You have nothing, you never did

Last night was a night of inspiration, of rejuvination... of resurrection.

I went for a Jazz (Brass) concert... in a theatre! ------- (Qatar National Theatre).

Now why that is surprising is because, those who have known me personally know, I don't do those. I can't be in an auditorium, sitting down, listening to trumpets and saxophones being blown... that too sober. No No No.

So when I entered, about half an hour into the concert, I was like, "No man, No."

The only thing that had taken me there was the fact that the musicians were from New Orleans, the land of Jazz, where Brass musicians play on the street, at crossings, outside their homes, in bars, while people pass by, children play around, some stop to hear them, some smile and walk away.

It's normal out there, for a Brass band to play out on the streets as a routine.

I sat down anyway, trying to enjoy myself, watching people clap together in motion, a few American chicks sitting a few rows ahead head banging, sincerely enjoying, me wondering, why why oh why. What is it that they see that I don't?

I was trying to get the music.

Then Mervin Campbell, the vocalist, started to sing, "Do you know what it means, to miss, New Orleans." The pain, the sincerety, the sweet memories of the happy town, coming through so clear, even through the other seven musicians, two of them maybe in their late 50s, blowing the trumpet.

My heart went out.

Then Campbell said: "It doesn't matter if you're from that corner, this corner or that corner far away, or just round the corner (Israel, is what he meant). This song goes out to all you beautiful humans. We love you. And thank you. We've lost every thing. Every single thing. But... faith, we have faith in God - the greatest of planners."

They were here in Qatar to thank Qatar for donating 100mn dollars to US after Katrina left New Orleans absolutely devastated. They said all they had was their music with which they could thank Qatar.

Watching these men play, tap their toes, clap, sing - these men who have lost every single thing they owned, with a life ahead of them to start from scratch, but hope and faith oozing from their souls, it was inspirational.

Here we are, afraid of losing what we have all the time, holding on to it so tight that not a soul can touch it, we think by hiding it from the world, it's hidden and it's ours.

Nothing is. Nothing ever will be. For, nothing ever was. If you think there is anything that you have, that's yours, be it money, a house, a job, or a girlfriend... it's nothing but an illusion. It'll all disappear... in one blow. One motherfucking blow my man.

Here we are, so insecure that we are afraid of re-starting our lives, so we just carry on trying to sort out the current mess, and the thought that we should give it all up and just start all over - with nothing - might cross our minds some time, sure, but we get scared of it. And we push away anything that scares us.

There they are, showing us standing right in front, that THIS is the human persistence, and nature, no matter how crude it gets, will not break us. We will build, and we will re-build, but we will not give up. We will start again and again.

We will play music if reality becomes too harsh to get away from it for a while. But WE WILL NOT... DIE... TODAY!

I realised, there is nothing I can ever achieve or gain that I can not lose, in a matter of seconds. You have never gained enough to not be able to lose it all, in just a few minutes.

What you think is yours, was never yours and will never be yours. Whatever you make here, you leave here.

You came naked, and you're gonna go back naked.

So what you scared about? Let all be lost. Let them take away every thing. As long as you have your heart beating strong, as long as you have your nostrils working fine, as long as the blood flows in your veins, you will live, you will breathe.

And you can get it all back... again and again. Coz if you can do it once, you can god damn well do it again.

It's just a game we play - Life.

Just a game, Rohit.