Life’s a full circle
Saturday 27th June
marked the birthday of famous musician R D Burman who passed away at a rather
young age. During his lifetime he was credited with compositions that swayed
the lowly and the rich. He brought a certain unexplained freshness to daily
routine and propelled an upward swing in the moods of the depressed souls
through his tantalising music and scores.
But history is witness to the
fact that he was left with almost no work and historians record the fact that
he had lost his touch during his later life. The very crowd that would follow
him around now shunned him and the very people who sang his praises now made a
beeline for other musicians. He was left unsure of himself and professed to
being pained by the vagaries of life.
Such is life, it lifts you one
moment and dumps you in another, like the weather in Delhi that tests the
extremes in summer and winter, and so did life treat many a soul, many a
recognizable face in life. Some came out unscathed, some with minor bruises but
with their self-worth intact, others still were bruised and came out poorer
than the past, some simply got crushed under the ruthless changes of the wheel
of life.
Lalit Modi, flamboyant and the
new kid on the block with his IPL organising skills, became a fugitive and is
for the moment tucked away in London. He was the connoisseur of all eyes when
he acted as the chairman of the IPL. His utterances were keenly awaited, his instincts
held good and firm and yielded results, but the same faculties deserted him,
when he travelled too deep into the unknown. Wrenching himself from that position
of being neck deep in the quicksand of the past, wasn’t easy and is paying the
price even today. The cricketing world considers him a pariah and no one is
willing to even touch him with a barge pole.
Amitabh Bachchan, the mega star
of Indian Cinema, was followed by the millions during his peak. They called him
the angry young man of Indian cinema. Fame and recognition spurred this man to
even greater heights. But he got caught in the tangles of this world when he
went into business to invest his hard earned money and squandered almost
everything with the financial houses resorting to auctioning his residence as a
final measure of desperation. However he rose from the ashes and re-established
himself as a credible human being and an artiste who re invented himself not on
a stereotype mould but as someone who graced with time and willed to assimilate
with time.
Indira Gandhi the famed prime
minister of India, was at her best having brought laurels to the country
through her exploits in the battlefield in the 1971 war and was known as the
iron lady. Ministers and Chief Ministers waited on her and clamored to be seen
in her company. But the Allahabad High court ruling unseating her and banning
her from elections forced her to take extreme measures which could not be
justified over a period of time. Critics found ample ammunition to keep her
targeted. But she rode out that phase and re-emerged the leader of the masses
till her assassination.
Back to the man who is my point
of focal interest in this article. People called him a genius, one that could
not be emulated or replaced, one who had no competition, one who was a perfect
match for an out of this world entertainer and music composer. He reigned in
the Film world, produced music with gusto and experimented in his cerebral
laboratory with music and sound. All and sundry agreed to this description and
whatever he touched turned Gold. He could never be wrong, he couldn’t do anything
wrong - musically, yet towards the last 3 to 4 years of his life he struggled
to remain in contention where other music composers were belting out new disco
numbers.
The melody and touch of R.D.
Burman lost its sheen, its finesse, its pull at the heart strings, it simply
did not sound good, did not register in the mind and hearts of the music
lovers. He looked faded, jaded a poor reflection of his former self. He tried
hard, but somehow the Midas touch deserted him, he was depressed, and sad,
unhappy at the way life had dumped him from the heights to the pit bottom. He
suffered two heart attacks and the second one took its toll. Vidhu Vinod Chopra
for whim he composed music for “1942 a love story” sums up thus.
When Pancham (Nickname for R D
Burman) gave him the score for the movie Vidhu told him on his face it was not
good, he had to do better, that he had still reposed faith on the maestro
though others had ditched him. Vidhu suggested he draw inspiration from the
Photo of his late father S.D. Burman and after which the story goes that he re
composed the same songs and produced hits once again, but alas he did not live
to soak in the accolades. Death snatched him just before the release of the movie.
We have no way to know whether R
D Burman would have made a turnaround, would he have grown with the inspiration
from his father and guru, did the last part of his reincarnation face an abrupt
end due to his demise? We do not know, but what we know is certain that life
treats everyone as equal.
We all get our opportunities in
life, we excel and reach our peaks, what matters is how we get up after
stumbling which is bound to happen at some point in life. Life is a circle the
wheel when turned will lead to the heights and depths. How and whether we turn
resurgent or reinvent ourselves depends on lessons learnt during the worst
phase. It is therefore important to not whine in self-pity or do disastrous
deeds when we are down, but to learn lessons and come out victorious.
Life also teaches us not to take
it for granted; the exuberance and exultation will not continue for ever, there
are going to be downturns in life, pitfalls that teach us a lesson. So every
time you are on top remember that the wheel only has to turn for you to
experience the depths and while you are down in the dumps, take joy for you
know good times are round the corner.
28th June 2015
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