The Sound of the future

At a week where my duties as a father superceded everything else due to Ganesh holidays, writing would have become the first casualty if not for the fact that my children themselves rekindled the line that is the core of my column. About development of music at the grass roots, and amongst the children and youngsters of Goa.

Much to my surprise, my daughter Zenisha and son Nihal played a duet on the piano and the recorder, which sounded beautiful. And, the speed and dexterity with which they are moving down the musical road is a clear indication that talent abounds in every nook and corner of Goa. When there was a jazz workshop with Jazzy Joe some weeks ago, I was again surprised at the amount of youngsters who were playing the violin. And, with the romance of the wind instruments having smitten Nihal, you can well imagine how much can be done in this segment too, if we were to apply our minds carefully and plan the roadmap with dexterity.

Music takes centre stage in every Goan home. However, in the days gone by, being a musician was not the most exciting future. A musician would be limited to playing for weddings and feasts - not a career option many parents would like for their kids. Sadly, remnants of that type of thinking still exist today! Wasn't this the reason why most of our gifted musi­cians left Goa to strike it rich in Mumbai and Bombay elsewhere?

Undoubtedly, in the contemporary era, we have Remo, Hema and Lucio and others who have made it big in music. But if you take a closer look, most of them were people who had family backgrounds that backed their musical pedigree! However, it is only when we have unknowns and make it big that we can honestly say that our music foundations are on terra firma. All of us know of countless young­sters who are talented and gifted but do not know where to start and at whose door to knock and end up going down the drain of obscurity.

This has to change and it can only change when a cross section of music lovers get together, preferably, in an existing organisation, and dedicate their time and energies to music. The government too, can do a lot, as any government can and should. And so can schools. But eventually, if we want Nihal and Zenisha and countless other youngsters to take music seriously, possibly even as a career, it is we who have to demand, it is we who have to change.

 

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