Posted by Arooj on 28 January 2005

WHAT? No one told me about the hail :(
There we go; another disadvantage of being a musician to jot down onto my rapidly increasing list. I've been working nights for the past 3 weeks, trying to get my music application complete and sent on time. The normally accepted routine of musicians is that they stay up during the night, working /concerting/creating brilliant things. This behavioral pattern adds to the popular interpretation of a musician as someone who is a bum, i.e. sleeps all day, does nothing constructive.
Hmm. As Brian, the eloquently sarcastic dog from ‘The Family Guy’ quite aptly put it, “That’s just terrible.”

I love winter afternoons because the sunlight pours into my room, unrestricted, through large paneled windows; while at the same time the subtle cold reminds the beams to be mellow and gentle. And you sit there in the quiet sea of shimmering cider… not wanting to move or make the tiniest of sound; lest your moment of peace be broken. You are at peace with your soul. You are untouchable.

Oh Lord. I’m sure by now the pakpositive people are kicking themselves for inviting me here. Haha. Anyway, when I woke up today there was no sunlight but it was raining and that always makes up for things :) I sat around listening to the rain for a while on my balcony. Then I had this brilliant idea which I set out to materialize in all excited fervor. I took my condenser mic out onto the balcony and set it up in a dry spot. Twiddling with the mixing board, I made the reception really sensitive. I’m sure you’ve all figured it out by now, I was trying to record the soothing cadence of rainfall. So khair, as soon as I clicked record, our power went out all over the block. So put off I was by this badly timed occurrence that my annoyed mind could only think of one sarcastic word. Joy.

I set everything up again when light came back I thought I’d record the rain and hum a sweet tune or something and it would sound really nice. But I was so very wrong. Our neighbors are really irritating. They keep their dogs on the roof. The darn things began this incessant cadence of their own, and would not stop. Then, there was some random dude walking past my street yelling at the top of his lungs for people to purchase whatever it was that he was selling.

So like I basically sat there for 20 minutes almost, just listening, not to the rain, but to the noise. And I realized how much noise people make. It’s so darn incredible. Everyone goes about making as much noise as they can. Roll the car into the driveway? Slam the metal gates shut. Cruising through the street? Horns as loud as you want. Are you poultry? Start crowing.

So hey, I couldn’t record the rain. I guess some things are just meant to be listened to in real time. I did, however, make friends with the neighbors’ dog. He turned out to be a really cute puppy that they never play with and they keep on the roof. I tried to pacify him by pointing that red laser thingi at him from my balcony. The little guy made a game out of it, and would excitedly chase the red dot around. The moral of this story is that

a) musicians are not bums

b) play with your cute dogs; and

c) stop making so much noise

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Comments (latest on top)

PakPositive said:	-
Singing in the rain, indeed. :) Our very own guitar extraordinaire, ladies and gentlemen please welcome Ms Arooj Aftab. :)