My dear fellow travelers,
Please bear with me till the time I cook the right recipe for you. Yeah right, a recipe that includes me, myself and my guitar. And that is all I need for cooking this dish. So here it goes…
Since my childhood, one (and perhaps the only) thing I was good at was “fingering”. However, it took me a hell lot of time to realize how to utilize those fingers at the right place. And, the day that realization came, I bought a guitar. Before I come to the guitar dish, let me fill you with some ingredients that are essential for my recipe. Of course, I identified these ingredients much later, but hell “who cares”. As it’s said “life can be understood backwards, but it can only be lived forward”. Therefore, on the hindsight, I reckon it was worth it. Oh! I apologize again for my random rants. I often lose my focus and repeat myself. Never mind.
Alright folks, let’s get going.
The first thing required for this recipe: Desire.
God knows for how long I had been longing to play guitar. As a kid I often used to hop on to my sister’s Hawaiian guitar, and played some irritating sounds that could even made Hendrix jealous. My mother’s “one tight slap” one fine day brought an end to that. Hendrix died that day. And then life moved on.
Second thing: Determination
All that wind knows is blowing; it only changes its direction from one place to another. Likewise, all my fingers knew was fingering. So, I started to use my fingers elsewhere. More often than not I placed them in the wrong place and got myself screwed in the bargain. Never mind. The motto of telling you this is one simple thing: determination. Let not even God deter your determination. My life and my fingers still moved on.
Third thing: Dream
What goes around comes around. Hell! It surely came around with a bang. Call it your bad karma; I simply call it my bad placement—placement of fingers that is. Oftentimes, while listening to Metallica my fingers would start moving naturally. Even in my dreams I used to think that I am playing guitar in front of a big audience, and suddenly this audience would turn hostile. They started laughing and booing me. I got stuck and sucked into this dream. My dream became my nightmare. This was when I thought “Enough is enough”!
Life still moved on but this time with a change.
Fourth thing: Realization
The most important ingredient of all, without which it will not only be incomplete, but also be so tasteless that it would be impossible for you to eat. Unfortunately, you can add this only in the end. I know it’s weird but that’s the way it is.
Realization served two things for my dish:
- Dish is strictly for an individual. Nobody else can share it with me. Nobody can share the misery, nor would they share the joy of preparing it.
- I knew I can never play like Knopfler or write like Dostoevsky. However, I also knew one thing that one day I can say: “Son, I suck at almost everything that I did in my life. Still I learnt my guitar. And I am proud of that .
That’s pretty much about it. I know I cannot share the taste of this recipe but I learnt something while making this dish which I surely would like to share with you:
Every human being wants to do something which makes him/her complete, and which is regardless of the results.
Go deep inside, explore, find such thing, and just do it today! And don’t forget to share with me as well.
Small caveat:
Repentance is the father of all masturbation. Avoid the father, and enjoy the son. And, don’t blame me if it still tastes bitter.
Cheers!
