Sound of Music

The other day got a Whats-app forward which made me sit up and remember a genius and his creation.

Noni Gopal Bose was a freedom fighter from Bengal who had been imprisoned many a times before fleeing the US in 1920s to avoid political persecution. He married Charlotte, an American of French-German lineage, and was in the business of importing coconut fibre doormats from India. During the World War II, there were restrictions put on the imports and business had almost come to a standstill.  His son Amar, who was only 13 years old, suggested that they start a radio repairing shop to supplement the earnings. Amar impressed his father with his talent who took a loan of $10,000 to send his son to the best college, the MIT. Amar passed out of MIT with PhD in Electrical Engineering. He became an Assistant Professor at MIT and continued teaching there for 45 years.

As a lover of classical music Amar bought an expensive stereo which was to create high quality sound. Disappointed with his purchase, Amar set upon his research into this topic of quality sound. In early 1962 he invented a new type of stereo which made use of multiple speakers and in 1964 founded his own company Bose Corporation that specialized in audio equipment and by the early seventies the name was synonymous with the best quality acoustics and his company became a market leader in audio components market. When he died in 2013, Amar Bose had hundreds of patents in his name and his company remained among the best names in audio industry. Each of his creations was a piece of art and the world loved it. 

My daughter, too, had a Bose Wave audio for which we paid a bomb but the system unfortunately never really worked well. Often the CD player would give trouble and at times the speaker. Blame it on the dust pollution of the city we live in or the proximity of our house to a salty creek...our bad luck that we never could enjoy the system enough. It still finds an important place in her room but like the Grandpa’s Clock needs servicing very often.  

Wish Mr. Bose were around and I would have told him, “Dada, cholchhe na!” (Dada it’s not working!)

My mind also went back a couple of weeks ago, when I was on my personal visit to Hyderabad, where for the first time I was able to see the beauty of the city beyond the office and Banjara Hills landscape. My visit to Golconda Fort reminded me of Mr. Bose…

Golconda or Gol konda (Round shaped hill) or Golla konda (Shepherd’s Hill) was first built by the Kakatiyas. It was under the Bahamini Sultanate in the latter half of 14^th century that Golkonda rose to prominence. Sultan Quli Qutb-ul –Mulk (1487-1543) was sent as a governor by the Bahamani King and he soon established his own independent government in 1538 establishing the Qutb Shahi Dynasty. In the next 62 years , the mud fort was expanded into a massive fortification and remained the capital till it was shifted to Hyderabad in 1590.

You enter this magnificent fort through Fateh Darwaza or Victory Gate so called after Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb's victory after a 8 month siege of the Golkonda Fort.

We were asked by our guide to clap as we stood below the imposing portico at the entrance and we realized how late Mr. Bose was in his inventions. The clap at the entrance can be heard in Bala Hisar pavilion, almost a kilometer away!

The whole fort has many such places where such astonishing acoustics can be experienced. The architects, six hundred centuries ago, mastered the art of sound and blended materials, known for their sound reflection properties , along with other materials that went into building the walls.

In Hindi there is a saying,”Deewaron ke bhi kaan hotey hain,” which translates to ‘the walls too have ears.’ If one were to stand close to one of the walls in the inner chambers and speak very softly, almost like whispering, a person with his ear to the diagonally opposite wall about ten metres away can distinctly hear the words spoken. This was used by the rulers to overhear palace intrigues and take pre-emptive action to quell any discontentment.

There are many more fascinating tales about Golconda Fort but to me none so intriguing and awe inspiring as the advancement in sound technology they had achieved and that works after six hundred years, never to be serviced, never to be repaired. 

Every clap here echoes, every clap here reverberates and every clap here is well deserving of those who created it.

Dada, shuncho tumi ki? (Dada, are you listening?)

Incredible India!

SS