Discovering the joys of Uncool

Today, as i sat sandwiched between an adorable girl no more than 5 and one of the cutest toddlers I have been lucky enough to lay my eyes on, listening to Takahiro Arai, a disciple of Indian Classical Music legend, Pt. Shivkumar Sharma, playing Santoor, I couldn't help but wonder.

This thought faced me because I knew i was wrong at a certain point of time in history and that too completely wrong and way off the mark. Raised up in a privileged culture of a good life, it was but natural for me as well to seek solace in throaty vocals of Billie Joe Armstrong, connect my sorrows with 'soul stirring' lyrics of Linkin Park, which often did serve as my chicken soup and things outside the realm of India which proved as much to myself as to others the decency of my pro western education, the 'world awareness' of my peers and in general my alignment with things in vogue. A direct spinoff of this order of thinking among many people of my age group and social order is relegation of Indian Music as being plain dreary (Bollywood, especially Rehman and currently Kailash Kher are a notable exception). Out of personal experience, i can confidently assume that this notion is unfounded, generalized, deliberately playing on the stereotypes in order to suit the cult of being in vogue (Appreciating things Indian often isn't) and thus is as such completely unfounded. This premonition thus can said be on the basis of half baked and often no knowledge at all.

As a member of Indian Music Group, i have been slowly introduced to classical music. Truth to be told I hadn't taken a liking to it as a fish to water yet its complexities and multifaceted daunting challenges in terms of different octaves and sonority of voice and pitch which needs to be traversed by an artist, did impress me.
What was unexpected was though was the sight of being able to see a Japanese person play the Santoor, the bastion of Pt. Shivkumar Sharma, with astounding ease and brilliant skills. For the first time in my life the sweet rhythms of music came alive, each chord, each note being being the sycophant of the master in total control, it almost exulted me in the state of a musical trance. Remembering the sniggers of people when the co- exec members were requesting them to attend this particular concert, I couldn't help but feel extreme sympathy for that misguided arrogance surmounted by an air of superiority for having missed truly a rare delight. It also made me see myself in the mirror and realize my own follies, the vanity and the foolishness of this pro western parochial attitude.

Must the love for one be accompanied by distaste for the another? Given that everyone wouldn't have an ear for Indian CLassical Music as opposed to Western Music and vice versa but must this attitude of supremacy based on unfounded notions persist? A harmonious synthesis of culture is the answer and probably as how Indo-Western collaborations in the musical arena make waves, a person embedded in cultures both traditional as well as modern, having a healthy respect for both and a keen sense to try something with an open mind beofore jumping the gun would be a progressive person.
By the stroke of luck and dawn of some amount of common sense, i believe i have begun to traverse this long path...probably so should many others.