Chris Rocks

Prologue: Drop of Life is a category of blogs which carry small Anecdotes or very short story that carries the reflection of life in every drop. 

This morning Christopher had woken up with a strange feeling. He was staring at the mirror. He was hallucinating and the image in the mirror was laughing at him. He saw himself being surrounded by so many people with various musical instruments and all of them were about to start the greatest musical event. The image of Chris had a seamless pride in place. The audiences were cheering for him with placards that read "Chris Rocks…". All these images dissolved in a ripple and Chris startled for a moment which broke his hallucination. The tired image of himself looked back and stared at him.

Chris is a violinist. When he was a child Chris saw a beautiful piece of article in his uncle’s room, that had beautiful carvings which flowed along its sides and tightly stretched strings covered from one end to the other. Chris was fascinated by the look of it. As he held it with his little fingers there were two hands on his shoulder. His uncle stood back and smiled at him. He took Chris on his laps and held the instrument and placed one end on his shoulder. He held the other end and took Chris hand to hold it. Then he took a long stick like instrument, pushed it on to Chris’s hand and held it gently. Then made it flow on to the strings in a rhythmic motion moving Chris’s tiny fingers to put pressure on the strings. Chris found himself amidst of profound eternity. His moment of truth as the music flowed out of the instrument. His uncle looked into his surprised and startled eyes and said "V-i-o-l-i-n…" Chris tried to say it back…"Voyalieen!!!" From that moment onwards he had fallen in love with this and aspired to be the greatest violinist one day. Not a day has been passed by the last twenty years where in he hadn’t forgot to picture himself as the greatest violinist.

Chris hails from a middle class family which had the financial status of just meeting the daily needs and saving a few for rainy days. On hearing to Chris’s dream his mom always said, "One day an angel’s touch would change your life!". But Chris did not know when that day would come. He finished an arts degree in music and tried various music directors in the film industry for a violinist position. But in vain he could not get one. He could not afford to keep searching for an opportunity. He had to take care of the financial need of his family. One of the large hotels in the town wanted a violinist to entertain their guests who had come for dining. Chris joined here 5 years back while in parallel searching for his dream. But day by day the dream looked far for him. He was seeing himself getting dissolved as a dot in the entire crowd of people searching for a break through in the music. As the passion dies down the creativity comes down as well.

His life has become a monotonous routine where in he went every evening to the Hotel and played till late night. At the end of every performance there was a mechanical applause from the audience. Every one would have applauded for any kind of effort Chris would have put in. Chris was not sure if any one really appreciated his music. The Hotel was located near the town hall of the city and was a two storey building. It was a unique restaurant which sported the pre-independence era as the theme. All the inner settings resembled the interiors found during the colonial rule. The waiters and hosts were dressed in the ancient East India company like costumes with long red coats with a white trouser and neatly polished black shoes custom made to order. They wore a black cap on their head and few of them even had a different kind of wig. Chris also had to wear such a costume and play his violin.  The moment he picked up the violin Chris would forget himself and get lost in the waves of the music he created. But this whole monotonous nature and mechanical environment was slowly taking away his passion. The hotel manager had asked him couple of days back why there is no much life in his performance nowadays. Chris could not tell anything to him…

"How many more days?", Chris said to himself looking away from the mirror. He then lifted his violin neatly packed in its case and set out for the evening performance. The evening sky was changing its color rapidly from blue to orange to red and then became dark. The hotel had quite a number guests today. Its strange that there were people from different background and different countries sitting across the table and happily chatting. Each of the table encompassed a whole life which was unique in its own way, separated only by a few feet. How many such lives Chris comes across every day but not taking any efforts to peep into them. Each table had a neatly spread cloth on it. A flower vase and a candle that was lit and would make the faces around the table visible to others. Chris started to play his violin.

Chris closed his eyes and started playing his violin. As he was playing he saw a beautiful shadow dancing in his eyes. It was making very fine irregular movements that was resonating with his tunes. He just opened his eyes and saw there was a cute little girl of about six years dancing before him. She was moving her small feet to the notes of the tune and circled around. Chris for the first time felt his music was so much recognized. As he finished playing the song the small feet stopped and the beautiful little blue eyes stared into his smile. It was not happy with the music being stopped. For a moment Chris was getting lost in the expression and then realized what was expected from him. He started playing his next tune. It was the heart song of Chris not recorded by any one before. He started playing it with a great zeal. The small feet moved more faster than before and she was circling the empty tables and chairs. Chris followed her playing the tune with a smile on his face. Both of them were lost between themselves. They did not realize that the entire hotel was looking at them. In fact this was the first time that the guests were looking at Chris. Every time Chris would finish playing a song she would frown and having a puzzled expression why he stopped and go and sit on a chair. And Chris would start again with fresh energy. She would smile and get down and start dancing to the tunes. The tune from the violin and the feet were resonating in the whole hall. This spectacular event went on for thirty minutes or so. Then there was the loud applause from the audience which Chris was very much familiar of. But this time he was not hearing it in his dream but in real. The sound of reality has a magic in itself no imagination could replace it. It flowed as a wave in Chris’s heart and he started playing his violin as a thank you note for all the applause. This again was greeted with a much louder applause. Chris felt more complete today. The little girl’s father had come and picked her up and praised her. He took her to give her food and thanked Chris.

A middle aged gentleman dressed in a black suit walked up to Chris and shook hands with a smile. "That was really excellent!!!", he said. Chris said "Thank you sir!!!".

"Do you play here everyday?"

"Yes Sir"

"Do you do anything else other than this?"

"No Sir… I do not do anything else"

"Would you be interested in joining my troop? I am Tejas and I am popularly known as TJ"

"TJ!!!!…" Chris couldn’t believe his eyes. TJ was well known composer in the music world and it is a dream for many people to at least perform a concert with him. Chris couldn’t believe what had happened. He was not sure if he had asked him to join the troop or was he hallucinating again. TJ broke his confusion and made it clear by asking again "Would you join my troop?"

"Oh yes yes!!! That would be the best thing for me…Thank you Sir…err.. Thank you so much…I can’t believe I am talking to you…"

TJ smiled and pushed a card in Chris’ hand and said "Meet me at my studio tomorrow morning 11 AM".

"Sure Sir…" said Chris.

TJ smiled and walked away. Chris was floating in cloud nine. As he was packing his violin, the family to which the little girl belonged were leaving the hotel. Chris hugged her and said "You were so good…and Thank you…" The little girl smiled. He asked, "What’s your name?" She kissed him and said "Pari…" (Angel) and laughed as she walked away with her father.

Chris froze for few moments and looked in the direction she had gone with tears filled in his eyes. His Mom’s words were echoing in his ears "One day an angel’s touch would change your life!"