"My Favourite Notification": A Serenade in Pixels and Prose

Love Letters in the Age of Likes

Aficionados of the written word, collectors of stories and seekers of gossip. It's your pilot of prose, Eternalramblings of KAPOW! This month, I’m here to unfurl the scroll of our latest musical novel, "My Favourite Notification." Press play and let us orchestrate your emotions as we sit around the digital campfire of modern love, a valentine for your ears and souls, and a toast to the month of love. (Listen before I ramble on!) This month is our second instalment of our world domination plans in 2024. The 11th song from KAPOW! is a personal love letter for you, unveiling stories, inspirations and a climax that I’ll leave you begging for more. Are you ready to be dangerously maimed by the cupid’s arrow? To take a nap in the lap of Aphrodite? To be the muse of Apollo’s latest song? Let’s go…

Once Upon a Text...

In the labyrinth of our digital lives, where every "ding" might just be another app update, a meme from a distant acquaintance or just your bank reaching out to you for an update, there blooms one notification that's not like the others. (I will reveal mine in the end). It's the one that sends a sonnet shivering through your spine, the one where time pauses, and the heart skips a beat—or in my case, several.

Allow me to take you by the hand and lead you through the gallery of my heart, where each lyric is a painting, each chorus a portrait of love in the time of Wi-Fi. These lines are confessions, my own love letters to moments and memories that have shaped me.

"My Favourite Notification" isn't just a song; it's the echo of that sweet, sweet ping (Cheesy much!!) — the one that makes your day, turns your frown upside down, and sets your heart racing like a group of galloping horses.

Picture a world painted in the hues of love, where each notification is a heartbeat, each message a caress, that’s what the song does to its listeners aka you my readers. I have equipped this one with all deadly arrows in my quiver of romance, hoping to dismiss all the allegations on me for being not romantic enough while giving you all a song that nudges you to ask your crush out. Treat this song as a sign to finally make that move, to be bold and to say those words out loud. If you break your fragile heart, hit me up, we’ll sob together.

So, let’s break it down, shall we?

When Murakami Met Messages...

Imagine if Haruki Murakami penned texts instead of novels, if "Looking for Alaska" unfolded in our DMs, or if "Eleanor and Park" shared Spotify playlists with each other. That's the essence captured in the verses of our tune— a narrative steeped in the literary elixir of young love, seasoned with the wit of John Green and the soulful depth of Banana Yoshimoto's "Kitchen." (This last one has been a recent obsession of mine). For me, a fan boy amongst fan boys of Murakami’s work, this song is a mosaic of personal reveries. Woven into its fabric is my adoration for the literary art of Haruki Murakami. His words have always been a guiding star in my writing galaxy, from KAPOW!’s song Sultana, Start again and now this song, all pay tribute to the immersive worlds he creates—just as a loved one's message pulls you into a world built for two.Hidden between the lines, you’ll find Ramblings’ personal love life peeking through. Embarrassed though, I’ll accept, it is inspired by my own failures with love and thus it comes with a notice, “Any resemblance to a completely real incident from my life or to any person in my life is surely not incidental”. When you listen to this song, you’ll be walking leisurely inside my mind, interacting with my ideas of love, romance and affection. Tread carefully, will you?

Cinematic Love in a 4-Inch Screen

"There's a perfect picture of you in that dress you like," I sing, and it's a line that holds a universe of meaning. It's a lyrical photograph, a memory etched into the melody, capturing the essence of a moment shared with someone special. (Not gonna kiss and tell, if you are reading this, you know who you are). That picture, that dress—it's a memory that resonates with anyone who's ever been in love. Surely, I can’t be the only one!

The song winks at the screen-smitten romantics, and I have definitely romanticised it through my love for cinema. The lyrics are nodding respectfully to "Her" and exchanging knowing smiles with "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind." It's a ballad that wouldn't be out of place in a "500 Days of Summer" montage or playing in the background as Meg Ryan discovers another charming email from Tom Hanks in "You've Got Mail." Even though it might sometimes all get “Lost in translation”, I’m sure it will transcend the barrier and reach out to those who love, dream and walk straight into yet another heartbreak with a smile.

Crafting Intimacy Through Sound

The journey to "My Favourite Notification" was a delicate dance of intimacy and playfulness, and surprisingly a challenging one. As we laid down the tracks, I spent a considerable amount of time experimenting with my vocal texture, aiming to wrap the listener in a cocoon of warmth and closeness, as if whispering the lyrics just for them. So, if you felt it sounded like I was a completely different person in this song, believe me, I was.

I remember, in our practice sessions, MC Gilheri and I, conjured up a solo that's a hat tip to the golden era of Bollywood romance that we as bunch of 90s kids grew up building our filmy expectations around romance. Picture the serenades beneath balconies, but here, the balcony is your notification shade, and the serenade is a guitar riff that smells faintly of nostalgia and Salman Khan starrer "Bodyguard" tunes. Yes, not kidding! It was our attempt to derive inspiration from one particular song from the movie, “I love you“ by Ash King and Clinton Cerejo but reimagined for the era of read receipts and late-night chats. Go listen to the song on the playlist below and tell me I’m wrong. I dare you!

At Ferris Wheel (our mad laboratory, where our ideas finally become a reality under the guidance of Mukul Jain and his exceptionally talented minions), the recording became another playground for KAPOW!. We injected the song with early 2000s nostalgia channeling Akon-esque shouts in the end. It was just a funny idea from Saira but KAPOW! being KAPOW! we ran with it and included it in the song. Listen to the song again and it’ll be hard to miss it this time.

Now, the main question, which I’m sure is at the top of your head and till now I’ve been avoiding it with this and that. Here, finally, I’ll answer it.

Yes, the song is an ode to KK and our love for his music and you can hear that everytime the interlude comes. It’s all by design to make you start singing KK at the top of your voice. WE ALL DID! We have been playing this song and see people’s faces light up with confusion and familiarity as they are hit with the ‘oohs’ straight from a KK song. It’s KK and yet it’s not but that’s the fun, no?

BONUS: I have been teaching for a while now and yet the decible of the laughter that filled the room when I accidentally sang "nodification" instead of "notification" was almost deafening. Believe it or not! It took a whole enunciation class from Mukul Sir to help me get back on track because once i uttered ‘nodification’ it was just impossible for me to fix it for a while.

Canvas for my anime obsession

I must confess, my favourite notification is always from Notion, where I live, plan and execute. But even in the complicated webs of notion pages, there’s one that holds a special place for me. It’s my personal anime database and all the little reminders that I have set up that keep me updated. So, now that you know this secret, you can guess that it is no surprise that even this song is an amalgam of a lot of animes that I have watched, mangas I have read and waifus I have crushed over. My favourite notification can be found in the frames of ‘Your lie in april’, this single show has inspired my life more than anything else, I watch it as a ritual every year, in my birthday month of April. Some other notable animes that have shaped this song are Clannad, Clannad: After Story, Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day, Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, Rent-a-girlfriend and more.

A Symphony or a Simile?

As we unveil this track as part of our grand 12-month narrative, we ask you to join us in this celebration of pixelated passion from my pen and from KAPOW!’s instruments. Will "My Favourite Notification" be your next great love story? (I really hope so!) Or will it be the metaphor that sat next to you at the coffee shop, stealing glances at your screen, smiling at every message you received?

So, here's to you, to us, to every hopeful hopeless heart that's ever waited for a phone to light up with promise. May your favourite notification always be the prelude to a beautiful chapter.

And remember, ‘when you're feeling low and reach for your phone’, no matter what the notification says, KAPOW! will always be there for you, so reach out, let us know when you are thinking about us.

Books

South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami
Before Sunrise and Before Sunset (screenplays) by Richard Linklater
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
Red, White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green
Looking for Alaska by John Green and David Levithan
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

Movies

Anime

Playlist

Stay tuned for the 10th of March as we drop the first Hindi song of the year. 'Hassi', the first instalment of our three part poetry called 'Zindagi' will be all yours. We'll make you appreciate life, the universe and everything.