An intelligent mind with an appreciation of arts

11/6/2007 6:18:19 AM: A tribute to Bolero============It starts gently. Faintly. Almost hesitantly. You have to strain to notice it. Then the melodious notes start flowing, caressing the senses, massaging them with a gentle touch, preparing them for a journey into wonderland, without any urgency. The senses are almost grounded into the present moment, led, nay, forced by the firm and constant character of the melody to live in the present only.Slowly, the past is left behind. The only thing you remember is the hauntingly familiar melody, the constantly repeating tune. You remember that it was slightly different but you cannot remember how. It is so ingrained in your mind that you seem to have known it since forever. How can this be new? The familiarity is so intense that you feel that the music playing has been a part of you, within you, since the beginning of times. How else would your whole being know how to sway gently with the music, motionlessly dancing even as you sit still -- spellbound.Fascinated!Slowly, all that is left from the past is the present melody and thus detached from your memory of the past, you recognize for an instant that you have crossed the first barrier towards soaring skywards.But by now, so much water has flown under the bridge!! Though still recognizable, the music has evolved. The shy hesitant beginning has blossomed into a happening affair with the senses. Under the watchful eye of the conductor, so many other instruments have sneaked in to join this gala of triumph! What was a shy bud, hesitant to open up to the world, is now a garden, a field full of flowers dancing shamelessly, having cast their inhibitions aside, joining the sunshine and the delighted winds in a frenzy of jovial motion. Finding yourself thus surrounded by happiness, what choice do you have, but to join in and dance!! To celebrate. To set yourself free! So you join in! You become a part of that music, that has become a part of you. The music and the heart are effortlessly joined together in a magical fusion. Suddenly the world around you joins in. Everything is in motion. Everyone is dancing, in this magical stillness. Your heart soars to the skies even as you are afraid to breathe, for fear of rupturing this beautiful union. The percussion is louder. One has to marvel as to how it is so different despite being the same!! The same heart-stirring rhythm, repeated over and over again... The music is omni-present more than ever before. What comes next? The curiousity of this thought appears so pointless. How does it matter? Gratefully, you abandon the future and the suspense of what is to come. The scope of anticipation is limited to watching the conductor signal to the orchestra to take it to the next level. Higher. Louder. Gleefully, you feel your anticipation being rewarded, as your heart flies to the next sky with the ever-climbing, ever-louder music.Set free from the past, and divorced from the future, you sit there in the present moment, as if time has stopped. Surely time is flowing, because the music is louder in this moment than it was in the last? Will this music go on forever? You find yourself wishing that time stops and you are left with the never-ending music that is filling your heart and your entire being. Higher and higher. The permanence of the music has made you a prisoner, even as the heart flutters with the percussion, which is now powerful and strong. Bold and brash. Then it arrives. The orgasmic climax. Sudden, intense. Glorious. Overwhelmingly so, even if maddeningly brief. As the waves of joy rise within you, moistening the sides of your eyes, you feel afraid to look around, or move a limb. You do not want this moment to be over. You do not want the music to end. As clouds of sadness appear, you resignedly look around and return to reality. The past and the future. Just then you realize that the music has not stopped! That, with its relentlessly repetitive character, Bolero has become a part of you! You experience another climax of joy and gratitude, silently within yourself, as you realize that the music will remain within you; the joy of this moment permanently ingrained in your memory, like an endless treasure. That your heart will keep fluttering and dancing to this rhythm that has embedded itself in the innermost chambers of your heart... By setting you free, Bolero has made you a prisoner to its beauty. By making time stop, it has become eternal. Life would never be the same again, although it will always be recognizable and similar to the present moment. The sound and intensity might be different, but the melody would always be the same. The rhythm, to which your heart beats so joyfully, will never change. Just like Bolero.