Thank you - for all the inspiration

Considering I haven't updated the blog recently, I thought of cross-posting the following from a Facebook status update.

Almost three decades ago, my dad, who's a semi-professional mridangam player, gave me some lessons in mridangam, hoping that I would take it up as an instrument. I wasn't particularly interested in mridangam or Carnatic classical then and did not persist with it. Instead, I started tinkering with the Indian flute (inspired partly by my uncle, who wasa professional flautist) because I was more interested in popular music

Two decades ago, I picked up the guitar after being coaxed into it by my sister Vidhya Venkitachalam. Around then, I started jamming with my friend Sumit Pillai on drums, also picking up basic drumming concepts. After a couple of years with the guitar, I bought myself my first bass, starting my journey as a bass player. I have weilded the bass in most gigs since then, but I also have had some opportunities to perform at gigs on the guitar, shakers, and drums.

In the last few months, however, I have had the opportunity of re-exploring my "percussive" side, with several full-length gigs as a cajon/percussion player. I can't believe the kind of fun I have had doing that. Ironically enough, my cajon technique is rather similar to what my dad taught me for my mridangam (especially right hand), and I'm able to generate a rather unique snare sound with this technique. Talk about completing a circle!

At this time, I would like to thank the following people for inspiring/encouraging/helping/supporting me in various stages of my journey as a musician, especially in the context of cajon/percussion playing.

Thank you! <3

• Aarifah Eve Rebello (for letting me "shake" at random gigs)
• Abhishek Dasgupta (for pushing me at improving myself as a musician)
• Anurag Mishra (for encouraging me at gigs)
• Jairaj Joshi (for introducing me to the cajon)
• Pritesh Prabhune (for inspiring me and helping me with concepts and tech)
• Reinhardt Dias (for inspiring me)
• Rohit Chabria (for gig opportunities and letting me use your cajon)
• Roma Kunde (for constantly supporting and encouraging me)
• Shaival Chatwani (for encouraging me)
• Sharanya Natrajan (for gig opportunities and supporting and encouraging me)
• Sumit Pillai (for all the years of jamming)
• Teemeer Chimulkar (for gig opportunities, trusting in me, and supporting/encouraging me)
• Varun Sood (for inspiring me, teaching me, and helping me bounce off ideas)
• Vidhya Venkitachalam (for pushing me to take up guitar)
• Vigneshkumar Venkatraman (for such an incredibly positive attitude and inspiring me)
• Vijayalakshmy Venkitachalam (for marrying my Dad?)
• Vishal Mallu (for inspiring me and lending the cajon)

The Whitney Houston Tribute

Today, I got to perform at the Blue Frog with a bunch of extremely talented musicians. It was a great experience, although I was playing something that I don’t generally play – Soul/Pop. It was a fantastic experience and I thank each of them (Caralisa Monteiro, Beven Fonsesca, Ravi Iyer, Sishir Malhotra, Mabel Chan, Agnelo Picardo, Samantha Edwards, and Keshia Braganza).

Saturday night gigs are awesome

I have my own criticism on Not Just Jazz by the Bay. I know it is a famous venue for live performances even from the early days of Independence, when it was called ‘Talk of the Town’ – they still have their Butter Chicken dish named after their old name – which is what my friend and band mate Robin always has for dinner when we are gigging at the venue.

Anyway, about the problems with playing there – the stage is small, we have to play 3 hours almost continuously, the venue is small, the pay is almost non-existent, the entry charges are steep, and the sound is not up to scratch.

Yet, playing there on Saturday nights is something else. The place is packed and gets behind you every time. Let me tell you something – there is nothing like the feeling that you get while performing in front of receptive audience – I think it is almost as satisfactory and rewarding as seeing a patient walk after surgery.

Yesterday was one such day. The crowd was wonderful. We played well. And we enjoyed a hell lot. Thanks Cirkles!

Gig vs Gay party

So, tonight, I paid the price of having two jobs. I had to ‘work’ on a night when the biggest gay party of the year (perhaps – the venue was Blue Frog, and it featured man performances by LGBT artists – I was even invited to perform my songs). Yes, I have a gig with Cirkles at Not Just Jazz By The Bay (which has been apparently renamed as Pizza by the Bay).

I don’t think I should be complaining too much. It’s fun to play in Cirkles and Saturday night crowds at Jazz are always fun. Plus, I’m earning some money. But I would still miss a wonderful party – my friend at office had plans to go and was inviting me. But that’s life and I had to choose ‘work’ over ‘play’.

Another dream realized

Tonight, performing with the band Jar Of Flies to a packed venue full of cheering fans at B69 (Bajaao), I payed tribute to Alice In Chains, the band that inspired me be a musician. We played Alice In Chain's MTV Unplugged set almost completely (just missing out on one song because of lack of time), after which we played a small, tight electric set.

By doing what I did, I completed a wonderful circle of life. I still remember the days in the late 90s when I used to jam Alice In Chains with S on the drums. Tonight S was in the audience and he came up to me and said "You lived one more of your dreams! I'm proud of you!

Thanks to Howie, Nicky, Mikey, and Sheldy (the other members of Jar of Flies) for helping me live my dream!

Direction sense of random Puneites

Today, I went on a road trip for a gig at the Pune Hard Rock Café with one of my bands (Overhung).

Getting to the Mumbai-Pune Express highway was easy. But getting off it and heading to Koregaon park in Pune, where Hard Rock was located, proved to be much tougher. We tried to use GPS but Vodafone’s GPRS was crappy enough to not let us do that.Whomever we tried asking for directions asked us to go straight to the left, straight ahead from the signal, straight from the Railway station, straight after turning right.

One guy said this: head straight until the signal. Then you go straight until the intersection, from where you go straight. After that go straight for another couple of kilometers until you reach the Pune Railway station, from where you go straight.

We got very tired and frustrated of this ‘straight’ business. I mean what's wrong with Puneites?

The curious case of self-flagellation

As I'm resocializing and resocia-gayzing rampantly these days, I am posed one question quite frequently - a little too frequently for my comfort.

'I haven't heard from/seen you in ages! How/where have you been Kris?'

My answer always has been in either of two forms. The rather bland and gentle one goes like this — 'I've been up and down a lot, more down than up. But I'm up now!' The more edgy answer intended to hurtle a jaw or two over a cliff goes like this — 'I have been suffering from clinical depression with suicidal tendencies. Thankfully, my friends (boyfriend in particular) and dear therapist (friend) managed to help me out of it. I'm on medications now — anti-depressants, anti-psychotics, and anti-anxiety drugs. I'm much better now. Thanks! Have you ever considered suicide?'

When I say 'up and down', I mean it. I'm suffering from type 2 bipolar disorder bordering on unipolar depression. If it is indeed unipolar, the times when I surface from the depths of depression (to near normalcy) represent the manic phases of bipolarity. Either way, my phrenus is fluctuant. A status message on my office private messenger summed it up nicely — 'Kris is up and down like a BMC-repaired road'.

This weekend was an uncharacteristically typical up and down one for me. Here’s a recap.

Friday night: It was a mad night at a music awards ceremony where I hung out with friends (read superstars and rock icons), got drunk, hit on a my-type-of-hunk singing legend and gave him my number, then got dared to take off my shirt for a Bollywood/rock diva in exchange for her taking her shirt off (this incident got covered in Bombay Times today), and finally retching and throwing up on my way back in the cab and in my apartment, before crashing.

Saturday morning: Woke up with a hangover and bilious gastritis — it was as if my liver was saying 'Get a life, jerk!' Then, for the first time in a year, I welcomed one of my dear office colleagues to my apartment. She was there to give me company during the shooting of a documentary film about openly gay people — the film title 'Engayging Lives' is derived from Here’s Truly. It was supposed to be shot a month ago and I was one of the main characters in the film; well, until my depression destroyed any possibility of me being a part of it. After starting therapy and somewhat stabilizing on it, I had gotten in touch with the charming girls from Sophiya college and they gave me another chance to be a visual part of the film — I'm doing the background score for the film anyway.

Saturday evening: After that, I had a fantastic gig with Shoonyas when we performed as an opening act for Agnee at VJTI college in Matunga. We did a quite remarkable set that was a crazy mix of rock and Bollywood. Three of my dear colleagues from my workplace were there to make the evening special. I can’t believe the support I get from my office - thanks so much! That, however, was the end of the high.

Then, I was set up for a traumatic and humiliating dinner invitation that I would not like to dwell on — apart from a salad that I tossed together, and a few moments clicking two lovers making out, I felt really horrible. My pills were there in the background but the self-flagellation was severe. This must have triggered my insecurities which led to me having an intense argument with Vinokur, which pushed me to the limits of masochistic depression. I could feel myself conjuring up plots and subplots in my mind, each and every step meant to hurt me a little deeper.

Luckily, thanks to just Vinokur, I was rescued once again and we somehow managed to get me to sleep without more mutual trauma! Sleep seems to be one potent douser of my flames.

Sunday morning: I woke up feeling much better and had a nice, long Skype conversation with Vinokur. Intense multi-tasking ensued and I started feeling like my old self — capable and confident. Moreover, I agreed for a date with a rather mysterious person, which I've been procrastinating for months if not years. A walk down the Juhu beach with him and his dog, and a relaxing conversation over tea later laid the background for an interesting prospect.

Sunday evening: After the date, I went to my first GB meet in months — mainly to meet up with the dear aunt of a friend. During the entire meet, I was keying things on my PDA, not speaking unless being specifically asked to. Later, I invited my favorite aunt to be my date for Valentine's Day! On my way back, a series of incidents including self-deprecatory humor, inability to remember the name of the book that I had read (Ellie Wiesel's 'Night'), and a couple of inflammatory FB threads bared everything in me in under half an hour. I knew I was going down to self-created whiplashes from my delusional world, but couldn't stop myself.

Ironically, an FB chat with one of my erstwhile co-residents from the hospital, during which my friend proved how narrow-minded, conservative and rude Indian society could still be vis-á-vis homosexuality and a coming out situation. However, I defended valiantly without losing my calm despite my pride being at stake. This chat made me realize that I'm good after all, and that my return to practicing surgery in the myopic and treacherous environment of the hospital would be difficult if not impossible.

It's amazing how masochistic depression can almost whip you down to nothingness. For those who are suffering from the same, or those who know of people who do, please help yourself and others to overcome this!

The Circles of Life

The gig at Hyderabad was wonderful. It felt really good to be performing on a big stage in front of a sizeable audience. But even more important for me was my life had completed a circle - one that had started in Y2K.

Back then, I was in Kerala, was in my Final year of MBBS and I had been playing guitars for a couple of years. S. was studying in Kochi and I had gone to visit him. S. took me to meet his friends from the band named Evergreen. We had gone up to their rehearsal pad - a room on the fourth floor of the building in construction that had been converted into a cozy jam pad.

I still remember standing (and in due course, sitting) in awe at the professionalism with which the band was doing their rehearsing. The drummer sounded like a metronome, the guitarists were playing on fucking huge amps, and the bassist was trying to pen in some lines - right in front of me!

I was mesmerized by what I saw and was inspired enough to make me feel that I too needed to reach this level of musicianship and professionalism. This, somehow coincided with the demise of the music TV channels from not just my life, but from our entire generation.

 

Thankfully, I found an immensely satisfying replacement in WorldSpace, the satellite radio service that had infiltrated majorly into my life. I was a big fan of - I still am - the modern rock station BOB. I was listening to Linkin Park, Nickelback (the good old days of the Canadian band), and Coldplay.

Around the same time, I heard a compilation CD called the Great Indian Rock. That CD featured the song PSP 12'' by the band Zero. That was the first time that I had fallen in love with an Indian alternative rock song. It reminded me of what Indian rock music could do – make groovy modern rock. Suddenly, things fell into place. I wanted to write songs like that - I did actually, not quite the same standard, but that's beside the point - some of them are online!

That song was written by the drummer of the band - the multi-talented musician/comedian, Sidd Coutto. Ironically, I hadn't realized that until really late, from the horse's mouth actually, on one night when he was performing at a gig in Mumbai this year.

Now, how does the friggin' circle get completed?

At the Hyderabad gig, I performed on the same stage with both Evergreen and Sidd Coutto (with the band Ankur Tewari and the Ghalat Family). Not only did I perform, I drank, ate, fooled around - all with my rock idols, who inspired me to be what I am.

Now, isn't that sweet!

I'd like to take this opportunity to credit all the idols/icons who I've performed/played with or shared the stage with, in the order idol-hood attainment:

• Rex Vijayan (Avial, former Motherjane)
  
• Sunil and Evergreen (the entire band band)
  
• Sidd Coutto, Bobby Talwar, Rajiv Talwar (from Zero)
  
• Jai Row Kavi, Johan Pais, Sidd Coutto (Helga's Fun Castle)
  
• Teemer Chimulkar, Aniket Waghmode, Janus Sayal, Gilroy Fernandez(Sceptre)
  
• ZomB Menon, Sheldon Dixon (Metakix)
  
• Tony John, Rex Vijayan, Mithun Puthenveetil, Naresh Kamath (Avial)
  

Thank you all for inspiring me me and making me realize my dreams. I hope I can inspire someone to be/do something someday. I'd love to be tagged if you decided to write about it!

Aarohi ‘09 experience – Noise Market blog post

Noise market had a gig at Aarohi ‘09, the annual college function at VNIT, Nagpur. I wrote about the experience at the Noise Market blog. Click here to read that post.  Here are a couple of videos from the same event. Do comment on them! Watch out for the guy wearing the hat on the extreme left of your video window!

Daddy’s WindSong Wednesdays’ experience – Noise Market blog post

Noise market had a marquee gig at il terrazzo, del italia. It was an important step forward for us, we thought as it was one of the first times that we got to play in front of an intelligent, musically literate audience. Amongst the friends that I blog about Dr. R. and Dr. J came.  The gora from the Gora for a dinner/movie combo also turned up with his date. Love you guys and thanks for the support! To read the entire gig review, please click here.

The Daddy's WindSong Wednesday's experience

I wrote about the entire experience on the Noise Market blog and you can read it by clicking here. Having said that, I must admit that I couldn't have been myself because I was writing on behalf of the entire band. So here's the juicy bit.

This was, by far, the first experience of being a rock-star in a Page 3 gig. People from the music industry, film industry, VJs, ex-VJs, actors, former Miss Indias etc and we played in front of them. Even better, they loved it! The only regret - I wished I was having someone to be with as a date. There were a few hot, hot men in there too! But then, I was out on a professional assignment and I couldn't really grab anyones balls!

If you are wondering about the title which happens to be the name of the event we played for, think no further. This is the ultimate proof of the power of mature-er men over all cross-sections of the society. This post, and practically the entire blog, has been dedicated to this Daddy, who happens to be red hot, for his amazing balls... for coming out with the concept of the event. Okay, okay! Not just that! But still!

Don't take everything literally folks!

Something relevant

Being a musician, I find it natural to enjoy gigs of other bands. This is what I used to do before I had a band. I have not lost the slightest amount of vigor to be an excited music fan. But things are not the same with my band members I guess. Sometimes I feel it’s a mixture of pride and ego. Other times I feel it’s their innate tendency to be reclusive. I can’t take either as an excuse though, at least for myself.

So, I was at the branch opening of a famous chain of musical instruments retailer playing with Shoonyas. It was a cozy, in-house gig and we had a good performance. Even though the actual ingauration ceremony featured a performance by  big-shots like the most famous percussionist drummer from India and the one of the most succesful music composer team from Bollywood, what attracted me was the band which was playing after us.

The band is called ‘Something Relevant’.  They are pretty famous and have been around for a few years. They are somewhere between smooth jazz and big band. I had an argument with Rob the other day about the genres and I was startled to hear him ridicule my genre-listation. But anyway, they are very pleasing to the ear with their orchestration of keys, trombone, saxophone and percussions along with the regular mix of guitars, bass, drums and vocals.

But their most interesting aspect is the lyrics. They wrote about stuff like mosquitoes, traffic jams and other mundane things in life in a clever, captivating way and the singing was complimentarliy soulful.  I enjoyed them very much; so much so that I was part of the entire group of people jamming with them with all kinds of instruments at the shop. I met with a couple of band members after the gig. They sure seem worthy of a listen. I would recommend them to anyone with a bit of class.

Not Just Bad By The Way

The first gig that we had after my trip to Kerala should have been one that I should have remembered ever so fondly for the rest of my life. But sadly it wasn't. Shoonyas were playing at the same resto-bar at the Marine drive and it was Not Just Bad By The Way (pun intended totally). First of all the name of the venue is far too long. Secondly, it's a little cliched as you might have noticed in some of the pictures that I had posted elsewhere on the internet.

It's just lack of practice. Don't worry, not I nor the band have lost our zing. We would be back with a bang. The only thing that was memorable tonight was this hot looking guy who jived with his friend/spouse for our rendition of Beatles and Doors. I wished I could simply knock down the wonderfully dressed woman and join him. Shucks, I had to play the stuff for the jiving to happen, right?

It was disappointing but these days, I don't let myself get disappointed with musical misadventures. Judging by the kind of skill that I have got, I think I have to expect a lot more of those. In the bottom of my heart, though, I know that I'm talented enough to not repeat the mistakes too many times.

The weekend of Rock

In the three years of my stay in Mumbai, the only thing that I look forward to with anticipation on a yearly basis is Independence Rock? This is the biggest rock festival in India; something like WoodStock! It's been going on for 23 years and this year it's going to be the biggest.

The extravaganza has a national level competition where bands in the major cities get to contest for a place to play at the grand finals in Mumbai. This year's competition is about culminate soon; Mumbai's regional finals taking place tonite and tomorrow night.


After that it is pure bliss of the big stage which also happens to be right across the road from my apartment building! That's over the weekend where the monster bands fo Rock will also be playing to the biggest rock audience; in thousands! It's huge! This year three of my favorite bands are playing - Demonic Resurrection, Zero and Superfuzz! I am looking forward to watching Scribe again (they won last year) and Agni, one of our competing bands!

As usual, I am probably the only person in my band(s) who's this excitable and I have messaged all of my bandmates asking if they are interested to join me at these venues? I don't expect anyone to turn up really. Trust me, I don't understand why they wouldn't. It's the biggest thing in Indian rock after all! I even asked a few gay friends of mine. Most ironically, Vikster who we are all familiar with dumped me. Again!

Kris: 'Hey Vik, are you interested in joining me at the Hard Rock Cafe tonight? There is a rock show going on there. It sure would be exciting!'

Vik: 'Nah, I'll pass! I just want to have drinks after 9.30 pm.'

Kris: 'Come on, you could still have drinks at the HRC. And besides we could spend the time together! You promised me drinks remember?

Vik: 'What? No! [.oO Not with you!] I'm not coming! You interested for a movie?'

Kris: 'Honey, the most important thing in my life is Rock. I could skip movies, food, lays etc for it. And I mean not the potato chips.'

Vik: 'I'm sorry, I am not interested.'

Hence, coming back to you guys, I'm asking you guys whomever who is in Mumbai if you were interested in joining me to have fun at the venues on the sidebar. First of all, all those who are interested in being kind and generous could buy me food and drinks. For those who are in awe of my recently adorned micro-celebrity status, I could give you autographs (on any thing) and that feeling of having spent an evening with a very nice guy!

Anyone interested?

Noise Market promotion - requesting help

Yesterday evening, the Noise Market* band had an audience with our record label. We were worried why things weren't happening the way we wanted them to be. Believe me, things were really bad.

• They haven't paid us the licensing fee, the stark evidence of which is that I am(for the second night in a row) sleeping on an empty stomach. I have some instant food at home, but I'm scared of using it up too soon. I'm rationing you see. If you are asking me how I manage to do what I do and buy what I buy, it's thanks to a credit card whose balance is now in the vicinity of Rs. 17, 000/-.
  
• They haven't paid the studio. This would result in delays in mixing and mastering. This will eventually result in a delay in the release. The longer we take to release, the worser it is for everyone.
  
• They haven't gotten us gigs. Most of you guys must think that bands survive by recording and album and sitting pretty on the money that is coming from sales. It's not true, we have to rehearse our asses out and play in concerts. That's where the real money comes from. So, if you don't get gigs, you are not going to make money.
  
• We don't know about our future. Well nothing was clear. We were kinda weirded out. Natural, some might say if you put yourselves in our shoes.

During the meeting, for the first time in our entire history of meetings with them, we realized the woke up to our senses; we realized that we ourselves have to get more gigs. We will have to check out all the available gig opportunities all over the country (and abroad) and make at least some count. We will have to do promotion, marketing and publicity ourselves.

These are easy things to say. But without networking they are going to be extremely difficult. Thankfully, I have a rather wide-spread audience in the blogosphere. I urge all of you to help me and my band Noise Market here! Get us gigs! I'm talking about Gigs in places like Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Cochin etc. Promote us! Spread the word!

Currently, as you might presume, we aren't in a position to pay for this. But we'd be thankful and eternally grateful for your services.

For your convenience, I'll give you all the links that you can approach us by.

• Noise Market Myspace page - http://myspace.com/bazaarshor
  
• Noise Market Facebook Group - http://www.new.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=23027038213
  
• Noise Market Orkut Group - http://www.orkut.co.in/Community.aspx?cmm=47466453
  
• Noise Market Blog - http://bazaarshor.blogspot.com
  
• Noise Market Website - [Coming soon!]
  
• Noise Market Facebook Artist page - [Coming soon!]

Please add as many friends as you can to all these social networking sites. Every word spread is going to make us more powerful and help me feed better. In a way, you guys are helping prevent poverty and hunger. Promote Noise Market!

Noise Market FAQ

• Noise Market, what? - Noise Market is a hindi rock band based in Mumbai. We are incredibly cool as we won the western leg of a national level competition within three months of our birth. Rumors are that we didn't cry immediate post-partum. Instead, we strummed the umbilical cords and made music in the delivery room. And we were toilet trained at birth.
  
• Noise Market promotion, why? - Well, the only real reason is that yours truly, the modesty called Kris Bass, is the bass (coincidence?) guitarist of the band. To sell Noise Market to others, please try the following catch lines.
  • We're cool.
  • We play original Hindi Rock.
  • We're amazingly hot. (Not just me, the entire band!)
  • We have attitude.
  • We have spunk.
  • We kick ass.
  • We kick everyone else's ass (especially all the cheesy music directors in the industry).
  • We rule the stage.
  • I play bass in the band.
  
  
• Why, Noise Market, the name? - For the sake of privacy to the rest of the members of the band and to myself, I have chosen to use 'Noise Market'' as the pseudonym. The actual name is a translation of the same word to Hindi - or simply 'S-H-O-R B-A-Z-A-A-R'. This is supposed to be a cool thing to explain - Shor is the noise, Bazaar is the market!

A Reminder - Shoonyas Live!

For those in Mumbai, who have all their evenings barren with nothing on their agenda (the sorry souls), might find this useful. My English rock band Shoonyas are playing tomorrow at D’ultimate in Andheri (W). We will be playing along side a couple of other bands, one being Zero. If we don’t offer you any attraction, at least Zero should.

If you are wondering what we play – well we play acoustic covers of songs by Police, Aerosmith, Duran Duran, Metallica, U2, Oasis, Nirvana, Hoobastank, Nickelback etc. All kinds of people (yes – men (24), women (19), adolescents (12), old people (2), midgets (1) etc) have attended our gigs and felt satisfied (mildly, at least).

The entry is free. We show is scheduled to start at 7.30 pm. Feel free and drop by to enjoy some good music. Plus you could always watch me strike weird mouth positions (and gestures; like this) while attempting to sing (in vain). Just give me a buzz on the blog/e-mail after you decide so that I can prepare myself to meet you. (Add this event to your FaceBook.)

(PS: For your convenience, I have started a gig calendar on the side bar so as to avoid such embarrassing posts.)

Mucho mejor*

If you don't know what rapid cyclers are, then you can observe me. Yesterday night and today morning I was neck deep in depression. Tonight, I'm back to normalcy. A few darned posts and a lot of blog-commenting in morning set the tone for the day. Since then, I discovered the criminal rodent infestation zone and I managed to clear it.

Believe me folks, cleaning rat-excreta isn't all that cool. It is unfortunate that the rodent chose its abode as the corner at the foot-end of my bed. That's the reason why it stank that bad! Just that gave me the motivation to finish up the rest of my chores and voila, the apartment smells much better now.

In the evening, I went out to pay my Vodafone bills. Much to my surprise, I had a little 'machine trouble' at the kiosk and I was pleasantly reminded of this post by Nikhil.

Tonight was Noise Market's first practice session after the gig. We practiced well for an hour or so and then sat down to dissect our performance at the gig. It was a very productive discussion and we managed to plan our strategy for the coming months. We are focussing on getting slots at colleges (IITs et al) on a national stage. (I would be grateful to anyone who cold help us find the contacts of the organizing persons for these gigs.)

Tomorrow onwards, it's going to Shoonyas practice. Yes, it's been a long time. About 2 months since we played live. But this time, it is going to be special. We are playing along with Zero, the biggest rock band from Mumbai. Unfortunately though, Zero has announced that it is probably going to be their last gig together as they want to go their individual ways.

It is bitter-sweet really. When I came to Mumbai, Zero were one of my inspirations. In the first two years, I could only dream of playing in a band. And now, like an anti-climax to the realization of a dream, I'm going to be playing alongside them at their last gig! I'm proud!

For those interested, you can catch Shoonyas (which of course is a pseudonym) & Zero at D'Ultimate in Andheri (W) on the 22nd of August from 7.30 pm onwards. This is a little snippet about the gig in today's Mumbai Mirror.

(*Translated to English as 'much better' - courtesy Vinokur)