Last evening, some local lads dropped by to share a smoke with me, and among them was a young guitarist. We spoke of the lack of opportunities for performing artists in India; and to buttress my argument for Liberty I recounted my own experience as a young musician in the mid-70s. My story contains many lessons for the youth of today – especially those who play music, for this is the story of “the day the music died,” at least in India.
In school, I had been the lead vocalist of our rock band; and in college, I naturally drifted into the music scene, picking up a little guitaring on the way. I went about performing solo: one man with one guitar. Looking back, I can say it was the music that I focused on in my college years: the Economics being taught to me did not attract my mind.
Those days, during the summer vacations, I used to head to the hills of Mussoorie. There, I would jam with the band at Whispering Windows. People would dance. The band liked me. The crowd liked me. Even the management liked me. And I got a free holiday in cool weather, some free drinks, and a little money. It kept me going. I also felt I was heading in the right direction – towards a musical career.
Then came Morarji Desai and prohibition. All the bars that employed musicians closed down. I gave up music. Tried higher studies. And my life took a different course because of the whims of a silly Gandhian politician pretending to be a moral force.
Indeed, music is still dead in India. I now live in south Delhi and within a 10km radius from my house, there isn’t a single place where you can enjoy a drink and listen to live music. There are shows sometimes, organized by FM radio stations and the like – but the regular scene is rather sad. This is an “unhappening” city as far as bars and music are concerned – and the two go together.
If we are to revive the music scene, then we must kill the excise department. They are killing the music. So we can “swear it was in self-defence.”
When I see the market-places in Delhi today, I try and imagine another world – a world of Liberty. My nearest market sells fish, vegetables, fruit and provisions – and not much more apart from some street food. There are no bars, no hash cafés, no “pubs,” no discotheques, no live dance joints, no casinos – these are all “what is not seen.” These are not seen because of official restrictions that are better called “economic repression.” All these must go.
Rukawatein Hatao!
If these go, think of what the “growth rate” will be.
I daresay it will be so high that no statistician will be able to measure it.
Good-bye growth rate.
Hello Liberty.
That is true. Unappealing cities that is what all have become.
ReplyDelete