Listen up!

Adulting is a tough game. Actually, life in general is. I think it is a given that everyone of us at one point or the other experience bouts of existential crisis. We question everything and all the decisions that we’re making and second guess ourselves. It’s so strange that in such times music is such a savior. I don’t quite know how, but it somehow manages to pull you out of your warped overthinking or a mental zone and just washes over you.

Getting ready in the morning to face a day full of work, listening to Abba’s Dancing Queen somehow gives me more strength and motivation than my morning adrak wali chai. And I would be lying if I didn’t play ‘Raat kali ek khwaab mein aayi’ on particular nights after a chaotic day. And we would all be lying if we said we didn’t judge random people we met based on their music choices when we first met them. Or sometimes it was simply locking eyes with that one person who plays a song at a party, which you absolutely adore and you know for a fact you’re going to end up having a great conversation about music with them.

Whether it’s the right lyrics hitting you in the heart, tugging at all your strings or the beautiful nuances of the notes that just put a smile on your face, it just helps. In a way, music is there for you when nothing or nobody else is. Having lived alone for half my adult life, I realized it was impossible to feel lonely as long as you had a speaker that could blare out your feelings in songs which you could probably dance to and forget whatever it is you were worried about.

There are days when I would be at a loss of words if I ever wanted to express something to someone and just send them a song instead.

So it is rightly said, when words fail.. music speaks volumes (pun intended). Trust the likes of Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift, John Denver or Elvis Presley to know just how to heal your broken heart or if nothing else, put a smile on your face for all the fond memories that could be associated with a particular song. I also know for a fact that I couldn’t possibly chill with my parents without jamming to Hotel California, scrunching up our faces to remember each and every lyric and playing the air guitar alongside.

So the next time, you’re particularly dreading a Sunday full of cleaning (unless you’re Monica-ish like me and it’s something you look forward to) or if there is a pile of dishes in the sink you know you need to wash before bed, maybe just turn that speaker on, put on a Shah Rukh Khan song, crank that volume way up and then get to the chore. You might just end up liking it, no? It might not solve your adulthood problems but like Rancho said, ‘unhe sehne ki himmat aajayegi.’ Go on, start your brand new day tomorrow with a little dance in front of your mirror and ask Alexa to play ‘Kya khoob lagti ho!’ 🙂