It was not cacophonous horns or the emission from vehicles for 130 city traffic personnel on Saturday morning. But they had a pleasant start to the day as they were exposed to soothing music for an hour at the deer park.
The personnel took part in an hour-long music therapy session conducted by United Consciousness team, led by Marvin Fernandes.
“They are under extreme stress in discharging their duty in the humid environment. We are exposing them to music therapy, which helps to keep the mind relaxed,” said Mr. Fernandes, whose team has conducted over 500 therapy sessions in the city and other parts of the country.
In addition to these 130 personnel, some city police officers, including Police Commissioner N. Shashi Kumar, participated in the session held in a corner.
The participants sat on the passageways by spreading out their mats, while Mr. Fernandes sat in the centre along with his two fellow artists Gautam C. Rao and Bhuvan Shetty. The team had brought a range of instruments including happy drum, tum drum, Tibetian bowls, and bongos.
Speakers were placed at appropriate places for the participants to hear the music.
The session started at 7.15 a.m. with Mr. Gautam playing guitar and singing a soulful Kannada song Nagu, konegu, ninagu.
Mr. Fernandes then took over and made the personnel do some breathing exercises. He then asked the participants to close their eyes and hear chirping bird and other sounds.
Mr. Fernandes, followed by Mr. Shetty, rolled stick around Tibetian bowls of different sizes that produced humming sounds. Mr. Fernandes also played tum drum as participants laid down on the mat.
Not everyone could go into meditative mode because of mosquito bites and problem in hearing the music. The hour-long session ended at 8.15 a.m.
Thanking the team for holding the session, Mr. Kumar said he would explore with the team to expose more personnel to the new age music therapy.
Assistant Commissioner of Police M.A. Nataraj and inspectors P.D. Savitra Tej, Mohammed Sharief, G. Gopalakrishna Bhat, and Gurudutt Kamath participated in the programme.
