Since I got home from work Thursday evening, a neighbour has been treating us all to loud sessions of uninhibited, frenzied drumming. Not sure if he bought himself a new kit or borrowed the gear but the first couple of days, at any time the mood took him, he'd play a snatch of Winds of Change, Always Somewhere or some other 80s rock classic and enthusiastically launch into the drum parts. Drums, cymbals, et al, all smashed with the greatest gusto. The first night, he struck up after 9 which is on the sedate side of the evening in these parts, and the next morning, I could hear him banging away around 5. Mercifully, he hasn't been so inconsiderate with his timings since then, only slapping his trap set in broad daylight when everyone's presumably wide awake already.
Mind you, he's not one of those drug/alchohol-ics. Edging close to 40, he's always been a really nice, helpful fellow, very involved with church activities etc, though when I think back, he always did like cranking up his music system a notch too high on occasion. What's probably set him off the deep end is that his wife died of brain cancer a year ago. It was one of those fast-acting cancers and after a few weeks in hospital, she just gave up, leaving three kids and a young husband. The kids ranging in age from 14 to 7 are schooling in Shillong where his parents live, which means he lives here alone with nothing but memories. Reason enough to go more than a little berserk, I know, and the neighbours are humouring him by sympathetically putting up with the racket. But when the crash boom bang gets a little too much, I wish social niceties and etiquette could just be shoved aside and someone would pipe up in capital letters S-H-A-D-D-U-P!
back in the day, i was told "don't be afraid to hit hard, they're drums!". possibly your neighbour's been given the same advice huh? yo po ears tho!
ReplyDeleteGuess he was, fed. Another neighbour used to drum furiously a few years ago too, but his house was quite some distance away, on the opposite side of the hill in fact, and he did go on to achieve some fame as part of a local death-metal outfit.
ReplyDeleteDrumming his pains with his fingers......and hands (with apologies to Fox and Gimble and.....Roberta Flack).
ReplyDeleteDrums are a great way to beat away the sorrows, pains, frustrations and anger. I have a friend who does the same. She vents her anger and frustrations on her drums in her sound proof room without disturbing her neighbours. He really should be more considerate of his neighbours. However given the circumstances you got to give him time. Just be more prodigal with your empathy.
Loch, that's a great twist you made to the song. And soundproof is the operative word here. You can smash drums, hara-kiri your electronic guitars, whatever, just spare a thought for your neighbours! And punching bags make an equally effective stress-buster. Besides being soundless and non-neighbour-irritant :)
ReplyDeleteI think you might want to consider moving to a trailer park. Seriously. A whole different life. Safer, calmer, cheaper, more real. Need I go on? You were pretty quick to throw stones there, Dudette...
ReplyDeleteNah, I know you didn't mean it. ;)
Eveline, I know I sound cranky but hello, I was looking at all sides of the issue, or so I thought. Would I have detailed the circumstances otherwise?! I could've just turned this into a full rave and rant and none of you any the wiser, would've oozed sympathy and condolences heehee
ReplyDeleteNoise pollution hi a takin kan tawng mek. Eng circumstances avang pawhin hetiang bengchheng hi a awm thei, be it YMA,Church,Band etc. There is a law which prevents such loud sound. The administration schould enforce it so that a nice neighbours do not have to bark at each other. Hetiang a nih loh vek pawhin tawrh lam chak a ngai a ni. A la nih loh cheu chuan sound proof vuah tir mai chi. Kan thenawm UPC pawh hi an hlim chang a hriat asin :)
ReplyDeleteTwould be quite an irritant for you, I guess. Im lucky I love music, even discordant ones, because my room being just a stone's throw from our Church hall, Im subjected to a lot of practice sessions by the youth music band. Our neighbours, though,hate the noises because it often goes on long at night.
ReplyDeleteI do feel for the grieving drummer-man, though. He should soundproof his room and there give vent to his loneliness to his poor ole heart's content.
vana, hei Net-ah ka'n zawng thuak thuak a i ti dik e, noise pollution law a lo awm reng alom le. The Noise Pollution Rules, 2000, states among other things "Whoever, in any place covered under the silence zone / area commits any of the following offence, he shall be liable for penalty under the provisions of the Act:-
ReplyDelete(i) whoever, plays any music or uses any sound amplifiers,
(ii) whoever, beats a drum or tom-tom or blows a horn either musical or pressure, or trumpet or beats or sounds any instrument....
The whole thing here http://ecopackindia.wordpress.com/2010/07/09/noise-pollution-regulation-and-controlrules2000/
kuku, I adore music too but not when it's shoved at me! Everything has a place and time, after all. And I think our people need to wisen up to these noise pollution rules, same as we're wising up to the evils of ghutka etc. Be nice if we could start sueing each other left, right and centre. Lol kidding.
ReplyDeleteSo my question: is your home in a Silent Zone? Usually that refers to hospitals etc. As with all rules it is quite vague. What is the decibel level? I think at night anything above 60db would be extremely disturbing but for the daytime you can tolerate much higher db levels. (sorry I did not check your link).
ReplyDeleteI know India has db norms for industries but I do not know if there is a db levels for music emanating from a residence.
"I felt all flushed with anger
cholered by the noise......
He was drumming my pain
Yeah he was disquieting my life
Killing me loudly with his drums"
Why don't you phone this man as you seem to know him through your church connections and request him to tone down his drum bashing? Maybe he does not even realise that he is disturbing his neighbours!
Phone him? What for, when I can just call out to him across the window? And the drums have been silent the last couple of days. Maybe he's just feeling the heat or maybe he's given them away already! And hey, Loch, besides all that globe-trotting, maybe you should consider doing song lyric spoofs on the side :D
ReplyDeleteCan't stand noise pollution either. I especially hate the bikers with their proton silencers in the middle of the night. I hope your neighbour gets over his drums-phase soon. BTW the new template is lovely. Where do you get it?
ReplyDeleteLate night bikers, argh! They especially pissed me off when I was at New life hospital last year. And much thanks for appreciating my new temp. I was starting to wonder if it didn't come off looking as good on other people's computors. When you go to the Template Designer tab, you get a list that says Templates, Backgrounds, Layout, Advanced. Click on Backgrounds, then Background image which opens out a drop down menu. Tons of lovely stuff there.
ReplyDeleteLate night bikers, argh! Hehe ive just stolen ure line hehe, nwy, i dont know why but for some probly genetic reasons, i have a pair of rather sensitive ears and i cant stand loud noise, im glad there's a law against noise pollution (was gonna pt it out bt vana beats me to it)if only we'd be less "inter-respecting" lol then it wud actually be very useful esp. against these irritating late night racers. But my sympathy goes towards this lonely neighbor of urs, i wish there's sumthing or sumone else to cheer him up!
ReplyDeleteThere's still a child in all of us, and more so for guys, I guess. The man is simply reliving his younger years, something I've always wanted to so since I became an adult... (I've been eyeing the Wii console for a couple'o months now, maybe now is a good time! Hmm..)
ReplyDeleteBy the way, U Callio, this is to formally request you to kindly show your mercy upon me because I'd followed you without a prior information. I am willing to drag the moon down for you if you'd just give me windows to your blog...I wont ask for your heart..lolzzz Sorry *meek* :):(
ReplyDeleteLol jay-me, I'll need a bribe since you're the second offender after kuku. And why don't you come cheer up my neighbour with a visit? Or a lecture on noise pollution, whatever you think fit :)
ReplyDeletered, what's a Wii console, computor game thingy? And you're probably right, drummer guy's probably doing a youthful dream thing. Guess the wifey would've never allowed him to create such a racket while she was around!
Hmmm, seems difficult. Reminds me of a joke i read in RD once. These kids had a drumset which they'd keep banging. Then there was news that their house was burgled, and one hopeful neighbour asked, "Did they take the drumset?"
ReplyDeleteBtw, wonder what happened, most blogs i tried to visit the last few weeks kept showing 'Oops... error!' including yours, & sometimes my own.
Hmmm, can't recall having had any such probs, mesjay, maybe it's something to do with your computor settings or something. And yeah, I can so relate to the neighbour in your tale. Though the drums haven't been put to much action lately. Maybe they've been burgled too :D
ReplyDeletekan hnam thran mawh bawk zinga lian ber pakhat niin ka hria...in hriat thiam tawn na neih zellll ringawt leh Krista hminga ngaihdam zel mai hi
ReplyDeleteIf his children were with him he'd be way too busy to mope around and look for things to excite himself.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely, Violetwrites!
ReplyDeletevirgo, dik khawp mai, police te pawhin tianga an sawi hi ka hre fo.
he seems a good guy, go easy :) and it's been a long time since I have been here, how are you??
ReplyDeleteHe is, Gauri, and the banging has stopped. Doing fine, thank you, hope you are too. Busy time of the year for all of us, I guess.
ReplyDelete