How does Amul do this?

As someone correctly pointed out, Amul spotted trends in India long before Twitter existed.(/via @imsabbah) It did it again. With Kolaveri Di. Hats off, I say!

Delhi and Mathura with Overhung

Over the last  year or so, I have had the opportunity of playing with a few bands and artists. I have enjoyed almost every time I have gotten on stage. Off the stage, however, things have not always been that great. Musicians have egos, probably bigger than that of average individuals’, and hence, the off-stage chemistry has been of variable quality.

Overhung has been an exception. Despite the musicians being seasoned pros, there are hardly any ego clashes and the off-stage experience has been thoroughly enjoyable. Fantastic individuals, all of them, and the jokes just keep on flowing.

I visited Delhi and Mathura with Overhung this weekend and experience was thoroughly entertaining. I look forward to playing more gigs with them. Here are some of my status updates from the time I spent in Delhi/Mathura, which truly depict my overall levels of enjoyment.

• So my band was playing 'Sex Machine' and this dilliwallah was jiving with his 8-year-old son! Beat that other cities!
• So this drunk friend of mine comes up me and asks me to dance with him. I refuse. He asks me 'So, what if you are gay?’
• Being sober is the best way to enjoy the hilarity with a bunch of drunk folks!
• Incredible sound check scenes at Mathura, where they insist that it is a 'rehearsal' and not a sound check.
• Ruling the Mathura crowd with popular numbers!
• Crazy post-gig scenes in Mathura! Crowd swarming us! Kids wanting numbers and autographs!

Why this such a hit?

I was quite late to catch up to the latest viral hit on the internet.

On repeated listening, I am getting to quite like the song. The lyrics are crazy and don’t let the song get boring even after multiple listens.

But the question remains: Why is this such a hit? Of course, a lot of time must have been spent on planning social media and marketing for the song.

My friends have the idea that the makers of the song bought a lot of YouTube hits and started off from there claiming that in a few hours the song has so many hits etc., thus making it seem like an overnight success.

Oh, well. The power of social media!

Update Feb 6th, 2012

Here’s a good article on Guardian.co.uk that discusses the possible reasons why Kolaveri Di went viral.

Four degrees of separation

This is fascinating reading. But I’m not quite sure if I can still believe it. In summary, this article published on FaceBook states that any two individuals on our planet are separated by an average of four connections. Previously, it was considered to by six. But now, with the advent of social networking, it has decreased.

This means that you are four friendship clicks away from befriending anyone on the planet, if they were all on FaceBook. Crazy, but scary too.

Pakistan, oh Pakistan

Most sane Indians don’t hate Pakistan. And vice versa. They like each other and the others’ nations. This is especially true in social media.

I have some Twitter friends from Pakistan who seem to be so different from the stereotypical image being portrayed on various platforms about Pakistan and it’s citizens. They, in turn, accept those from India.

I have always believed that if a group of Pakistanis and Indians were locked together in a room, they will come to terms with each other just like any other random samples of population would.

The Pakistani authorities, however, seem to be trying tarnish their own country’s image. For example, the recent news about a new telecom regulation banning ‘offensive’ words and phrases in SMS messages.

Although, I have read somewhere that the rule is not going to be implemented, the stereotypes will in be further strengthened.

Those who are sane, however, will still continue to ridicule such ‘crazy’ rules hampering freedom of speech/expression.

The after-effects of dengue

This was my first major infection since I had chicken pox sometime in my early adolescence. So, I’m not quite sure if I can compare the two. I feel exhausted. Not physically, but mentally. A couple of naps a day at work – thankfully my workplace allows for short naps at the desk – takes care of some of the exhaustion.

But by evening, I’m really tired. This is probably why I feel so lost when it comes to having conversations with my parents, which I have been avoiding. Honestly, I am trying to find excuses to stay out long enough so that when I get back home, they are already in bed.

So, beware of major illnesses and mental exhaustion. Don’t try to accommodate too much into your life too soon.

If you have lived alone for a long time, stay that way

So, you have lived alone for the best part of your 20s and early 30s in a metropolitan city. This means that either you are a lousy roommate or your threshold for lousiness from a potential roommate is very low. You have grown used to the freedom, the surroundings, and the fact that you don’t have to do very little adjusting.

This includes watching the television programming that you love, binging on things that you think that you can’t live without, and walking around naked in whichever state of odor that your body is in at that moment. Yeah, you don’t even care to draw your living room curtain while strumming your guitar naked watching some crazy stuff on television.

Yes, you are being selfish and self-absorbed. But don’t frown. You should probably consider yourself lucky. You had the opportunity to do that. Savor every moment being alone in your apartment.

But please, please, please don’t think that you can somehow fit in your parents’ stay as if nothing ever changed. You will be put through the mental agony of adjusting to their idiosyncrasies and you will not be prepared for it. Not in a long shot.

Bookings done!

Juggling parents, work, music, and the boyfriend, and trying to give them adequate time can be quite a task. Especially, if you don't really know what talk about with your parents when you come home. Yet, in in the middle of all that, after confirmation from Joe (the boyfriend), I have finalized and made all the reservations for the year-end trip to South India.

We start from Mumbai, go to Goa, then to Thiruvananthapuram, then to Chennai, and finally back to Mumbai. Most of the traveling is by train because Joe wants to "experience" how Indians travel. Well, I hope it works out well because "how" Indians travel is not acceptable to most around the world.

Are sex and masturbation a taboo among women in urban India still?

Today, I was having a casual conversation with my colleagues (all female) about sex and masturbation over lunch. Not the average lunch-time topic, I agree. But I wanted to discuss it with my friends.

All of them said that they don't 'do' such things and they would only have sex after marriage. I can't quite believe it. No masturbation? Throughout adolescence and adulthood until marriage?

Do others have similar experiences?

Two months

I have been away from the blog for two months or so. In those two months, my life has changed for the better.

• September 25th: I went to Rajasthan to perform with a Bollywood playback singer, Kshitij Tarey
• September 26th: I met Joseph Anthony Ruffino, my boyfriend! <3
• Late September: I start going on a diet and gymming regularly!
• September/October/November: I finally have sex!
• September/October: I had many gigs with Cirkles and Overhung!
• October 5th/6th: I had two gigs with Monali Thakur, a Bollywood playback singer!
• October 15th - I lose 2 kgs and 2 inches everywhere!
• October 22nd - I contract dengue fever with thrombocytopenia.
• October 24th - 29th - I get admitted in a hospital and undergo supportive treatment and platelet transfusion.
• October 29th - My sister flies in for my discharge. I catch up with her.
• October 31st - I install an AC in my apartment
• October 31st - My parents fly in to stay with me for 5 weeks.
• November 1st - I buy a gas connection.
• November 7th - I turned 32 years today! Wish me happy b'day! And I join back work!