Welcome to Darkside Daily

When I'm not writing about my experiences in this journey called 'life', I'm singing and uploading my own interpretations of modern music. Click on "Cover Songs" to hear them, or on the YouTube logo on the right to see my YouTube channel.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Century: Looking Back


In commemoration of my 100th post, I thought I'd put up what is probably my first ever attempt at writing an article. I stumbled across it a few days ago and it seemed an apt way to bring up the century. Back in 2005 I was in college, and a friend of mine from the journalism college asked me if I'd like to write an article for the guest column of their bi-monthly newspaper. The paper was circulated within the university campus and was used as a training exercise for the post-graduate students of the college. Now, I've never been asked to write an article before, and I was naturally elated at the idea. So after a lot of draft posts and many complaints about me spending too much time on it instead of my studies, this was the end result.


So here I am, returning to hostel after a hectic and furnace-like day. I live on the second floor in the farthest corner of the building. On my roomward journey, I am struck by the familiar cacophony of music, sound and expletives. By the time I reach for my keys, I have already absorbed all forms of verbal abuse in at least 10 languages, a host of musical styles ranging from Boyzone to Black Sabbath, and some cheering from the TV room. As I sit on my bed, my first reaction is to reach for the remote control of my stereo and press the magical button marked 'play'. It seems ironic that after putting my auditory faculties through such a strain, I choose to flush my system with my own form of audio abuse. It was then that I got to thinking - why does music play such a big part in our lives?


No matter what age, race, class or sex, people are exposed to music from a tender age. Be it our parents singing lullabies or some dumb toy that plays a nursery rhyme when you wind it, music is one of our earliest sensory experiences. Growing up, we may choose to take interest in music, in artists, styles etc. By the time we hit our teens, each of us has distinguished some corner of the musical world that we identify with. It is quite common to find teens sharing music, ideas and opinions with each other, and now with the help of television and radio, a person has a world of musical knowledge at his fingertips.


But my question is, what is the big deal? What is it about music that can drive us to listen and sing along with it over and over again? Is it simply for pleasure, or is there some other more subtle appeal to it? Is our musical preference based simply on public opinion, or how 'cool' a group/singer is? Possibly. Perhaps we all need some place to start from. But where do we go from there?


Now don't get me wrong. I am not trying to be philosophical about this! But no one can deny that we do sometimes use music to either express or reflect our own emotions or our own character. Be it heartache or happiness or a plain "I hate you!", I am sure you can find some song, some tune, some chorus or some line that mirrors that emotion. Not only is music a vehicle for us to express our emotions, it also has the power to induce them. Simply put, sad songs make us sad and happy songs make us happy. We all have our own anthems, however small or insignificant they are. For example, how do students in MIT face sessionals month after month, with close to no preparation at all? Simple, for as their anthem screams, "In the end, it doesn't really matter!".


Well, maybe I'm going out on a limb with my last example, but it conveys the meaning that I am trying to impress. Music has a deep control over our innermost thoughts and emotions, processes that many learned men before us, and possibly many men after us, will never fully understand or decipher. And perhaps, that is its strongest appeal. Man has always been fond of mysteries, and surely there is nothing more strange and amazing than the mysterious way in which music speaks to our souls, soothing and stumulating at the same time.



To all you readers, thank you for your comments and opinions - they are all greatly appreciated!


Cheers!


G


24 comments:

Anonymous said...

Happy 100!

You write well about the most mundane things sometimes, still you make a good post out of it.. and ofcourse the singing :P keep it up.

Spice

Dee said...

A very happy
time is this,
A hundred posts
oh the bliss!
Jobless they may call
you, but you cares,
because the biggest..
err...is the grizzly bear...

it rhymes ok!! heh.. :) congrats.

TheWhacksteR said...

ela kiri machan heres to 100 more.. cheers!

tash said...

congradz!!! :)

Charm Bracelet said...

A happy 100th G, and to many more :)

Anonymous said...

FREAK!
:) This one...?! Of course I remember.
Haha.. I can see the paper with your worm-like handwriting. It had my stamp of approval. Would you believe your readership would increase to where it is now, back then?
Gee, you remember when all of this happened? Archi block, and I think I even had a jealousy-related fight with you that night.

Will you make fraandship with me gehan? Plis!

Anonymous said...

You knows what's better, gehan.
I just realized that one of your best posts happened to be number 99.
Hahaha. Had to be.

Anonymous said...

AH! GEHAN!
Food for music, was the title.
:D
You remember?

Ok ok, over and out.
:p

Jerry said...

Happy Century, old man.
;)

May you write many a post to come!

Anonymous said...

Hey!

Way to go! You're officially an old-timer... well... on the blogshpere =P

Anonymous said...

yo congrats man.. patta!

PseudoRandom said...

Congratulations!!! Excellent read, keep it up :-)

And Manipal eh? I know a few ppl from there, but all medics...so probably not known to the Darkside? ;-)

Anonymous said...

Nice one. You're right - it's one of the mysteries of the universe. And best wishes for a hundred more!

Baby Z said...

Enjoy being unemployed for as long as you can bro, cuz when you start working they will exect you to hand over your life and soul to the company and they will pay you peanuts in return. They will work you till you die and when you ask for a new chair they will laugh at you. take it from me dawg, I've been taking it up the ass for a few years now.

Before anyone calls me bitter or worse I'm gonna tell you, I ain't bitter, I just don't believe in sugar coating things.I tell it like it is.

Gehan said...

spice: the singing, of course :P lol thank u very much tho! :)

DC: LOL!! :D thanks...!!

whackster: thanks man!

tash: thank u!

charms: thank u...! here's hoping i dnt run outta things to say tho.. lol

al: lol im PRETTY sure that wasnt the title al.. haha.. talk to u later :)

jerry: hmmmm [strokes long white flowing beard] :P

MoM: blogshpere?! :P

unsilent: thanks!

psuedorandom: thank u! and well, it depends.. are they hot? ;)

java: thanks dude!

baby z: shtraight up dawg! :P

krazykyd said...

Happy 100 bro!

yes! yes! the anthem creator himself has graced this post ;)... ok not the creator but v did play a part :D

PseudoRandom said...

Hahahaha beauty (and hotness) is in the eye of the beholder no? One of the guys is pretty fit though ;-)

Gehan said...

KK: hahaha... anthem creator it seems.. cocky lil bugger arent u? :P yea thanks to u lot that damned song haunted us for years.. haha... :D thanks bro.. hey, it was ur idea to start da blog in da first place, so thanks :)

pseudorandom: guys?? [gag!] ok never mind then......! :P

Sabby said...

You were an awesome writer even back then eh?
Congrats on the 100th, luv...here's to many more! =)

Baby Z said...

wtf was that G? Yeah, ok so I spelled "expect" wrong, you just won't let that go will you?

Gehan said...

sabby: aww ur too kind! thanks so much :)

baby z: lady, i have no idea what ur on, but it isnt working.. u read a post about music and wrote somethin abt unemployment.. wat da heck am i sposed to say to that?! if u have nothing relevant to say, dnt say anything at all.. im not really interested in how u take it up the ass or abt ur culturally blessed husband... alrite?

just calling it "like it is.. dawg"...

Scrumps said...

Happy 100th dude! :)

Mr.Pitbull said...

Congrats on the Century Mate keep them coming ok ?
Cheers !! =D

Anonymous said...

congratulations on the century mate! tc :)

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