Anish Nadh’s Blog

Paganini, they call him the devil himself on the violin. Why call him the devil? Why make the association? Maybe he was temperamental, that made him so unpredictable they didn’t like his attitude, he was disagreeable, they were awestruck by his performance.  He was so skillful on his instrument, the envious critics spread rumors that he got his skills from making a deal with the devil! Devil or not, listening to Paganini, I only see a hard working man, repeating phrases and exercises, inventing techniques that can challenge anyone even this time of the century. A true virtuoso. 

 Saturday! It’s here finally! I woke up late, and everything is not on schedule, I see myself postponing work to later. To keep myself organized, I made a “to do” list, with specific things to do. Maybe I should also include a time limit for these activities.  I am not motivated to work today but will drag myself to do it anyway! It’s all about being consistent and getting work done. 

My student Durga and I are participating in this competition. The prelims are done online. We are working hard and have decided to practice every day!  This competition is all about meeting other guitarists and getting a glimpse of what is happening around, technical and theoretical advances, workshops from the judges, sharing ideas etc.  Kudos to Konarak Reddy fondly known to all as Kuki (cookie), for organizing this event for many years. Love the energy he brings to the table! God bless him. 

My second Covid -19 vaccination was due, I decided to go back to baptist hospital for my second dose! I left at 7:45 and I was the only person there to get vaccinated. Being there early helped save some wait time. I was surprised how quickly it ended.  Also, I’m going to begin working on the Global Guitar Gita guitar competition. I need to prepare and upload two videos on YouTube. Must add this guitar thing to my routine and start practicing. 

I got a suit tailored for myself. I just assumed the tailor knew what he was doing and the result was just awful. The suit jacket fitted a size bigger than what was meant for me. Mistakes will have to be made, money will have to be spent, time and energy will be wasted, if one is not prepared in planning.  What I could have done was to just look around on the internet, done some preliminary research. I could’ve also spoken to a few “suit bearers” for insights. I could’ve communicated better and insisted on a fitting session during the initial stages. Lesson learnt, but an expensive one indeed!

I have identified 2 types of people. When there comes a dire situation, one type likes to stay a victim and not do anything about it. They want to stay in that misery and love pity eyes, stay in bed and whine.  The other type will always get up after a fall! No matter what happens, even if it kills them. These people get work done.  I think we all have these two types ingrained in us. So, who do you want to be? 

 Continued from part 1  I texted Gaurav asking for his time to talk about this music business that I wanted to start, knowing he was very busy with his schedule, I even offered to pay for his time. Gaurav was so very kind to not charge me and he asked me to meet him at a Raghu Dixit show happening at Manyata Tech Park. He had some time to kill after the sound check and he was willing to spend time with me.  I reached Manyata on time, in fact, earlier than agreed and was stopped from entering the green room. I called Gaurav and he asked the bouncers to allow me in and I walked into this luxurious makeshift tent kind of thing. They had a fridge with water and cold beverages, food on the table, a lounge area with coolers. Gaurav first checked if I wanted to eat something or drink, I politely refused. While Danish Sait walked in! I had judged a talent show with him at MS Ramaiah, now he was famous and had a huge fan following. I assumed he would ignore me. Gaurav said to him, “Hey meet Ani

Allegro Fudge became my favorite band (after TAAQ) with the original line up, Noella on vocals, Rzhude on percussion and vocals, Joey on guitars, Jason on keys and Gaurav on bass. I was a regular fanboy, listening to the band’s streams on Reverbnation. Their song plight  had this haunting melody and I was hooked to the bass line, played by Gaurav. He also had played with and managed The Raghu Dixit Project. After many years I ended up playing guitars with the band’s latest lineup (Shalini, Jason, Saahas and I; and Kishan/Shreyas on drums) and kept bumping into Gaurav. I noticed how composed and organized he was with his work. He did a whole lot of things. He was the co-founder of an online radio channel (this was way before podcasts were a thing), managed a few festivals and bands, a web development company, photography, blogs, was a friends with Derek Sivers, the founder of CD baby! He also had a website to his name with little blogs and things he did! How cool!  I always wondered how

Old Mathai turned around and looked at the house he had built one last time. He did not like living there anymore. They always shouted at him and tried to change him, he knew he was a being a burden to them.  He had packed his old suitcase, which he received as a compliment when he purchased gold for his daughter’s wedding. He packed one mundu, two white shirts, his penknife, his glasses, a torch, a tin of talcum powder and his old leather Bible. He also powdered his neck, tied a handkerchief around it, put on his shirt and mundu, slipped into his almost worn out sandals. This was his style. The add on was an umbrella he purchased for this purpose.  It had a “J”  handle that doubled as his walking stick.  He paced slowly through the dusty road, felt the heat from the sun. He opened his umbrella, which was his only shelter now and walked towards an unknown destination.

Hiding behind the hay stack  Jimmy felt safe.  The cops must’ve given up now!  Sighed Jimmy again! There came a violent sneeze, That Jimmy couldn’t contain!  His allergies got him caught. Back to the Jail again!

 Joseph picked the phone, and murmured a no so confident “hello”. He listened intently and then raised his voice! “What do you mean you fell out of love?” There was some explanation given from  the other end.  He smashed his phone as hard as he could on the marble floor with the same intensity he had used to break the coconut at the temple. All he was left with were some broken coconuts, a broken phone and a broken heart. 

White, fluffy, soft disks!  Have you touched the cloud?  With coconut chutney,  A rainstorm in my mouth  God bless the hands that made these, It is simply baffling,  Four of my senses engaged!  I wish I could hear it as well.

My sinus is a circus! I try to avoid a sneeze and there is a tingling inside my nose, and atchoo, here comes another one!  I think, I got it after I got drenched in the cold Bangalore rains. I was on my Activa, I soaked my pants, my waterproof jacket didn’t help either. A warm water bath and a bowl of hot soup is craved! I can sense another one coming… atchoo. I apply vapor rub and pray this ends soon.  Gotta deal with them clowns in my sinus with at least some steam. Adios. 

 I’ve always wanted to be able to do push-ups, I realized I couldn’t do even one!  So I made a plan. Started with wall push-ups, I was almost vertical I did a 100 of those. After a few weeks of that,  I did 100, table high. I then found stairs and continued with it hip high. I have now reduced it to knee length, 50 push-ups, in sets of 15, 15, 10, 10.  It’s still hard to do. It’s been a few months since I started. I’m so much closer to what I want!

Jessie was shocked to read the court notice stuck on door of the house, she had just inherited it from her granny.  The house was being forfeited due to non-payment of the loan used for her granny’s geriatric care. She was both sad and angry at the same time, to walk into a space where she had made a lot of memories, only to find out she had a week to pay thirty lakhs to keep the house and the property it was on,  The house was old, it had red oxide used for flooring, the thatched roof was replaced with the tiles only a few years ago. It even had a wooden attic, used for storing coconuts and doubled as a false ceiling to cover up the roof.  She came back the next day with Roshan, and wanted to show him around. They explored the house, the veranda,  place where her grandfather sat for tea and paper, the living room where an old broken radio was kept, bedrooms, the kitchen that even had the stone grinders her mother had used. The house  was infested with spiders, ants and all the crawlie

He sat down to write, the words just flowed.  Thoughts, just mere words, with the ability to move.  Words spoke louder than action, in his brain,  Words that can bless, hurt, bring a tear, break a heart.  Words exchanged with the father, made his heart race, Words from the mother, made his heart heavy.  Words from the sister, eased his heart from both.  Words from another brother filled his heart with joy.  In the beginning was the Word The Word was with God The Word was God!  Word, the true double edged sword! 

The guests were coming and Suni assumed the task of catching and killing the rooster. He had years of experience catching them, and a knack of pinning their head down with his toes and separating the head from the body using his trusty old foldable pen-knife. The knife’s handle was carved from deer antlers which made it a very rare possession. It was worn out with heavy usage but was kept very sharp. He used it for everything almost, from trimming his nails, to sharpening pencils for his kids, to making brooms from coconut palm leaves, to opening beer bottles and beetle nuts, yes everything! It was his extended arm.  The rooster was a tough catch, oldest and the biggest one from the pen, the Giriraja breed. He held the feet of the struggling rooster together, with his strong hand and reached for his pen-knife with the other, tucked in his lungi. He bit the blunt side of the folded blade to open the knife, lowered the struggling rooster to the ground, stepped gently on the head with his

She did not look too happy with the person staring back at her. The first thing she did was to wipe the glass, it did not help.  She grabbed her phone, opened Snapchat, noticed her overgrown eyebrows and the thin line of moustache under her nose, thanks to the pandemic and closed parlours.  She searched through the filters and found one she liked called “pink rabbit”. The filter gave her pink bunny ears, lipstick, a cute pink heart-shaped bunny nose and sparkles. She tilted her head, drew a pout and clicked a picture. Satisfied; saved a copy and sent it to Dheeraj. 

He noticed her in the audience! Was that her? Yes it was! She looked different, better than she ever did! He lost his presence and played a wrong chord that invited unpleasant stares from the vocalist who almost screeched out of pitch. The drummer didn’t seem to notice any of this but the bass guitarist was hiding a smirk.  He looked for her again in the audience but, couldn’t find her. Where did she go? Is she grabbing a drink? Is she with someone else? It was so difficult to focus now, and BAM!!!, went another wrong note. He gathered himself to compose his thoughts, closed his eyes, focused deep and connected with the music, and said to himself “The music and I are One” when her face appeared to him, she had one of her playful eyes that said I want you… when the vocalist asked the band to stop; “Cut it guys”  he grabbed the microphone and announced to the crowd  “This was our last song and we are looking for a new guitarist” 

 It was 12:00 noon. He checked his watch again, as though something was wrong with it. He paced through the pavement, back and forth. Restless. His fears were coming true! He began to break a sweat, it trickled through his side burns. He felt it draw a line on his face. He checked his watch once again. He bit his lips hard! He pulled out his phone, opened the app, looked at her picture one last time, went to the settings and hit ‘delete’. 

My niece loves watching cartoons, and we encourage it because her vocabulary has developed from watching these cartoons. But cartoons all day and no work done leads to problems, she doesn’t have “time” to do math or read.  We must reward ourselves with the things we like after work is done, then there is a balance between fun and work. All work and no fun is bad as well. So balance is key.  

 It is important to read to be able to write. I have only been reading the bible. I finished the book of Job and I'm almost done with Proverbs. But these are not good enough to be a competent writer.  I am also drawing parallels to my music to be able to play a particular style of music, one needs to listen and immerse themselves to it.  I see myself making a To Do list again. Off I go!

 Last night was fun! Andy, Solo,Allen, Vishwas, Jerusha and I got on a call that went through to 1:00 am. I have done these late nights before, but this time it was different.  I woke up late today. I woke up at 12:00 noon. It was raining when I woke up, it also didn’t feel like it was noon. So I decided, No more late nights. No calls after 10:00  I feel guilty losing half a day and losing my routine and being late on schedule. No more waking up late. 

I had a 30 minute online meeting scheduled with a search advertising agent today. He sounded composed and organized, scheduled a google meet using his company email ID, tagged his boss and my boss in the email! I was impressed with the details in the email and was glad that there was someone so organized to help with the sales. I expected him to be punctual, but he was late, did not bother to leave a text or call to tell me he will be delayed. He kept me waiting. 10 minutes late, I called back, because I had another meeting after this, no response. 20 minutes late, I left an email. I politely told him I had another meeting and to try this again after an hour, when I got his call immediately.  I told him I had another meeting in 5 minutes, and he should call me later after an hour.  This second time he was early by 5 minutes, my phone rang and I told him, meeting is in 5 minutes, and to call back after 5 minutes. Maybe I came off rude, but I’m going to be working with him a lot more and

Andy started writing as well! This is the link to his blog  andersonpaul12.blogspot.com   I find it hard to write everyday! But need to keep this going to improve my writing and language. Practice makes perfect. So glad to have friends doing the same things!!  Now to keep on keeping on! 

Nair visited me today. He was his usual self. We talked about how life has changed after the pandemic. He always brings a positive energy around him.  I learnt he has a set target of 10000 steps everyday. He is in the process of getting himself into a routine, getting his priorities right. It was nice of him to drop by. 

 I am having one of those days where I am not  motivated to do anything. I have not worked out, I have not prepared for my music lessons, I have not cleaned, nothing so far. I took a nap! I needed it. I have a few more hours to do this!  "Get on it man!"

Words become thoughts, thoughts become actions and actions, manifest the things in life. I have always wanted to play at the Hard Rock Cafe, and added this to my "to do" checklist. I played a show there within a year. Some people call it "The Secret" when you subconsciously feed your mind with thoughts. Some do it through prayer, some keep journals, Jim Carrey wrote a check with the amount he desired and kept it in his purse and looked at it. There are more stories about such manifestations. It sounds easy. But nothing works if you don't put an effort in it. Would you take a chance with luck? or go out and get it?

Pain is a way your body is telling you something is wrong. It’s a constant reminder for you to change something. All you got to do is listen and act on it. Sometimes you may be over working, rest helps. Sometimes it could be an injury or an internal issue. Sometimes it’s divine intervention! Pray. 

Someone asked me, today, What is one thing that you did in your childhood that you wish to do now?  Climb Trees!!  There are various memories of me swinging on the branches of mulberry trees and climbing the building sunshades to retrieve fallen wood apples, climbing big jamoon trees and doing pull ups on guava trees! Next time I will climb trees if opportunity strikes. After all they call me “Monkey” 

It is said that even God rested on the seventh day after creating the universe!  Rest allows the body to reset. Aren’t we just bio-machines, wearing out each day?  Rest! Take breaks often, then maybe you will come back again reborn, rejuvenated.  Then in the end of it all rest, forever!  RIP