The Voice That Always Returns

The first time I heard the voice was when my cousin accidentally shared it on a social networking site. I didn't understand much of what it sang the first few times, but there was something in the voice and the music that made me stop and listen again.

I had no clue what movie this was, I didn't know who the singer was, but I did listen to it back on loop mode. I didn't know it then, but the voice would be powerful enough to pull me all the way to Kolkata, just like that, just to experience this magic in person, to see if it would still be as magical and haunting as it sounded to my ears so many miles away.

Music is an essential part of my life, I need it to keep my own space alive, to keep my semblance on, to make me smile more when Im already happy, to pep up my dancing shoes, to help me sail through those difficult moments when I'd rather be with me. I need music all the time.

It's through all such moments that there's been one steady voice, for the past quite a few months, that's been there with me. Of course there have been other voices too, but this one has made a special place for itself. 

And I'm not the only one, Im just one in the many hearts out there that have been filled with this melody. If anything, I'm but a little part of a huge number of music lovers who have embraced this voice, its melody, its meaning and its intensity, and somehow, tried to keep its essence within themselves. I'm just one of the many.

It's not too much to want to experience this madness live. It's not too much to want to go and see this intensity for yourself, to absorb the kick that comes with witnessing this in the flesh, to give a 'real' face to the voice that's been with your for so long, that has grown on to be another part of your very being. Many may differ. But it's not too much really. So it was that I was pulled to travel from one end of the country to the other, to feel this intensity run through my veins, live and in action. And did I love it!!!!

The pull continued, of course it can never really go off, can it? And though its not always possible to give in to whatever your heart desires, I will still make an effort to try and do this as many times as I can. So it is that I head out to witness this mania all over again, very soon, in a land that somehow has been my roots, a place where I will be with me, where I will be in my own space, where I will experience the Anupamania, all over again.......

And if you're someone who lives in Kolkata, well, lucky you!

- Debolina Raja Gupta