Of Mountains
a practical manual on creating mountains out of almost nothing
Often, almost always, heard at a gig’s soundcheck: “Sounded massive!”
Me: “But was it as massive as me?”
The word massive is related (possibly parent) to the word massif (French I think) which is the term used to describe a group or range of mountains. I like the idea that in my massiveness I’m like a mountain. I like mountains; that and other things make me a mountain man even though I grew up and have lived in the plains. I’m one better, really. I’m a mountain that walks, like a Treebeard of mountains. There are real benefits to that. When we were in Iceland a few months back, there were times when the wind was blowing something fierce, I was my wife’s personal mountain behind which she found some shelter. So you want to move mountains and claim success, find me; that’s your only shot at it. However, this is about the only advantage to a little mountain that walks, for the lack of deep roots caused me too on occasion to be blown away. I was a massive existential question blowin’ in the wind.
We learnt in school the names of the tallest mountains in each continent. No school geography book told me about Antarctica. I found that outside of my school curriculum because I have always been curious. And I was also a quizzer; a massively successful one considering the number of competitions I won. Winning peddling utterly useless information, which is the point of quizzes; to be an expert in trivia. Well, not entirely useless; I won a lot of open quizzes which meant cash prizes. Always useful you know, cash. Helped me build a good part of my music cassette collection those days. Well, Antactica then. The tallest mountain peak in the white continent is Mount Vinson measured at 4,892 m. high. It’s part of the Vinson Massif. Not quite the Himalayas but still massif enough.
I stopped competing in quiz competitions years back. But I retain my penchant for the trivial. Hence my quite frequent writing of drivel such as this. Here’s an exercise for you, children: search and find if ‘trivial’ and ‘drivel’ are homophones or synonyms or offspring of a jolly alliance between the two. Or wholly unrelated. Oh! what a jolly, gay time shall be had!
As I got older, I abandoned trivial pursuits and started chasing the flow of music. Not in making but in nudging others to make music. At some point in time, I started organising live gigs and tours for purveyors of that nebulously termed art called ‘independent’ music. I had a few bands over from Europe tour India too. All the open quiz prize money I earned for my unhealthy obsession with trivia got blown away in my even unhealthier obsession with promoting music. Many, many, many times over. There was no personal mountain, walking or rooted, to offer me shelter from that storm. And always, always there was:
“Soundcheck sounding massive, bro!”
Life is not straight. It meanders. The more it meanders, the more interesting it has the chance to be. But in the end, nothing really matters as the song goes; or rather the rambunctious mash-up of two songs (even better). The path circles back to where it started.
So read this whole thing again now.
P.S.: ever encountered the circular reference error in MS-Excel, especially when the formula you keyed in was really long?
More P.S.: I have a penchant for musical references too. Massively.
Even more P.S.: you may replace the P here (and the two above) with B.
How interesting to read about so many aspects of your life, woven together with word play. And me too, living in the plains but love/ admire the mountains. Something about the energy they hold. Massive :)
Massive or Massif, whatever you call them, mountains are mountains, however high they are. Mighty and standing tall against every odd.
Like you, I was born in the plains, and the highest point near my home was 1145 meters. I saw it for the first time as a kid and fell in love with the mountains forever. And I am more fascinated with the secrets of mountains hidden under the clouds.
Thanks for the image of the known/unknown mountains from the remote land, I wish to visit someday.