in our locality, watching old movies, sleeping and some other things which can’t be mentioned here. Long story short, I haven’t set a foot there since then. And hence my second encounter with musical instruments too came to a premature ending albeit through my own fault.

                            Even though my first two outings with musical instruments did not bear any fruit, I am not opposed to the idea of having another go at it. It is because I still believe that not knowing to play even a single musical instrument is a sad affair. And I will continue to try to change that. Violin is looking really cool for now. Maybe I’ll try to learn that or I’ll continue with guitar or organ. Whether I will master it or not is another question altogether.