First Tweet

When someone you admire and aspire to be welcomes you to a social networking site, what do you do?
I for one didn't stop happy dancing, 

This is the first of many encounters I'm sure.
I can feel it.

Six reasons why I love Family Harmony

The choir after our yearly performance at the Festival of Festive Music '15, NCPA.

First off, everyone thinks I'm funny. It's magical. Well, either that or they're just polite but I'm going to believe the former because my glass is SO half full unikitty from Lego Movie would approve.

Second, it pays us zilch.
Yet, members meet every Sunday evening for half the year from all over Mumbai at Chembur. They spend time and money on fuel and travel and sacrifice they're one free Sunday evening for this. It's not like they sleep in on Sunday mornings either because there's church to attend in the morning. In a city like Mumbai that never sleeps and everybody pushes everyone else around ruthlessly to get where they want to get, forty-odd people meet in a shadily located church every week, to just sing, expecting nothing in return.

Third, we survive solely on donations. How the choir survived more than a decade is a miracle. We don't associate with a particular church nor do we do shows like professional choirs. Everything from break-time chai, occasional lunches to the tailor and cloth for our costumes: earrings to shoes, is funded by present and veteran choir members. It is with great grace that the choir is able to even give subsidies to non-working members.

Fourth, there is zero politics. By that I mean there is only positive energy and love. There is no malice, no Ill will, nothing. This is important because with most institutions it is unfortunate how often it crops up, whether it's a large corporate organisation or a small band of friends. We end every practice with a prayer where we thank the Lord for our voices and pray for those who couldn't make it to practice that day for whatsoever personal reason. We pray for our sponsors and as for shelter and shield till we meet again the following week. It is possible that in my soft corner of lame jokes and friendly jabs at fellow members, away from the clockwork that runs this ship, I'm shielded by the shit that some of our seniors deal with. In which case, I have all the more respect for our crew captains.

Fifth, harmonies make me happy. Being in a closed off church with a high ceiling, let's you have just the right acoustic setting to embrace all four harmonies in splendid reverberation. It fills the room, and the soul. 

Because I'm short, I'm positioned dead centre where I'm sandwiched between all four parts- a sweet spot. Plus it's cozy and i can converse with so many more people. Complan-my ass.

Six. You also learn skills like teamwork and dealing with different people of different age groups. You learn patience, punctuality and obedience. There are also lessons in music of course, like learning to follow your instructor and controlling your voice so it doesn't stand out from the rest, trusting your voice to hit the right notes even without being able to hear yourself during performance. Listening to your fellow singers and learning to blend. And my favourite, bonding with them without verbal conversations but over simple glances while singing together.

Rantings on the phone #3

Do you have any idea how boring Discrete Structures can be? It's stuff you think you know because on paper it's tables and venn diagrams and graphs and you're all "Step aside people! I gaht this. Imma have to ex-or the shit outta this table."

You're half way done. Your forehead is  sweaty. Your hands bloody. Your mind swiftly calculating mildly complex 0&1 combinations. Your fingers moving swiftly against the clock. Your pulse is trained to be calm because you are aware a single mistake will have a domino effect, the kind you wait half an hour for and pay a bomb for but comes with all cheese, very little chicken.
Almost there! Your table breathes. Ever so slightly. It opens its eyes and meets yours. It lifts its grateful hand and touches your face and parts its lips. It softly whispers the answers you worked so hard to seek!

It's the wrong answer.

WELL #-&@%+!£ YOU !

Frustrated, I dial the number of my class mate Raju Pardesi. (Again, they pick the names. I personally find this one particularly suave)
Me: Inspire me.
Rp: What?
Me: DiS is boring. Inspire me.
Rp: Uh... If you write b relation a you get bRa.

We laugh.
It was enough.

Another vlog!

The college handed us our study leave. So I did exactly that: leave my studies.
Anyway, here's my second vlog :)
I narrated an old story to my sister recently and she laughed pretty hard at it. I figured why not let a few more people have a laugh too.
Also, there's loads of other little projects I'm been working on. Things have just been a little slow. I've been meaning to do some of PBS digital's art assignments. What do you think?

You're Scared.

This is for the next guy who beats his chest and claims to fear nothing.
Newsflash: We all do.
This is not just for the anxious expectant mother, or the kids scared of what hides their beds, or the germaphobics, the twitchy chronic OCD cases or the live-alones dealing with whoever is opening that attic door all the time.
This is for you. This is for the billionaire in his private jet and the homeless man on the corner of my block.

Fear is why Man decided to stay in groups to hunt. It is why they sought to please the inexplicable forces that raged through wind and storm with tangible sacrifices. It is why dogs were bred to protect his family.

Fear is why rulers did not cease to ruthlessly extend their boundaries. It's why they built armies and walls around their cities. It's why they whipped up fortresses and had them stockpiled with armoury. It's why they joined their daughters to princes of usurping kingdoms.

This world runs on fear.
It always has.
It's why government and religion and currency are in place. It's why science and technology advances. It's not what keeps you awake at night. It's what let's you sleep. Fear is the birth of hope.

Fear is why you save for your children.
It's why you have them drudge through an obscure education system. It's why you oblige with your boss no matter how incompetent you assume he is. It's why you succumb to certain age old logic despite the ridiculous backwardness.

Fear is why you remember the fork is for the left and the knife for the right. It's why you remember to have a firm handshake and keep those shoes sqeaky clean. Fear is why you wax your skin and paint your face and gloss your lips.

Yolo? It is because you fear death that you agree to live. So sure, you're all about living in the moment. Bask in the sun now and then so you can sleep saying you carped that diem.

Mile Sur - My First Music Video with Aflatunes

Here it is! Here's Aflatunes' Independence Day music video! I hope you like it. Constructive criticism is welcome

 https://youtu.be/YeF3jRaJ-k8

What a roller coaster of a month. In late July the team decides, hey, let's release something on Independence Day.

So that gives us, what, a little over two weeks?

 Aruna, the pretty lady in the orange saree, has wanted to cover this song for quite a while and takes on the responsibility of arranging it and assigning parts.

The ladies learn their bits and compose the harmonies.

Dany, sporting the pink turban on the top right, sorts the beat for each genre. 

Roy, the one grooving in the bottom left, nails the Konokkol.

Anish, working that golf hat in the middle, kicks in that much needed bassline. 

Nilay and Ruchee add their flair of beats and harmony respectively.

Soon, within a span of three days and hectically arranged practice sessions we finish 90% of the song and head to the recording studio where our sound engineer Archer D'costa patiently deals with our restless indiscipline for hours on end. One prepped singer takes about an hour. Imagine seven unruly ones. And this isn't even the whole team. 

With the audio almost in place we're prepped enough to shoot this project.

We were on a deadline so it wasn't a choice really.

Seven of us attempt to adorn five costumes each. Yes. 35 costumes. Yes. We had one day to shoot.

At 8am on a Saturday we find oursvelves at Qyuki's Bandra office with huge bags containing our sarees and head gear and make up. The lights are placed and positioned around the green screen. The camera is set. The audio is in place. And action! 

The team is video taped altogether as well as individually. 

Followed by the first costume change and another round of video recording. 

Then the second. The third. The fourth. 

Nilay is in constant dialogue with our director Nachiket. Neha and Bobby constantly dab our faces with tissues because, boy, were we sweating it out. If it weren't for those two and Natasha, none of us would have managed to get into our sarees. They handled our make up and our costumes brilliantly. 

Jibran tells me that Bangali Pearl should sway a little more like in the old movies.

And Goan Pearl should be more lady like.

Dany makes sure he takes a snap of everyone's face for a clever promo plan. Each cycle is executed like clockwork in order to keep with the schedule.  

Finally, at about 9:30 pm. We shoot our end screen. We make up something on the fly and the director calls cut.

There's an applause, a little dancing and a happy sprint to the changing room. We change back to day clothes, book ourselves a cab, exchange hugs and thank yous and head home for a long lazy Sunday.

The work, however, has only begun. 

We still have the rest of the song to mix and certain sections to redo. 

The video editing team begins its tedious task of getting rid of any unnecessary green. Archer, despite his sickness, works hours on end with our track. New layers are composed and added. With only four days to release date the whole crew is on edge, with the band members regularly visiting editors Afroz, Vishal, Harsh and Karan. Each night, band members update their profile pictures on social networking sites and raise enough heads to start some whispers. On the night before 15th August, the editing team pulls an all nighter. Band manager Rajeesh stays at the office overnight to keep tabs on everything. 

15th morning. We need more time. We understand, of course, that a short delay would be worth the end product. Friends and family start asking questions. There is a lot of nail-biting and impatient finger drumming. Everyone is excitedly telling everyone else to calm the heck down. Boy oh boy the wait. 

Eventually, at 4:30 pm, Aflatunes' music video is released. 

This was a real experience for me. I love Acapella and I love my people in this group. We're a happy bubbly bunch. We laugh at our own lame jokes and patronize each other as much as we pull each others' legs. Even though I stepped in last, I've been welcomed like I was here all along.  I know nobody reads these so if any of my band members happen to read this, know that I lou you. 

There I said it. 

I finally attempt to Vlog

Here it is
It was rather spontaneous and mostly the product of procrastination. You don't have to like it. It's just three minutes of me being me.
I do have ideas for the next one and friends already requesting me to talk about so and so topic or collaborate and it makes me very glad that I have potential content to put up and people who are willing to participate.
Thank you for checking it out as well :)