The harmonium was the first musical instrument I bought.

It is broken now.

Once it produced a loud sound,

When I opened the black keys,

blew the bellows,

And pressed the rids.

I was awestruck to know the functionalities.

The sound was loud

But I was happy to hear it,

I danced in joy and clapped,

My face was glowing with a bright smile.

Maa taught me how to play the harmonium,

I came to know about its scales,

And how to tone my voice with its pitch.

I learned countless songs with this.

The first sargam I learned from Maa,

Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni Sa

The seven notes that can compose any song,

I learned how to play the instrument and sing,

Loud, louder, and louder,

And I became a voyager of music.

Now the Harmonium is broken.

Some of the rids have lost their white cover,

They are peeled off like the Harmonium shed its old skin.

Now I play the naked reeds,

Touching the wooden frames of them

Sometimes they overboard on each other,

Like peeping what’s going on in the house of their neighbors,

And thus,

They produce the wrong sound.

I stop singing

And start repairing them

Sometimes I call my mother to fix it.

After a few rounds of trial and error,

We finally succeed,

And the reeds are back to produce the right note.

Now, I practice my riyaz this way,

With a twenty-seven years old Harmonium,

Which is now

broken

and tired.

Yet,

I love to sit with it.

Whenever I feel bored or lonely,

I search for a friend with whom I can talk,

But I find no one at home

To share my emotions with.

Then I look at my broken Harmonium,

I bring it to the bed and sit in front of it.

Bowing my head to the Goddess of Music,

I start playing it.

The sound may have become dull,

Sometimes out of tone,

But I try to make up the imperfections with my voice,

And I keep singing.

Sometimes I don’t like to sing a song,

But want to play the notes of them.

At that time,

I play the notes with the reeds.

The broken Harmonium produces sound,

It seemed like the lyrics

is being sung silently,

As it keeps talking to me

with the music of silence.

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(This post is part of the series ‘Solace in the Mundaneness’ where I try to tell stories of the everyday things that capture a special place in my heart and they make me feel privileged to live a simple and ordinary life with contentment and peace. This post is also part of Blogchatter A to Z.)