My Relationship with Six Strings

When  I say Relationship with  “Six Stings”,  I am sure you have guessed it by now that it’s about me and my guitar . No doubt, there are other instruments with six strings but the most widely played instrument is the guitar.  Wasting no time with the practical details on different type of guitars, I would say I play both acoustic and electric guitar where I play Rhythm and lead. Now let us not get into attributes and characteristics

G as in Guitar and G as in Gunjan, the meaning of my name resembles the idiosyncrasy from the guitar, at times I feel I have to live with this and I am ready to die with this.  I somehow do not give my consent on the saying “BOOK IS YOUR BEST FRIEND” I feel any music instrument is your best friend. Now I do not want to wrangle on this topic if u disagrees with me. All I want to prove is, you buy a book, read and after you have acquired acquaintance with the topic or subject, ask yourself  “Will you read that book again? “  I am sure the answer I will get is “NO”. No matter how much you love to read you will read it once and then its vitrine. That is not the case with my guitar or any other instrument for the matter of fact.  The more you play the more you learn and the more you explore, sky is the limit, its interminable.

I got into this world of music at the age of 15, one fine day I saw a guy playing guitar and singing away his favorite song , Eyes closed, furrowed brow with assiduity .I could feel the music, I was lost in his guitar and forgot what I came for, I was bewitched. This accident of this incident made me hanker after playing guitar. I did not know much about Google so was not able to do any kind of research or explore on the subject matter. However, I had a band that played in my neighborhood where I walked in to express my enthusiasm to these young lads from a remote village of Nepal, who had come down to Kathmandu for their higher studies. With their profound knowledge about music and eclectic genre, I was acquainted with the six strings, eventually I started playing with them and started to enjoy the rhythm, the six strings had killed my cells of my finger tips and made it numb , I had lost sensation , with cold weather and  the bronze strings, it compelled  me to sign in with my blood on the fret.  In addition, that is when they said, “Welcome aboard.” Like a lifetime job with no curtailment ,retirement or stability.   Having signed the offer letter inked with my blood from those bronze strings It was not a presage, it is something that still lives with me and will die with me. Since that my life shifted to a different track, I was not that good in academics I was an average student, I was attentive in class, participated in all extracurricular activities and never attended any coaching classes or any tuition, it was either book during exams and normal assignments sports and video games for rest of the years .But Now I had fixation with guitar and was included with the daily schedule. I dint have my own guitar I use to borrow from my neighbor and practice for few hours or play with them at times .Let me tell you, If you want to learn guitar you need to give it time and you must have that perseverance to peruse and get acquainted with the art of playing the six strings. I did everything that was possible but, my story aint a movie where everything is perfect or tends to get perfect, the young lads had to go back and I had to get back with my books as my class X board exams where knocking on the door, after class X, I shifted to Darjeeling for my intermediate it had been almost a year and a half now that I had not played with those bronze strings. But after I got admitted I got to make new friends and yes made friends who were into music and finally after awaiting for almost 2 years I got an opportunity to hold the guitar and play but again it was for few hours, but still that day for me was pleasurable, I still did not have a guitar, I contemplated about asking a guitar on my birthday from my mom, I had saved almost Rs 600 after having skipped my lunch, walked miles and saved the bus fare I required almost 1500 more to buy a decent guitar , I awaited for my birthday and then finally asked my mom to buy me a guitar where I would pay 1k for it and she would pay the rest , My mom knew that I was impassioned about music and guitar , She agreed and said she will gift me one and asked me to continue the habit of saving but not to skip my meals , she added saying that the amount that I had saved can be utilized later and encouraged me to develop my habit of savings

Finally My 1^st guitar arrives on my birthday , now i could play all day , since I was new to this world, at times I played it read bad and  had to face harsh, derisive laugh but that motivated me to play better , eventually with books and guitars I cleared my 11^th exams and now I was in 12^th Standard ,and we had developed a school band till then , we did have a name as we only played together and never took it further ,  I don’t know if they still follow this culture of what they use to call is Fresher’s welcome party  , Well normally it’s an event organized for the newly admitted students as a welcome treat, So me along with my so called “BAND” were suppose to play for them, as our respected principal had asked us to do so , the practice was on for a month prior to the event , I could still not play the guitar well but I use to sing , so I was suppose to sing and not play the guitar as we already had 2 guitarist , Siddharth and vedant were two classic guitar players whom I envy. Finally we were ready with the song, practiced almost 1000 times in a month and we were all set, and we did put up a good show for them which was enjoyed not only by the students but also by the teachers, next day teachers, students started calling me ROCKSTAR, by now I was renowned vocalist, the entire school knew me. Felt like a celebrity, but somewhere deep down in my heart I was pondering that I wanted to play the guitar and sing, but I still had time to learn and culture , class 12 board exams and the so called celebrity status dies with it . However, after my intermediate I shifted to Kolkata, new city, new place, and 500km away from family. It was a different experience, I did take my guitar along with it, initially i had stayed with my relatives, and eventually I shifted to a different place as I got a job with one of the most reputed bank , now I was doing my graduation and working at the same time , Skipped my collage and worked but still got good  grades      in my exams , I was not on tenterhooks when it came to exams , the books and notes from  my friend was enough for me to crack it , I concentrated more on playing my guitar , during my off days I use to visit the nearby cyber cafe and use to view YouTube tutorials and lessons on guitar , I use to make a note of it and use to follow it , I had days where I was trying to figure out the chord and I was so engrossed as I started at 7 pm and when I finally checked the clock it was 12am  , That day I had to survive on soda and some biscuits

A slight strike out from the topic, I met a girl at my work place and kind of got attracted, I do not know how to describe that phase, Reminds me of a song from Enrique “I AM NOT IN LOVE ITS JUST THE PHASE THAT I AM GONG THROUGH”, jokes apart but gradually we started speaking to each other over the phone, shared lunch, sat beside during work,  I use to sing for her and one day she inveigled me to play the guitar and sing for her , So had to do that over the call , there was no Android so no application where I could record and send the audio file to her , texting was very famous and we use to look out for cheap plans which gave maximum texting options , I kind of enjoyed the attention more than what I got in my school days , “MUSIC” was one thing that brought us very close, ATIF ASLAM was her favorite, and few Pakistani bands , she was the archetype for the individual girl representing a girl from Islamic background , so she liked genre which was related , She use to refer songs and I had to master and sing it out for her, Music and my guitar had adapted the role of a catalyst , she was very impressed and I still hear those giggle when I messed up the song , I did express myself but she was not ready to accept it as she was from SOUTH POLE and I was from NORTH POLE , I don’t know who cultured this idea , whoever did, was successful to ruined our relationship and friendship , we were still good friends but you can’t fix a cracked mirror , it will still have those scars , as I said it’s not a movie so it can’t be perfect , I am not SHAH RUKH KHAN from the movie Veer zaara , it was vacuous of me to think in that perspective, I tried to be good friends but the inner me had died , I could no more play for her and sing well , I was losing grip on my guitar , but all these incident never made me think of going to a bar and get into drinking spree . As I said it is not a movie and I could did not let myself go in a DEVDAS mode, and her name was not paro for the records. I did not want to be a looser and detach myself from the world , Instead I thought of keeping myself so occupied that I don’t get time to think about her,  instead of being friends and speaking to her every day I decided to maintain distance and started focusing on my studies and work . I took up advance guitar classes from one of the reputed guitarist of Kolkata , his name is Sukanti Roy , his band featured in Channel v launch pad and they were runners up , his classes were so intense that I was bewitched by the way he played the guitar , the lessons he gave me were so difficult that it did not allow me to think about anything else, I also brought a new Electric guitar which made it more interesting and I was more inclined towards learning the new way of playing guitar

 this was not enough I wanted to get more busy , I enrolled myself for CA and started with the classes, so it was 4 things for me now , WORK , CA ,guitar Classes and my Graduation , I know looks impossible but don’t u think the word impossible itself says “ I M POSSIBLE “ ? yes it is possible where there is will there is way , I did it in a subtle way , I synchronized my work , ca classes , guitar classes in such way that I had time to attend all but dint have time for myself , Graduation was not at all important for me , It was easy for me so did have to bother much about that ,  it was busy year for me , finally CA classes were over but I still continued with my guitar classes , after having come from work instead of switching on the TV I would play songs of KURT COBAIN , the GRUNGE genre killed the pain and rejuvenated me every time ,  Every time I was stressed the only thing I knew was to grab my guitar and start strumming , these six stings use to absorb all my pain and stress and vent out with music , I don’t know how to explain this but it’s like it was guitar converting my pain and stress into soothing music note, interesting isn’t it ?

Finally a time came when I realized that I had to focus more on my career  and my dreams instead of wasting my time , I decided to quit my job and lured towards my dream of becoming a Chartered accountant , so it was all over as I had decided to leave the city and go far away from  her , this incident of my life was a kind of turning point which could have destroyed me, but I took it the other way round and turned into a stepping stone to grow , I converted the situation into favorable term and took inspiration to achieve my dream , even at this moment if had heard her calling me I would not have turned back , I was a different person with a different mentality now , I had to think about my carrier instead of getting into debauched lifestyle like the one highlighted in the movie DEVDAS . Now it was only me, my guitar and my career , I was successful in cracking the foundation level of the chartered accountancy course , so I must say the decision was not a bad one at all , I felt I had taken a good decision at the correct time, then I explored more into the world of CA and  guitar , by now I was well acquainted with book keeping and the six strings , ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES A JACK DULL , so it was not only intense study for me but I use to play guitar as well , i also brought a bike for myself from the savings I had done while I worked as I had cultured it from my mom , Yes just to remind you this saving included that Rs 600 which I had saved during my school days having skipped my lunch and walking miles .

I do not know if I thank her for the accident of this incident. Or should I thank the person who cultured the NORTH POLE and the SOUTH POLE to repel us, I don’t know how well I strum those six stings but being oblivion towards the derisive laugh, one thing I know is that my guitar very well converts the pain into musical notes which relives me from all the pain and stress. Every day is a valentine’s day for me and my guitar , it has been a long relationship and we have still not separated, no complains, no excuses, no limitations, no restrictions. It’s always there for me and I am always loyal and dedicated to the music , I take a good care of my guitar hence I still play the guitar which was gifted by my mom on my birthday the only difference is I did a makeover for my guitar and gave it a new look. It was music, which started all this, and its music that has brought me to where I am, what more can you expect from such a relationship, Hence I have embedded the genre of music I preach in my name and call myself Gunjan Grunge, you can say I have tied a knot with music, resulting to which I had to change my name, and I would not mind to have written it on my epitaph.