“Wow, Tasmiya! You play the guitar so well,” I said while wondering if I could play it, too.

It was Eid that day and all of my cousins and I were sitting and singing, while Tasmiya, one of my cousins, played the guitar. She also taught me a facile strumming pattern on it, which increased my enthusiasm for learning and playing guitar. But I was a bit anxious that maybe I will not be able to play it well.

Nevertheless, I asked my father to buy me a guitar as an Eid gift.

“Only, if you get good grades!” my father said with a smirk while I was quiet and thought of how I could fulfil his condition.

After Eid, I worked hard and did well in my exams. As promised, my father asked me to get ready to go with him to buy my gift the day after the result.

I excitedly woke up early that day. Everyone had breakfast, however, I wasn’t able to eat much due to excitement. Later that day, my dad took me to the music instruments store. The shopkeeper showed us various guitars and asked if I was a left-hand player or a right-hand player.

“I’m lefty,” I answered.

“Then you must buy a round-shaped guitar, it will be better for you,” he said.

After going through the colours, I finally decided on a sapwood coloured, round-shaped, jumbo-sized guitar. My father agreed and paid for it. On reaching home, I took my guitar out of the cover and looked at it with sparkles in my eyes and at that very moment, I decided that I want to play it.

YouTube had played a vital role in changing the lives of peoples, and so it did to me. I went through the tutorial videos, all the basic guitar tunes and kept practicing day and night. At first, people mocked me every time they heard me playing it. Sometimes, my own siblings would laugh and said, “How can you learn without a guitar instructor?”

I had no answer to that. But, to be honest, it was extremely hard, frustrating and some lessons used to be annoying. My fingertips used to often get ripped by playing and holding the ‘pick’ (plectrum) and strings of the guitar. But then, there were guitar teachers on YouTube who used to motivate with statements such as, “This is a proud moment for you if your fingers get ripped!”

That was what kept me going and I gradually fall in love with playing guitar and it became a hobby for me. Whenever I want to chill out, I’d pick my guitar up and play my favourite tunes and this invariably made me cheerful.

At first, everything seemed to be difficult and full of hardships but as soon as you make up your mind, set it up as your priority and start doing it with zeal, then believe me friends, nobody can stop you!

It’s a mind game, once you set up a thing as a goal, you wouldn’t want to back off and eventually reach what you aimed for.

Published in Dawn, Young World, November 12th, 2022