What is in a Name

What is in a Name?

For all who are not familiar with the name Mystik Musings, this was the name of our music band in IIT Madras. This band is one of the many good things that happened over the two years of my stay in IIT and there are tonnes and tonnes of stories to write about it.

A music band from a B-school is something that one does not hear that often. For the genesis of a music band, one needs to have the right combination of ingredients - similar to cooking a good dish.

Ingredient 1 is obviously talent, like the vegetables for cooking.
Our members definitely had good talent. Each had a decent knowledge of music and a keen interest in it.

Ingredient 2 is team work, the right combination.(One cannot make a nice aloo curry with only aloo). Each member had something or other to bring in - playing guitar, playing keyboard, knowledge of songs, voice for high pitch songs, voice for low pitch songs.

Ingredient 3 was lack of ego. (It is like salt in the curry - necessary but only to the extent required). While each had a unique talent, no one was a big time band member prior to this. It was a learning process for all. In most of the concerts, the time we had for performing was disproportionately smaller for the list of talents that we had. There was a give and take every time and the show kept going.

Item 4 is encouragement. This is like the fire required for cooking a food. Even if one has all the other ingredients, if there is no fire - there is no food. The entire eco-system right from the faculty, friends right up to the accommodating hostel neighbors who took the brunt of our late night jam sessions had a big hand in making this fledgling take off.

Item 5 is something Mysti(k)c (like the cook's touch) and we had it in our name. So What is in a name ? Philosophers may say 'nothing' - but on the other side of nothing is everything.

It was a wonderful journey and hope someday down the years we get to re-live the mystik moments.