The Spanish Melody....

It was around a week back, my father and I had gone to visit the Sharjah Book Fair held at Expo Centre Sharjah, an event that my family always looks forward to as it brings in well known celebrities and personalities in the fields of literature, writing and on quite a surprising note- 'cooking'. The most important element of this event is the fact that since it is a bookfair, a lot of books are kept on display or you could say are exhibited at the various stalls rented by major book publishers with a keen interest on selling them out to a large young audience- with a keen interest in reading.

Nevertheless, we were going around seeing the different stalls and after having a glance and also buying my favorite comic (Calvin and Hobbes) followed by heading back to the entrance, all of a sudden, we saw a lot of people gathered on their seats waiting for a performance to happen. There were lights focused on what was a stage which had set on top of it, a stool laid for a performer to play his or her instrument amidst the vast gathering of people spread about evenly taking into consideration the Covid-19 norms.

As we waited patiently, we saw a troupe of people who were heading somewhere near the stage- one of them with a guitar in his hand. It was not any ordinary guitar you would generally get in the store. It was the magical and beloved- Spanish classic guitar.  What really delighted me was the fact that all of the people accompanying this gentleman (including himself) were all Spaniards or the Spanish locals (all of whom had specially come along with this fine and old gentleman) to witness the performance.

As the gentleman went onto the stage, took his seat and started plucking the strings of this magnificent and exquisite instrument- a very distinct tune or melody caught the attention of my sharp ears. It was definitely something that I had heard earlier that would of course relate to the travels I had to Europe, where I had heard this instrument played very frequently for the flamenco dance and with no doubt is a discourse to the Spanish culture and the distinctiveness or uniqueness it brings along with it. It was to quite a surprise, I instantly felt a connection or a resemblance in the rhythm of yet another instrument which I had grown to love over the years of having been born and brought up in the U.A.E- the Oud, which happens to be one of the most traditional instruments of this region.

The very resemblance in both the rhythm, tone and pitch of the instrument made me feel of the somewhat instant connection or relation between this instrument and the Oud, but on researching about this  instrument came to realize that the Spanish guitar had evidently evolved from the Oud, having been brought to that region over the years of Arab philosophers and scientists flocking to that region, and what's more the establishment of the Moorish rule in the region to signal the cultural transmission between both the regions to evidently create a close connect over the decades and centuries.

It was indeed as I would say quite fascinating to see this old but passionate young at heart Spanish performer merrily play on his classic guitar the tunes that brought along with it the feel and warmth of the Spanish culture, catching beneath it the depths of my mind, my heart and in the process revealing the silver lining of the heritage or close connect that it fosters deep down in the Arab world...