Music never needs any preservatives. At least, not good music.

That explains why almost every hit number in the last two years has been a recycled toss-up of some song picked up from the attics of a golden past.

That explains why on a silent afternoon or a night without electricity, nothing sounds sweeter than the strains of a song from the Black & White era.

It was music made without much technology, with a lot of hard work and with so much originality that it can be squeezed a thousand times and still some re-created version can hit the charts and shine again.

Above all, it was music that had one rare element we look for so desperately today - it had 'melody'.

At a special Retro-themed evening at the Kala Ashram College of Performing Arts, Udaipur, this truth came alive when people of all generations, tastes and ear-buds came together to reminisce some melodious and foot-tapping songs from the 50s to the 80s.

Not only Indian teenagers and 40 year olds but even students from USA who are here for a cultural exchange program, swayed their heads and employed their vocal chords for tunes of a timeless era.

From R D Burman's clickety-clack to Kishore Kumar's yodelling to the beautiful and platinum compositions of Naushad Ali, Shankar Jai Kishan, Madan Mohan and O P Nayyar - these enthusiastic singers sang them all.

And when they did that, they realised what makes Noise different from Melody.

Just as Director Dr. Saroj Sharma had nudged everyone to look for before the string of songs began. "Noise may hit the ear-drums. Melody reaches to the heart and soul. And it stays there. Soft and durable. Because it falls in rhythm of the pulse of the heart. The best litmus test - when you listen to melody, anywhere, in any era, in any language - you feel drawn to it. Like a spaceship to a Mothership. We are all musical creatures. We just forget it going through the business of life. But life is not all business. Take time to hum, to listen and, if you like it that much- to yodel. But take out time for melody - away from all the noise."

The songs that flowed with accompanying bouffants and bicycle bells - reminded how true these words are. R D Burman must have nodded happily that day and taken out his comb again. Who knows what new melody might have come out of it!