Nostalgia

I miss lot of things of yester years. I wrote about the joy of cycling without the fear of being run over. We could go to concerts and plays without worrying about the traffic, parking problems and the hassles of returning late in the night.

The concert in my very young days was a kind of musical dance drama called Yakshagana. The characters would dress in the gaudiest of colors and costumes with elaborate head gears. They would have bells tied to their ankles.There was an accompaniment of song and storytelling with the beat of drums. The performance would begin late at night and go on till early hours of next morning! It combined elements of song, dance, theatre, music and storytelling all in one show. It was superb and held us enthralled for more than 8 hours! The truncated from is still widely prevalent in the coastal districts.

The same applied to classical music, it would start late and end may be six hours later. The singer and the audience were one in appreciation of each other. Such spectacles which were common 50 years back have virtually disappeared now. Modern day classical concerts last not even three hours and in one performance some time ago the artist Amjad Ali spent more time tuning his instrument rather than playing it! I thought with the advent of MP3 CD I would be able to get music which lasts for many hours. By this I mean, a single or two ragas elaborated over three to four hours. My search so far has not succeeded.

Foot paths were foot paths then. They were even and one could walk on them. Now they are either used to park vehicles are dug up and we have to walk on the streets and run the risk of being run over. Many, especially the elderly are forced to stay home and rot. Even the simple pleasure of a walk is denied to them.

All this, we call progress and this consumerist economy is driving this society crazy.