Anish Nadh’s Blog

Matthew took the tiny glass bottle, filled it with the grow medium. He neatly arranged the tiny nerve plant with his tweezers, some moss and an aesthetic larva rock to make the terrarium. He then sprayed water into it and closed it with a cork, placed it on his table right under the LED focus lights.  Fate placed her there. She had everything, food, water, shelter. She wanted to get out but couldn’t as she was rooted there.  She wanted to be out, where the sun was brighter, where the rain fell from the sky, but she couldn’t move. She was in a glass prison, a comfortable one. She cut off everything and everyone outside. Tried to be the best she could be within the container she was, absorbing everything. She sometimes smoked cigarettes until she suffocated.  Mathew saw some mist inside the glass bottle. The plant was transpiring within the ecosystem! He opened the cork so the plant can get some good CO2 from the outside. He wiped the glass clean with a folded tissue and kept it open for

Recently, I planted 2 avocado, 3 papaya and 2 guava trees by the roadside outside my house. Some of the trees are well protected with bamboo stick fences, tall and wide enough to prevent the cows. But they always seem to find the poor papaya tree leaves. These cows are reckless! They just finished 2 trees, so it looks like there will be no papayas this time. I’m regularly watering the fruit trees, it should take about 5 to 8 years before we can get any fruits from them. 

She reads, not just books! The English teacher, has stories untold, She blinks while she thinks,  Her questions makes you write books that were never written!  She sometimes also inspires a poem. 

I asked chatGPT the chicken or the egg question!  Here’s what I received! “The question of whether the chicken or the egg came first has been a philosophical conundrum for centuries. However, from a scientific perspective, the answer is that the egg came first. This is because the process of evolution occurs over a long period of time, and gradual changes accumulate over generations. In the case of chickens, they evolved from earlier bird species, and the first chicken would have hatched from an egg laid by one of its ancestors. Therefore, the egg must have come first, as it was laid by an ancestor that was not quite a chicken but evolved into one. This process of evolution is known as "anagenesis" and is how new species arise over time. So, while the question of the chicken or the egg may never be fully answered from a philosophical perspective, from a scientific standpoint, it is clear that the egg came first.” Mind blown! 

 I had a very long day today! So this blog got delayed! After my classes I had a long conversation with a new student prospect. Then it was pubg with Sam, Sol, camy and Reeko. Camy also played chess while on the pubg game.  I have to wake up by 7:00 am tomorrow. Nothing productive to write.  

I’m not in a space to do blogs and walk and take care of plants, but still, I make an effort to do it. I just want to sleep in today! Not sure why though.  Yesterday I almost canceled all my classes but I didn’t give up! I scheduled the classes, took everything! I also walked 5000 steps and watered all the plants even though I didn’t want to. I need to find my motivation. Not sure how, but I will by the end of the day! 

She called me  Her voice had a typical ring to it  I wondered if she could sing.  I asked her to sing!  She refused.  I hung up.  Waiting for the next call. 

 I went to Soundglitz to get some of my student’s guitars fixed! Khazana biryani was near by, so I indulged myself. It wasn’t perfect, like before. I think I got there as the biryani was finishing. The masala overpowered the flavor. It was too tangy for my taste. It was nice, but not the same taste. I was hungry I didn’t care, downed it in 5 minutes and drive back home. 

 Summer is here and the plants and animals need water right now. I also planted 2 avocado trees, a guava tree and a papaya tree. I’ve started watering the plants regularly on my backyard and the ones I planted by the wayside.  I also noticed white mealy bugs on the Taro stems. I wiped them out with some water. The mulberry is towering and I have to trim it soon. The soil and the weather is quite dry this year. 

Summer is here and I had my first taste of mango this year though a drink I ordered at Plan B. I don’t remember what it was called, I asked my mango mock-tail to be rimmed with salt and chili flakes!  As I write this blog, I have the fan on, cooling me, calming my skin. I’m too sleepy to write anything worth reading, So I will end the blog here. Ps. I think the mock-tail I had, had icecream in it. 

Andy got his hike so he wanted to treat us all! We chose Glen’s and ordered chicken burgers and a pizza. I liked the pizza very much but it had too much cheese. I’m pretty sure I’ll have a cholesterol spike. I also walked over 8000 steps. Now we are back on discord and the guys are playing COD. Tomorrow some of us will meet at plan B. 

 As suspected, the cows came within an hour, after the papaya was planted. They chewed on all the leaves but one. So, I went ahead and put a small barricade to protect it from the attack of the cows.   I also planted an avocado and a guava tree outside my house with the help of a BBMP staff. I also made sure they put a barricade to guard them from grazing animals. I’m also pouring water everyday to the pants. Hope they grow in a few years and start giving out fruits for everyone around. 

My neighbor’s plot is under litigation and is infested by the invasive Lantana plants. During summer this plant dries up and sprouts back again during monsoon. I jumped the wall cleared some of the dried lantana twigs and made a hole on the ground. I’ve seen some volunteer cherry tomatoes and decided to plant some more.  My trained musician hands wasn’t strong enough for the parched earth, it hurt. My exposed skin got cuts and nicks from the lantana thorns. The sun was pulling out the sweat on my temples, my head hurt! I was dehydrating.  Mom who saw this had another idea, to plant a papaya tree there. I had to did a pit “knee deep” now! The idea of planting papayas gave me the energy to dig again. I hurried with the cherry tomatoes, threw some into the small hole on the ground and covered it up. And found an abandoned cement block! The ground under the block was free. I could dig easily. The universe conspired to make my work easy! I dug the pit and mom passed me the papaya tree over

My old parents needs to move around a lot more. After retirement they are just sitting around a lot. This sedentary lifestyle is not good for them. My mom had a an an abdominal scan and is diagnosed with grade 1 fatty liver. She will need to lose her weight. My dad is diabetic and quite sedentary. Though I don’t have kids, my parents are my kids. I have to remind my mom constantly to take medicines. It’s time to push them to move a lot more. 

I’m enjoying the prawns burger and crispy Lucy from Truffles! It’s better than plan B in my opinion. I get major burger cravings when the COD games are on. The prawns burger comes loaded with 4 big crispy prawns in sandwiched between buns in a bed of coleslaw. 

I’m on antibiotics as part of my dental treatment, and this makes me drowsy, sleepy & tired. So I decided to not walk yesterday to give my body some rest. It’s 7:25am now. I’m sure I will walk 5000 steps today! I must also set up my computer to start recording some music. 

I helped out with the Sunday school today with the singing. It took me back to my childhood where I had maximum fun. Sunday school was a place that I ran to to get out of the monotony of church, as it happened during the church service. I passed comments, inappropriate jokes, fell in love multiple times all in Sunday school. I saw some kids doing similar activities. They will grow out of their childhood and it will be all work and no play soon. 

The reason I started taking music seriously is because of Steve Vai. I discovered his music after I was given a G3 live VCD featuring  Joe Satriani, Steve Vai and Eric Johnson.  when I was 17 years old! My jaws dropped to the floor listening to Steve Vai, he used the guitar like it was an extension of his arm. He moved and contorted his body, face and fingers to his music! Sometimes his fingers danced! I still get goosebumps listening to him perform For the Love of God .  I went to National Market where they had bootlegs of bands and requested for Steve Vai. The shop keeper told me to come after a week. After many visits, as I browsed through I saw another VCD, labeled Steve Vai, Alien Love Secrets. I purchased it and hoped it worked on my VCD player and it did! The first song was Bad Horsie, he made his guitar sound like a neighing horse! I was floored again. I heard Tender Surrender and cried! It was that day I decided to be a musician. I knew I couldn’t be like Steve, but I definite

I can’t believe I completed 500 blogs and never missed a day! This will be my blog post 501.  I did not want to write masterpieces or care about being judged. Just wanted to be in this process of writing. I never went into a writers block. Creative block only happens when you only want to create masterpieces. One must fail over and over again before they even get close to a masterpiece. So these are my 500 failures. 

Today, I dragged myself,  To do something that I did not want to do. The bed wanted to feel my weight,  It was gravity, not me.  I stayed under the sheets,  Then turned to my right,  My feet almost touched the ground,  I didn’t want to get up, I felt heavy, it’s definitely gravity.  I pulled through, dragging myself  Saw the man in the mirror!  He looked very young,  But I felt very old. He brushed as my thoughts wandered.  News about Andrew Tate filled the room.  Then I saw him leave the mirror.  I put on my shoes, slowly.  Set my watch to track my steps,  Though I didn’t want to,  I walked 5000 steps 

continuing from yesterday’s post, the banks finally sent a statement. My dad has invested ₹50000 and made a loss of ₹1500.  He’s also paying about ₹110 as transaction charges every time this happens. That adds up to about ₹4000 for 3 years. Now how many people are charged this amount? I shared these details with him. Now he will need to make a decision.  Also, I bought a Mac book pro 14 inch one. I’m still in the process of setting it up. They gave me a no cost emi loan on my debit card! Now the bank hopes that I miss the payment to charge exorbitant fees later. I’m using the system! Hope I don’t get used. Fingers crossed.  

My dad retired a year ago and his bank convinced him to invest in mutual funds. I’m not sure if they are scamming him. There is no way to track this. I downloaded the app suggested by the bank and while logging in it says his KYC is not registered! But one can’t start investments unless KYC is registered! (KYC is a process of linking the identity card of the user to the financial transaction)  I think the sales person at the bank convinced him to channel some funds to another company that does not belong to the bank. Time to catch these fraudsters or get educated on how these things work.

Yesterday Ujwal, my niece and I went to the park with our cycles. We removed the training wheels on Natalia’s cycle and went a few round around the park with me helping her balance. There were 2 boys playing cricket there, Jerome and Rishi. We ended up playing a few rounds of cricket later Jerome’s brother Jovel joined us. I continued with my walk and finished 5000 steps. 

Last night I hung out with James, Karthik and  the German NRI Vinay. He had came back to India after 6 long years from Germany to visit his parents and found enough time to meet. We caught up, went back some memory lanes, video called Johnin.  He also happens to be Andy’s not so cousin, from his dad’s side.  Vinay has changed a lot. He keeps chicken, farms until winter, builds chicken coop, play houses and everything! He’s some super dad!  He wanted “Indian” food so we went to Royal Andhra Spice, and as any foreign National, he ordered butter nan and butter chicken and biryani. I loved the food and will go back there again!  As for Vinay, I don’t think I’ll see him for another 5 years atleast! 

A few weeks ago, Denzil shared a picture on Snapchat, of spaghetti he had made. It had veggies and looked really “healthy”.  I also had plucked a lot of cherry tomatoes that grew on the empty plot near my house. So my niece and I went to work! She helped clean and pick the tomatoes off the stem, washed the broccoli and carrots. She was the best sous chef ever! I assumed the role of the head chef!  Here’s the recipe!  Ingredients Spaghetti  Greek yogurt (I used curd)  Mixed vegetables (cauliflower baby carrots and broccoli)  Ginger garlic paste  Chilli powder  Garam masala Coriander powder Garlic  Sugar  Salt Pepper  Procedure P artially boil the vegetables  Heat up the pan with a little oil / butter and dump the partially boiled vegetables into it. Add some salt and pepper And pan cook it for about 5-7 mins. You’ll need about 500-600 gms of cherry tomatoes. Before you start these steps, cook ( with salt, little pepper , garlic , little sugar) the cherry tomatoes on high heat till you s

There are times when I woke up in the middle of the night, in the earlier stages of writing these blogs, to write! Sometimes I missed the 12:00 midnight mark. This reminded me of how vulnerable my memory was. I made a checklist of sorts to do every day and included this blog in my list. The check list is the last thing I look at before going to sleep. I really don’t mind missing the blogs or care about the errors on it. This list has ensured that I kept the blog going relentlessly.  10 things I’m trying now.  1. Reading music for guitar and piano. 2. Consistency giving music lessons to my students. 3. Teaching what I learn to worthy students.  4. Walking more than 5000 steps everyday. 5. Adding fiber in my diet by eating fruits and veggies even though I don’t like them.  6. Taking care and actively involving with my family. (Even though they don’t like it)  7. Making money to have enough.  8. Maintaining genuine friendships with very few people.  9. Listening to podcasts. 10. Reading b

My nephew Ujwal is in town, he got a job at Mphasis company. I went to recieve him from the metro station on my Activa, he had a lot of luggages. So, it was quite a circus show on the road.  We came home and my parents asked if I can drop them to a Canara bank. I obliged and Ujwal joined in. This place was at Yelahanka. My parents were dropped and we had some time to kill, saw this place called Namdhari’s, a fancy grocery store. This store was well kept! Staff everywhere cleaning and rearranging vegetables and fruits, one of the cleanest grocery store. We walked inside browsing around for snacks, when we noticed they had a mini cafeteria. We ordered Hakka noodles with Manchurian and a falafel wrap. This place was 100% vegetarian. The noodles and the wrap was easy on the palate and healthy with generous dose of vegetables.  As soon as we finished eating we got a call from my parents. They were done with their work as well. I picked up a snicker bar and paced hurriedly to my car. 

I had a pretty good sleep last night, 7 hours and 30 minutes says the app! I woke up pretty early 6:00 ish. Allen, Camy and Denzil were playing COD. So I joined them online to spectate. I’m planning to do a fast today. Let me see if I can go on till sunset. I’m already feeling hungry.