Pain in the ear:

M'sick

by Aditha Dissanayake

Four hours in an A/C bus to Hatton; to day-dream of writing a masterpiece, to become a billionaire so that the next journey will be in a Mercedes Benz ensconced in BLISSFUL QUIET...

If you are a Citizen Perera like me, depending heavily on public transport you would know where I am heading; the last two words are surely the give away. Its no secret that every ordinary human being loves music, but who would want to go deaf listening to it?

Yet, this is the case inside most buses plying on the roads these days. With the volume knob turned to "maximum" if the radio is on, a breezy young man comes on the air to say in garbled language "Next song eka enjoy karanna" and your ears are assailed by a volley of hard, thumping, aggressive sounds till you have to pinch yourself to make sure this is real - that you are in a bus and not at a musical show at Parliament grounds.

'I'm not a fuddy-duddy' assures Uditha Wijesuriya who travels everyday from Dodanduwa to Colombo in A/C buses. "But I am sick to death of having to listen to someone else's choice of music trapped in a bus early in the morning or after a hard day's work in the office on my way home".

Upsetting noise

Things are no better in other public places. Supermarkets, shopping malls and restaurants have all turned into noisy spaces operating on the assumption that the more background noises the better. Most shoppers seem to believe the sound that comes through loud-speakers is not 'music' but 'upsetting noise' - and is an infringement on the rights of individuals.

"If you want to listen to music that's fine, but its not right to assume that everyone else wants to, listen too" shouted one middle-aged lady doing her weekly shopping in a supermarket in Kelaniya obviously not pleased with the sound of Britney Spears in the air. She gave up talking to me with the question, "How can you have a conversation with this kind of noise in the background....? You need to know sign language to talk.

"I suppose you know that the music is not there for your (or any other shopper's) enjoyment. It's there because it makes most people spend more money in the store", says Prabath who insists he never goes to supermarkets to do his shopping. Elaborating further he added "In the mornings they play slow music to make you take your time and relax more, so you shop more, and in the afternoons faster music so it feels more frantic and you buy whatever is on offer'.

Disagreeing with him, Lasith says he likes listening to the piped music because it enlivened his mood. He was positive too, about the sound of music on telephones "I quite like the music they play when you're on hold on the phone. It's better than waiting in silence and I usually get caught singing along when they come back on the line. Once the music was so good I asked them to put me back on hold."

A pleasant change

What about the shop assistants who work in the supermarkets and the shopping malls and who listen to the same old songs over and over again, for at least ten hours of the day? Sharmali, a cashier, says she hardly ever notices it.

A shop assistant who wished to remain unidentified however, had this to say "Its nice to have music to listen to when I am at work. It brings a pleasant change to my dull, lifeless, depressing day at work. The customers will moan - but they don't have to stand there for hours on end answering questions about the prices of the goods on sale, listening to dull conversations concerning which item one should buy, and the annoying noise of the tills."

Be it on the phone, in a bus, a taxi, or in the supermarket music today has surely become the inescapable background over which you have little choice. Streamed at you without your permission, choice, or control, here's a prayer for the blissful sound of silence.

Till then, best (quiet) wishes.