It is amazing how music can change the whole atmosphere around you. Not only yours, but others around you.
I am at this crowded bus stop, all the rush and hush of the city at its peak. The buses, the cars and bikes, the people – it is total chaos. Ping, comes the music player. Pong, plays the song. And then you look at the same crowded place, the same people and vehicles. And you get a totally different feeling.
I get into a bus and even as I am being crammed by a dozen others sharing my same spot, it is really great. Not the cramming, no. The music effect. I look at people I pass, through the windows. And they all seem to make movements to match my song. Like in the movies where you have these songs in the background to bring the effect. It works in real life too, if you have a set of ear phones with you all the time.
A man rushes after the bus, another just stays still outside a shop, a third glances at his watch, a fourth signs a paper. A lady seems to scold someone, another just stands at a bus stop. A boy picks out his mobile phone. Two old men walk, talking. The tired expressions, the bored ones, the impassive ones, the cheerful ones – they were all perfectly fitting into the rhythm of my song.
Pause. The song is over. The real world noises are back for a few seconds. Pong, the next song begins. This time, a love song. Wow. Cool. I now choose my actors. I see someone on the road, and then look at the next person of the opposite gender and imagine they are “the lovers”. A man becomes the hero of two women, a middle-aged dame for a twenty-something fellow. There is a girl rushing towards my bus. A guy far away is parking his bike, I imagine, looking after the girl who (might have) just ran out from the shop. He has a secret crush on her. He goes back, she is inside the bus. Maybe she looks back, I can’t see her.
But there is a problem when you play love songs. Pretty soon you forget about all your real life actors from the streets and buses. You end up imagining scenes with a single person taking the lead role. No doubt, it is yourself. You picture your every movement is now on screen being admired by your one-and-only – that slow smile, that gleam in the eyes, that slight swaying of the hair – that sudden brake in the bus and the sudden fall!
It is absolutely lovely. Adding background music to real world. It is amazing, really. And you wouldn’t even need an MP3 player if you are imaginative enough. You could play it in your mind. Although, I must warn you, it could land you in trouble – cause you end up acting to your song and the onlookers who cant hear the music, may – just may – raise a brow or two. But chances are, if they have known you too long, they will know not to find it unusual to find an overly-expressive woman being overly-expressive for no reason at all.
Story of a lost journalist 