Fiction & Nonfiction

Helping Talent Shine

Helping talent shine.

It wasn’t an easy task for me to live aboard a merchant navy ship with two young sons to bring up. Both, aged five and three were active and wouldn’t understand the meaning of being cautious while playing around a moving ship. Hubby was busy as a Chief Engineer on M.V. Vishwa Siddhi that plied between the West Coast of America and the Indian port, Mumbai, known as Bombay previously. We carried frozen sea food and machine parts to Sanfrancisco, Long Beach and Seattle on the west and Savanna, New York and Wilmington on the east coast of America, Rio Grande in Brazil, besides far eastern countries like Taiwan and Mainland China.

Three-year old Naresh followed his big brother Santosh everywhere. A whole big cargo ship with a capacity of eight thousand tons was their play ground. Sometimes it was the galley they skipped into with me trailing after them where the busy cooks engaged in cutting and slicing vegetables, chopping meat or heaving big utensils onto a big range. Sure they’d get a chunk of cake just out of oven for the crew’s afternoon tea. Vasudevan, the ship’s chief steward, could never resist feeding the kids. Often it used to be the wooden decks that beckoned them to play on. Thankfully, I was energetic and free enough to run after them and, later coax them back to the safety of the cabin. The hatches, the cold storage rooms and the engine room were the only places they were not allowed into.

It was at times alarming to find how totally we were at the mercy of a churning ocean and rough weather, and the fact that there was no speck of land visible as far as eye could see. The vast sea appeared like a monster in disguise, a heaving and rumbling mass thrashing against the bulk sides of the big ship, as if protesting against the presence of an unwanted, much resented intruder. Right in the midst of the mighty Pacific, the ship we were in was like a toy floating on it. This awesome and fearful face of the blue sea was so contrary to the delightful and frolicsome vista it presented viewed from the safety of the beach.

I think there were quite a few discernible reasons why I was extra cautious regarding the whereabouts of my children aboard the ships we chanced to live on. However, in retrospect, it was a delightful phase of our lives despite the risks. I could collect music from almost every corner of the world that we called, from Taiwan to Cairo to Barcelona and of course the colorful rhythms of America.  Those lovely melodies still serve as a kind of sweet reminders of our past. Kids enjoyed the tunes despite the language barriers. Music, I think has that unifying power despite geographical and cultural differences.

Children were also busy studying for at least three hours a day, being divided into morning and afternoon classes with one and a half hour of duration each. I brought the needed syllabi and books along so I could prepare them for the entrance test for admission into schools when we’d finally reach home.

That particular evening was special because it was Naresh’s birthday, the twenty seventh of February. I concocted a party of sorts in our cabin. One of the junior engineers brought his new Sony music system. A few shipmates gathered around the cake I managed to bake in the ship’s galley. As little Naru blew the three colorful candles, they burst into “Happy Birthday dear Naresh.” Clapping and laughing, they started singing songs of their choice. After everyone settled down with a piece of cake, snacks and soda, with soft music playing in the background, birthday boy Naresh started singing and dancing all by himself. It was as if music was in his blood, for, his steps were in perfect balance to the rhythm of the song. We sat watching him as though mesmerized. That was when we realized he could sing, and sing with no discordance.

After three years we returned to our home town. We were in time for the boys’ school admission. Santosh and Naresh took the tests and found fit to join third and first grades respectively.

It was when he was ten we asked Naresh if he would go to music classes. He loved the idea. Luckily, living close to our home, there was a competent music teacher, who taught  South Indian classical music. On her first meeting with Naresh, Mrs. Hyma

the “y” pronounced as “I"

looked at him and asked if he wanted to learn music. Naresh nodded with the quiet enthusiasm of a ten-year-old guy. That was the beginning of the blossoming of his talent. Naresh always took part in music competitions hosted by his school or anywhere in the town we lived, and won prizes every year.

Somewhere along the line what started as a hobby became a passion. Both the brothers pooled in and bought a guitar. We have a Veena

four-stringed musical instrument of India

and a German-made harmonium

which belonged to my mother-in-law, for, knowing music was one of the prerequisites for a marriageable girl in India.

as well. Naresh would toy with them in vacation and free time and would play beautiful western and Indian popular tunes, always extempore, much to our and our neighbors’ listening pleasure.

When Naresh was preparing for his Intermediate exams he’d rise at four in the morning to study. Once I saw him looking out of his window. I went near saw nothing.
“What are you looking at son?” I asked more out of curiosity. He smiled and said “Nothing mom. I am just listening.” Then I noticed he was following music drifting in from somewhere. I had to reluctantly draw him to the math problem he was trying to solve.

Till the time he left for his Engineering course at a Regional Engineering College, Naresh used to lead his cousins and friends, both young and old alike to sing and entertain at marriages and musical evenings. Almost all of us starred in his home-front shows.

During the four years he had spent at a Regional Engineering college, Naresh was much liked as a singer and he often traveled with the college team to participate and win accolades at youth festivals conducted at different parts of the country. Throughout we enjoyed and encouraged his academic and musical interests. We assured him that once he passed out of college and qualified for a good job, he would be free to concentrate on music. Some reputed Indian musicians and western stars were his idols of worship.

The events that took place subsequently, strengthened my belief in the inextricable bond between destiny and will power. Here’s how it happened.

Soon after the completion of B.tech, Naresh’s M.S. application to the University of Louisiana was accepted. It was a great opportunity to develop his skills in Engineering and widen his horizons in music too. Fortunately, we could support him financially as well as in lending moral support for realizing his musical aspirations. An Italian he met at the University gave him guitar lessons. With his strong feel for music, he mastered the guitar in a few months’ time and started playing for a local band. At six feet with a fair complexion, Naresh was a pleasure to watch as he played soulful or rock music.

Talking about his musical preferences he said “My interests are extremely wide-ranging. I would probably consider myself to be an electric blues/blues-rock guitar player first with a strong affinity for Indian semi classical-influenced fusion. However, in addition to blues I enjoy listening to several genres and sub-genres within the broad classifications of rock, metal, pop, classical, flamenco and jazz.”

Soon, he founded NARK at Raleigh, North Carolina, and brought out an album "One for the road."

This real story reached its climax with Naresh’s registration at Lafayette as a Ph.D. scholar a couple of years later. The combination of his strong musical inclinations and the provision of a branch of Cognitive Science at the school was providential. With the help and guidance of a brilliant and devoted advisor like Dr. Maida, Naresh could successfully defend his dissertation entitled “Studying the Effects of Memory Size on Melody Recognition using a Neutral Network Simulation of Cohort Theory” a few months before. It was well attended by students and the faculty of the department of Cognitive Science of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and raised some thought- provoking discussion.

Since then Naresh has been penning and publishing papers, attending seminars and workshops, and going ahead with experimentation of mixing notes from various kinds of music melodically. Right now Naresh is working as a post doctoral research fellow in a Canadian University. We, as his parents feel happy and grateful to dear God that he found his own niche in life, and has been serving muse in his own humble way.


Word Count:1470