It was probably only a year ago that we were introduced to the Junior Super Singer Talent Contests on TV, featuring kids seven to 14 years old, on both the regional and national channels.
I am not talking about the amateur attempts of bashful kids with indulgent parents watching from the wings – I mean the pitch-perfect, highly trained little geniuses who seem to have made established singers just one generation elder to them look obsolete.
Whoever the singer may be – kid or young adult – whenever a perfect rendition of an evergreen or a favourite song is performed, a little ball of excitement builds up in me, and then the yearning for more of the same thing keeps eyes and ears glued to the screen, not brooking even a little distraction in the room, and treating every commercial break as a major irritation. Time flies – which never does with the same speed with any other programme on TV – and over an hour or two is spent in great satisfaction.
Considering myself an artiste of some calibre, I often wish, when watching these shows, that I was granted an equivalent power to move my readers through my writing.
And as I keep watching, the thought takes stronger and stronger roots that if they can, there is always hope for me. Often after a session of such pure inspiration, I am tempted to pull out my own tools – pen and paper – and take a shot at creating a masterpiece!
There have been moments from movies, and narrations from books which have moved me in a similar fashion – always expanding the vision of possibilities! The scene from Titanic, near the end, when Leonardo diCaprio speaks his final words to Kate Winslet, and disappears forever into the freezing waters had a crushing impact even though it was expected. Probably the way the whole story of the two young carefree lovers on the ship was told was what resulted in the impact of that untimely parting.
Coming to the singing contests, I had elected to view this particular one only nonchalantly, as generally programmes involving kids tend to be dragging, unless of course the kids are yours! But here I was hooked from Day 1 due to the quality of the talent.
I can imagine all the hard work put in by each kid to reach the stage we see them on. And the talent is such that 11-year-old Anjali, who came from Bangalore, and could hardly understand or speak Hindi, sang Hindi songs on this Hindi show, with great fidelity. In fact, she improved on the originals, and walked away with the top prize. It was a moment of magic only music could produce!
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