A Tribute to The Beatles...

As I write this, I am adorned in my much favored Beatles t-shirt,
terribly missing my huge Beatles poster back home, and listening to
'I'll follow the sun'...

There are many musicians that I absolutely adore, but none quite like
The Beatles. No matter what is said about them, it is an understatement.
The Beatles sang about anything and everything, one band that has made
music for all moods. They reaffirmed the notion that each one of us has
the whole universe within us, we just need to recognise it. They did.
All of us can relate to all their songs at one point or another.
I am reminded of the scene in sliding doors when Helen boards the train
and meets James for the first time, and he talks of the Beatles, 'Everybody's
born knowing all the Beatles lyrics instinctively. They're passed into the
fetus subconsciously along with all the amniotic stuff. Fact, they should be
called "The Fetals".'

What Beatles demand is fanatism, nothing less than that. One either has blind
faith in The Beatles, or no faith at all. They were not only musicians, they
were revolutionists. The Beatles was not a band, it was a movement. Their songs
are consumed with Existential values. Perhaps that is why they are eternal.

Let me take this opportunity to talk about the relevance of their songs even today.
'She's leaving home' was written and sung by John Lennon and Paul McCartney in 1967-

Wednesday morning at five o'clock as the day begins
Silently closing her bedroom door
Leaving the note that she hoped would say more
She goes downstairs to the kitchen clutching her handkerchief
Quietly turning the backdoor key
Stepping outside she is free.

She (We gave her most of our lives)
is leaving (Sacrificed most of our lives)
home (We gave her everything money could buy)
She's leaving home after living alone
For so many years. Bye, bye

Father snores as his wife gets into her dressing gown
Picks up the letter that's lying there
Standing alone at the top of the stairs
She breaks down and cries to her husband Daddy our baby's gone
Why would she treat us so thoughtlessly
How could she do this to me.

She (We never thought of ourselves)
is leaving (Never a thought for ourselves)
home (We struggled hard all our lives to get by)
She's leaving home after living alone
For so many years. Bye, bye

Friday morning at nine o'clock she is far away
Waiting to keep the appointment she made
Meeting a man from the motor trade.

She (What did we do that was wrong)
is having (We didn't know it was wrong)
fun (Fun is the one thing that money can't buy)
Something inside that was always denied
For so many years. Bye, bye
She's leaving home. Bye, bye

This song is the story of each one of us, even today. Rather,
more so today. It talks of needs misinterpreted, love miscalculated,
loneliness misunderstood...

Most of us take material things to be fulfilling. But one who
recognizes that there's more to life than that is rendered lonely,
not necessarily alone. And his/her loneliness is then considered to
be an insult to the ones who have provided for that person. But what
have they provided? Things that stop mattering after a certain point.
One can't take an abundance of anything, least of all things that money
can buy. And perhaps it is then that one begins to question this life,
to look for something to transcend all the ephemeral things in life. This
is what this songs evokes in me, and so much more.

Then there is Nowhere Man, which each one of us are; Lady Madonna - everyone
encounters so many of them! And then of course, 'I'll follow the sun' which is
the story of my life... :)