Alice, in Wonder Land

My Desktop, thanks to Vladstudio

Giraffes flying away into the blue shedding their spots, multi-coloured elephant-balloons in a happy girl’s hand, luminous creatures in the sky, an orange striped octopus playing the piano under the blue sea, ethereal scenes of snow and Christmas colors, quirky characters and images from Alice in Wonderland, a topsy-turvy map, with all the oceans as countries, fantasy putting reality to shame – this was your entry into the magical world of  Vlad Gerasimov, a graphic artist from Irkutsk, Siberia, where once upon a time Russian intellectuals and artists were sent into exile. (“..And much of the city's cultural heritage comes from them; many of their wooden houses, adorned with ornate, hand-carved decorations, survive today in stark contrast with the standard Soviet apartment blocks that surround them.”)

A friend introduced you to Vlad’s site, and in no time you had taken a lifetime subscription to his art, which is available as wallpapers, e-cards, posters, T shirts, and post cards – perfect gift items. You mail him to show your appreciation (“All that is not given, is lost”), and get a reply.  In July 2010, his little daughter is born, and you are not surprised to learn he’s named her Alice :)

Much later, you come across this beautiful lullaby, Nindiya Re, by this Pakistani band, Kaavish, and you send it to all the people you know who have small kids. You of course remember Alice, though you hesitate for a moment – will they like this, in Russia? Then you remember Mera Jootha Hai Japani and Raj Kapoor and the woman from Kyrgyzstan that you met briefly one morning in France, who spoke of her town’s love for Indian music – and you send the song to Vlad too.  Vlad absolutely loves the song. He searches for other songs of the band, and sends you some of his favorite Russian songs in return.

And then the other day you get a mail from him, with the lines:


“Here is the video of my little Alice listening to Kaavish with all her attention :-)
http://vimeo.com/31782266

And then her grandmother sends me this video - magical! She keeps making them play the video for her on repeat, every night before going to bed, even though she still cannot speak: http://vimeo.com/32851256

The sweetness of it, this normally hyperactive, curious little Siberian kid sitting absolutely still, watching a Pakistani man singing her a lullaby in Hindi, entranced, lost in wonder, a state children have easy access to. Only when the song is over does she finally move her head.

There is no one specific area in the brain which can be mapped to our capacity to appreciate music, there is no music centre, like a speech centre and sight centre, as Oliver Sacks explains in his book Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain. Music spans more areas in our brain than language does, we are wired to appreciate music, irrespective of race, age, culture. Indeed, if anything can unite us, music can. (As these brilliant musicians know, as do so many others - http://playingforchange.com/.)

Words are all you have, and you are fully aware of their limitations. Knowing that you will forever stand just outside the doors of heaven, because words are not quite sufficient to take you all the way in, they are not really the language of rapture, you often re-read this section from one of the finest short stories you have ever come across:

"What a strange, wondrous thing, music. At last the chattering mind is silenced. No past to regret, no future to worry about, no more frantic knitting of words and thoughts. Only a beautiful, soaring nonsense.

Sound - made pleasing and intelligible through melody, rhythm, harmony and counterpoint - becomes our thinking. The grunting of language and the drudgery of semiotics is left behind. Music is a bird's answer to the noise and heaviness of words. It puts the mind in a state of exhilarating speechlessness.

During the Concerto in B flat, music was my thinking. I don't recall any words, only a light and fluctuating state of being-in-music."

Page 116, 'The Time I heard the Private Donald J.Rankin String Concerto with One Discordant Violin, by the American Composer John Morton'- from the book 'The Facts behind the Helsinki Roccamatios' by Yann Martel

You would like to think that little Alice will experience this wonder too one day, and that wonder-land with its infinite riches, will never be closed to her.


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