Pour les jeunes, par les jeunes de l’océan Indien
Our journey together was a rollercoaster; we had a great time together, we fell apart, we reconnected with a better chemistry than before. I was handed my first violin by my father; placed between my tiny fingers with great hopes, delicacy and love. My curiosity grew and I was ambitious to be great at it. I fell in love at first sight with my violin that day. We grew up together- my violin and I.
One might think that taking care of a violin might be somewhat of high maintenance. The violin is like a lowkey person who just needs a little bit of patience and most importantly attention. My violin has skincare routine; using a dry cloth to wipe the white rosin dust off of his beautiful brown glowing skin. A frequent changing of the old used strings and placing new shiny ones with precision and delicacy; this part almost feel like trying to disconnect wires on a ticking bomb- one false move and everything would just loosen. The violin rests well in my case lined with velvet cloth.
My first violin teacher was the one passed on all of her love and knowledge about the violin to me. With her being really affectionate towards and was patient teaching me, my love for my violin grew more. She and I played and laughed together. My best part about the lesson was the end where we would play duets. Duets which were lively and very colorful, these types of duets were appealing to me as I was just a kid who believed in all fairytale-like melodies. I liked the way my fingers were moving, gliding on the strings; the way my bow would slide and vibrate every time I would play.
Through an earned scholarship, I was able to step foot in a music conservatory. I was of a very early age, having no idea what to expect there but excitement was felt throughout my body. I remember my first day vividly; I was in the car with my parents driving up the hill, enormous houses surrounded by huge trees lined up the street of the conservatory. Music being played randomly filled my ears as I entered through the doors; it was a total chaos of piano playing, violins and voices heard throughout the small and cozy building. It was a portal to a world full of possibilities and accesses given to me. From where I come from, playing the violin is perceived as a luxury as at that time I started the violin, I was practically the only one playing this music instrument. As I looked around everyone was so different from me, they were like a totally apart universe from me. There was not one single Mauritian in sight apart us. People looked at us like we were aliens whose spaceship went wrong and crashed in their planet. There were some teachers who were like me, mauritians, even the director was a foreigner. I felt out of place, I wasn’t used to speaking English not even French. Eventually I got used to it. I learned that playing an instrument was somewhat a normal casual tradition. Every time I tried to talk to someone, it was very clear that we didn’t connect the way they would look at me made me feel very small like they were giants looking down on some tiny aliens. Everybody there formed part of family of higher class, the way they would dress, the way they talked , the way they talked to their social circle was very restricted to people of their status only. The group circles were strictly to the instruments played and their social status. Another common thing I’ve noticed about those students was that most of them didn’t even want to be there; most of them had the instruments forced on them; it felt like a task for them to do rather than actually wanting and liking to play.
Very few would play the violin and those doing so would very often just brag about the quality of their violin, how much it cost and so on. Most of the students there played the piano another higher class placed instrument. Everywhere I would go; school, organisations almost everyone would know how to play the guitar. The guitar can be classified as an instrument that almost everyone could play. Here, playing a type of instrument really creates a discrimination in the different casts of the society. By playing the violin, I got to experience all kinds of worlds; one at the conservatory where I didn’t see anyone like me just foreigners of higher class; at school where people are shocked to learn to play the violin as one must be rich and of higher class to play violin, a stereotype often played on me.
Different people had different perspective on the fact that I played the violin. At home, in the neighbourhood, my family was quite known. Everywhere I would go people, who I don’t even know, knew me. When practicing at home mostly classical pieces, my neighbours would hear they were curious and wanted to inquire more. When there would be local events such as music day or divali nights for example, my sister who plays the flute and I were always invited to play. For those events I would normally play trending songs that everybody would know about. At home, if we have guests over for dinner, for birthdays, I would always prepare one or two songs mostly because I knew that my dad would be pleased to hear me play. It wasn’t long before, It was recently that I realized that I am good at playing the violin. I remember it all clearly, my dad’s birthday I had arranged a background soundtrack and played the song “Nothing’s Gonna Change My Love For You”. That was the first time I was proud of myself as my dad clapped and was smiling so brightly. I felt a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction.
Even though we felt completely out of place, we did learn a lot of things. We experienced a whole another world different from ours. We got to live things we never thought of, we had absolutely no knowledge about such as attending a private classical concert and other events that here mostly only people of higher class would be present there.
Being in the presence of elites at the music conservatory did not change me as a person. Yes, I did experienced new things but this helped me grow as a person, being the same but with more acquainted knowledge.
Tanvi, 16 ans