Musical Notes

I love music. LOVE. Let me spell it out for you, I L-O-V-E M-U-S-I-C. I do. I just do. And I hope you get the picture.

So I can not begin to describe how much of a super-fantabulous source of joy it is to me that my EO loves music too. A ride in the car is incomplete if the radio is not on. Hehehe. It's thanks to the million-and-one FM stations that you could hear him mouthing divine phrases such as "Om Shanti Om" and "Hare Ram, Hare Ram, Hare Krishna Hare Ram" all day long. Just these lines, over and over again, like a stuck record (you remember what a record is, don't you?) Anyway, so here you have this adorable little scamp singing religious phrases all day long, much to the delight of the grandparents and the amusement of the parents, uncle and aunt. And I rememeber how a friend's cousin was embarrassed when years ago, her four-year old daughter was singing in a loud and clear voice, "Sexy, sexy, sexy mujhe log bole!" I gave thanks to Bollywood's plethora of music directors for composing music that had my son singing praises to the Gods above. And then, without so much as a warning, what should I suddenly hear from his pure little mouth? "Zara zara touch me, touch me, touch me! Zara zara kiss me, kiss me, kiss me!" Each word as Swarovski crystal clear as can be! In front of both sets of grandparents and class teachers. Oh why oh why, has the Earth stopped swallowing women whole? She can spit us out later, much later, after the embarrassment has long-passed and been forgotten.

But all that aside, the EO loves music, loves to sing. And I couldn't be happier.

The YO hadn't really shown that much of an interest. The occasional bum-wiggle to an ad jingle every now and then, but that was pretty much it. No prancing around to nursery rhymes, filmi geet or Rabindrasangeet. Until "Om Shanti Om" happened and like his elder brother, he was hooked. Whenever I sat down with my laptop where I have hundreds of songs stored, I would have to, HAVE TO, play the song first and close to a dozen times. While soon enough the song started to give me a headache, I loved it for the amount of joy it gave my little one. But, I wanted him to start appreciating other songs as well. No go! It was that or nothing. I tried so hard to get him to fall in love with my two current favourites..."Jashn-E-Baharaa" from "Jodha Akbar" and of course, "Kabhie Kabhie Aditi" from "Jaane Tu Yaa Jaane Naa". But it just wasn't happening, so I gave up the lost cause with a heavy heart and resigned myself to a lifetime of 'hot girls putting up hands and cool boys making noise and saying Om Shanti Om.'

Until...

A couple of days ago, I was going out with my boys. The EO was on my lap, the YO on the ayah's. The radio was on (but of course) and the EO was singing along to all the familiar tunes whenever they played. Then they started to play "Jashn-E-Baharaa" and I suddenly saw my YO lean forward, smile at me, raise his right hand and attemp a snap in time to the music! Yaaaayyy! My heart swelled! It was so much more than the fact that he was enjoying the music. It was the fact that he recognised this song to be his Mamma's favourite and was sharing her joy as it played.

And just now, as I sat down to check my mails and my blog, putting my thoughts together so that I could write, my little one runs up to me, grabs hold of the dining table, stands on tiptoe and turns his endearing little face towards mine, eyes shining bright and says "Cobby cobby". My heart melted. I thought he was 'offering' me my morning cuppa coffee, since he knows that's the first thing I have and usually it's while I have the laptop open. I ruffled his hair, running my fingers through his silky curls and told him I'd have it later. He shook his sweet, little head and repeated himself, "Cobby cobby." I looked at him perplexed and then he pointed to my laptop. It then hit me! He wanted me to play "Kabhie Kabhie Aditi!"

I'm on the tenth replay right now and I'm pretty sure that this is something I can definitely live with!