Did you know that some of the first sounds a baby hears inside the womb is the mother’s heartbeat? The rhythm of it was what each one of us had been holding on to for many of the initial months of our existence. Perhaps this explains why living beings are so closely connected to music, rhythms, and patterns.

It is truly fascinating to think how different parts of the world, with little to no connectivity with each other came up with music of their own, long before inventing most things that we call essential services now. That throws light to the thought that on a deeper level what heals us is music and art in general. And our yearning for the same makes every single one of us around the globe despite religion, caste, gender, and economic status same in our true essence.

India has always given much importance to all kinds of art forms, and Hindustani music is one of the pioneers among them. In the earlier days, before globalization, how Hindustani music was perceived and taught was largely gharana based. However, with technology bringing the world closer we have grown into admiring not just every gharana’s vision of music, but every genre of music as well, all the while keeping our roots intact. The variation in demographics of students in any music classes and/or singing classes shows how music is embraced by everyone despite what age group they belong to.

Even in fast paced cities like Bangalore, even though people are always busy, we see dozens of music academies and thousands of music lovers learning different forms of music solely for the love of it.

It is said that every piece of music has a mood. But I would like to change it to saying every mood has its music. No matter what you feel at any given moment, you can always find music that would make you feel better. Music therapy, the science that makes use of music to address the physical, emotional, cognitive, and social needs of a group or individuals, makes use of this beautiful quality of music.

I would like to believe that a part of this is because we feel safer with music, just like how we had felt while inside our mothers’ womb. Like getting back home after a long day.