“Hello Madam, I cannot trace you … Are you standing near Inorbit Mall ? … Madam please come at the other end … Madam, please stand by the corner of the ……. blah, blah, blah.”
One creepy evening, an Uber driver took around one hour to track me. Consequently, he reacted ferociously due to the time he wasted trying to coordinate with me. I tried to retort in the middle of his barbaric tone but I stopped, thinking it’s of no use. After he was done with all the frustrated words, he switched on the FM radio. Some typical song turned up, which exhibited some absurd, annoying erotic sounds. He was obviously not listening to it as he was still busy vociferating on someone else on his phone. I could feel the heaviness in my head. I was almost red-faced after being shouted at by an unknown.
I rudely commanded, “Would be good if you switch this song off.” He agreed.
Few moments later, I played Raga Jaijaiwanti on the sitar, which I came across while browsing at the whats app messages/videos. I listened to it with great focus in order to get rid of the hangover gifted by him. To my astonishment, he started interacting with me starting with, “Very soothing tune, which instrument ?” I was still a bit vexed but I answered disinterest-fully. He continued, “You know madam, my wife sings very well …” and so on.
This unexpected, unpredictable behavior by an uncultured man left me in a huge dilemma about what was his state of mind. The journey was like fifteen minutes long. I normally do not expect even a well-educated, sophisticated person to change back to normal after such brusque attitude just in few minutes. I was in a reckoning mode when he confessed, “Excuse me Madam; Sorry, I behaved badly!!”
Music actually plays a vital role in uplifting the mood. Brain waves experience quite significant variations, which makes one switch from a lowly, stressful mood to high and positive vibes. The term ‘resonance’ is an essential element for conceptualizing musical tunes as a mood-changer. Scientifically, as Mr. M. Farouk Radwan explains, ‘resonance’ refers to the increase in amplitude of oscillation of a mechanical system when it gets exposed to a periodic force that had frequency equal to the natural frequency. In other words, resonance is a charismatic shine in a voice or any instrument’s sound, which produces happy hormone called ‘serotonin’. It reverberates our brain waves, balances our hormones, thus mollifies us when we are anxiously driven.
Not only humans but the creatures, objects too can channelize themselves into positivism through music. In the recent researches in China, a therapist was working on water, when he kept two tumblers full of water in the different rooms. He switched on a noisy, hullabaloo sounds in one room and a soothing, pleasant tune in the other. Then he examined the water crystals and proved the authentic power of music. Water in the noisy room had developed haphazard, unorganized crystals, whereas, water listening to the musical tunes had symmetrical and awesomely ornamented crystals.
Now the question is – is it some peculiarly miraculous music? Every tune is musical and is capable of treating our stress quotient. Well, there is a definite time and emotions for every piece. All musical pieces can be innovative for a particular listener, but might not be effective. Sometimes we enjoy the same piece every time we listen with same overwhelming emotions and bliss. Sometimes, the piece is monotonous or too difficult and might not mollify our ears quite often.
There are many aspects which can result in categorizing music as ‘miraculous’.
Monotonous pieces: Sometimes we want to listen to your favorite list repeatedly and you enjoy every phrase of it at every moment. But this might be applicable in a normal mood or when we are already relaxed. When we feel low, the same lovable piece might not even penetrate our minds because of the flowing thoughts. In this case, need of miraculous Indian music like ragas, Om Chant are far more effective to heal us or to subside our negative self-talk.
Excessive emotional content: We tend to listen to the depressing and sentimental songs when we are already exhausted or in a dull mode. In bollywood tracks nowadays, they are perpetually composing the over sensuous or erotic songs which are soothing but drain energy and vitality through their haunting music and lyrics. People, especially males tend to get lost and are able to find path because of the long lived belief that male chauvinism demands seriousness and serenity. Ultimately, that emotional carriage is pushing them towards outer non-acceptance and gossip. Thus, males generally connect sad songs with drinks.
Noisy & Fast track: You may love the fast and noisy pieces like rock, pop, but they are not recommended for the stress treatment. For instance, Jerry gets back home after disheartening words of his boss and is fully drowned into negativity and anxiety. He turns up his favorite Britney and all fast noisy stuff on full volume and broods over the same topic. According to the researchers and therapists, that’s also music, but won’t really help and might push him even deep down the low. It will increase the heart beats, which are already high paced. Super fast drum beats and octopad measures might activate his negative hormone like adrenaline. On the contrary, the best medicine for low-feeling or depression is inner contemplation, which might be evolved through soothing, peaceful, or slow music. Here comes the need of Indian music or raga dive and Indian instruments. Violin do help but the heavenly tunes of sitar & sarod massages your brain neurons gently and makes you attain relaxation. Soft and slow rhythms balance the heart beats and cognitive neurons.
There is a lot research on how music works as a medicine but what kind of music works as miracle or instant healer to a disturbed mind, this is essentially an introspective topic.
I am an Indian Classical Vocalist, Journalist, Dancer and Traveler. Trying to educate via my Blogs.
