The Peace of Noise

There is a strange comfort in living in a city, surrounded by the sounds of the traffic and people. I always find a kind of peaceful rhythm in the bustling city around me and I miss that living in the suburb now. Its this natural movement of life that has always surrounded me as I grew up in a big busy city, Karachi. Though never the one to actually interact with those sounds or to have the desire to become a part of it, I have always loved the ebb and flow of life around me. Perhaps this is one of the reasons I miss living away from the sea, its always in motion and full of surprises, its always in deep conversation with the life it contains and with your thoughts as you sit at the shore and understand every word it says to you. 

The city carries on around you just like the sea and all that is happening in it provide you with the energy you need, without asking you for anything in return. It is perfectly happy to let you just watch and wander, and it welcomes you when you feel like joining it for a while and then lets you return to your seat, no questions asked. Its amazing how we human beings transfer so much of ourselves to everything that we touch. The pavements, buildings, the fences, doors and windows, planters, street lamps, they all take on the different qualities of people so humbly and offer so much companionship that you really don't feel the need to go anywhere to see signs of life, its all right there. 

If you are one of those strange people who find it quite comfortable to be with themselves like me, its very rare to find someone who accepts and understands that. I cherish such people when I do come across them. Most of the time people expect others to play a particular part, to satisfy their needs for us to be what they want. One has to be the entertainer, the scholar, the listener, the teacher, the friend, the counsellor, the politician (not a very good one though), all of these roles and scores more on a daily basis. It can get pretty exhausting to create all that energy, and every time I make a trip to the busy heart of Toronto I feel refreshed and energized, especially the University areas where the noise level is just right, it hums around you gently rising and falling. A musical composition is the creation of a single mind, and it has a particular aim, but the sound of a city is composed and created by so many people, this unpredictable rhythm has so much concordance that I am constantly amazed.