Ertuğrul Özkök: Look what happened to my friend who lost his hearing completely, and when he miraculously started hearing again, the first song he listened to was
Two days ago my phone rang.
When I opened it, I heard a voice saying "Ertuğrul brother" and at that moment I froze.
It was a voice I had known since childhood.
He was a very warm, brotherly voice who lived across the street from our student house in Ankara Güniz Street and who had been calling me “Brother” ever since those days.
I recognized it, but I froze.
“Brother, I am Ali, Ali Pesh I mean”Realizing what my silence meant, he said, “Brother, it’s me… Ali Peş.”
How could I not recognize that voice…
This was the voice in my memory of a man I had known as my brother for 60 years.
Ali Erten …
Since those years, we used to call each other "Pesh" as a slightly humorous form of "Pasha" to hang out.
Those were military years…
The son of Muammer Erten , the Minister of Industry in the CHP İnönü Government…
Former leftist… Leading resistance fighter of the Turkish student community in London during the March 12 military coup…
Former leftist… still leftist…
But he is a modern leftist who has escaped the childhood illnesses of communism and can look at the world more freely.
He lives in Nice with his wife Zeynep.
He can observe Türkiye better than a leftist living in Türkiye, and France better than a leftist living in France, and interpret it differently.
As I say, Ali is a liberated leftist.
He is also a member of the team that created the Anatolian Fire dance group.
The reason for my surprise was this: Ali could no longer hear at all.The reason for my surprise was different.
A very bad thing happened to Ali about 4 years ago.
One day during the COVID period, he suddenly lost his hearing ability.
But he lost it completely.
Artır couldn't hear anything...
Because he lived in France, he was covered by social security and tried conventional hearing aids for a while.
It didn't work very well.
From that day on, our daily conversations turned into WhatsApp messaging.
WhatsApp has taken away the human emotions from our conversations, leaving behind cold texts where emotions can be expressed through emojis.
That's why when I heard Ali's voice, I felt like I heard a divine voice coming from the unknown.
"Yes brother it's me and I can hear you now"“Ali, is that you?” I said automatically.
“Yes, it is me, brother, and now I can hear you,” he said.
It was like a miracle.
The last time we were together in Istanbul, we chatted side by side with the text on the screen.
I could understand him to some extent.
Because during the same period, I also started to experience hearing loss.
But it was a situation that was related to my age and should be considered somewhat normal.
I could hear people talking. The sound quality was degraded.
I was hearing less high pitched sounds and life was gradually becoming a monotony consisting of only bass sounds.
That which left me never to returnHearing aids have largely solved my problem, but one thing has left me never to return.
Being able to listen to music in high quality with all its sounds…
Still, life and music continued for me.
I can manage with JBL and Apple's AirPods Max headphones.
Ali had completely lost his music.
"I now recognize my wife Tansu's, your and Lara's voices"When this stunned silence ended, he began to explain.
His doctor in France recently suggested using a technology that was still in its infancy.
They have succeeded in recreating sounds in the brain with a cathode technology that I don't fully understand.
The first thing he did after this new application was to call his childhood friend Tansu and me.
"Brother, I recognize Zeynep's voice. I recognize Tansu's and your voice. I recognize Lara's (Zeynep and her dog) voice," he said.
I understood that for him, being able to recognize the voices of people he knew well was as important as hearing.
I have never read or heard a sentence that so beautifully conveys the warmth of a friendly voice.
Oddly enough, at that moment I remembered the angry and hateful voices that I hear on television every day, but that I never want to hear.
Thank God we still have the luxury of turning down the volume on the television and not hearing them.
I felt sad thinking, who knows, there might come a day when we will be deprived of that luxury.
Ali, who had begun to hear again, explained to me so beautifully the value of "friendly and loving voices"...
You hung up. Tansu and I talked for a long time about Ali's happiness.
The first message from Ali at night: “L'Italiano”Around 11:00 PM, I received a message from him.
He sent me a text message saying that he must have been asleep because it was night.
He said:
"Brother Ertuğrul, I just experienced something very strange. The first song I heard after installing this device was "L'Italiano." I thought, "What's the connection?" As far as I can remember, this song didn't have that deep an impact on me. But I liked it so much..."
He's right... I know that the first song Ali would listen to after such an awakening would be "Bandiera Rosso" (Red Flag), which begins with "Avahti Pappolo".
So life changes us all.
"Ali, this is a Mediterranean song by Toto Cotugno. This is a song about loving one's country, one's homeland, no matter what it is," I said.
The second song he listened to was the Beatles, then Beethoven's Fifth SymphonyA little later, the second message arrived:
"I just listened to the Beatles' song "Come Together" from the Abbey Road album and I understood it. Then, for some reason, I wanted to listen to Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. Then came Alpay's "I Waited Again for You"... Just think, I can still listen to it with one ear, and I can't tell you how happy I am. I can now talk on the phone comfortably. Thank God..."
The messages didn't stop.
"Brother, I just listened to 'My Way' by Frank Sinatra, then 'New York New York.' Next I'll listen to 'An Englishman in New York' by Sting. Now I get it."
There is no life without music.”
His excitement did not stop.
Incredible playlists written for us by our subconsciousA little later, other songs continued to appear in Ali's "Back to Life Top 10":
When a person begins to recognize sounds, it probably begins in childhood. Ali's Top 10 list began in Ankara, continued through London, and from there, he moved on to Nice, where he currently lives. In other words, he moved on to France.
Edith Piaf.
And then a surprise for me.
Patricia Kaas…
“Mon mec a moi…”
A great song that says, “My man flies me from adventure to adventure.”
I immediately wrote:
"Add 'Les Hommes qui passent' to him," I said.
A woman's song about the men in her life...
So, at midnight, we each started making our own “Top 10 for those who are starting to hear again” lists.
Here is my comeback playlist:Mine was like this:
To remember my Izmir youth:
- Bob Dylan “Like a Rolling Stone”
- The Beatles “She Loves You”
- The Walker Brothers: “Make It Easy On Yourself”
- Peppino di Capri: “Roberta”
- Rolling Stones: “The Next Time”
- Hollies: “I’m Alive”
To remember my meeting with Tansu, I have Pink Floyd’s album “Ummagumma” which she loves very much.
To remember Gülümsün’s childhood, Julio Iglesias’s “Manuela…”
To remember my years in Paris:
- Leo Ferre: “Avec le Temps and “C'est Extra”
- Adagietto movement from Mahler's 5th Symphony.
- Charles Aznavour: “L'Amour C'est Comme Un Jour”, “Il Faut Savoir”
- Serge Lama: “Ou vont Tous ces Bateux”
- Jean Ferrat: “Aimer a Perdre la Raison”
- Dalida: “Une Femme a Quarante Ans”
To remember the 1980s and 90s:
- Michael Jackson: The entire Thriller album.
- Dİre Straits: “Ticket to Heaven”
- The Cure: “Friday I'm in Love”
- Happy Mondays :”Step On”
- Prince: “Purple Rain”
Of course, all of Sezen's and Ajda's songs... All of them...
There are many, many songs from the 2000s onwards, but I already know them…
So close and so familiar…
One day, when we've gotten over this collective hearing loss, what playlists will we make?In short, hearing and being able to hear is a very nice thing.
Being able to hear and enjoy music is an even better thing.
Of course, being able to listen wholeheartedly is the best thing that completes this.
I think it's time to close our ears to the hateful cries coming from the television and open them to warm, loving, friendly voices.
The day we regain it, that is, when it comes…
When justice, law, human rights, freedom and democracy come back to this country;
That's when we'll add Mabel Matiz, Manifest, Aleyna Tilki, Melek Mosso, Ezel, Duman and Mor ve Ötesi , Cem Adrian , Hadise, Aynur Doğan to our first playlists...
That day everything will be better.
T24
