Kick   kick clap kick   kick clap clap   kick and again - kick…

“What are you muttering all day?!” asked a little boy of about 13 years old, in an irritated tone.

“Huh?”

“Tch… MY HEAD!! That mysterious boy has done some type of magic on you… ” he exclaimed angrily and looked at mom, who was cooking while humming a random bengali song “Mom, say something!”

“Hm…? O yes… Aashito; Who was that boy? I don’t recall ever hearing his name from you or anything about him and suddenly he is such a good friend of yours…”

I kind of knew this question would be directed at me sometime so I had already prepared an answer beforehand, an answer which will work just perfect with bengali parents HE HE

“He is kind of a topper at our class you know, very recently that is! He was always present like a nobody but now suddenly he has started getting full marks in every mock test which is taken!” 

This answer is equivalent to a neighbor presenting you with a bucket of biryani on a sunday, it's so tasty at least to bengali parents that is…

“Whoa! That’s new… well but then what were you two doing with all that music stuff yesterday?”

“That…” Well I have obviously thought about this question but that does not make it any easier to answer this one “... is, he was teaching me a new absolute concentration therapy!”

“HUH!? You do realize that there’s a limit to such bs, right dada?” asked my idiotic little brother with a stoic expression.

“Ai Topu (nickname for my brother), don’t speak foul language! Anyway…” She looked at me “...WHat do you mean?”

“Listen mom, this is a treatment to calm your mind, the method by which he has gotten so better suddenly out of nowhere. It’s music therapy like you create a specific type of music which engages your mind to focus!” 

But nevertheless I had thought of a selling answer.

“That’s good then, as long as it is helpful and necessary before the exams. If your marks go wrong…” She presented me with a devious look, “You know right what’s gonna happen to you…?”

“I know, I know, don’t worry anymore about these things…”

“Okay” said mom and returned to the kitchen

“There’s definitely shady stuff going on between the two of you…!” exclaimed my brother with a not satisfied look

“Whatever”

 I walked back to my room lazily after having dinner.

FL studio…

Since Dhruba left yesterday, I had been thinking about lots of combinations which I could apply and make something new but unfortunately I did not have the chance to open my pc even for once.

I switched on my pc.

It felt like ages had passed since I had last looked at the monitor and that’s what happens when exams are near, every minute feels like it has been spaghettified to last forever.

As I sat down on the chair before the computer, a feeling of excitement and nostalgia enveloped me. 

It was the same chair on which Dhruba was sitting yesterday.

The whole mood of the situation which I was in, reminded me of a particular Beatles song -

Yesterday

Just uttering the word kind of forced my nostalgic mind to take over and continue on..

All my troubles seemed so far away

Now it looks as though there here to stay

Oh I believe in yesterday…

Suddenly

I am not half the man I used to be

There’s a shadow hanging over me 

Oh yesterday came suddenly…

Hmm hmM HMM hm HMM Hm hm…

The whole song was not exactly relevant for the mood which I wanted to be in so I shifted my focus to the computer.

Booting was over and it was right before my eyes- the persimmon shaped icon of Fl Studio!

*CLICK ENTER*

The dark vibe spread like wildfire throughout the room and engulfed it quickly in its mysterious embrace…

For a moment, the appearance of the screen overwhelmed me and I kept staring at it like an absolute idiot but just afterwards I reached for the mouse.

The first thing which I opened up was the channel rack. 

It was the only thing which Dhruba had taught me on the last day and therefore it had been very deeply engraved in my memory.

808 kick basic

808 clap basic

808 hat basic

808 snare basic

The pattern which I wanted to create was already in my mind so I pressed the appropriate square y-shaped things

*space bar*

Kick   kick clap kick   kick clap clap   kick kick… 

Wow!

Although it was something very basic, as soon as it played, a sense of pleasure filled my mind and along with it I could also feel a surge of confidence within myself.

Now it was my chance of trial and error but before I could try appropriate combinations of hats and snares, I remembered something…

[Dhruba: “You will either have to do whatever you want in one go and export it oR do it the hard way- which is you will create something, take snaps of it then on the next day you will recreate that and add new stuff onto it after which…”]

So I moved to the export option in the dropdown menu of File and after checking the options, exported it as a mp3 file to a new folder on the desktop as Practice 1. 

There were some other formats present too like wav, flac, and the like about which I had never seen before. Dhruba had advised me to export it either as wav or mp3… but that time I was a little too excited about the music stuff and I forgot to ask him about the other formats… so I made a note in the keep notes app on my mobile.

After this I proceeded to add the hat into this mix, as the sound of the hat was quite impressive to my newbie sense of musical taste…

Firstly, I tried to place the hat in appropriate places according to the sound of the kick-clap mix but it resulted in something which could be best described as something very cliche or bookish so I moved on to the second way - placing the hats randomly!

The result was better and quite interesting sometimes but it was nothing too crazy like I was searching for a feel of the same intensity as I got initially so I moved on to a sudden idea which was clicking all the 16 square Y-shaped things!

My initial mental claim was that it would result in a mess but after doing it, I found the perfect rhythm, in fact the very one I had been searching for.

Another wave of satisfaction and excitement hit me like the cold wind outside the rattling window of my room. 

File -> Export mp3 -> Practice 2 -> ok

…Like this I continued creating several combinations and saving whichever ones sounded interesting and a very unique feeling began nesting in my mind.

It was truly an unexplainable feeling…

“Huh… (satisfied sigh) I think that’s enough for today, but let me click an image of this one real quick”

I muttered to myself as I clicked an image of the last pattern which I had created with a combination of all 4 of the presets.

File -> Export mp3 -> Wait what!?

Before this I was just saving the files one after the other, rhyming to the previous number but while saving this last file I realized that I was on the-

Practice 13…!?

This brought a loud smile onto my serious face and a feeling of joy burst from within me…!

“What is this happiness, bhai…”

I found my hand shaking slightly as I reached out for the mouse… 

After closing the folder, the name New Folder was too unflashy to my heightened senses, so I instantly F2’d the name to Day 1 

Now, it felt as if the stage was set, and all I needed was for Dhruba’s arrival the next day.

The strangest and most interesting weekend of my life was coming to an end and honestly I was more excited for Monday than ruminating about the past!

Here we go!