Episode 1 : The Chemical Warrior. (Real Warriors n Startup Stars Series)

DISCLAIMER: SAD BEGINNING AND A HAPPY ENDING !

Few years back, in December ,I completed Sandhakphu Himalayan Trek and landed on the last camp Rimbik. Since I got mobile network after 3 days, I excitedly called parents.Unlike everytime when parents would be double excited to receive my call, this time there was cold response. My query of ' Is everything alright?' was ignored. My intuition was right, my childhood friend Sarala's father had passed away. 

Sarala a Chemistry M.Sc holder, stood strong by her family, ultra busy with her teaching career and P.hd research, she managed to swallow her sadness. Few months later, I got to know that her brother Girish Anna is unwell and needs AB +ve blood. Since my blood group is the same too, I offered to donate blood the next morning. I was late, Girish Anna decided to leave this world.

Time passed by, Immaterial of what happened, Sarala's hard working nature both at home and at work was a big inspiration. Lockdown began, Sarala told me that she is getting bored at home and also experiencing fatigue. I consoled her saying boredom is common during these tough times. I did not address the fatigue part.But, In my head I laughed out loud. For,her energy levels and hard work have set such high standards that, my parents have adviced me atleast a dozen of times to learn from her and be more hardworking :D 

Small bundles of happiness started coming in her life. Govt. Job came by too. Seemed like bad days were coming to an end. Suddenly an uninvited guest called Acute Myloid Leukemia(AML) entered her life. She seemed mentally strong and confident and said , "Doctors told me that since age is on my side, I can fight it". I tried to second that thought ,came home and tried to google about AML . This made me realise that 'Ignorance is Bliss', it's better to stay ignorant than to google and loose confidence.

Sarala was not ignorant, her chemistry and basic sciences knowledge kept her close to reality. Now was this a bliss or not is something best known to her. Physically, mentally, financially, emotional draining experience, yet ,she fought. 

 Yet again AB +ve blood was needed. Yet again I offered to donate. She told me to be ready to donate in case of emergency. I am glad the emergency never arrived. Her students and friends and family arranged for ~100 bottles of blood in these few months. HB level raised from 4 to double digit. Inspite of such a crisis , she also helped other patients at the hospital to get blood when needed. Epitome of kindness I would say.

A good appetite which dropped to just 1 cup of poridge ( Ganji) per day, again got back to normal. Many months of hospitalization , few days of isolation which must have felt like jail, to back to home is an inspiring journey. 

From difficulty to get up from bed, to start moving around, joining Yoga classes, aerobics and getting back to work is the greatest comeback which has brought happy tears in the eyes of many loved ones. 

A Comeback in Style and with a Bang  :) 

This is Sarala's motivating story from my perspective.Keeping the blog short as I  wait for her to write her own experiences in her blog and motivate many many people......

Episode 0 :Introducing Real Warriors n Startup Stars

A small tale of inspiration can give hope in times of distress. Even a stranger's winning story in a sport, against illness or crisis brings a smile on our face.Many such Real Warriors are around us. A small attempt to narrate such victorious journeys.

On the other hand, success is just a moment. Journey towards it is a long journey. Once you hit success, the world celebrates it. Journey towards success also needs to be enjoyed and deserves to be celebrated.Many such start-up stars are amidst us. Hence a small attempt to narrate such ongoing journeys too.

Presenting series "Real Warriors and Start-up stars" and seeking your encouragement (this time, not to my blog but ,) to the real heroes of my stories :) 

Musical Journey of a 90's Kid :Part 6- Consistently ever after...

Social media made a grand entry to the world and my life too. My orkut profile pic used to be Anushka Shankar with sitar. My confidence levels gradually increased to keep my own pic with sitar on facebook. I slowly started uploading my music bits on an audio platform called SoundCloud and shared it on facebook. Encouragement from facebook and also from trekking lifted my 

Josh( spirit) to an all time High. 

Started a YouTube channel with no major vision but with a realistic picture that, I won't become a viral star overnight. The very thought of posting on social media unknowingly brought in more discipline in my music practice. My generally publicly shy nature helped me to control over posting and keep the upload frequency in moderation.

From requesting friends to please subscribe to my channel, keeping a constant tab on views and comments to just posting and coming out with a thought that, 'I will post when I find time and you watch it when you have time' has been a satisfying Journey.

Gradually, my music videos started helping me create an ecosystem. Many friends started messaging about restarting their music journey seeing my videos( This would be my highest reward and I wish to treasure it) , I inturn got inspired by their song choices and attempted the same, we restarted discussing music , music started filling in the long gap of not being in touch for many years and the journey has been beautiful.

Thank you for reading patiently. My aim was to share my nostalgia as a music listner, music student and most importantly ups and downs of my musical journey and bring in a hope that a start or a restart can happen any time.

Like I already said, no matter what, there are always people ahead of us and there are people behind us, without feeling too proud , without feeling too inferior , not comparing myself with any one and most importantly trying to maintain originality in music and life, I will continue to do what I am doing, Consistently ever after :) 

Photography: Dipankar Halder

Musical Journey of a 90's Kid : Part 5 - Second Innings begins

  

I had a harmonium , a sitar and vocal chords too. Yet there was pin drop silence.

Though my music student fire was off, there were still sparks here and there.During friends' weddings, I would selflessly make an effort to understand their music favourites, make a playlist, personally sit at the music system and play it. Listening to classical music hadn't stopped. I used to practice singing unknowingly while travelling . Going to music classes had reduced but had not stopped completely.

Unlike in the movies, there was no turning point as such in life where I decided to make a come back to music.The comeback also happened gradually and unknowingly just like the travel to silence .

While I was living with my grandmother in Bangalore, she constantly complained of not having a musical environment at home. This led to buying my second sitar (rest of my instruments were still in Dharwad) and also a new voilin for my grandmother. My cousin Sahana was kind enough to gift me her Guitar. An electronic Tabla and Tanpura also followed.

More punctuality started coming in with respect to practicing, attending music classes, conducting singing classes. Sitar playing got faster, Singing pitch went much higher. Able to sing in the original scale of a song gave the biggest confidence in life. Able to decode any tune and play on sitar reassured me that my basics are good . 

Performances opportunities restarted. Biggest encouragement( hoots and Wistles and claps for the first time in life) came by during my Himalayan trek where I sung "Mere Dholna Sun" from Bhol Bhulaiya which has a long breathless Sargam at the end. This song became my signature song and I started singing it on every trek. Just as a tribute to the encouragement I got from the mountains (specifically  for the classical portion) , even today I try to add a classical aalap in everything I sing.

Trekking taught me that, no matter what,  there are people ahead of us and people behind us. The same is true with music too. Not thinking too high of myself, not feeling too inferior either and most importantly not comparing myself with anyone and trying to retain my originality, I decided to continue my musical journey ( and may be life journey also except sports where i feel I need to be the best and I need to win always)....

Musical Journey of a 90's Kid - Part 4 : Mobile Phone -A Curse and a travel towards Silence

Childhood was coming to an end. An era of stardom was coming to an end. No more singing national anthem on school stage everyday. For, school days ended. Singing and getting popular in family functions was vanishing.For , studies were taking over. Mobile phones were taking over big time. Listening to a perfect sound quality MP3 was more attractive than self singing. 100 sms per day and free talk time seemed more interesting than attend music classes and attending live concerts. Elders told not to kill creativity at the cost of consuming entertainment. May be we had turned on the music so loud that their advice went unheard.

Reality started hitting hard. Reality shows started hitting harder. They started settings very high standards of voice sweetness, melody , dressing n grooming,  audio quality and singing pitch. It was impossible to match any of these. Slowly silently and unknowingly I drifted from being a music student to a music listener ONLY and sometimes not even that. 

I was busy listening to other's music. I was busy travelling in traffic and listening to speeding vehicles and honking. I was busy believing that , once upon a time I used to learn music. I had a harmonium , a sitar and vocal chords too. Yet there was pin drop silence.

I will leave you with this silence for a while till I  post the next part.....

Musical Journey of a 90's Kid - Part 3: Mobile Phone - A Blessing

Mobile phones were born in this world. Rather a new world was born with the birth of mobiles. When music lovers went to live concerts, we would call their phone and listen to the live for a while( we still do :) ) . 

Very soon we could listen to FM Radio over phone. But Dharwad had only 1 channel which used to announce in a base voice as " Neevu KeLiutiruvuri FM Kampanaanka Noora Mooru Mega Hertz" ( You are listening to FM 103 MHz ) . This felt like conventional Radio. Bangalore FM on the other hand had many many channels and was much trendier . I made sure I bought a Mobile which had Radio support.Most attractive part of Summer holidays at Bangalore was listening to Radio 24/7. 

Meanwhile, Sitar came home. There used to be a wistle whose sound was the reference to tune strings( Though there are tanpura and tuning apps, many artists still rely on this wistle as it's quick to access) . By now, as we were owners of phones, we recorded sitar string sound itself on the phone and used that as a reference to tune our sitars.

Similarly, the singing problem of picking up a song at the right pitch was solved too as we could record tanpura and Harmonium reference on the Phone. 

Soon bluetooth came by,songs started getting circulated via bluetooth and we could set our favourite song as our ringtone. Phone on silent mode meant you are either in a classroom or in a relationship :)