Where has the music gone?

On a hot yellow afternoon of 99

In a sleepy little town on the banks of the Ganges

Leaving for the summer trip to the village

I packed a box of clothes and all necessities

And a mixed tape

Of carefully assorted music, moods and melodies

On the roads in the back seat of the car

Gazing at the trail of trees guarding us from far

The flowing melodies fuelling the excitement of vacation

Started past the hustle of the town with rural peace to precision

My favorite songs of dreams and romance, of life and carelessness

Pausing only with outer chaos – a truck’s horn or a conversation

The songs transcended me and made me one with them

Losing my sense of present and merging with the words and sounds

Imagining myself in all those dreams and fantasies abound

Of growing up, finding love, success and happiness all around

Immersing into the trances of musical quarantine

Of happiness, sorrow, hope, nostalgia and all such themes

Hours flowing into moments, as the village roads ended the wait

Some songs still left, on the other side of the tape

Which, like the hot summer afternoons had no haste.

Where has the music gone?

This hot summer of 2020, fizzled by the freezing air of conditioners

In the urban village of glass facades and sky-scrapers

Has lost the music, lost its charm

And the patience, the silence, the proximity to nature

The notes of music have begun to quiver 

As the songs have moved to the touch of a finger

Gone are the melodies and gone is the wait

Music is what, just a click-bait

Where is the time to lose and give in to the trance?

No mixed tapes and no curation

Just a medley of breathless beats and mindless dance

Of chasing deadlines and instant gratifications

The music in our lives has reduced

Replaced by spurts and pieces of concatenations

Rather than a companion to soul and heart

It has become a background, from afar apart

Where has the music gone?