Lesson 3: City, the universe

Part: A



He decided to find a job after earning a degree . And reaching Bangalore as earlier, as possible made perfect sense. It was nice to see different states, people, culture, language all at one stretch. He was not in a mood to get tensed about thinking future .

As usual he spent the traveling time in singing his favorite songs. He liked the idea of singing in bus very much because when the bus moves no one can really hear anything. But he will be in a sonic illusion which force him to believe he is the best singer around. That made him so happy. He made sure his pitch is in sync with the gear shifting of the bus.

There is one more custom he religiously follows in every bus journey.
Just before getting down from it he used to look at the black tinted glass behind the driver. That was a naughty spot in the bus according to him. If you look at the glass you can see the reflection of people who sit in the first row. And if you are lucky enough there will be pretty faces.
Since he was lucky on that day, he found one. While trying to animate the vague image he realized that those eyes in the reflection spot an irritated look. He could not believe it.
Somebody found out his secret.

After few days of job hunt, he got into a technical support center. His life resumed after inverting day and night time zones. Every employee had their pick up and drop off by Company’s cab. That was comfortable. After many months he found a familiar pair of eyes with a relaxed look in the rear view mirror. He recognized it but did not want to talk to her or get along with her.

After sharing same cab for many weeks she decided to break the ice between them. She told her name. This time the name meant an ancient Hindu mantra. She was a Brahmin who got trained in classical music and dance. Her brother was a singer too. So many things were happened after that. They shared their common interests, work environment, ambitions, music and a lot. Within half an hour they felt like they know each other for the last thirty years. Once the ice is broken it was like a flood.
After their shift they saw each other in day light.
When it happened he thought about a film in which the hero sees the heroine for the first time. For a split second- in a lighting-during a rainy night.



Her name was not Gracy John. But her face was full of Grace. There were some sorts of energy around her. He felt the sound of thunder for a split second. But he felt like the lighting is refusing to fade. They never talked about everything under the sky. But when they talked about something, it was like there is nothing else under the sky. She had a degree in physics. And Physics was his favourite subject at School.


Part: B

Little John’s family never lived in city. They used to stay far away from cities. In those times, electricity was an occasional visitor.
During night, at least one hour they spent time in talking each other, discussing and planning for future. Since most of the things they said were so elderly, he spent time in gazing at stars with his brothers. Most of the time the sky would be clear, showing all the stars.

His brothers told some of the moving things in the sky are spy satellites and some are other planets. One brother told him that the hottest star will look blue and coolest star will look red . He could not understand why. The second brother told him that the light from star will take years to reach the earth and by the time it reaches here the star may not be there. He did not understand it. Still he liked that idea.

Playing music in the night was another favorite pastime for Little John. He had some instruments with him. One battery charged organ, one harmonica, one palm guitar made up of Colgate paste cover and one flute made up of papaya stem.

He was never trained in music. He thought since music is a heavenly gift from God, human should not try to bind it with earthly rules. All he does with his organ is pressing the keys from one end to other end . Harmonica was broken at one edge enough to hurt the lips. Palm guitar and flute were his favorite since he could assemble it and breathe life to them.


He did not really play all of these. Just making them and touching them made him happy. The electric organ had a special smell if you smell it deep. Once you keep the papaya flute near your lips, under your nose you can smell the green color and you can taste the colorless liquid that oozes out at the square holes.

In the school he had to learn a chapter about Beethoven. The scene where Beethoven feels the rain for inspiration and his sprint towards home to make a note of music inspired by it haunted him. During full moon nights he used to open his bedroom windows and play his instruments in low volume. He was afraid of darkness. Still he liked the thrill. He thought of about Gandharvas. He wondered why there were no females in Gandharvas.

How to Do?

You need a medium sized Colgate paste cover and few rubber bands.
Rubber bands should be stretchable enough. And you need to make a small square hole in the cover with a blade. You can put candle piece in between the rubber bands and the cover. This can make enough sound in silent night.
Making papaya flute is even easier. Take a healthy stem and cut both the ends with the blade. Close one open end with a piece of soft plastic cover. Make eight holes starting from closed end with the blade. Making square holes is easy in the stem. That is all.