Symphony of Love ...
As Rangan Bharat passed by the theatre, he saw an young woman trying to pacing from right to left. He observed her and she is pacing in a pattern. As he saw her move, he thought about the rhythm, that is going on in his head from quite some time. The pattern is a perfect fit and he got his tune set in the rhythm pattern. He immediately ran to his car and rushed to his composing fheatre. Wrote down all the beats in the form of notations and as his hands started to write them, we are able to lose ourselves into the pleasing flute to roaring Veena. A master in Carnatic music, he mixed three ragas to achieve the composition. By the time, he completed writing, he is dann excited thinking about the score and his phone rang loud bringing into the world of non-sense. Yes, his life doesn't make any sense to him if it is not connected to music. He unwillingly answered the phone and it is Raksha Rangan, his wife.
Raksha: "Where are you? Do you know what time it is? "
Rangan: "I'm at the studio, working!"
Raksha: "Stop it and come home right now. We need to talk!"
She cut the call and sounded really mad. Rangan unable to concentrate any further on the composition, started to his place in his car.
As he is in the car, her voice has been reverberating in his head and slowly, he is drifting into the land of music. As he enters the tunnel, the music started taking over him even further than he expected and he is now deeply lost in it. As he is about to exit the tunnel, a high beam passed by him with a huge noise waking him up. He hit the brakes hard and saw himself going towards Goa, while he needed to go to his home. He immediately turned around and started focusing more on the road to finally reach his destination. His home.
Yes, for a man like Rangan studio should be his home but it is not. Strangely, for a man who observes music in everything and even forgets himself as he dwells more and more on it, he feels wherever Raksha stays, that is his home than any place. No matter, if she decides to stay back in her native, parents home for 10 days, he will drive 120 kms to and fro to be with her. Such is his love for her. While she is his home, his life is music. Both co-exist just fine, but there is a rupture in this co-existence, HIM. He can't really disconnect himself from music and the tunes of life are not always kind to him.
He entered their room where she is waiting for him. She is a person of precise words and her vocabulary doesn't have necessity for words that she doesn't use. As he enters inside opening the door, she is shedding tears. She works as a teacher at a popular school in the city and if ever she looses her composure and shed a tear then that must be about a student or something related to school. From the past 35 years of their marriage, even when she found out she can't have kids, she never shed a tear. Even when she got to know that Rangan did have an affair for a brief period she never asked him a question or shed a tear. She knew he will be back as she is his home.
As Rangan went near by her swollen eyes dye to extensive crying are visible. He kneeled down to her and as she saw she started sobbing loud .. some words escaped her mouth ..
Raksha : "I'm turning sixty tomorrow!"
Rangan understood what that meant to her. She is not upset about the age but she is upset about missing her job. She has been teaching ever since she graduated and that has become her identity. The affair fiasco of her composer husband did become a huge news-ense but she never missed a class. If she gets upset she used to schedule even more classes for the day. Even though administration wanted her to take up principle role, she rejected it. She is just a teacher. All she wants to do is let the kid sitting in front of her understand the subject and for that she adopts the best possible method a kid can understand. If a kid understands the topic late, she is happy to call him home. If another gets it quickly, she is happy to ask him or her progress further. If a student needs a chocolate to listen she is ready to give it, if another needs a smack to understand, she is ready to that too. Never a student complained on ger, never a mother felt threatened by her presence and never a father thought about her in any other sense than a teacher. She made the 62 year old kid, Rangan understand his mistake of trying to be with her and the other woman too in the fashion he better understands, music. For him, she learnt music and jumbled up the ragas so much that he had to correct her and she is person who forced him like the high beam in the tunnel to turn around. Now, she has to leave that very part of life and not go to the school, not get up early and she should not even look at the kid and try to understand how he or she is anymore, to invent a way to explain them. This is a crisis point. Rangan could not understand how to solve this issue.
It is easy to say, call home kids and take tuitions but she is a person who stays in avsecluded area like school where she wants to teach, she is used to environment and also the essence. Now, she can't be sitting at home all day and wait for one or two hours of life. That one hour can't help her to live for, facing 23 hours of lifelessness. He understands that but what to do. How to solve this problem? Unable to find an idea, he let's her rest head in his embrace and even though his old legs can't support his position long, he did not move to comfort. Just stayed that way comforting her.
The night has gone by ....
He escorted her to the last day of her service and as she unwillingly let all of them celebrate her retirement with sobs of joy and testimonials of her old students. She just turned into a stone. Her lifeless being is quite evident to Rangan. He brought her back home and she crashed on to her bed without changing or eating. He understood the solution needs to be fast. He can't wait for days to resolve it.
He moved out of the house as he is unable to stay there anymore and started his car. The music of traffic and hustle and bustle of the city is not giving him enough inspiration to find the tune to his solution. Suddenly, a bus went past him and he mind struck a G-string on guitar. He rushed back to his studio and saw the entire place. His passion and years of hard work is mirrored there. But he has decided .. it is final ...
After few days, lifeless Raksha entered the studio as Rangan's firm insistence pulled her into the room. She saw a bunch of kids waiting for her there with notation notepads. He took her to the chair where a violin is waiting for her. As it is her favourite instrument she took and it started playing mouna Raga. All the students took the notes and started trying to play accordingly. Some got wrong, some got right, immediately, the teacher in her found life and she started teaching them. There she is his Raksha, alive and happy. Once a largest studio with all the world renowned requirement is now a big hall filled with students and the teacher. After the class ..
Raksha: "What have you done?"
Rangan: "Just let another composer take all the equipment. Sorry, it took me so many days, but your .. our school is here! You can take lessons to the willing kids here for as many hours and batches you wish."
Raksha: " What about your random tunes?"
Rangan: "I am getting too old to run around now, All I need is a laptop and recorder, got to know that we don't need all that heavy equipment unless we produce score for a movie or a concert. I retired from that career and now, I am free of constant tension to follow someone else's ideas to produce my tunes. I am more home now and here with you I don't have to even worry about running back to home and missing the address or even shuffling back and forth. If you're here all the time then this is my HOME!"
Unable to say anything more, she just hit him like she playfully does and he understood that today, she is quite impressed and moved. He resorted to observing the patterns and she to teaching the students. A Symphony of Love took over as the students started playing in sync...
Author's Note: I dedicate this to all the teachers who taught LIFE to me! Happy Teacher's Day. ..
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