Anish Nadh’s Blog

Mr. Linus joined my school as a music teacher. He was this virtuosic performer, who could sight read anything and even play difficult pieces. He played “The Entertainer” and all the pop songs for the school choir! He was just amazing!  I also got into acting for a bit in school, and Linus played the background score for us. And he played the  “Puck” song from my music book. Watching and listening him play made me realise what I was missing being stuck with a bad teacher. I’m still looking for Linus, he just disappeared with no social media presence anywhere. Wherever he is now, he must be playing some kickass piano! 

Anand was two or three years older than me and he went to Clarence High school. Along with his school bag, he often had a guitar and a big fiction book that he would be reading.  The girls loved him, I never saw him play with the UTC boys, but he did play tennis from time to time! He had an acoustic guitar! I heard him play very few times, but just him lugging the guitar around raised his status in the bus! He spoke about the Beatles, how he would grow out his hair and marry a foreigner, which he did!  Years later he formed Zebediah Plush, at Christ College, this was around the time Thermal and a Quarter was just picking up! Anand was an amazing guitarist and a singer/ front man of his band. I finally watched him play live with the band, (years later) at Bishop Cotton Women’s Christian College. His band Z Plush, also had a female bass guitar player. We all gathered to see that cute unicorn finger that bass! 

Dev sir, was in his late 40s when he started tabla lessons for me. He would be on time! What good a tabla player are you if you didn’t keep time!  My dad wanted me to learn mridangam, but we bought a tabla! I found the one and half hour lesson boring and didn’t enjoy it. But years later, it came to use when I was trying to figure out rhythmic playing for challenging riffs with Slain and Allegro fudge. I learnt a bit about subdivisions of a beat and phrasing. I learnt tabla for a year. Then, there was no teacher. But the lessons that I got from Mr Dev was priceless. 

 I continued learning Carnatic music with Rev. Santosh who taught me to play the Indian violin. Rev Santosh also recommended to my dad that I learn tabla. So now I was learning piano, tabla and violin.  I vividly recall how we went to shiva musicals where we went to pick up the instruments. My tabla teacher Dev, signed the tablas that I was supposed to pick. Rev. Santosh also helped select a violin and a guitar! The guitar was meant for my sister.  I learnt the instruments and practiced diligently (except the piano) I got really good at it. I won competitions there at UTC and also got a chance to sing on the UTC Bhajans Volume 2. It was kind of like an experiment that Rev. Santosh did, making a Christian Bhajan volume. I sang a Telugu song, it was a very nice experience recording. This was where I met Juda’s dad Simon Augustine Sandhy. Maybe I’ll write about this recording experience in another blog.  Soon Rev Santosh moved abroad and no one over saw the classes and all classes came to

 UTC had many pianos, so they decided to hire a piano teacher, Kaundinya. She was quite old, drove an old Maruti 800. The piano room was located in a dungeon type of a room. You had to go through a flight of stairs to the underground. The only ventilation was a window towards the roof.  Kaundinya was not a great teacher, she gave me the books, that was photocopied and stapled together and said play! I didn’t know what to do. I just read the notes and the numbers from the book, it got way too easier and I practiced it on my trusty Casio SK -1.  I caught Kaundinya catching a wink through my class and didn’t quite learn anything much other than my finger exercises, which was done wrong. I’m still correcting bad piano hands thanks to my new teacher Elizabeth.  But I think I made the best use of my time there and trained on piano for 3 years with hardly any progress. 

 My granny would initiate prayer in the morning and at night before they all slept at home. The prayer started with a song, a Bible verse read or recited by everyone, especially the kids followed by a long  prayer! We would be very sleepy between the prayer and my cousin Johnney mostly dozes off in between on all fours.  But the highlight for me would be my granny! Who was never in  the right key! She stuck to her lane! Granny would sound in tune by herself, but it sounded like two different keys! I didn’t know back then what a key was! But I knew both melody was right, but could not be together. I got a kick out of tuning into granny’s key while I ignored the other voices! This was my first harmony lesson.

Pushpam, she’s my aunt! My mom’s brother’s wife. Today is her birthday and she is 75 today!  When I was a toddler, she used to take care of me and do all the work at home. She was hard working! She always had a song. She would just sing and work, I heard mostly tamil songs from her, she was from colachel, Tamil Nadu.  She always sounded so good! She gravitated more towards Christian devotional songs! I can recall “sondu pokathe maname” sung by her. There was pain in her singing, but that kept her going through her work! The tunes from her were not easy to memorize. So I must’ve heard it a million times to have memorized it. This being her birthday, I just wanted to think about her and dedicate this post! She has definitely played a part in my musical journey!

My cousin brother Johnney Dev, named after Kapil Dev, and short for Devdas, my uncle (granny was a huge cricket fan she named me Sachin and later it became Sachu) started music lessons at home. This was Carnatic music, taught by Issac Paul Singh, now a pastor at a church in Kerala. He taught my brother the harmonium and singing. That was the first music instrument I remember seeing and hearing and put to use. No one was allowed to touch it. The harmonium  could be folded into a small box and popped back up, designed for travelling musicians. It even had Paris reeds in them, sounded too fancy, though I did not know what that meant at that time. The wooden box had some mechanical buttons to release the locks to pop it up, and to get the bellows to fan out. I was quite fascinated and would listen intently as they sang their sa re ga ma pa! After a year of lessons, they celebrated it at home with an arangettam.  I was also introduced to the class. My grand mother being traditional, gave me

I don’t remember the lullabies sung to me, but I remember how the rough dining floor at my mother’s family home felt under my feet, where I was nudged to sing to guests. I was shy, didn’t like to sing, but when someone else sang and got recognized, I felt left out! I was an attention whore. I noticed early, that people who are funny got all the attention, but they ended up offending someone in the process. I was at the butt of jokes sometimes too, but always found a rhetoric comeback, My dad encouraged comical arguments but I was also stared down when it got out of hand. He was strict, at the same time very funny.  Not everyone enjoyed our humour. (I would say dad’s but I enjoyed it with him so I’m in it too). So, singing it was! I sang to be cute. Everyone loved my cute little voice.  I still remember, my older cousin, Aji Chechi (Sebin’s mom) teaching me a Malayalam song. Aadukal noorullorattidayan, a song about a shepherd who had 100 sheep and went out to look for that one lost shee

I’m really thankful for Renuka, she helps keep my house clean. I’m able to focus on other things and channel my energy to more important things. What I like is, she need not be told what needs to be done. She does it all by herself, and there’s no back  and forth conversations or the usual gossip. The work gets done quietly. 

Juliana David was my girlfriend when I was 15 years old. I loved her, she was this cute thing that appeared in church! My sole motivation to learn the guitar was to impress her! I practiced a ton of guitar to play and sing with her, she loved singing and she always had better guitars and did not play as good!  Julie is one of the most important people in my life. Before she moved to the UK, she came to the college I was at and dropped her electric guitar, which eventually got me into the band Slain. I’ve never kept my guitar down ever since. This one is for Julie. 

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

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. 

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. 

 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

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.