Priya Pathiyan
Deputy Editor
It’s the time of the year when the west of India has been resonating with the rhythmic click of the dandiyas and the east reverberating with the beat of the dhak all of last week. As in everything else about our country, there’s unity in the diversity of sound too.
We rarely realise it, but what we hear plays quite an important part in making memories, even holiday memories. Who can forget the roar of the Underground in London, of the Niagara Falls, the street noise in Mumbai? And just as fragrances waft in and out of our consciousness to remind us of where we’ve been, sounds too have a way of transporting us back. The jingle of the belly dance belt I bought in the Khan el-Khalili market when I shift things around on my wardrobe shelves beckons to me and brings back memories of colourful Cairo and belly dancers on that Nile cruise I took. The sweet calls of the bulbuls on my balcony parapet remind me of the naughty ones who spent entire days splashing in the water with me as I relaxed in my private swimming pool in the Banyan Tree in Phuket.
Now that I think about it, some of my most poignant travel memories have involved sound. Like when I was exploring Lucerne in Switzerland on my own and stopped by the 17th century church called Hofkirche St Leodegar to see its twin Gothic towers and to just sit for a while. I suddenly heard a unique fluting symphony and got up to investigate. I found a visually challenged girl making music from wine glasses filled with water to different levels! She sensed my presence and curiosity, gently took my hands in hers, and taught me how to do it even though she didn’t speak English and I didn’t speak German. I don’t really know why she was there, but to this day, whenever I’m handling a wine goblet, I can’t resist the temptation to moisten its rim and make my own music and revisit that surreal moment with the girl in the Hofkirche. Often, the most memorable souvenirs you bring back from a trip are the most intangible ones.
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