Music
The singing neighbour
This flash essay is part of a collaborative, constrained-writing challenge undertaken by some members of the Bangalore Substack Writers Group. This month, we used the prompt, ‘MUSIC’. At the bottom of this snippet, you’ll find links to other essays by fellow writers.
The young man1 who lives on the first floor of the neighbour’s house often sings loudly. I can hear it from my house. I don’t think he is a trained musician (at least from what I hear). Even if he is, he probably has little training. But, he loves music and he loves to sing and I love that about him. I don’t know who he is and I don’t know his face but most evenings I hear him practice his singing loudly.
He plays some instruments too. I know he plays the flute badly and practices the keyboard as well. Sometimes I hear him practicing the swaras. It is not clear enough, but what is clear is that he is a music aficionado and wants to learn how to sing. Many times I can’t make out the song. But, I imagine him sitting there and raising his head, opening his mouth wide and singing as if nobody was listening.
He has been practicing a particular song for a while. The tune is familiar, but I couldn’t catch the lyrics. After suffering “not knowing the song” for a few days, I pulled out my phone and hummed the tune to it and it threw back the song at me. It was “Chaar Kadam” from the film PK. I kept humming it for several days after that.
For some time he was into the song “Garaj Garaj” from Bandish Bandits. It reminded me of the times I listened to the album on repeat. I listened to it some more after his intervention. As lovely as the songs from this album are, I feel they are too short for a musical. Especially the song “Virah”, is just not enough. By the time you feel the singer’s pain the song is over. It is painful to not enjoy it fully. As much as I love listening to it on repeat, it doesn’t satiate me. I have no clue what goes into songmaking, but if any of you can put in a word for a longer version of this song, I would sincerely appreciate it.
Sometimes the spouse gets irritated with his singing.
Why does he have to sing so loudly? It is disturbing others.
He is having a good time, let him, what is your problem?
While he gets irritated I get intrigued about the song he is singing and try to decipher it. In defence of the spouse, he is quite disturbed with music already. I play music loudly at home and sing along most times. Even when not playing songs, I sing while doing my chores. I play music while sitting and writing this. When my son A2 visits home, he plays music at home and in the car at decibel levels that the spouse usually won’t tolerate from me.
I can’t say that I look forward to listening to the neighbour’s singing. But, when I hear him singing, I feel a sense of warmth which makes me all mushy and happy inside. Happy in the fact that someone is enjoying their music and don’t care about how it sounds and who is listening.
The list of essays by fellow writers is as below, please show all of us some ❤️❤️❤️:
DhvaniTaranga by Shwetha Harsha, Chutneymix
Music for Mental Health by Shruti Soumya, Same Here
#18: On Music by Siddhesh Raut, Shana, Ded Shana
Growing Up a Metalhead in Small-Town India by Rajat Gururaj, I came, I saw, I floundered
Morning Raaga by Nidhishree Venugopal General in Her Labyrinth
I know he is young because my neighbour told me that she has let out her upstairs house to two young men. I am not a creepy aunty, at least not yet. 😅
Reminded me of a Robert Frost poem -
A Minor Bird
I have wished a bird would fly away,
And not sing by my house all day;
Have clapped my hands at him from the door
When it seemed as if I could bear no more.
The fault must partly have been in me.
The bird was not to blame for his key.
And of course there must be something wrong
In wanting to silence any song.
This was a delight to read. Slice of humour that. I always wonder how people have such courage to sing so freely (in the sense if they know that the others could possibly hear them. Enjoyed the songs mentioned here, and would love to see your playlist of the music you play in an essay in the future hopefully :)