Songs in Context
Buried beneath the pile of hardbound books in the under-bed storage is a singular 8-GB SanDisk Pendrive. Around 6 mp3 files of miserable sound quality, grainy, and interspersed with shouts of enthusiastic children pushing each other on a swing. The folder had an interesting name- "Songs from the Red Town", last modified a couple of years ago. Just the other day, I was telling my friend that it was impossible to 'miss' a song, you could only miss the context that you heard it in. "Life is not made up of contexts or whatever academic jargon you have crammed up inside your brain". Justifiably reproachful. But what about songs that rose out of contexts- of Red Towns drowned in the yellow haze of neon lamp posts, of windy evenings by the Strand road and a white, ornate porch overlooking the mighty Hoogly on a weary afternoon? 'Songs from the Red Town' was conjured up at a 'ghat' in Serampore over cups of tea in cylindrical earthen cups. In a to