Hey Jude!

It was the year 2012. I was in the 7th grade in a missionary school in Sambalpur, a little known town in Odisha. At that point of time it would have been wild for me to imagine myself listening to British music from the 60s. I was a little aware about the then current music scenario. But listening to the music that are, say, more than 20-25 years old, I never had that kind of an exposure. I had no idea who The Beatles were. I didn’t know that people out there, both young and old, were crazy about this band.

The 2012 London Summer Olympics in a way introduced me to this sensation called The Beatles. What I saw on the television though was a little different than the general image of the band that people have. It wasn’t the band of young boys like One Direction, jumping around singing songs about love and life. I saw only one old man on a huge stage, a blindingly-shiny piano, accompanied by a few young men with other instruments. It was Paul McCartney. I remember wondering what the big deal was really about this man. I asked my mother, she was clueless too. She just asked me to listen as he couldn’t have been that bad if he is asked to close the opening ceremony of the Olympics with his song. She was right.

The lyrics were simple. Even though English is not my first language, I didn’t need subtitles to understand each and every word of that song. That was the first time that I heard ‘Hey Jude’. The whole crowd, thousands of people were singing along with McCartney. It was a whole vibe. I remember how that 7 minute long song got stuck in my mind for years to come. Our generation is not used to that length, we mostly listen to shorter songs, 3-4 minutes at most. This song is a happy exception.

Over the years, this song has meant so many different things to me. As a teenager, it was a love song for me, pushing me to be expressive about my feelings. At times it gave me strength, at times just pleasure. Sometimes it just made me nostalgic and emotional. During the pandemic it has been a song of hope for me. This song screams to me not to be afraid, not to carry the world upon my shoulders. It’s beautiful how a song that was recorded more than 50 years ago, could still pull the strings of our hearts.

In the 8th grade, I happened to come across the re-run of an American sitcom from the 80s ‘The Wonder Years’ on a channel called Comedy Central. The impact that this show had on me would take up another article. It was on this show that I heard the song “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” playing somewhere in the background. I got hooked to this song and found myself humming it all the time. Google told me that it was also by The Beatles. There’s nothing extra about this song. It’s just an easy breezy happy song about a guy wanting to hold his beloved’s hand. But it fills your heart with immeasurable joy.

I came across a newspaper article the next summer that said that the band One Direction reminded everyone of The Beatles. I was (still am) a huge fan of One Direction at that time, like every other teenage girl all over the world was. I even had a scrapbook. Sue me. Their songs induce the same joy in me that The Beatles do. You know, that familiar deja vu kind of feeling. They take me back to my teenage years, happy times. The best thing is that these are not the only things that make me happy. There are thousands of other things. The same is the case with everyone else. The number of things that make us happy exceed the number of things that make us sad by a huge number.

All of us have this beautiful habit of attaching art to certain moments in our lives. A song, a painting, a show, a dialogue, a poem, a scene! The moments need not be very significant but the art that is attached to it gives it meaning. My mother smiles every time she listens to the song ‘Phoolon ke rang se’. I wonder why that song makes her so happy. I am glad it does. Me and my friends enjoy sending stickers to each other on WhatsApp. It’s stupid, but it makes us happy. I personally like visiting my past through literature and art. People out there are having regular seminars, poetry meets, picking up new hobbies, talking to friends, having cultural exchange, etc. All of it online. Isn’t it amazing how we are making the most out of such tough times? It certainly is. Cheers to us all!

These are difficult times. This is exactly why it is really important for us to do whatever makes us happy. I noticed that amidst all the problems and the darkness, people are cribbing a lot. All of us are going through a lot. Let’s be vocal about our problems, yes. Let’s seek help, yes. But please let’s not crib and make our lives (and others’ too) difficult. Life is short. Let’s use it to appreciate art, both old and new. Let’s live a little.