Heera

One restless day, I kept playing non-stop music just because I wanted to divert my mind from a pressing situation. However, song after song I was only sinking deeper into the troubled waters while all I had hoped for was to stay afloat and reach the shore somehow. Suddenly a life jacket found its way onto my shoulders - the moment when Heera started playing.  A song made out of Kabir ke dohe, Heera had struck me for its sheer melody when I had watched the film Highway the very first time. As it played Heera  turned out to be therapeutic to say the least. The song begins with a short but enchanting arrangement of violin – an orchestral interlude which keeps repeating itself in the background throughout the song. And then there is a beautiful piece of violin with flute endings which plays just before the last doha. The best thing about this A.R.Rahman composition is the soulful rendition by  singer Shwetha Pandit. The purity of each note is soothing to the mind and to the soul in equal measure. Heera simply offered a lasting catharsis and provided a new perspective to everything that was happening around me. I also realized how melody has significantly vanished from music as well as our lives. A pure melody is what makes you forget all the noise around you and helps you focus your energies on things that have meaning. It gives you a moment to contemplate on what happened and what must be done to stay on course. A moment to think without any influence of a second-hander and make your own decisions.

Heera however is not just about melody. It has a strong message. Heera is a collection of three dohas, drawing analogy between diamond and character. I have tried here to interpret Heera the way I understood it  –

Just like the way only a real diamond bears the hammer’s blow , only those who pass testing times deserve to be called as men of character.

In a vegetable market , even a diamond can only be sold at a vegetable’s price, similarly showing your skills in front of fools is worthless.

Just like the way only an expert can recognize a real diamond even if its maligned by ash, while most people will go bu looks only a truly evolved person will be will be able to recognize real gem even when it doesn't look good.

The strong melody of Heera compelled me to find out the meaning of the dohas. Little did I know that the lesson I needed was actually out there in these verses and especially the last doha.

Our lives have become so busy that we have no time to contemplate on the simple everyday happenings around us. Forget finding time for someone new, we have no time for the ones whom we know from a long long time. So much so that now, we almost don’t even know them anymore.  The surprising part is that we are busy with nothing most of the time. The variety of things that are on offer in our mobile phones ( = our lives)  have reduced our attention spans to such short lengths that we have no time to think about the things that matter to us.  No wonder when it comes to making crucial life decisions we find ourselves in a spot. Many a times we have already made the decision subconsciously because we have consumed it from others. And therefore it just doesn’t fit into our scheme of things. Sooner or later we are forced to recognize that something’s not working and so we need help.

However, the best form of help is self help and after much search and struggle I have found that we can answer most of our questions if we just listen to the melody of our heartbeats.

For many many years I always tried to find out the difference between a good and a bad image. I always wondered if one can ever define a bad image. What should be the parameters for such a definition? Content? Colour? Or resolution and clarity? Or all of it? Story or lack of it? Should every image necessarily tell a story? Can a happy image still be a bad image? After much deliberation I would only conclude that subjective matters cannot be confined to definitions. Incidentally, I read an interesting interview by filmmaker Rajat Kapoor. His simple, one-dimensional take on bad image was refreshingly different , rather debatable  yet acceptable at the same time. He said “If you can reduce an image to just one meaning, then it’s probably a bad image”.

Heera made such an impact that I decided to create an image based on its theme. Idea was to make a mild dedication to Heera and an attempt to draw from my own state of mind. It is therefore a little personal and yet it doesn't  belong to me either. Thanks to my friend for his efforts to synchronize with my directions and clicking the image the way I wanted it. It turned out to be not a bad image!

But then,what do you think?