Rundle Mall in Adelaide

If you do get down here, to Adelaide, in South Australia, you cannot miss Rundle Mall, a main street in the heart of the city.

If you need groceries, there at Rundle Mall you can find supermarkets.

If you want clothes, there you can find the stylish, the ordinary or the sporty.

If you want to eat yummy spicy chicken or beef rolls, there at Rundle Mall you can find outlets selling those.

While you are moving about the mall, you will definitely pass artistes entertaining passers-by, and that includes busking musicians. At times, you can find a man with basketballs wooing crowds with his ballhandling skills. I have seen the occasional card player too.

You can also be overwhelmed that the young and the old who have some musical skills on the violin, guitar, piano, keyboard or even trumpet will fill up the space at the mall with catchy musical notes while you are finishing your coffee, or waiting for your friend to catch up with you for a discussion on business plans. (That is what I did today.)

As someone who plays a few musical instruments, I am always happy to see musicians at the mall using their gifts to entertain people and pocket a few dollars.

Of particular interest to me are the schoolchildren who busk there with their instruments.

In 2020, I saw two boys, both about 12 years old, with their saxophones entertaining the crowd and making some money. This year too I saw a teenager blowing his trumpet and pocketing a good amount of money. (I could see the notes and coins in the case of his instrument that was open and which lay in front of him.)

When he was done with a piece, I approached him and asked: “How old are you?”

“I am fo …”

What he said was no really audible.

“What did you say? Forty?” I asked cheekily.

He laughed, and then said: “No, no, I am 14 years old.”

I must have took a small video of him too. Later, I thanked the kid and dropped some coins in the case that was placed before him.

In June this year, as I was passing the mall to go the campus to do some work, I saw this group of nicely-decorated girls (as shown in the photo), with their weird-looking instruments playing Asian music.

I stood there for a while listening to them and watching how they were attending to their instruments.

When they were done, I approached them and asked who they were. I thought they were a visiting group.

“We are students from Pembroke School,” one of the members of the group said. “We are raising funds for new buildings at the school.”

I was impressed. These students were using their musical gifts to contribute to the building of an infrastructure that will benefit thousands of students in years to come. What generous hearts.

If we had more children participating in voluntary activities like that, what an impact that will bring to our societies. And, the younger they start in such projects, the future of our societies will be brighter because I am sure those children will continue to support efforts that will add value to the community.

On the one hand, in some societies, drugs and alcohol are slowly stealing precious lives, even those of young people who are very highly educated but happened to pick up wrong habits along the way.

And here, at the mall, there are students, many of whom are teenagers and who are doing what they can with what skills and gifts they have to do something good for the community.

Even the ones who play to earn some pocket money are examples of young people who have already learned the importance of using what skills or resources they have to make some money.

I am also motivated by their efforts.

I love music, but I have not busked yet. Maybe, one day, I will do that too.

Maybe, one day, I will also busk with a goal in mind, like raising money to buy books for a school library.

That is a plan that has been on my mind.

And, seeing young musicians busking at Rundle Mall is motivating me to keep my plan alive.

What about you?

When you see a musician busking, what goes on in your mind?

Just happy memories, or do they motivate you to do something to help our society?