Of sport, music, and dance.

Having born into a TamBrahm family, it was a default that I had to be surrounded by these three elements. Apart from the constant exhortation to ‘succeed’ in our grades at school, due to the alignment that we are part of (I do not want to use the word caste), our conversations hinged and revolved on majorly these three topics. Granted, there were exceptions according to each household and each parental mindset, but either all, or one, at the least, of these, were definitely a part of every TamBrahm household.

Now, why am I ranting about these elements, in general or in separate? What spurred me to thrash out this piece on a non-eventful day? Why should I be putting these words to a screen for the world to read? How am I doing this (brace yourself for free advice on writing!)? When did the material for this piece (only intangible, unfortunately. I revel in them) originate? I will answer these questions, and you , the reader, be the judge of whether to skim, scan, or sprint from this piece. And for those who read this out of loyalty, I thank you from the bottom of my heart (what is in there anyway!/ I’ll never know).

 I am ranting now because I believe I have a valid connection between the three. One that suggests excelling in all of these three makes one a truly flexible person. One that is able to assimilate and process the goings-on of the human world in a rational, romantic, hopeful and realistic manner, without giving in to cynicism and the pessimism.

What spurred me though? My mind is constantly in a churn. At any instant of the day, I am always trying to examine and answer for myself the why of everything. And quite frustratingly, what I intend to do for a living has no pattern to it. It just happens and we are left to discover shreds of them, and in some cases, imagine them even. It just is so maddening! Back to my point. The motivation for this piece is two-fold. One, I was watching a YouTube video of two artists explaining their craft in a series of candid videos, and they quipped that their craft, though containing rules that have to definitely be abided by, is almost always extempore. It is hard enough when a single person does this, so imagine the difficulty when this is a duo. The two artists have to be seamlessly merging and diverging yet be always in sync such that the audience is not left scratching their heads, literally and figuratively. The second, is when I was talking to a friend and she reckoned that there are some who do both well and then some who do all three well. That got me to thinking about the contrarian point of view, yet I still maintain my stance on the nexus.

ALL WELL AND NICE, BUT WHAT ACTUALLY IS YOUR STANCE?”, you may ask.

It is this: A sportsperson trains his muscles, including intellectual (remember intangibility?) ones, to constantly act within the rules imposed by the sport. Agreed, it is the same for a dancer and for a singer. But where they diverge is the amount of freedom/space within these rules that is available for the performer to manoeuvre. Would everybody agree with me when I state that singing has the highest ‘roaming space’, followed by dancing and lastly, sports?

Okay, so why am I putting it out for everyone to see? The frank opinion is that my head is bursting with constant thoughts and venting them out invites unnecessary tags on myself. Tags do not worry me, but the inability to reach a consensus and take away lessons from it, does. The other reason is to also listen to opposing points of view. Hopefully vehement ones, but definitely not irrational and/or emotional ones.

As a singer, you have certain rules. Adherence to rhythm, whatever one calls it in different styles of music, is vital. The lyrics are important to connect with a different type of listener. As a dancer, you’d have to co-ordinate your movements to the tune. Jerkiness is a cuss-word in dance. I have been naïve in my description of song and dance but I hope you get my point. Within overarching rules, you are left to explore and be creative and come out with something that has your signature on it.

The arch is narrower and lower for sports though. Consider any sport, as an example. I’ll go with the popular one. Cricket. It is game between bat and ball played in a circular ground. A group hits the ball repeatedly, count some numbers based on some rules, and another group tries to prevent and then out-hit the first group. Sounds so simple and the exact antonym of creativity, right?

Wrong. Cricket is as creative as any game can get. However, you are bound by the rules of the game such that moving in a certain way during batting or bowling ensures optimum quality of results. One cannot play a pull shot to a full-length ball. Playing with the spin, instead of against, is the best possible scenario in most cases. A seam-up ball can ensure better effort-to-wicket ratio than a cross-seam ball majorly. So on and so forth. My point being that, in sports, one realises that certain actions have to be performed only in a certain kind of way. Non-alignment will result either in illegality or in a fall from the pecking order.

Now, if a sportsperson is to also pursue a hobby like singing or dancing, he has to unlearn all this rigidity. It is akin to a person locked up in a room for years, being suddenly let out and asked to roam the free world to his heart’s content. That can never happen, can it? There’s fear. There’s the inability to unlearn and re-learn. There’s the inability to learn. An irritable feeling of discomfort. A crippling sense of inferiority. As a sportsperson, you have identified key thought-processes that make you process to-be-performed actions in a certain manner. And now, as a singer or a dancer, you are given a broad set of rules and asked to create aesthetically and functionally pleasing movements, using body parts or vocal chords. Well, yes, it does require loads and loads of practice, but practicing exactly what? Not the song or the dance. Those come at a later stage and quite frankly, in a time-frame wherein you would not even realise how much time passes before you nail it down to your satisfaction. The key art to be practicing is the modulation of your own thoughts. To embrace this ‘freedom’. To embrace the room given for creativity. To embrace flexibility.

I have failed. I would be keen to pick apart the brain of a person who has passed. I do not need credibility, just a sense of self-satisfaction that makes you consider yourself a pass.