You know you're getting old when........ oh, hell, thre are probably thousands and thousands of jokes along these lines (many of which cannot be repeated here before an audience that includes ladies - and women!). Yeah, I've been noticing that age has crept up on me too - perhaps several years back! It's just that I may not have had the inclination to accept the truth of this.
The signs were all there - the receding hairline, the greying hair not just on my head but on the moustache, beard (which I've knocked off temporarily, once more), the dimming eyesight (and hence the branded Zeiss spectacles!). Yes, the signs had already appeared a few years back and yet I refused to see them, even with my spectacles on. But I can ignore this no more.
"Dad's grown old" said my son to his mother the other day, sometime last week. Within my earshot. And my hearing's still reasonably sound (yes, I'm not T-H-A-T old, yet!) I lifted an eyebrow, fixed him with a baleful look and he say's "What? You ARE old!" And I say, "Like how?" and he says "You listen to old peoples' music".
A-ha! The coin drops. All is clear now (Zeiss lenses, again!!). It's like this, see? Way back, in 2007 (way back?), I got kinda sick listening to my son listening to Kishore Kumar and Kishore Kumar and Kishore Kumar and Kishore Kumar.... get the idea?
So, there came a day when I went out hunting for good old rock music, not that I had a problem with the Yodelling Dude... so, anyway, a couple of hours later I was driving my car back from the music store with Led Zep, Dire Straits, The Doors, Deep Purple and others of similar ilk blaring from my system, eating up the asphalt, my fists thumping to the beats of "my" generation. And, I called my hulking offspring on his cell and growled at him, "Bum, whaddaya doing? Come down, I want you to lissen to sumpn' diff'rnt". And, so, off we went on a wild ride, music on full blast, giving him an "education" including that ANTHEM number from the old days "We Don't Need No Education..."
...... and Krishna got hooked! Big time. I mean, B-I-G T-I-M-E like he's no longer this human child that my wife and I brought into this world. K now walks around with a pair of head-phones wrapped around his ears looking like Dr. Spock from Star Trek (now THAT is old). And when we "converse" these days it has to first start off with me waving my arms around wildly like a bloody semaphore to grab his attention - he then condescends to turn the volume of his phone-music player down and we get around to talking.
So, where was I? Ah yes, I've grown "old", right. And why would that be? Not because I listen to Lennon and stuff. THAT is "kewl" even though the music goes back to before way back when... I'm old because, over the last 2-3 years, I have also developed a liking, an avid interest and one could even say a passion for Indian classical music. I am partial, I confess, to Carnatic classical music but I do love Hindustani as well. On my way around the city, morning or evening, night, whenever... if I'm alone (my poor driver, a genuine, Raj Thackeray/Bal Thackeray certified son of amchi Mumbai must be suffering too - like my son) I pop in a cd of KJ Yesudas (all time favourite), or Bhimsen Joshi, or Balamuralikrishna or Kishori Amonkar or whatever suits my fancy. And, even though I cannot (hopefully the "as yet" will be justified here) identify the various ragas or thalas, though I cannot (once again, "as yet") distinguish a bandish from a thumri, I have been enjoying the sheer melodies of these greats...
Kishore Kumar still remains within reach. As do the John Lennons and Santanas. Not to forget Ilaiyaraaja and the older goldens like Vishvanathan - Ramamurthy. Geniuses, all, delivering incomparable joy decades later still. Listening to these people, however old these compositions may be, one still feels young. My son agrees on this.
But, Shubha Mudgal, Ashwini Bhide Deshpande, TM Krishna? I am "OLD" now... I don't know, not any longer. But, when I introspect, I kind of understand where this comes from... when I was 20 you wouldn't catch me anywhere within a 5 mile radius of a kutchery, either.
Signing off, now. Gotta go... someone gifted me a lovely twin cd pack of leading artistes from Hindustani and Carnatic classical this new year. Pure Magic!!
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