There is a popular idiom “It’s music to your ears” - but today I literally had music in my ears. As I work towards doing any work, some work or more work each day, I am struck by the boring monotony that many of these tasks entail and something that my brain has not been encoded for.

While I grew up in the ’80s and 90’s I used to occasionally listen to the radio and to the collection of music on tapes and mix-tapes on walkman’s, but not so much. My music listening started in earnest in 1999. This is the first year I spent a lot of time listening to music and this was my first year traveling internationally outside India. I spent most of the year in Dallas, Texas, and autumn and part of winter in Columbus, Ohio.

I used to listen to the radio while driving, during my commute and while working - a variety of music from pop-rock, soft rock to classical. That concept of listening to music (radio, CDs, MP3, iPods) continued over the years until the early 2010s when it dropped off the cliff - replaced by another addiction.

I had struggle reading (physical/electronic) books over the decades and this inability to read books continued for over 35 years. When I mean reading difficulties, the best I could manage is perhaps half a page, and then the ability to focus on the page was lost. It’s not that I cant read, but that I am unable to focus and read and this persists even today. I guess this went on from the period mid-80’s to around 2015.

And, then I found Audible (and Scribd now) and audiobooks. Which led to playing catch up with my lack of reading over the years. Now I typically read 1-2 books a week and have completed over 700+ books in the last 6-7 years. But, as I found books, music dropped off my life. Books became all-pervasive - whether it was walking, exercise, chores, driving, commuting by train - it was all supported by some audiobook. It was addictive and it was a voluntary addiction that I wanted badly and something that I do not want to give up.

The last few weeks though have been different. As I slowly structure my life back supported by the emptiness that I force-created, I have brought some of the audiobook time back into my routine. But, as I build out the work that I need to do each day, I find that much of this routine work is monotonous, dull, and boring.

So, I finally went back to music again for a couple of hours today to support working on some of this monotony. It started with some music from the 2010s that I could mostly not relate to. Then went back to the 2000s and then the 90s. I am sure that as I start listening to music again, I will explore more, going back to the 80s, 70s, and perhaps the 60s and earlier. And I started building up some new playlists…

So, it is music in my ears, again!