Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Yet another year passes by..

Seems like just yesterday, that I was counting down the last few days of 2013. It is truly amazing how time flies. It certainly goes by faster when you have your hands full with a tonne of things to do.

Its just another year actually.. no big deal.. if it wasn't for society and evolution, we wouldn't have bothered keeping a track of time or have calendars for that matter.

But that being said, 2014 has been really special for me. I think I have matured way beyond what I was just a year ago. Taking chances can really pull out all that pent up negativity one has. And i surely took a whole lot of chances and learnt a lot this year.

Learning to let go of things you cannot single handedly change. Learning to keep your judgments aside when you meet people. Learning to ignore negative words that are thrown around at you. Learning not to second guess yourself. Learning to treasure what you have. Learning to accept and reason. Learning to appreciate. Learning to face your fears. Learning balance. Learning independence. Learning that the easy way isn't always the best.

And lots more...

I travelled a lot this year, and there is nothing more satisfying than discovering a place that you haven't seen before; or explored on your own terms. It is truly one of the best things to spend your money on.
Somebody once told me.. we all 'earn a living'. But are we really 'living'? What really is the point of piling up all your money. You will be dead and gone by the time you decide to actually use it up!

Travelling is so important, what life are you living if you have explored the unseen? A dear friend told me something about livelihood a couple of months ago... This friend of mine had met a very successful and influential businesswoman who worked her way up from being a clerk, to the CEO of a company and yet, held on to a piece of advice her parents gave her. It was about wages. This woman said that one must divide their monthly wages into the following four portions -

1/4th for your food
1/4th for your rent
1/4th for your travel, and
1/4th for your savings

So simple and do-able. (but then we have those devils called EMIs :D)...

Anyway, heres hoping that we 'live' life this year and the years to come...

Cheers!

(whoever is reading this, watch this space for the next post on my recent travels.. theres so much to share! Textually and visually...)

Monday, September 8, 2014

Re-birth!

So here I am... writing again... With my most common opening phrase... Long overdue!!

So we all have our own little demons... And I think I just got rid of my biggest one! Low self-esteem!

I was always very passionate about a ton of things... music, animal welfare, art, photography... the list is endless...
But never took all of them seriously... I have myself to blame... treaded the easy path...
The easy path is no fun actually... it's a bore... predictable and safe...

So what happens when you start getting out of your comfort zone? You end up discovering so much more about yourself...
which is what happened to me in the past couple of months...

I was this person with absolutely no confidence... I failed to express myself most often...

The funny thing is, I was quite confident as a kid... I would sing, dance and act in all those extremely cliche competitions, recitals and annual days back in school...
You look at things in black and white when you're a child.... you don't, rather can't overanalyse...
You aren't affected by 'what people think of you'... You just 'be'..

Just like how animals live by instinct... they want something... they get it... simple...

Things get complicated when you get older... you have to be practical, responsible, careful about what you say... and all that hogwash...

Well anyway... moving on...

Music....

Was introduced to me at a very young age... My earliest memories of music are Jim Reeves' christmas carols that my father would oh-so-religiously collect over the years... He had every possible cassette released by Jim Reeves! And they were so comforting!

I grew up listening to all kinds of artists later... from Classical to Country to Pop!... And then my early teenage phase turned into the bubblegum pop phase... yes, stuff like Aqua, Bewitched!!

Which finally graduated into a Bon Jovi/ GnR and metal phase by the time I turned 16! MtV played a huge role at the time!

I owe my love for music to my father actually... had it not been for his interest in music... i might have missed out on some great stuff...

Yanni, Connie Francis, Abba, Vivaldi, the Beegees, Chris Rea.... my memory of listening to these on loop during family road trips will never fade away!

I attended music classes in primary school.. Most Indian parents send their kids for Hindustani music... and thats what happened!
But nothing stuck... because my dad had a transferable job and my teachers kept changing...

After school... I pretty much gave up on all my interests... just scraped through 5 years of college studying something I hated... focussing more on how crappy my life was, instead of looking for a silver lining...

I always loved singing, but guarded myself by singing only in groups... I would flatly refuse even when I was handed opportunities to go solo...

It was in my third/fourth year of law that I felt this void and decided to take up classes for guitar... my favourite instrument! Learned some basic chords and strumming from a small institute... and started using Youtube and online tabs for further guidance... Things phased out again... I had other stuff to worry about... Job... Money...all of that stuff..

Jumped three jobs in two years and ended up being more clueless than ever... The third job was my last resort... I had to stick with something..

So I stuck... and still am! And this time, I made a conscious decision to have a life outside work... So, four months back, I found Nathaniel School of Music in Bangalore... I had always heard of all the big names in the Bangalore Music circuit... but never knew that they were imparting musical education as well... Decided to give myself a kickstart... And quite a kickstart it was... I took up a course called Music Method, which gives you the opportunity to perform on stage at the end of four months of learning... And boy, what a ride it was...

I learnt things I had no clue about... met some amazing people... and jammed my heart out!

And last week, I played at my graduation concert with my fellow classmates; and as cheesy as this sounds, it felt like re-birth... A part of me felt like a child again... the same kid who would fearlessly sing and dance in school plays and competitions...

I even gave an impromptu speech on stage...! (which is so unlike me!)

Things seem easier now... I don't have to struggle... Just have to 'be'...


In the words of Eleanor Roosevelt -

You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. 
You are able to say to yourself, 'I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.' 

You must do the thing you think you cannot do.”