Music and Food: An Incredible Soul Uplifting Weekend

Everyone in my family is a foodie, a music lover and an art lover. My parents are well known artists professionally, who work on various mediums like watercolors, oils, 3d paintings, stained glass, glass frosting, glass etching, silk painting, etc. We have eclectic tastes in all of the above. We got a chance to spend this weekend with amazing company and jamming and listening the golden oldies at my home, while eating some amazing food.

My dad plays the guitar and the mouth organ. He can mostly play the music from the 1950s and the 1960s. I have been brought up to appreciate the music of that era. And I do love it, the songs were truly melodious and harmonious. Aditya Tiwari Uncle, one of his very old friends’ is an accomplished and renowned piano-accordion player. So he was in town for a few days and my dad organized a day to immerse himself in playing music. He invited Dharma Kirthi Uncle, one of his best friends’ over from Secunderabad for the weekend, who is a member of a nationwide Shankar-Jaikishen fan club. Shankar-jaikishen was a duo of ultra-talented composers and musicians who composed many classic and iconic music pieces of the Golden Era.

Mom had prepared an array of yummy dishes for lunch and dinner. She had made stuffed masala bitter gourd dish, a dal fry, pumpkin and curd salad, Theccha (a typical Maharastrian chilly, garlic and coriander chutney), and rice and rotis for lunch. She made the ever favorite Paav Bhaji for dinner. And Biscuit pudding was our dessert for the entire day.

Kirthi Uncle had arrived in Bangalore early in the morning, so till Tiwari Uncle arrived, both the buddies were catching up with each other. The day started out with getting the instruments tuned and remembering the songs that could be played. Dad began playing his Hawaiian guitar and Uncle began playing his piano-accordion. Shankar-Jaikishen music was melodious and the songs were soulful. Listening to them is a real pleasure. The lyrics were also very beautiful. Later dad also played the mouth organ along with the accordion. It was just so amazing. They played many beautiful songs of those times and it was so mellifluous and soothing to the ears. They even played my all-time favorite songs, “Ajeeb Dastaan Hai Yeh” and “raat Ke Humsafar,” which I have loved since my childhood. All we could do was listen and get transported to an era gone by but not forgotten.

 

In the evening, my cousin Shalin showed up, he is an excellent guitar player as well and he is learning to play guitar and flute online on his own. So he and my dad jammed up till dinner time. He played the Spanish guitar and my dad played the Hawaiian guitar, which made their jamming so awesome.

Apart from the jam session, we also had a fun time reminiscing old times and dad regaled us with his funny childhood stories and his time with his friends as well.

The next day, Kirthi Uncle stayed back and he was going to leave by evening. So these two friends got us some fish and my mom made a delicious Goanese style fish curry and rice with fried fish. I hadn’t eaten fish curry in a long time, so it was really amazing and we all gorged on it. Again the Sunday was spent relaxing in good music, good food, good banter and hell loads of laughter.

My dad hadn’t had a music jamming session like this one in a long, long time. It was amazing to see him having the time of his life, for a change from the usual routine. It was great for us all and this weekend would be an unforgettable one.

Music, food and art, are really good for the soul. All of us have mountain loads of work and responsibilities which result in humungous amounts of stress. And these are the things that can free us and channelize our stress into something soothing. Our spirits can get uplifted and we can truly have some peace in life. I hope we get to have more weekends like this.