I don’t know about you but I listen to music whenever I am ‘doing’ something. I listen to music while I am driving, while I am reading, while I am writing, while I am cooking and in fact, listen to music whenever wherever…but music by itself is an unexplored territory.

This Sunday’s Listening Post was a different experience.

It was my first Listening Post at LaMakaan. Obviously, being closely associated with the Hyderabad Western Music Foundation, I had heard of Joe Koster’s attempt to make the Post popular. But what kept me away was a combination of Sunday afternoon laziness, other pre-occupations and a doubt that sitting in a crowd and listening to music may not be a very satisfying experience.

Please don’t get me wrong. I have gone for concerts and ‘listened’ to music. From Jazz Yatras to Rock shows I’ve had my share of musical extravaganzas. And oh yes, I have a friend who used to take me to his house in the wee hours of the morning and make me listen to different genres of music, and teach me to appreciate every note, every nuance by playing me the tracks on a high end system that brought the music to life.

So it’s not that I haven’t listened to music in isolation, though I must confess that many of the times I did so, I was primed with energizing substances of the dangerous kinds.

I walked into LaMakaan with some trepidation and picked up a lime juice glass to cool me down. And then entered the tea room that had been converted into an auditorium for the afternoon. There was a screen and on it there was a frozen image of Elvis Presley in front of which my friend Subhorup was giving some gyaan.

Over the next hour or so we were lead through a labyrinth of musical alleys…a jazz influence. a jazz rendition, a Beatles background, a Shirley Bassey masterpiece and so on…

I walked out, satiated…musically full and knowledge enhanced, even if it was trivia that I had added to my collection of anecdotes.

And I realized that there was a zone where music reigned supreme and did not need any crutches for pleasure. Not even a classy sound system. Just the silence of a group of fellow music lovers who opened up to finding out just that little bit more about their music and musicians.

And I felt proud that it was a Hyderabad Western Music Foundation initiative…Keep it up Joe, Shakila…and the others…well done!