We set off on a pilgrimage of all the competitions that the country offered. With every outing, we emerged bigger and stronger than before and our fan base was growing. More importantly, so were the number of our originals
Somewhere during our trips, I found myself on a bus trip with the band and my wife achu tagging along. We were talking about life in general and how pain sometimes keep revisiting you after that moment has passed. She fell asleep on my arm somewhere in the middle of that conversation leaving me with a sudden urge to write.
I started scribbling thoughts that came to me on a small scrap of paper that I had in my pocket. It was pitch dark, no lights and a moving bus. The next day in the morning, I couldn’t read what I had written!
But as I stumbled thru those jumbled words that I had scribbled while half asleep, I remembered what I had wanted to say. The song “Questions” was written for my wife and I still tend to dedicate it to her whenever we perform it. (Something that is normally accompanied with many “oohs” and “aahs” and “so sweet” by the female section of the crowd!). She still has that little piece of paper and won’t give it to me.
We played this one at the Ancient Mariner and I remember Nithin saying that it sounded something like a “Vanchipaattu”. (a style of songs associated with the fishing folk in Kerala)
I was now hooked on the band and attended practice regularly. Between work, marriage and music, my life was full. One day I remember coming home with some problem on my mind. As a result of that I missed a very important smile from my wife. Later with better perspective (which is always easier when the problem has disappeared) I realized my folly and out of that came the song “Prison chains”.
It still remains one of the harder songs that we have, where melody has not been given much importance, maybe influenced by the frustration that the song talks about. If you have been at a motherjane show, you may have heard me say, “this song is to remind you that work is an important part of life, not life itself”
Then came “An ode to life”. I remember how I had gone to Trivandrum for my aunt’s funeral. I was sitting outside near the grave yard, listening to the priest giving a sermon. It seemed to me that I had heard the very same words being repeated some15 odd years after my mother had passed away. It was ironic how life keeps replaying so many scripts and how none of us are spared of the inevitable ones.
I remember writing down 4 lines that seemed to say it all for me. I never thought it would become a song really. However, a few days later I had gone to AM for practice and Baiju was playing some classical piece on the guitar and saying that it was something that just came to him and that he didn’t know what to do with it. I said , “just play that again”. He did and I sang the following four lines into it.
“Death continues to stalk us
Sometimes gently, mostly not
I’m at the age when loved ones die
And as I live, I understand why.”
To be continued
Is there a story behind the music of Questions? The bridge section (I think; I'm not familiar with the terminology) and the part that begins with "I watch the shadows..." totally rocks!
Posted by: satchit | January 24, 2008 at 05:15 PM
hi satchit,
there definitely is a story behind questions. There seems to be a story behind all our songs and that story is life. Unfortunately i cant reveal the inside story on this song because its personal.
all i can say is that you have also probably been in a similar situation, where you have decided that you will overcome the issue that is bothering you. Maybe not right now, because the burden that you are carrying seems bigger than it really is. However you hold on to a surety that with time your "ghosts" will weaken and that the answers will reveal themselves to you and that "there is reprieve for the blind"
we do tend to get caught up in what the wise men refer to as "psychological time" which is different from "clock time". When you arrive in the present moment carrying the baggage of an older incident, then you are bringing "filters" with you which blind you to the present making the present seem like a shadow of a past event!
I remember once Rajneesh said something to the extent that one should not worry about the past for the past is over or the future for it is yet to come. Rather you should take care of the present moment for if you can do that, then the future will take care of itself since it is born out of this present moment
Posted by: suraj mani, motherjane | January 27, 2008 at 10:05 PM