A Concert

“Would you like to come for a concert?” a colleague of mine asked me while sipping a coffee.

“Concert? When?”, I asked.

“Tonight”, he said.

I didn’t bother to ask which band or which singer. I didn’t matter to me. I don’t know any of the Polish singer or band or any celebrity for that matter. So even if I had asked, I wouldn’t have even understood the Polish name in first place.

“Yes, why not, I’ll definitely go” I nodded the invitation in acceptance.

“You’ll go?” Another colleague of mine asked, completely surprised. She had all the reason to be surprised. An Indian guy going to a Polish concert. ‘Are you mad?’ she must be asking me in her head.

“Definitely. It’s good to see different cultures, meet new people. And then music has no language”, I tried to convince myself while uttering these words to her. She was probably right. I was planning to go to a music concert of a country, of which I don’t understand the language at all. . I was planning to go to a music concert of a country, of which I don’t understand the culture. . I was planning to go to a music concert of a country, of which I don’t know the people. But all this stuff doesn’t matter, I had decided to go & I will.

“And you can go out, if you don’t like it. No one can hold you back.” Another colleague joked. Yes, I can leave the theatre if I don’t like it. But I don’t see any reason to leave the theatre. A music concert can’t be that boring. Or may be it can be? Whatever!

“I’ll check with my wife & let you know if we are coming. Is that fine?” I asked the colleague who invited me.

“Sure. Pls discuss with your wife. I am sure she’ll like it”.

I called my wife & informed her about this concert. She was thrilled with the idea & we decided to go to The Music Concert. 

As usual, we reached the venue late by good 5 minutes. The entrance of the theatre was empty. It seemed that everyone must have already occupied by their seats by now. We reached the ticket counter. It was a no surprise that the lady didn’t speak English. We had no idea what to do. We sat on the couch at the corner & decided to think what to do. Few minutes later another lady appeared raising our hopes that probably she might speak English. But she didn’t.  We tried to converse with her but nothing helped.

We went back to the ticket counter & I took out my phone. Google was there for our rescue. We typed “Can we buy tickets for the concert?” & Google translated on our behalf. It worked & the lady gave us 2 tickets. We finally managed to buy the tickets & we headed straight to the concert. Even till now, we had no idea what kind of music concert was it, what type of music will be played, how grand it would be, how many people must be there. We had absolutely no idea. We entered the hall & took our seats. The show had already started.

On the stage, there were 5 guys of the band. Two of them were standing in the front playing Violins & three of them at the back. One of them was playing guitar, the second guy was on drums & the third was playing another big guitar.

The music kept on  playing & it started soothing our senses. We were soaked in the serenity of live music. It was charismatic. Attending a live music concert is like flying in the sky. The music was flowing like a fresh air. The beats of music started falling like cold drops of rain & drenched us with peace and respite.

“That is such a huge guitar” I whispered in my wife’s ears.

“That’s not  a guitar. That’s Cello” she corrected me. I never knew any such instrumented ever existed. 

The song got over and the theatre echoed with the sound of applause. I was surprised with how people appreciated the art of the band. They appreciated the passion with which the musicians played the music. They appreciated as a token of thanks to the musicians for giving them such wonderful moments of peace & joy. They applauded whole heartedly. No wonder it isn’t easy to play a instrument like Violin for so long, I realised. I was surprised to see the hands movement of the violinists. It looked like their hands make thousand rounds going up & down in a minute. And I am sure its tedious to play an instrument like violin.

And then I saw something which took me by surprise. I saw something on the faces of the musicians. I saw their faces brighten up. Their eye sparkled with pride. I could see a sense of satisfaction on their faces. Their smile spoke a lot. The lead violinist looked at each other, their eyes did the talking. They needed no words to thank each other. They needed no words to appreciate how wonderful the other musician had been. They looked at other musicians of the band. Their smile expressed how amused they were to deliver as a Team. One of the violinist waved towards each of the musician & expressing his gratitude to each of them.

The violinist positioned their instruments. They were ready to play another song. They looked at each other & again just the eyes spoke. None of them said a word, none of them signalled other with a hand. Their eyes spoke & both of them hit the same cord playing another magical song. Pure Magic! To me, this reflected the trust they had on each other. Incredible! They were  jamming , this time each of the musician took the lead & rest of the musicians gave background & support, turn after turn.

The music concluded, the theatre thundered with applauses. All the musicians gathered & joined the applause. They applauded in appreciation of each team mate, their faces expressed how delighted they were living their passion. I could sense the satisfaction in their eyes that they were doing what they enjoyed. I could sense the excitement in their smile for making people happy by their art. They expressed their thanks that people spared some time to attend their concert. And then they bowed to the audience.

I didn’t thought that one music concert could teach me so much & show me such wonderful colours of life. After all life is all about humanity, peace, trust, acceptance, Love & Smile J