Anish Nadh’s Blog

This blog post is the most important one ever. I have a lot to say and lot to do. But I’m not able to communicate that with you. So I thought I’ll just write this one. It took a lot of courage for me to get out of my comfort zone to type this all out into the blog.  It dawned to me that if I don’t tell you, my reader about the importance of this incident, it’s not worth it at all. Anyway, I’ll come to the point. First of all, take a deep breath, deeper the better, take a sip of water and read on… tomorrow is April Fool’s day. 

 My day begins at 6:30 am. I sometimes have early morning class. The first part of the day is when I’m learning, exercising, practicing, organizing and cleaning. A majority of the time is spent in learning. I have my breakfast at 10:00 am and continue my work. Then I have a nap. Before the nap at around 1:00 I read. Then I’m up at 3:00 pm and start my second part of the day with a meal. Then my music lessons begin from 4:00 pm to about 9:00 pm. This is a lot of work done! I’m going to try this as a routine, with a few exceptions on some days.  

I’ve been very consistent on writing blogs, cleaning, walking 5000 steps, playing the piano, drinking atleast 2.5 L of water every single day. There are many more things that I want to add to this. I want to add a new habit of reading for 15 minutes, every single day! After writing about 500 plus blogs, I think my writing can get a lot better with some regular reading! 

He took a plane to India, to surprise his parents, after all he was meeting them after 5 years! He caught up with his parents, met a few friends, hid from a few friends, dodged the “When are you getting married?” question like a champ!  He carried gifts for his friends and family, took them out for lunch and dinner almost every day. But, he included her in all activities where his parent’s were absent. Even his birthday  was  celebrated separately.  He went back to Australia, with heavier bags, with her clothes. She was moving back with him. 

I bought the Akai mini Mk 3 for my studio yesterday. This will make work very easy. The keyboard is quite compact and all the editing and mixing to some extend can be done quite easily! Looking forward to making some music with this! 

 I was given a task of playing 6 songs and some more writing work by my piano teacher, Mrs Elizabeth. I don’t think I can submit it on time. I’ve sent half the work! The other half must will be sent tomorrow. My teacher is quite strict! Even if a finger is off place, I will be asked to do it again! So I have to be very precise and very careful. I am enjoying the challenge! I’ll wake up early before my teacher wakes up and finish the submissions. That’s the plan! So help me God! 

What do you do?  When you have played all the moves! You just want the game to end  And look for a new one.  We have access to everything now,  More than ever!  There are so many options,  Until you hit the sack, the last one, And it’s game over!

I attended (online) my friend Denzil’s thesis presentation on the use of AI on data analysis for Cardiac problems, at Delft, Netherlands. I did not understand the core concepts or data sheets, statistical or medical jargons, but I felt a sense of pride in seeing him there. He will be back in Bangalore, next month 10th April after he completes his studies for a few months. Looking forward to hanging out with him. 

Most of my students are on their final examination. So, most of them cancelled today’s class. I also rescheduled a few to tomorrow to free up my day. I have some piano assignments to submit and some luxury to while away time. It was a nice productive day so far, I completed my 5000 steps as well.  So after this blog, I’ll water my plants, shower and chill! 

To the guys poking fun at me about my blogs.  I enjoyed the pokes at me, this really made me think and reflect on why I do this. I’m glad I got 3 pairs of eyes on my humble blogs. Thank you for reading. Here’s why I write or get poetic but really it’s all just bull.  Habit formation:  I had a problem being consistent, I used to miss my classes regularly, not do my bed. So I needed something easy to do and something I would stick to no matter what! I was not consistent with anything that I started. So, I started these blogs. Sometimes I have nothing to say, but I still make a point to write my blogs every single day, without the need for  manipulating the dates.   Attention seeking:  I love the attention I get. But I seek healthy attention, I want to be known for being consistent and reliable not for the “quality content”. Maybe someone will read these blogs after I’m gone. Yes, I’m known for writing shit every single day on a public platform.  Creativity:  I do not have writers block,

He sat on the right side of the bench, browsing on his phone, enjoying the various shorts and reels; meal prep, comedy, dance that were sprinkled with some suggestive content as well. That was how he spent his one hour “walk” at the park. He never understood why his daughter was so adamant and particular that he took a walk at the park every single day.   He did not enjoy it. It made his knees hurt and swell, but it was what the doctor had recommended along with a light stretching routine from his physiotherapist. His daughter strictly oversaw the stretching exercises before he took his “walk”.  Eventually, the park bench became his throne. He felt like a king! No nagging and haggling there,  just peace. He looked forward to his bench time, though he hated the five minute walk from home to the park. The bench faced the entrance of the park. He occasionally glanced at the folk, especially the middle aged women, who entered and exited the gate from time to time. He missed his wife.  This

Your lungs deserve her bags full of fresh air!  Breathe, air!  When you are already gasping for air,  Why would you suffocate yourself further?  So here’s just a reminder for you to quit the smoke,  And, don’t forget to Hydrate! 

I broke my fast at 11:30 am today with 2 idlis from Emmanuel’s place.  Jude, Sharmi, Andy, Jerusha, Soumya, Sam, their kids Aaron and Nathan and I, we all decided to go to Nandana for their leaf spread veg meals. We also included chicken, which I indulged in as this was allowed in the weekends.  There’s something about the Andhra style bhojanam. Rice is served with generous amount of pappu (dal and some green leaf) and ghee. This in combination with their gun powder is heavenly. I also had rice with sambar and rasam and washed it all down with buttermilk. Then the dal payasam settled my tastebuds. I ended my feeding time with corner house ice cream.  My next meal will be at 11:00 am tomorrow! Can’t wait! 

I’m trying to fast for 18 hours just for a day. My last meal was at 4:00 pm and I’ll wait till 10/11:00 am tomorrow to break the fast! I also supplemented with vitamin D and B today, to max out on the benefits. I am getting my well deserved uninterrupted sleep. I also feel good! The plan is to go until Easter with the fast.  The last week I got done with my waking, by 10:00 am before the breakfast. Looking forward to do this again tomorrow! 

Added to my routine is watering the plants and trees that we planted recently. I pour two buckets of water to the trees on road and the plants within the confines with a garden hose. I take about 30 minutes to complete this chore.  It got a little too uncomfortably warm the past few days,  and it was because of the anticipatory rains. It finally poured last night. Got watered the plants and trees for me last night! 

I remember Shiyaz, he joined quite late to our college Kristu Jayanti. He worked out regularly, watched a lot of movies, moved in with his girlfriend, walked into class with one book, lot of cool stuff he did. He used to tell our psychology professor “Ma’am I’m gonna be an actor some day, so completing these practical records are not going to help me in anyway.  I used to ride back with him sometimes on his bike and he showed me how to “sit like a man” on the bike. He enjoyed mom’s fried rice and in exchange I was treated to biryani most days.  Shiyaz, is now Tso . We ended up working together in college plays and going to competitions where my role was play live guitar as background music. I explored dynamic playing and I still consider this as the biggest training ground in building a strong musicianship and being noted and appreciated for this. This was where I had my second chance with music. Shiyaz was the protagonist most of the time and my music had to sync and give way to his d

 I’m trying the intermittent fasting diet, 16 hours of fast. I’m not doing this for fat loss, but to get rid of the mind fog and to regenerate new healthy cells. My mom is on it as well.  So, yesterday I had my dinner before 6:00 pm. This gave me a window of time to crash and sleep through the hunger after my classes. Then, I  kept myself occupied with some friends on discord. I drank water when I got hungry. Slept well. I woke up at 8:00 am hungry, I drank some water did my morning chores and walked 5000 steps.  I had to somehow fight the urge to eat until 10:00 am. So, I went to the bakery nearby, they sell fresh eggs and came back home. The visit to the bakery killed some time. And mom made the best scrambled eggs, loaded with spinach, onion and some coconut oil. 10:10 I ate my breakfast. I have an eating window till 6:00 pm. I’m planning to keep this going.

 I woke up at 4:00 am, I wasn’t feeling sleepy. I stayed up and  waited for my class at 6:30 am I stayed in bed and binge watched videos on YouTube advising productivity and slowly went into the topic of intermittent fasting.  I then got my morning chores done and finished my class at 7:00 am. I also checked my student’s assignments and went for a walk. After the walk, I had another class from 8:30 to 9:00. I did abhayanga and had a warm bath and my work for the day was done by 10:00 am! 

I saw something really crazy during my walk to the park today. There was a sparrow attacking the rear view mirror of a bike parked by the road side. The sparrow was not just curiously pecking, it was head-banging into the glass mirror like those metal music fans! It almost destroyed the mirror, clawing and pecking and flying into it.  A complete waste of time, I thought.  Was the sparrow successful at eliminate a threat? Who was suffering? Most times we find ourselves fighting with mirrors and we finally get tired. It’s not very easy to identify these mirrors that show up in our lives. Sometimes it’s best to just admire the reflections in the mirrors and do nothing about it but accept what you see there. 

After church, Jude, Sharmi and I went to Joy uncle’s place, to visit him after his surgery. He shared how difficult life has been after 2 surgeries on the right shoulder, knee and also his left thumb, recently. Listening to him, I could understand the amount of pain he was in. I admired his valour through these tough times, he managed to run all his construction projects.  We continued the conversation over lunch and had some good  laugh as well. 

We were approached by an event manager to play and compose exclusive content for Te-a-me teas at JW Marriott, while their guests had their tea infused five course meal. It was a normal gig but it looked like we did something right as some big shot from the company loved our music and wanted it recorded. Without thinking I quoted “one lakh” hoping this would deter the client as studios and recording was tedious! But they agreed! We spent an entire weekend (after receiving a cheque on that same day) recording the music. Some of it was composed on the fly, music that I had just sung into my phone. But we had great fun recoding it. I still wonder what they did with our music. 

A time to breathe,  A time to feel, A time to fall,  A time to heal. 

I’m still figuring out what love truly means to me. I don’t think I’m in the right track with it. I’m sure of what I want from a woman, but is that love? Am I hurt? Am I hurting someone? Why does it hurt? I have no definitive answers. Time will heal and mend everything.  So right now I’m playing Cupid, for a friend of mine. I put him in touch with someone, because I think they will make a good couple.  So just give my a diaper, a bow and arrow and my angel wings and a halo, I’ll continue playing Cupid. The arrow is released. It’s up-to them to take it forward or Not! 

I saw a reel about Kasi halwa made with ash gourd. I shared it with a student of mine, Sharanya, because we had previously spoken about the health benefits of ash gourd. She prepared that for me, exactly like how it was in the reel. It has a bit of a bite compared to carrot halwa. It was too sweet for me, and my niece didn’t enjoy it that much as I did. 

“The sly old fox”, that’s what they called him, but he was just a poor old fox doing his foxy things. He wasn’t sly at all, he was more direct, straight forward, knew what exactly he wanted. Others may have perceived him to be deceitful, but he was definitely not that.  One day he saw a pretty damn vixen! He was charmed by her beautiful fox tail and her fox trot moves. The howls she made before midnight was all that he wanted to hear. They howled back and forth until they fell asleep. The vixen one day decided to stop howling all of a sudden and the fox went nuts! He started thinking outside the fox, to woo her but she was gone.  Every night just before midnight he let out a long sad “aaaooooooooooooo” for the vixen to respond!  Then he read the story about “The Fox and the Grapes” and let out another big howl! 

I felt a dark cloud floating over my head after the lunch time. I felt sad, didn’t have the interest to do anything! I read some music for the Classical guitar but I was not feeling it. I decided to take a break and stop doing every thing. I canceled a few classes took the evening off, went to the fruit shop with the cloud still over my head. This time the cloud even had some thunder and lightning.  At the fruit shop I saw a police car collecting a bag of  fruits and after they had left, The shop keeper told me that, the cops  come in rounds 3 separate times a day to collect fruits and if they don’t oblige, they will ask the shop to be removed by force. Protectors are exploiting now!  And as I was leaving, the clouds disappeared, came back to my classes. 

To be human is to feel pain. The pain will eventually give you  brain calluses to be less sensitive to this pain.  We all feel it until we become indestructible someday, we end up being hard stones or sometimes we become brittle glass and break away.  Then someone comes along, picks up the pieces and tries to put you together but you’re broken anyway; unless you are ready to be compressed, to become indestructible diamonds on a woman’s fingers. 

So many classes, these two days, talking to new students, selling my classes. Walking and tending my plants and trees, piano assignments, teaching my niece. I over work on these two days. Tomorrow is Sunday and I’m looking forward to it.  Im not complaining, but grateful. 

I recently bought a laptop and I have a debt of about 2.5 lakhs because of it. I’ve decided to pay it off as quickly as I can. It’s a no cost EMI but I don’t feel comfortable being on a debt. Here are some of the things I’m doing.  No more new clothes until the debt is paid  No more expensive food until the debt is paid  No going out  No upgrading softwares.  I’m just going to eat food made at home Do odd jobs, add more summer music courses  Stop taking cabs  Having said this, I’ve allowed myself a weekly budget of ₹1000 to get through the week. It’s not easy! But if you know me, I’m not easy on me. I’ll beat me to victory!  Also I did my first unassisted chin up (pull-up) on a tree at the park. Now I’m gonna do 5 a day at my home pull up bar! 

My jackfruit tree was putting out its leaves where the sun was brighter away from the towering coconut tree. There were more leaves and branches over my neighbor’s empty plot. The tree was heavier on that side. We fastened a steel string to pull it back as support. But that steel string snapped in the wind today and the tree leaned to my wall uprooting slightly. I don’t think it will survive and I have to bring it down before it damages the wall further.  I noticed a shepherd and asked him if he wanted fresh jackfruit leaves for his sheep and goats, about 50 of them. He said he was happy to take some away. In exchange he offered to give me some goat milk, but we had to milk them. I held the horn and an ear of the goat to stabilize, while he milked the goat. The goat did throw a kick a few times, but we managed to get about 2 glasses of goat milk. 

Fingers crossed, The wait is on,  For the outcome!  I don’t know what I’m waiting for!  I don’t know where it will take me!  It will be a leap of faith,  Or the end of it!