Nasha (Nesha) and The Master of Nirvana

During my school days whenever I heard the Hindi word “Nasha” or “Nesha” in Bengali (which means intoxication), the ideas that used to knock on the doors of my heavenly holy mind were cricket, soccer, carom, detective story books and films by Mr. Satyajit Ray. On summer vacations after having lunch, reading detective stories of “Feluda” and “Byomkesh” was like a routine stuff for me, and then I used to fall asleep leaving those books on my face. Really it was one of those better and cherished memories of my childhood. But fortunately or unfortunately meaning of certain words doesn’t remain the same throughout one’s life. Different phases of life, experience and maturity; these factors put their paws on some words or feelings, and their values and meaning change dramatically. And it happened to me the same for the word “Nasha” too, just like mountains and ocean have shared my love as I grew up with age. Thanks to my Dad’s job I travelled a lot during my childhood with him, and I remember in my school days I visited lot more mountains than sea beaches. One typical attribute of childhood is that what ever you see, your thinking and process of falling in love lies in the same line. The gigantic presence of mountains made a heavy impact on me and truly I felt how small I am with respect to this special sculpture of nature. To develop my love on sea I had to wait a long time, until I sat on the beaches of Goa almost the whole night with a bottle of beer in my hand and saw those waves kissing my toes and then going away from me, with an unwritten assurance that it will come back again only to go away and I would grasp those sands like a clone love of water time and again, but all in vain. Sounds quite heavy na!! Ok, one simple example. There was this scene in the movie “Tejab” where Anil kapoor rescues Madhuri from a gang of bad men, and then they set out for a night ride in a caravan. The song “Soh gaya yeh jaha” kicks off but Anil and Madhuri never speaks during the song they just look at each other thinking some one would break the shackle at some point of time. I saw “Tejab” first time when I was in primary school, and I dint quite understood the reason of their silence in spite of being in love. Now when I see the movie I feel that there are times when you can’t speak, and silence speaks thousands words for you.

By the way I was talking about intoxication. Now when I come to hear the word “Nasha” it feels some thing different than before; “Don’t use drugs, it’s a sin”, “intoxication is injurious to health” these typical statutory warnings I could only think of. Frankly speaking I had a friend group when I was in college, who dealt with intoxication heavily; now seen and quite rightly accused as a common practice of college goers. But for an exception in my case, none of those my friends were from my college and music played a very integral part in those sessions. Most of them were older than me, but some how I convinced them that though I am not going to taste the drugs like them, but I like the music they prefer and I like their company and their heavily intellectual discussions. Luckily they took me in their team. They say youth will always prefer those who take time to talk about their life, their thoughts and their numerous complexions and problems. Now in “Bewra-firangi- music-loving-community”, the undisputed king of Drug sessions is none other “Pink Floyd”. When I asked the reason of such tag they say that PF’s psychedelic sound some how grows on you similar to drugs and in one way or the other they shake their hands with each other and make a very heavy and composite impact on mind with its lyrics too. Our group was really spoilt for choices. The legends they banked upon were Lennon, Jim Morison, Sid barrette and many others, who themselves were “All-time-bewra-greats” of music world. Thank god, I lived a part of my life with those guys, other wise I am quite sure that I could never feel Kurt Cobaine and his band Nirvana like I feel now. Kurt and his songs came as a birthday gift to me from those guys on the day crossed my teen age. Crossing the threshold was made so melodramatic that they played the number “feels like a teen spirit” for me, followed by “come as you are” a song of a true and lost friendship. The album was “Nevermind” and it was sarcasm of its highest level. Kurt was truly an object of intoxication for me. Nirvanas music was so grungy but yet so poppy in its nature, that it actually touched my sensibilities and quench of melody, being an Indian. I would sit in my study room making the whole room dark and listen to Kurt for hours. I would fry and pan free the sticky oils of my failures and frustration listening to Kurt’s husky brushed high pitched voice and think why this guy stopped or rather not allowed in his life going beyond the age of 27. After Karna’s character in Mahabharata, if someone else’s death shattered my senses then it was Kurt for sure. I confess that I could not by heart most of the Kurt’s songs, but one thing I understood from the short length of most of his songs that this guy is not ready to waste any time and effort talking unnecessary words. There was this song “Something in the way” which was so low voiced, I could hardly listen to what Kurt was saying, but when I read the lyrics, I found it was me and many like me. The magic of Kurt’s lyrics was hidden in the fact that he literally “beeped” grammar and put more emphasis on musicalities of words. . Like the word “memoria” in “come as you are”. And meaning of those words too change with time. Lyrics that he wrote were very two dimensional, you read it once you get one meaning you listen to again and again magically you feel something different he wants to say. I put Kurt in the same league of Lennon and Dylan, who were more poets than a singer. Kurt touched the disenfranchised youth’s heart, because youth could relate to Kurts fidelity and honesty of work. For example in the song “Polly” where Kurt stood by that girl who was raped in a Punk rock concert or in “Smells like a teen spirit” where he asks the youth for massive destruction of the society and rebuilding it once again. The Video was a bonus. The dancing cheer girls, the mad students of “Oakwood” jumping, thumping and pumping in excitement and enthusiasm and between all of them there was Kurt, a personality who is no different than those students, in fact he reacts like one of them only. Pushing Michael Jackson down on the charts of billboard, would be good example of the fact that up to what level Nirvana gained its popularity as a band.

Nirvana was, is and would always be a course of my life like many others. I can see T-shirts with Kurt’s face on it, more than any other legend of any other field and its growing day by day. Kurt’s popularity among youth will not only remain the same but it will grow as ever across the world, though Kurt is no more. And here I feel an urge to say something.
Kurt’s music is “Nasha” for sure, and it’s different by its genre style and lyrics than others. Take the “Maza” of this “Nasha” only, don’t fall on different track my dear friend, because it’s very easy and quite obvious too. Even I had many experiences during college fests where students would bring their objects of intoxications to their musical Rock gurus in green rooms, so that they taste the “Prasad” and make it holy for them. That’s the different track. Some accepted some did not. Rock is sure a culture more than a genre of music but in no way it can be an excuse of dealing on drugs in the name of music. I can’t argue whether this legends would create this sort of music without taking drugs or not but I can assure you that taking the fun of it, don’t require the same.