Songs that call our heart out into stories

Anima (Pen name) was returning home after a hectic day, and while her eyes were bamboozled with the busy roads of the metropolitan, her ears were soothed with a melody that had been playing for over a week. A story born with melody. Her tiresome body finds a sense of peace as she returns to her place, and her heart feels more alive than ever.

The phases of love, from the start to the end of Gulbahar's lover, made her remember some feelings that she had been escaping for a long time. It made her relatable to the muddy and bumpy streets, the stuck traffic and an exhausted time. Because with this song accompanying her, she no longer felt disconnected. She remembered how she had lived with so many songs throughout different phases of her life, and how those songs had comforted her every time. Songs at this point felt like a warm cup of tea.

The bridge in between

Music is often imagined as the bridge between our reality and surrealism. It takes us through the journeys that we come back to again and again. Just like a dear loop of life, a favourite song embraces us in the known lanes of stories.

And then stories bloom with melody- stories stay with the hidden rhythm of our heartbeat. We all must have felt bad for the teenage boy who awaits one tiny glimpse of Rubi Roy when the singer pours his heart into words, "Mone pore Rubi Roy kobitay tomake-ekdin koto kore dekechi? (Do you even remember Rubi Roy, how many times I have called you through my poetry?"

Modern-day Spotify, the nostalgic trip of audio cassettes and memory cards full of unnecessary data and the songs close to our hearts-have been weaving the strings of memories that remain in the structure of our minds.

The mind often looks for plots, and the heart craves for stories. Stories are told with a lyrical pattern and become songs with a narrative. The stories delved into music do not have any language barrier, and we find Bangladeshi listeners vibing with an old English song.

Researcher and ML Engineer Prokash Sikder cherishes the story narrated in the song 'Don't Cry Joni' from the year of 1975, "Even if the time duration in this song feels like roughly 10-12 years, but the memory of Jimmy and Joni is so vast that it embarks upon for a lifetime.

How the trace of a one-sided love blooms and then goes to the most intense peak, only to reach a mundane reality of mature understanding, is where we all grew up. The pain of the separation, the craving for validation from the desired person- it must be all relatable to people out there."

Places that we explore through music

Travel and food vlogger Meer Raihan Masud shares multiple stories in one feeling, the essence of music- "When I listen to a song, no specific character or person comes to my mind. Rather, I can visualise a scenario. As I think about the song 'Kanchenjunga' by Anjan Dutt, I feel like reading a long, complete novel. That has a sure start and an ending point. And then, when I travel to those spots in India, a passionate search for those places mentioned in the song chases me. The essence of a place beautifully put into a song is what mesmerises me. And sometimes a song is what connects me to a place more than before. I can still remember a night in 2013-14 when I was walking through the Shadow, a dear place on the Dhaka University campus, on a rainy night. I can close my eyes and just hum into 'Wo lamhe' and tune with that one night. Whenever I enter the lanes of my campus, somewhere in my heart, a mild breeze flows, and I feel the song of Atif Aslam, 'Hum kis gali jaa rahe hain- Aapna koyi thikana nehi.' Whether we have somewhere to reach or not, songs in the way will always be with us. Whenever I was in Darjeeling, I always wanted to know for sure if there was a Shankar Hotel (mentioned in Kanchenjunga) or not. The alternative dilemma of our hustling city life often reminds me of the description in the song. Characters also amuse me, but not in a limited sense. As for me, Mala of Anjan Dutt is not a specific person - I can relate the question the singer keeps asking to anyone, anyone from the same context."

Some people do not relate directly, but depict an interpretation of their own. And that is why, when Sweety of ARK's song does not understand anything her lover says, Mubashshira Tasnim Moon from the Department of Mass Communication & Journalism at Dhaka University feels that the lover is angrily expressing his passionate love. Who knows what happened to Sweety or her lover? The sweetness of love always finds the way to enter our hearts with a musical touch.

The saga of songs with stories cannot be fulfilled without the timeless mention of 'Coffee house-er shei addata aaj aar nei.' Every friend group that used to hang out in a shared space and have parted ways might have sung this song together at some point. The memories of their friendship endure in the poignant and magical story of a time that is now lost.

The past vs present of emotions

But are songs as magical as they used to be? Are we still capable enough to receive a song so heartfully that we could in our teenage years?

Do melodies rhyme in that exact harmony with our heart, or maybe we have just come to a point where we meet a song and leave halfway, as we do for people and some of our dreams?

Meer Raihan Masud explains the reason and experience from his perspective, "I believe that with time, the relevance of songs have been decaying as I cannot vouch for today's Gulbahar for one more year when it has now so much attention and hype on social media, but I feel that I have listening to Mala for many years. It still feels the same. The short attention span of people has an impact on that for sure."

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