Simple Simon: A Musical Experience of Existence

If anyone is expecting a fabulous evening without nostalgic introspections or verified arguments over life, the best answer would be Vishnu Vasu’s ‘Simple Simon’ (2023). Retention of the book would not be satisfied with just a coffee or a half an hour reading. Rather this requires a two days commitment with a non-judgmental prospect of universality for the sake of music. A detailed elaboration of the author’s journey as a Ghatam student in the Sri Jaya Ganesh Tala Vadya Vidyalaya in Chennai, India; this is a story of 1000 days in his gurukul, being a disciple under his teacher T. H. Vinayakram. The book is a comprehensible portrait of his eagerness to witness the world and curiosity for the unknown and the stubbornness of being a young boy who is enthralled by the colours and sovereignty of Indian culture.

04 specific reasons can be pointed out in the light of understanding the book as a quality product. The first justifiable reason for a person to embrace the totality of the book is, the beauty of the memories and experiences of the author. Autobiographies happen everywhere on earth and yet, what makes Simple Simon a significant piece of writing? If a book to be a compound of all the necessities that defines it to be a book, Simple Simon has achieved the victory. It is a human expression, a philosophical narration, a psychological phenomenon, a fast – phased, funny and an inspiration to all readers. Besides it is a depiction of a great nation and the tolerance of a young man who had to restore his patience as a more reliable soul.

The human expression of the book bears the utmost value of the story. Why Vishnu wanted to be a human and why he always was a human? The mighty question of all civilizations. The humanness of a single man defining the sustainable continuation of the species. Starting from the cover page the inclusion of the chapters until the last page release a gigantic amount of warmth and compassion to the human race. The reader witnesses the ultimate meaning for the existence, the compassionate soul and the genuine understanding to the life. Beholding the capitalist complications of the 20th century meretricious life, the practice of eastern minimalism without a mystic countenance has been the motivation to the writing style.

If to appreciate the book as a philosophical narration, in the affirmative, this is theory and practical happened simultaneously. This is somewhat rhetoric, a stoic pronouncement, with very Indian every philosophy, carries the essence of the eastern world. Being a member of the Indian community, Vishnu Vasu wins the competition of not delineating a sketch of the East Asia with horns on the heads and tails to the back. The days with Pandit Viswanathan Maharaj, being a Jain apprentice, the experience of the existence and the mindfulness trainings underline the concealed meaning of an actual human. Simple Simon can be confined to a verse took from Marcus Aurelius’ (121 AD – 180 AD) ‘The Meditations’; “How is it that unskilled and ignorant souls disturb the skillful and intelligent? What, I ask, is the skillful and intelligent soul? It is that which knows the beginning and the end, and the reason which pervades all being, and by determined cycles rule the Universe for all time.” (Book 05: 32) Rendering a massive composition of worldly truths, it is very clear what Vishnu wants to address, a humanitarian embrace to all lost souls.

The language and the cinematography behind each line and each paragraph is undoubtedly remarkable. When Vishnu sleeps in the trains the reader pictures it; a classical Indian movie shot inside a train. When Vishnu hang around in transgender colonies with friends, it is a colourful experience that remarks the tensions and stresses of masculine and feminine originalities. While Gandhi’s sexual orientations and the ballerina in the red painting of the Indian map eroticize the extremes of the human instinctual foundations of Eros and Thanatos, the death of the great musician Emani Sankara Sastry and the tragedy of the Jaffna library stabs the reader brutally; resisting the ample expectation of a book to provide the comfort. Writer’s inherent ability to leave a cinematic experience with such an exquisite emotional abstraction of the life must be given a chance in every bookshelf.

The biggest achievement as a successful writer is to establish his/her opinion inside the reader’s mind. Other than pointing out the subjected phenomenon as a separate matter from the plot of the story, Vishnu combines his ideological viewpoints to the storyline. The readers are supposed to digest these brutally honest commentaries of the world inside Vishnu’s perspectival gaze. This gaze is not male or female. But an innocent indication of one’s peripheral psychological world. It is not abusive or critical to a reader to admit such, besides his interpretations are imprinted unconsciously to each word and each sentence with a little addition of humour.

Most importantly, the writer has a boundless capacity to elaborate the social political arbitration of each incident. For instance, the explications of the origins starting from a drum to a greater mass, the cast system, the politics behind the aesthetic experience, his sole ownership of the identification as a human being while conflicting with the belief systems of the community. He answers the question ‘why people create music?’, advocating the fact that music is a naturally born instinct that generates civilizational fear into a bearable catharsis, enlarging the intellectual eye of the sapiens’ balancing the extreme expressions, not letting to be alienated with the contemporary worldly matter. Simple Simon can be traced as a political trial that illustrates the subtle mistakes of human race.

Simple Simon spare the readers several denouements. First, music is a political language. Second, the beauty always lies with a bitter reality. Third, the mysticism that Asians sustain does not compromise that their identity to be unrecognizable as people. Yet, they have potentially proven the capacity to own a definition as dignified humans. That is why Simple Simon is a complete derivation to all conceptual realities.