Private Investigation 2: While My Guitar Gently Sweeps

While My Guitar Gently Sweeps

Part II


On the cultural front, playing guitar and listening to different forms of music have made us more open to accept the various social mores. People have different taste, choice, and it varies as much as there are different societies with their own backgrounds -- be it social, political, historical, geographical or whatever. Technology has shrunk the world into a global village, but we are still living in a big bad world, where it takes sixteen hours to reach the nearest railway station. Ironically, we are not village-dwellers though our town may be quite rustic. The experience takes us out from the familiar social terrain to the unfamiliar.

Many people counters us western music is a mere hole-in-the-wall hoax, cashing in on our deplorable weakness for anything with a foreign name. For any critic, there are always reasons and drawbacks in any thing, well, for criticism's sake. I'd say if you argue correctly you are never wrong.

In fact, this magical instrument has become our identity. Many people in mainland India are surprise how every north-easterner could play guitar. It's in our blood -- we are creative, crafty, and have a 'soft' hand. No doubt how we find so many of our mayang friends and their siblings, who want to learn the tricks of the trade from us. These things apart, we have been able to find a place in the mainstream. One of the chief causes of the turmoil in Manipur is the lack of identity. We are humans, and we love playing guitar -- this consciousness is sufficient to give us an identity and make us a better person.

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He who stops being better, the famous British politician Oliver Cromwell said, stops being good. As in our personal life or in proffesional field, a simple instrument like guitar teaches us to keep up with the rapid pace of change. The Black Sabbath could do wonder with a distortion effect but we have to improve -- that's the only way to survive. We need to update our awareness about new gadgets and accesories to commit ourselves to continual improvement in life. Whenever we embark on our way to improvement, we begin in small manageable steps, like learning Bach's Sonatas, to make room for long-term success, such as in playing Malmsteen's solos. It further accentuate our conviction that we can easily improve. Oh, and while my guitar gently sweeps...