I am a big fan of music. It quenches my soul and to me, music is a reverie. I have, over a period of time, built my own playlist. Different ones for different occasions. I particularly play my running and party playlist on the weekends. In fact, I was much in awe of my existing list that I decided to create a Top 10 and Next 10 and Final 5 list. In that Top 10 list the first three which puts me in a happy and uplifting state are these ones: ‘In these arms’ by Bon Jovi, ‘Escape’ by Enrique and ‘Perfect’ by one direction. In all these songs I love the music and also started enjoying the lyrics.
When you hear the below lines By Bon Jovi from ‘In these arms’ you make those giant strides and you start moving your body and start warming up
You want commitment, and take a look into these eyes.
They burn with fire, Yeah, until the end of time.
After a few rounds when I have to shift my gears there is Enrique at his best, prodding me to shift gears from the song “Escape”
You can run (you can run)
You can hide (you can hide)
Finally, to bring back to a close and make me feel good about what I did, I have One direction with a perfect round-up and to keep the mojo going for the next day I need this clarion call
Baby, you’re perfect
So let’s start right now
Of late, I have made a special collection of songs for Party as well. Earlier I had one for the home-list which made our life easier as we all in the family agreed that it is all our favourites.
But over the last several weeks I have been noticing that my home-list songs had some new set of songs which I had not heard before. So I started listening to some of the songs. I did not get the lyrics of those and I googled for it and I found these lyrics
Ja
Woh-oh-oh
Dime qué va’ a hacer, qué va’ a hacer
Dímelo, Yampi, Yampi
I was wondering how did I add such a song to my playlist? I initially thought I must have accidentally added some of the party songs. But that was not the case. I found out a nice message on the internet, ” I’m a teenager. My music will tell you a lot more about me than my mouth ever could”. I have two girls. One is a real teenager becoming an adult and one who has already transitioned from tweens to teens in behaviour.
Over the last weeks, we were also discussing the next level of parenting. In the “Times of India” there comes articles titled ” Parent thesis ” and a week back I had subscribed to Times Plus on all devices. Also, I was curious to do a little bit of research on the most pressing title of all ” How to raise a teenager in this era.”
The top answer in the top list which Google found for me was, ” Respect and listen to them “. No wonder I was in any way respecting their selection of songs and I was listening to them. So I knew I was on the right playlist for all the right reasons. There were some words of caution for me from the same website ” Parents do best if they do not take their teens’ actions as personal assaults on them, but rather if they think their kids are “just doing their job” of growing up.“
One of the things I have been practising has been that when I travel for a full week, to have a small party with family. Sometimes I try to figure some micro wins and small pleasures. We have celebrated our younger daughter winning a medal in a frog jumping competition at the apartment level. In fact, the other day when I met the anchor of the prize distribution ceremony she mentioned and demonstrated how my younger daughter had jumped in that race. We also celebrate small tokens of appreciation when my wife won a speech competition or if my elder daughter had got good marks in her exams. So at these parties, we make it a point to play our favourite playlist and I then noticed that that is when new additions to songs to my playlists happened. The latest addition to my playlist by my teenage daughter is Dua Lipa’s Levitating
If you wanna run away with me, I know a galaxy
And I can take you for a ride
I had a premonition that we fell into a rhythm
Where the music don’t stop for life
Glitter in the sky, glitter in my eyes
Shining just the way I like
If you’re feeling like you need a little bit of company
You met me at the perfect time
I started enjoying this song above for the music and it finds a place in my running playlist. That made me recall these words from the same website:
“Teens are rapidly changing and often their lives are filled with emotional, physical, intellectual, and social turmoil. Understanding this helps parents manage their child’s new and rocky stage of development. Remember that teens can be passionate, exuberant, fun, idealistic, and creative. Raising them can fill your life with the same”.
I am on a journey of building playlists for different moments and occasions and one of my favourite hobbies is to build a list of music lists. So I am sure if I go to my children and ask for some ideas they will be sure to come up with this one:
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