Bang Bang : My experiments with music

Music has a very soothing effect on babies and that it is good to play devotional and instrumental music even when they are asleep, I was told. Our experimentation with music for Lil General started when he was only a few weeks old. There was no choice then - either Rhymes or the shlokas that played over and over again until the DVD player could cry. Shlokas - a set of 20 comprising all the Sahasranamams, ashtakams, sashti kavacham etc calmed him down and put him to sleep every time I played it. So I know what to play when I have to put him to sleep..

He would see with eye wide open for the rhymes DVD. And I also know what to play to distract him from everything and not feel my absence in the room.

When we moved to Pune, The Seniol started playing his blues collection. The boy went bonkers and would beat his hands and legs in excitement for a good 30 mins until it totally drained him. Every morning, we played a different CD. B.B. King's "Reflections" has by far been his favorite one.

A strange thing happened today. With the diarrhoea episode still continuing, I was trying to feed him Electral and I gave up after 10 mins with not even 1 ml gone in. Took him for a walk and tried again on return. Then a thought struck me. With the laptop within reach, I opened the songs collection folder and by default went to the Kishore Kumar one. Almost as an afterthought, I switched over to the English collection and spontaneously chose Nancy Sinatra's Bang Bang (My baby shot me down).
Believe it or not, the boy got so excited that he finished 75% of the solution within minutes that left me wide-eyed. I couldn't believe it.

The next song in the play list was "Neele neele ambar" - another of The Seniol's all time favorites. As soon as the song started, LG pushed the bottle with his hand and looked away. I wanted to see if the Kill Bill song had an effect so I played it again. Needless to say, he went on to finish the bottle. Would The Seniol be impressed with his son?

This one is for you The Seniol -

I was five and he was six
We rode on horses made of sticks
He wore black and I wore white
He would always win the fight

Bang bang, he shot me down
Bang bang, I hit the ground
Bang bang, that awful sound
Bang bang, my baby shot me down.

Seasons came and changed the time
When I grew up, I called him mine
He would always laugh and say
"Remember when we used to play?"

Bang bang, I shot you down
Bang bang, you hit the ground
Bang bang, that awful sound
Bang bang, I used to shoot you down.

Music played, and people sang
Just for me, the church bells rang.

Now he's gone, I don't know why
And till this day, sometimes I cry
He didn't even say goodbye
He didn't take the time to lie.

Bang bang, he shot me down
Bang bang, I hit the ground
Bang bang, that awful sound
Bang bang, my baby shot me down...