NADA

Just as we require time to be able to refresh and renew our life energies, so too we require quiet periods for mental as well as spiritual, not to mention physical, re-composure. Today, hardly any silent zones remain - even our parks are invaded by the sounds of the surrounding traffic. While our most private domain - our bedroom - does not offer us sanctum either, deluged as it is with sonic sewage.

Normally, for any kind of accoustic communication like conversing or listening to music, to be effective, a good 'signal to noise' ratio is essential. So that the 'desired signal' (in the case of conversation - the other person talking), may be heard distinctly from any competing noise. This is what distinguishes a 'hi-fi' from a 'low-fi' environment. A 'hi-fi' (high fidelity) environment is one in which all sounds may be heard clearly with whatever detail and spatial orientation they may posess. In contrast, a 'low-fi' (low-fidelity) environment would be one where quiet sounds are masked by louder ones and therefore, nothing can be heard clearly, details and spatial orientation are obscured.
Besides the outdoor sources of noise there also exist the indoor sources of noise, such as air-conditioning systems which have perhaps been aptly termed as the - bad breath - of buildings. And yet noise treatments in our interior environs are attempted every day by the introduction of broad-band sounds known as 'white noise'. Other uses of such 'audio - analgesia' or 'acoustic perfume', in our lives today, may be frequently found in the form of music heard over telephones, rock music and/or symphonies in restaurants, hotels, elevators, shops and even offices. These sounds do not help in any way to alleviate the problem of noise, but only add to the already existing dump of sounds.

Another interesting 'deaf spot' still adhered to even today is that noise is considered synonymous with 'power' and therefore accepted as being progressive. Ideally of course, progress would mean less noise not more: noise in a machine, however discrete, is a sign of in-efficiency, an escape of energy.

Waking up in Delhi on the first morning, I hear nothing but car horns. I laugh in disbelief. Why are they honking their horns so much? When I try to cross the street later, I think I understand: the traffic is in a state of complete chaos. Everyone seems to move in all directions at the same time, no one ever stops or waits, everyone keeps moving. Finding the empty spaces wherever they happen to be, moving around each other, around cows, horse carts, bicycles, pedestrians. And everyone honks. HORN PLEASE! it says on many trucks and autorickshaws.

I realize quickly that car horns speak differently here. They rarely shout: Get-out-of-the-way. They talk: Hello, Watch out, I'm beside you, Leave me some room, I want to move over to your side, Don't bump into me or Hello I want to pass. What seemed like a chaos initially, starts to feel like an organic flow, like water. "There is an under current of rules", says my Veena.

An old bent-over man crosses the street. No one stops for him....The honking traffic curves its way around the silent body. Lost in the loud current, I watch in amazement...

Sound Journal Hildegard Westerkamp