Blissful

Two places where I love to hang around in Bangalore are Crosswords, the book store and Planet M, the music store. Though Crosswords is not as spacious as Landmark, it's such a peaceful place to browse through books, sit down for a few minutes and read a couple of pages before deciding to buy a good book. It's not very crowded as well.

Planet M, though very crowded and a noisy place has a quiet corner for Indian classical music lovers. When I visited last weekend, there were hardly a couple of people in this section. What a pleasant and serene evening it was, listening to my favourite Hariprasad Chaurasia's flute and Zakir Hussain's tabla being played in the background and browsing through a nice collection of Carnatic and Hindustani classical music. The traditional Indian music has such divinity and tranquility in itself that regardless of the kind of raagas, it mesmerizes the listeners' ears. I don't understand the kind of raagas or other intricacies of classical music but when I listen to them, I forget the world around me and I enter a different world altogether.

Though I'm a big fan, I'm not a regular listener of such kind of music. The television and the numerous FM channels are occupied with repetitive film music. I've got tired of listening to the same old songs again and again. I'm looking for something new and fresh to my eardrums and at the same time, suits my taste of soft and slow music. I'm looking at revamping my music collection and take on a new dimension of interest. Right now, I'm listening to the Hindustani instrumental album "The valley recalls". It's soothing and a perfect way to spend a slow afternoon.