Anish Nadh’s Blog

 I completed 2 years, blogging here. This activity itself was quite difficult, but I could learn a lot from this. To celebrate this, I treated my friends and fellow bloggers, Andy and Solomon to Truffles. Ujwal also joined us. Looking forward to another year of writing. Maybe I should improve my writing, this coming year! 

 Today was declared bandh! Amongst all the drama, I saw a politician pretending to faint and his followers weeping and creating a scene for media, on Instagram.  I used this opportunity to reschedule some of my Saturday classes, and took some lessons. I’m looking forward to spending some time with Andy tomorrow. I have a lot to catch up with him and Solo. We haven’t been talking on phone a lot. I think a bit of space is good for us and will make our catch ups more enjoyable.  I think after tracking my 30 minutes I have become over productive. I’m clearly able at see how I’m spending my time and I’m able I steer clear of it. My phone time can go down a bit. 

Thanks to the universe, God for watching out for me. I’m counting my blessings and I cannot find an end. I’m just thankful, for being able to work hard and make a living doing something I love. I’m able to provide for myself and for a few others. I feel blessed.  I want to thank the God that lives inside me and outside, the true omnipresent father who is always looking out for me. 

 The guy who bought my bike, Shashank could not convert the bike to his name due to some hypothecation, so the guy returned my bike after spending about 7k on the bike. He didn’t ask any extra money, he only wanted me to return the money to him.  I plan to get my dad to fix the papers and then call this guy one more time to get it all sorted. Lot of work this week. 

 I’m realizing that apart from occasional reels, I’m working a lot! Contrary to what I believed. I’m not finding time to do a lot of important things.  Today the gym was off, so I found time to do a lot of productive things and lessons. 

Today I tracked my day, every 30 minutes! This was how I spent the time!   I noticed that, doing this made me feel very guilty sometimes  that I was on reels, so I could re-direct my energy into something productive! Now to do this for the week! 

I’m going to challenge myself and see if I can work with a schedule.  I’m going to first note down how I spend time every hour. I’m not finding time to do important things like my assignments and some gardening chores. So the first step this week is to calculate how my time is spent. This will give me so much mental clarity to plan things.  I’ve watched a few videos of Ankur and Ali, they seem super organized. This will help me as well.

 The bore well that supplied water to our layout had a leak. Most people went without water for the past few weeks. Today they started early to fix it. I cancelled my classes to spend time with this. We still don’t get water. Water comes to my water tank only when it has filled all the other tanks. And most of those tanks have a leak.  So, one whole day went behind this. To make matters worse, the pump switch caught fire today and we just got that fixed. A lot of running around, getting an electrician! It got a lot busy today. Now to face the rest of my Saturday! 

Mom and I started early! 8:00 am to clear the backyard. We pulled out a lot of weed, killed snails, prepared and planted the pumpkin patch. 1 hour at the back yard and I was already shaking. Gym does not tire me out this much. This made me realize how a daily wage worker is built for doing this consistently. Gym may not be the best option for strength training after all. 

Our area’s bore well water stopped suddenly! Today some people came to fix it. The diagnostic was conducted by cutting a pipe and letting out water to see how long it lasted. The pump ran for a good hour.  Solomon’s dad found this as an opportunity to collect water and he put together a hose from the water that was being wasted. I also joined in. We collected a good amount of water.  

I dug a pit for planting pumpkins.. to be more specific butternut squash. I had some of its soup last night. It was damn tasty! So we decided to grow more of it.  The pit was 1.5 feet deep. Mom and I also filled it with leaves. To allow the good soil bacteria to grow! We’ll add some kitchen compost and soil tomorrow and plant the squash babies tomorrow! 

Pumpkin seeds, toasted. 100gm salted, 100 gram unsalted with a spoonful of stingless bee honey! Pitted prunes! This is so satiating after lunch! A healthier replacement to my sweet cravings. 

In the game of life,  I have sacrificed the queen! Pawns could become queens,  She will survive only if the game is played right! 

 Today I conducted a music workshop for kids at Immanuel church. They were curious add paid attention and were participatory.  Here’s what i did.  Ice breaker  1. Body percussion : creating rhythm clapping hands, stomping feet snapping fingers etc   2. Create a music instrument: divide the group into small teams and get them to make a music instrument using things around like rocks, shells, twigs, strings etc (maybe I need some help here organizing this)  3. Story telling with music: We made up a story and I used my guitar for the various scenarios they came up with.  It was a nice experience! I would prefer that I have more serious musicians in the workshop so that I can do more serious music topics. 

Shreyas and I have been planning the student concert for our students for the past few months and everything is not in place. It’s hard for me to work with others when things are not very clear and it’s not easy for me to get them all together in one place to jam. So the solo shows would work. I’ll dedicate my entire next week to see if I can get some clarity on things if not I’ll back off. 

I was having a long day, classes, fixing car light, key, cleaning, more classes. At 9:30, Rajesh chettan, his wife Sharon and son Roan visited me. They have been a blessing and used to come to record songs as a way to just pay me during the pandemic, while I struggled. We had an amazing time, catching up, talking about music, tech and many things. They uplifted my spirit from that long gloomy day! 

I’m a serial influencer! I have lead by example and I am observing a few friends and family following the lead.  I am heavily influenced and I’m obsessed by things people do as a routine. And I began different challenges. This blog being one. A few of my friends followed, and wrote their own blogs.  I have been nagging my dad to do some walking for the past few months and finally he goes for walks consistently for the past 2 weeks. I think he did it because he saw me walking 5000 steps.  I have influenced and encouraged behavior, by simply showing displeasure to anything that did not work out in my way. This ensures that my students, friends and family are on time. Last time I left Ujwal home, he was late, and I didn’t want to be late. It was not a very respectful thing to keep other people waiting for the sake of my nephew’s extra time of sleep. I will continue to do so, while sticking to my end of the bargain. My students are never late to class and don’t cancel impromptu.  I’m sure

1. Sent all my piano assignments  2. Checked my student assignments  3. Cleaned and arranged the shoe rack  4. Cleaned and arranged the office side table  5. Washed bedsheets and my jeans  The above list was long pending and I’m pretty happy I am catching up with the chores. I have a lot more to clean and arrange. Have to find a place for everything. 

Being aware of the surroundings and self helps with your responsibilities. Instead of mindlessly doing a task, when it’s done with utmost co concentration, it yields a better fulfilling result. I have a few tasks to complete and I’m going to do it mindfully with 100% focus.  I have to learn Fur Elise, the full song. Just started with reading the music for it.  I need to get my clothes sorted.  I need to organize and arrange my rooms.  Let the work begin with utmost focus! And I’ll write about what was done tomorrow. 

 I’m writing this blog in the Gym. I didn’t feel like working out today. I dragged myself to the gym. Each workout was bad, I didn’t enjoy doing it. I still toiled, I broke a sweat, and more. I hydrated! Every time my mind said quit, I added to the exercise. I clocked 8 different exercises. It’s a constant fight. I win. 

 I woke up early at 5:30 am, and left to Emmanuel church for their harvest festival. The food was great! I also met a lot of familiar faces, now old with the passing time. I had a good time there. I left early, to bring back my relatives home, they had to rest and pack their stuff to leave today.  I also dropped Akshita’s guitar with her dad and came back to collect water for us to drink. Then dropped my relatives to the station. The Yeshwanthpur railway station was too crowded and it was not easy navigating to the train with my 80 something uncle and 70 something aunt! We made it just in time to catch the train. 

Today was very hectic! I started class early at 8:00 am to 12:00 then again 1:30 to 5. I also had a new student meeting at 5:30.  I left to Soundglitz to buy a guitar at about 7:45, reached by 8:45. I was joined by Ujwal, Sebin and Solo. We met Andy, Sam and Reeko briefly and drove back home. 

I sold my Activa today, I’ll book a new one soon. This bike was with me since 2009. I’ve seen a few minor accidents on this bike, made some memories. Now it’s time for a new one. I’m still thinking of an electric or I mite just buy and Activa itself. Some things to think about soon.

The Jackfruit tree in my backyard fell over my wall a few months ago. This was adding more weight on the wall. So we decided to cut it off. Ujwal climbed the wall and trimmed the head, then Sebin joined him to cut the rest. The tree was quite heavy and it shuddered the stump almost bringing Ujwal to the ground. We took away the leaves for composing.  I think the tree will eventually sprout new branches and hopefully yield more jackfruits. 

 I’m on a complete reset mode, a revamp to get all things important done. I’ve started re arranging my things and getting sorted.  I started by fixing my Activa. I realised that I haven’t serviced it for over a year. I’m going to get the papers transferred to my name, just so I can buy a new one. Today I will rearrange things in my bedroom. Work goes on and on. 

I reached Bangalore, She welcomed me with a gloom,  She didn’t have the familiar coolness,  She didn’t thrill me with her aweness!  I entered a somewhat familiar space,  My home,  Still, I felt detached, I have to claim this space,  I thought! To make it my own! Maybe it’s just lack of sleep! So I slept an unfulfilled dream, When I woke up  She cried from the heavens! 

My day started with a class at 6:30 am. I went to Ujwal’s house and had idiappam and beef curry. Then it was time to pack. I finished packing taking breaks, downloading movies for the road. I finally said my god byes. It was time to come back home. 

 Just confirmed tatkal tickets to Bangalore. Today will be a little chaotic, packing, cleaning, last minute things. I also had my last serving of beef and parotta today. My cold is subsiding thanks to the warm water overload.  

 It’s been raining heavily here in Kerala. It’s kick starting the greenery here and it’s cooler here. I also caught a cold here getting wet in the rain. I also rode a Chetak electric scooter in the rain and it was very peaceful! I think ill buy this bike. 

Last night after watching Jailer, we all went to eat parotta and chicken fry, it was 11:30 pm. Ujwal had this crazy idea to watch another movie, so we went for it. We booked tickets to RDX it was 11:55 when we finished eating. The movie was way 11:59. We dropped everyone home and reached the theatre at 12:10! Sad we arrived late, we noticed a crowd outside the Sri Padmanabha theater. The movie was scheduled only at 12:30. They had put 11:59 to make up for the date changing at 12:00. The movie had enough fight scenes and uproars from the audience to keep us alive. We reached back home at 3:30 am!