Image Courtesy: Screengrab taken from YouTube video uploaded by Kunj Karia
Almost everyone in this world has an untold story. This one's about a trainee guitarist's chance meeting with a once-pro guitarist, who just happened to be his auto-rickshaw driver.
By sheer happenstance, blogger Kunj Karia found himself being driven home from his second guitar lesson by this autowallah. The
autowalla, noticing the instrument on his arm, asked him a few questions. "Five minutes in the conversation, I understood he knows a lot about guitar," Kunj writes on his
blog.
Turns out the driver was once a professional guitarist, some 10 years ago. "I used to play with a group of friends, at small restaurants and bars. We used to perform on streets also," says the driver.
While his friends attended college, he worked a day job at a factory. "Every evening we used to meet, play our favorite songs and perform at some bars if we could get in," the autowallah said about the "good times".
He eventually stopped playing. "Money wasn't good for musicians back then. Also, there was no assurance of a gig on daily basis," he said. "I was married and I needed something which assured my family food, at least twice a day."
The nostalgic autowallah, itching to strum the guitar, finally asked "You mind if I play something on your guitar? It's been long since I played one?" He went on to strum the background score from Sholay, his mastery of the instrument still intact. This is even more impressive considering he doesn't own a guitar anymore. "My son learns and plays on his friend's instrument," he said.
He finally left Kunj with a few words of wisdom.
"Beta tum guitar
ko ek saal mat chodo, guitar
tumko zindagy bhar nahi chodega."You must watch the rockstar autowallah playing the guitar below.