The Common Denominator
I am baffled and confused as to what binds us all human beings together. What's that connecting factor in friendship? What is it that makes me like one's company or them mine? Is friendship all about finding that common denominator and not letting it go?
MUSIC
Some say that music is a common factor among many unknown faces across the corners of this flat world. But again, it's extremely hard to pin point at the theory and one both agree and disagree. MUSIC is infinite. The many genres present are like small representations of the universal self that it is. So, when I say that Music is a binding factor, I'd believe it is in the bigger scheme of things but unfortunately, this concept is not how it is heard, even though it may be the very idea in which it is played. Some detest Hip Hop, others break dance away to the beats. Some sleep away like a baby in Indian classical concerts sometimes spanning hours and others follow every note played and close their eyes just to FEEL the music better. With so many likes and dislikes and the very industry being so subjective in nature, it's very difficult to state it as the root that binds the tree of life. But YES, Music does cut across castes, religion and many other life dividers and in this factor, falls under a common denominator. But, those listening to it, are they hearing it in the right spirit? You can't appreciate Buddhism if you know nothing about it, or don't understand the platform in which the ideals are based on.
I'm not saying that no one listens to the music in the right spirit. Even I, having learnt a little music, can't seem to listen it in the right spirit. But it is this education that has helped me appreciate all kinds of music. Whether Indian or Western classical, Rock, Punk, Jazz and even Heavy Metal or Trash Metal. It's an art after all, and when one listens to it with a biased ear, one ends up hearing only what one WANTS or EXPECTS to hear. I couldn't appreciate Trash Metal for nuts, but when I paid attention to the drums and the vocal thresh holds of some of the bands, it blew my mind away. I found similar stories in every aspect of music. I try to appreciate music trying to discover a story. The story could be my own and the music setting the perfect background or the story which the music unfolds to you. This method I felt could make the art a binding factor. The reason that Metallica's visit to India has tickets sold out after a few days. Most people listen to music in a deaf manner. Meaning they don't know what they really like in the music. And that's OK. The connection has happened in the heart and not in a technical level. As long as the connection has happened, it doesn't matter HOW. It's like electricity being created using water, sun, and fusion or coal.
Music could very well be the widest common denominator in the world. Much like religion, genres having a set of believers in the genre but at the end, a group of like minded people appreciating a band or a genre is what speaks about how it has cut across the wide range of peoples. Crossing geographies, races, religion and anything that otherwise defines our surroundings.
An after thought: some may think why I didn't take ART and took music which is a small slice of the whole, and I have my reasons. Unlike any other art form, it is widely known that music is the one art that has cut across nations and peoples like fire in a dry forest.
SPORTS
This could be another big player in trying to level the differences of peoples. Take Cricket for example. From a game played by Royalty, to its subordinates to the elite clubs to finally now, the gullies of the poorest lanes in India to the stylish TV screen of posh houses. Its a pulse of a nation and has been the enabler in getting many peoples together irrespective of their backgrounds. Like Dravid quoted in his famous speech at the Sir Donald Bradman Oration earlier this month, Cricket has been a leveler of sorts and was the common language that was spoken across a nation that boasts of more than 150 languages and over 1000 dialects. What cricket is to us, football is to the English. Or what our friends in the US would call as Soccer. They too have their Football version and basketball as a passion of the nation.
There's no word to describe the Indian cricket fanatics. Or the English football fans or the crazy million basketball and baseball and American football fans. They have found, consciously or unconsciously, the binding factor between the differences that each have in their common lives. They may each support a different team, or cheer and jeer they hearts and voices out at others, but the fact remains that the sport has got them together for a cause. Riots and other such occurrences are but small misdoings by a small set of people and quoting the Wall again,
"the minorities cannot take away what the majorities have to offer." I believe that sports is a good common denominator for any nation and we've seen this in many movies both Indian and in Hollywood. Each player has a story to tell about his journey to the team and each player, once on the field, is transformed in to someone else.
Cricket is considered a religion in India, and interestingly, for a secular nation that boasts of accepting any form of religion, this seriously binds more people than what any religion could do. Players are transformed to Gods and with it being so popular, criticism also becomes easy. from departments that know nothing about what it takes to play the sport. But all this is part and parcel of its very nature of being the facilitator in binding people together.
BOLLYWOOD
Films in general have a wide audience and could probably be a good binder of sorts. But I don't mean the movies but the industry that churns out hundreds of movies and thousands of music that are hummed, sung, played and replayed in almost all types of occasions in India, both legally and illegally. But nobody is really bothered. From the outside, we see just the end of what the industry has to offer, but a close look will reveal my statement. Visiting the Filmcity would answer any doubts. People, irrespective of caste, creed, religion working together to make the movie happen. Working relentlessly, with hearts on their sleeves if they can afford shirts. Superstars, directors, producers, music directors, singers, cameraman, choreographer are some of the names we are familiar with at the end of a movie. Stay a while longer while the end titles are in process and the smaller roles of AD, spot boys, background dancers, junior artists and a whole plethora of people who never take center stage and never dream to either. Everybody is not treated the same way, but here's a platform that binds people together.
But with every positive, comes a negative and what lacks in the first too cases is bad management of this common denominator. Like politicians using minorities as ace cards in elections, the industries faces many such people who do not feel the same as the people who make up the industry. So you have people in the music industry not feeling the same passion as the bands or players, or members of the board of cricket not managing to feel the pulse that beats amongst 1.2 billion people. This is what makes the scene so fragile and things which could be used to bind people together, is ignored to a TIME PASS.
In a way, I feel good about it, else, we'll see politicians using cricketers to contest in election to gain more votes or creating differences within people by politically opposing a genre of music and using it to garner votes.
Fact is, it's fascinating that in a world that boasts of over 7 billion people, there aren't many things that cuts across us all, even though we claim it to be a flat world.
Wait, there may be actually... how could I forget MONEY. Money speaks, and its language is UNIVERSAL!!!!
MUSIC
Some say that music is a common factor among many unknown faces across the corners of this flat world. But again, it's extremely hard to pin point at the theory and one both agree and disagree. MUSIC is infinite. The many genres present are like small representations of the universal self that it is. So, when I say that Music is a binding factor, I'd believe it is in the bigger scheme of things but unfortunately, this concept is not how it is heard, even though it may be the very idea in which it is played. Some detest Hip Hop, others break dance away to the beats. Some sleep away like a baby in Indian classical concerts sometimes spanning hours and others follow every note played and close their eyes just to FEEL the music better. With so many likes and dislikes and the very industry being so subjective in nature, it's very difficult to state it as the root that binds the tree of life. But YES, Music does cut across castes, religion and many other life dividers and in this factor, falls under a common denominator. But, those listening to it, are they hearing it in the right spirit? You can't appreciate Buddhism if you know nothing about it, or don't understand the platform in which the ideals are based on.
I'm not saying that no one listens to the music in the right spirit. Even I, having learnt a little music, can't seem to listen it in the right spirit. But it is this education that has helped me appreciate all kinds of music. Whether Indian or Western classical, Rock, Punk, Jazz and even Heavy Metal or Trash Metal. It's an art after all, and when one listens to it with a biased ear, one ends up hearing only what one WANTS or EXPECTS to hear. I couldn't appreciate Trash Metal for nuts, but when I paid attention to the drums and the vocal thresh holds of some of the bands, it blew my mind away. I found similar stories in every aspect of music. I try to appreciate music trying to discover a story. The story could be my own and the music setting the perfect background or the story which the music unfolds to you. This method I felt could make the art a binding factor. The reason that Metallica's visit to India has tickets sold out after a few days. Most people listen to music in a deaf manner. Meaning they don't know what they really like in the music. And that's OK. The connection has happened in the heart and not in a technical level. As long as the connection has happened, it doesn't matter HOW. It's like electricity being created using water, sun, and fusion or coal.
Music could very well be the widest common denominator in the world. Much like religion, genres having a set of believers in the genre but at the end, a group of like minded people appreciating a band or a genre is what speaks about how it has cut across the wide range of peoples. Crossing geographies, races, religion and anything that otherwise defines our surroundings.
An after thought: some may think why I didn't take ART and took music which is a small slice of the whole, and I have my reasons. Unlike any other art form, it is widely known that music is the one art that has cut across nations and peoples like fire in a dry forest.
SPORTS
This could be another big player in trying to level the differences of peoples. Take Cricket for example. From a game played by Royalty, to its subordinates to the elite clubs to finally now, the gullies of the poorest lanes in India to the stylish TV screen of posh houses. Its a pulse of a nation and has been the enabler in getting many peoples together irrespective of their backgrounds. Like Dravid quoted in his famous speech at the Sir Donald Bradman Oration earlier this month, Cricket has been a leveler of sorts and was the common language that was spoken across a nation that boasts of more than 150 languages and over 1000 dialects. What cricket is to us, football is to the English. Or what our friends in the US would call as Soccer. They too have their Football version and basketball as a passion of the nation.
There's no word to describe the Indian cricket fanatics. Or the English football fans or the crazy million basketball and baseball and American football fans. They have found, consciously or unconsciously, the binding factor between the differences that each have in their common lives. They may each support a different team, or cheer and jeer they hearts and voices out at others, but the fact remains that the sport has got them together for a cause. Riots and other such occurrences are but small misdoings by a small set of people and quoting the Wall again,
"the minorities cannot take away what the majorities have to offer." I believe that sports is a good common denominator for any nation and we've seen this in many movies both Indian and in Hollywood. Each player has a story to tell about his journey to the team and each player, once on the field, is transformed in to someone else.
Cricket is considered a religion in India, and interestingly, for a secular nation that boasts of accepting any form of religion, this seriously binds more people than what any religion could do. Players are transformed to Gods and with it being so popular, criticism also becomes easy. from departments that know nothing about what it takes to play the sport. But all this is part and parcel of its very nature of being the facilitator in binding people together.
BOLLYWOOD
Films in general have a wide audience and could probably be a good binder of sorts. But I don't mean the movies but the industry that churns out hundreds of movies and thousands of music that are hummed, sung, played and replayed in almost all types of occasions in India, both legally and illegally. But nobody is really bothered. From the outside, we see just the end of what the industry has to offer, but a close look will reveal my statement. Visiting the Filmcity would answer any doubts. People, irrespective of caste, creed, religion working together to make the movie happen. Working relentlessly, with hearts on their sleeves if they can afford shirts. Superstars, directors, producers, music directors, singers, cameraman, choreographer are some of the names we are familiar with at the end of a movie. Stay a while longer while the end titles are in process and the smaller roles of AD, spot boys, background dancers, junior artists and a whole plethora of people who never take center stage and never dream to either. Everybody is not treated the same way, but here's a platform that binds people together.
But with every positive, comes a negative and what lacks in the first too cases is bad management of this common denominator. Like politicians using minorities as ace cards in elections, the industries faces many such people who do not feel the same as the people who make up the industry. So you have people in the music industry not feeling the same passion as the bands or players, or members of the board of cricket not managing to feel the pulse that beats amongst 1.2 billion people. This is what makes the scene so fragile and things which could be used to bind people together, is ignored to a TIME PASS.
In a way, I feel good about it, else, we'll see politicians using cricketers to contest in election to gain more votes or creating differences within people by politically opposing a genre of music and using it to garner votes.
Fact is, it's fascinating that in a world that boasts of over 7 billion people, there aren't many things that cuts across us all, even though we claim it to be a flat world.
Wait, there may be actually... how could I forget MONEY. Money speaks, and its language is UNIVERSAL!!!!
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