The WHY and HOW of Nindiya

For 27 years, my mother Meena and I had the same address.

And then suddenly, it changed. To a new street, to a new city...to a new country! She wouldn't express it in words, but I knew that the mother in her was struggling to cope with it initially. In very quick time, her hatchling had grown feathers and flown, deciding that it was time to build his own nest.

How can it not have been tough?

I wanted to reassure her, that I, her son, was always there for her. And that even if I wasn't there physically, I was there with her. Somehow I felt that the best way to communicate that would be through a song.

As I thought about the song it occurred to me that the very same thing happens to many mothers. The very same thing happened to Krishna and his mother, Yashoda. One day, he left Vrindavan to go to Mathura to fulfil his destiny, leaving Yashoda behind. He never returned.

Can a mother sleep peacefully without their son(s)/daughter(s) the night they leave? How does the son/daughter feel at that time? It was these emotions that I wanted to explore in my song. Yes, this song is my own personal story and talks to my mother directly. But this is also about every mother and son/daughter who might have experienced something similar.

As with most of my compositions, I tune them and write the lyrics at the same time. The first half of Nindiya was composed and written when I was walking from Bourke St to the QV building. Before I reached the QV building the first half of the song that tells us what Yashoda might have felt, was done.

For the next few months, I did not know where to take the song. And then it struck me that I should explore what Krishna feels on his way to Mathura. And so, the song was fully composed and written. 

I hope you connected with Nindiya the way I did!

Yours truly,

Siyer