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Global Village Idiot: There are ‘17 Bhupinders’ in the playlists that chart my life
A very unassuming person, Bhupinder Singh ‘s voice cut across decades and moods and barriers to reach me because of his unhurried, uniquely bass delivery
I think I invented the loop. In my life anyway. Only, I called it song(s)-on-repeat. I first did the loop on record players since we had a Philips record player. Then on cassettes, which was a very tedious manual process that required engineering precision. It became easier when we got a BPL Sanyo double cassette player with a counter (it also had a record player on top). Life became much easier because I could record on a blank cassette. So, I made my own playlists with repeat to my heart’s content. And I was thinking all this up while in school classes and college lectures. The Physics and Chemistry got through too, but there was no need for me to spend hours in class passing out of boredom listening to the same lecture on repeat. (I finally got a walkman in college).
Warning: if you are a student, you can’t attempt the stuff I did unless you had already studied the whole year’s syllabus thrice over during summers. I used to do that. That’s how I got to play 4-6 hours every day throughout childhood: advance studying. You kind of tend to recall stuff when you go to class having already read everything and it gives you more time to apply learning and then drag out the experience from any teachers/professors/industry professionals who are willing to engage. I was lucky since I grew up in an environment where we had opportunity to work part-time or do hands-on community projects along with studying, so there was continuous application.
When I moved to a corporate environment, I gave up my walkman for Microsoft Windows Media Player and started making playlists. In the last decade, the action has shifted to the iPhone.
But this is not just about the loops or playlists which are what one would call the “structure” of a solution. What was the problem this solution was solving? Lack of a conducive environment to deliver results - there was too much distraction and irrelevant engagement that stopped me from focusing on my work and therefore hindered my learning and growth. But if a mere structure were enough, every person with a playlist would succeed first time every time.
A structure has to match with a corresponding body of content for it to have a chance at success. In the case of my loop and playlist, the content is the set of songs. The content sits within the structure and together they constitute a solution. The structure is a technical framework that automates a series of otherwise manual tasks. The content represents an external information framework that holds my regular neurological processes in a state of suspended animation, while creating a strictly linear command-response automated process so that my mind and body focuses only on a predefined series of tasks to achieve a specific outcome. The fidelity test for the content differs for every individual and for every expected outcome. I have seven playlists, two each for design, execution and evaluation. Fifty percent of my work falls into one of these three categories. The final playlist is for variable activity.
The fidelity of the content framework has three components: the frequency and chords on which the music is composed, the sequence in which I place them in the playlist, and finally the number of repetitions per song. In layman terms, each sound we hear has an effect on us, which we can prolong or reduce by defining the duration of exposure. If we prolong the effect, we stay in the state it puts us in, if we reduce the effect, we come out of the state. So, if I have a list of seven songs that is all heavy metal (at the same frequency and tempo), I am going to be charged up with explosive energy (if am lucky) or restless and angry (depending on how my body reacts to a prolonged state of explosive energy with no outlet). If I have a list of seven songs that are melancholic, I am likely to get nostalgic (if am lucky) or depressed and angry (depending on how my body reacts to a prolonged state of sadness). The design of the solution is thus dependent on the knowledge of the variable impact of the content on the audience.
But this isn’t just about the loops or playlists or music. This is also about a particular musician who I had sub-consciously drafted into three of my seven playlists: Bhupinder Singh.
One of my playlists begins with “Dum Maro Dum” (composed by RD Burman). I picked the song for the guitar chords played by Bhupinder since they set the tone for the mindset I need. The same playlist also has “Mehbooba Mehbooba” which also had Bhupinder on the guitar. When I made the list 25 years ago, I did not know that Bhupinder had played the guitar on them.
A song that he sang and that I always identified with, “Naam Gum Jayega”, is on three of my playlists (right in the centre, repeated twice). Three other songs he sang, “Ek Akela Is Shahr Mein”, “Beeti Na Bitaye Raina”, and “Dil Dhoondta Hai” along with “Chura Liya” (he played guitar) complete the unique appearances.
Why is this important? Because there are a total of 158 songs (including repetitions) across all my playlists. The music ranges from Indian and western classical to heavy metal and alternative, ghazals and film music, in eight different languages by artists from 12 different nationalities. Bhupinder Singh appears a total of 17 times on my playlists - no other artist appears more than four times.
Bhupinder Singh passed away earlier this week after a cardiac arrest following suspected colon cancer and Covid. A very unassuming person, his voice cut across decades and moods and barriers to reach me because of his unhurried, uniquely bass delivery. The smoky, ambling and vibrating texture of his voice carried so much depth that each syllable and pause gripped me in its hold, impaling the meaning of the poet or lyricist’s intent into my nervous system. That is art raised to the level of science or science elevated to the consciousness of art. It makes sense that his songs regularly punctuate the sequence of moods to hold my attention and direct it to the required focus.
That is the impact of his work on my life. I guess we never really know how we touch the lives of others. Alvida dost, kissi nazar ko tera intezaar aaj bhi hai.
Mukherjee, author, learning-tech designer and management consultant, is founder of Mountain Walker and chief strategy advisor, Peak Pacific. He can be reached at thebengali@icloud.com
