Trek Wreck!

It all happened so soon. My project buddies planned for a team building tour to Kerala last weekend. Tickets where booked in a jiffy and everyone was eagerly waiting for the travel day. But heavens wouldn't listen to our plans and opened up the skies to wash away several places there and along with it our plans. Some of the folks had started to dream about those Aapams, Banana Chips and also the kutties but everything was out. Suddenly we decided on a different place, booked a resort, a tempo traveller and also planned our schedule. It all happened so soon.So that weekend we left for Yelagiri, a calm place near Vellore - supposedly a hill station but not exactly cold. I being the biggest of all, was the most sought after person for those @$$-ripping fun sessions. I felt no pain at all thanks to the several ounces of natural cushion that God has given me. And I never hesitated to return the favor to the others, but they were'nt as lucky. After all I wear size 11 shoes and my foot was probably heavier than their heads. The main event for which we supposedly went to Yelagiri was trekking. There were two trekking spots there, both not really well maintained, but exciting nevertheless. So off we went for the mini trek on the first day. It was through a pretty lonely and scary forest and we went when the sun was just setting. The trees looked pretty eerie. We went deeper and deeper and the distance was about 4 kms one way. I tripped a couple of times and hurt my left knee. But still walked. We reached a lake where we took snaps and by the time we returned it was starting to get dark. But I had started to experience nausea by then. Not much air to breathe cuz trees exhale carbon dioxide after sunset. The we had a snack of some kind of bhel puri (Im not too sure what to call it) that we made from several kilos of vegetables that we had brought to the place. By then my nausea was getting the better of me and needless to Say when I went back to the room I puked. But it was not too painful. The next day we set off for a 12 km mega trek on a path that turned out to be very ordinarily laid to say the least. It was very steep and it also had very poorly laid rocks. No proper steps. Just randomly strewn rocks. Needless to say I fell here and there, twisted here and there and after a one and half hour ordeal we reached the top. After a long halt above we proceeded downwards. My feet were trembling and I slipped here, I tripped there, I hurt here, I twisted there but in the end managed to come down. Then we started our journey back. It all looked pretty ok with me , apart from the tiredness, till when it was about 5 pm. My nausea started again at 5 pm. It intensified as I approached the city and when I reached Guindy I decided I could take no more. So I just left the van and started home myself with a project mate of mine accompanying me. It had started to ache by then. My chest was very heavy and so was my stomach (of course it always is). It was when I crossed Anna University that the inevitable happened. I let out a moan, then a groan and then tons of grain amidst intense pain. Yellow beads started pouring out like a volcano and my concerned companion ran to the security guard of Anna University to fetch a bottle of water for me. I was down on the side of the auto by then still pouring out all the food I had had for the past 2 days. My digestive system was working like a tank fully loaded with ammunition working at full efficiency, I mean in throwing out stuff. The water bottle then arrived and I had to almost empty the bottle to wash my own shower off myself. I then drank a few drops that were left in the 1.5 litre Fanta bottle. Then I got back into the auto and my companion dropped me off in my home before she went off to hers.Then after all the falls and trips and stumbles and slips and pukes my body was a wreck. Somehow I helped myself to some sleep that day. I realized that day that my body was not the same healthy one that I had a few years back thanks to the century I made recently (Refer previous post). I had used my century to my strength to hit so many others and I was proud of the cushion that caused no pain only to feel pain some other way. The impact of the trek on my body was much greater than what my featherlight companions felt. I carried my wrecked body to office the next day somewhat saddened that I had hit them with all my weight. I was dull in office that day. Two days later, I fully recovered. Then my systems were back to business. And I am back to square one, eagerly waiting for the next kick session. This time I'll make sure I hit harder........

Century Makers
Century makers have been a lot on this planet. 100 has been a coveted club right from time immemorial. 100's in cricket have been regarded as those of supreme batsmen. 100 in age has been regarded as a result of good lifestyle and health. 100 in number of days a movie runs has been regarded as the symbol of appreciation by the audience. 100 in the number of matches one plays is regarded as a symbol of reliable and efficient gameplay. 100 mph is a barrier any fast bowler in the planet would die to break. 100 in number of days on bench is regarded supreme by some in my organisation who had been yearning to join the club until not very long ago and my achievement of this coveted post came only before 3 months. However I scored another 100 recently which nobody expected but was imminent. All 100's would be rewarded with cups or awards or trophies or atleast positive recognition. But the result of my 100 was very different but what other members of the club never fail to do for dear life. The result - 5 km walk per day. The story is not over yet.....

The dawn of the dreaded day
Have u ever dreaded a particular day in ur life which u know would come to u some day, but still had been waiting for it well prepared (atleast mentally) only because u didn’t want to embarrass yourself in front of yourself. I just had been doing that for the past 167 days and the day finally came.
As usual I returned home early that day and that evening at around 5 pm I got that call that had been eluding me for close to 6 months, much to the envy of my friends who got it rather early. The caller was my senior project manager who announced the verdict, “I have a project for u.” I was not sure and still am not sure whether to smile or to sob.
The next day I got a call from my new PM who announced that I would be working under him on a not-so-alien platform. I thought I was a bit relieved before he again said that however the interacting technologies would be quite alien to what I trained under. I finally fought that thought out of my mind and now all I want is to get into the earliest bus that leaves the office each time. After all my day starts at 6 pm.

Sudden 'gyan'odhayam and looking back
Lots of thanks to my friend praz for raising the question to me. It really made me look back in life and it was only then that i realized how many "muttukattais" i have crossed in my life. I was really wondering how all this has been possible. I never imagined I would be what I am today when I walked into my 12th standard classroom over 6 years ago. I had been busy playing keyboard for concerts then and I had to give up playing it for atleast a year. The real threat of losing contacts loomed large and I was also bothered about getting into "IIT" which never happened anyway. And then I was in college and all I could see then was that the world had grown and people really jacked off on stage much to the cheer of the crowd. And the truth was that I had not learnt any music till then (which remains that way even today). I really felt I was about to lose out on the big stage when suddenly I had several blessings one of which was in the form of my being picked directly to the college band. Moreover we were able to get prizes in every cultural competition in 2001-2002 in which our band participated. This had never happened before and never happened again too after the key players quit college and I played outside the college band. The most memorable ones were the victories in REC Festember and IIT Saarang which we never dreamt would happen. My presence in the team was attributed then as an important reason for the victory.
Looking back I still wonder how this Navneeth of 2001 would have done this because I was half as capable as what I am today on the instrument. Yes I knew to play with only one hand. I was blind on one side of the keyboard. I used to look up at every single keyboard player in other colleges and I was really scared that they sounded better than me on stage and I was just not confident of my abilities then. I would eventually gain their respect as somebody who was more potent and complete than themselves but I was definitely in worse shoes 5 years before. Looking back and trying to simulate those feelings back in my heart will make me puke today. I now really wonder how I had the mental strength to gather back my confidence that had rather been flushed out of my heart then.
Then I had completed my first year of college. By then I had established myself in the inter-college group event. But my stint in the college was to end because the management split. Also all the key players who had been in the final year when i joined college, passed out. So there i was, left alone and left with the job of regrouping a band. But the director who had encouraged all cultural activities was now gone and now we had a new guy who was not as eager. Tis was another "muttukattai" for me. But as luck would have it my friends of culturals, called me tpo perform with them in "Kalyana Kutcherrys" (marriage concerts in which film songs are played). I started playing them and my music continued.
Later on slowly my name had spread to a few Carnatic musicians who called me to perform fusion shows, in which the use of keyboards was permitted. So my music continued. In my first concert I got really really scared because I had to face many new elemnts in Carnatic Based instrumental Fusion. All that I knew about Carnatic were the ragas (I somehow attained this knowledge by birth by God's grace) and some talas (by reading some books). But my observation skills helped me learn the tricks of the trade. Then I started to play regularly in fusion concerts.
In the meantime my friends and I started to explore new software for recording. I initially was left clueless as to how to handle them. I acquired demo versions of software and started exploring them. Eventually in a few weeks, I was able to compose, record and mix a full song. But I knew nothing about the intricacies and secrets of good recording or mixing. Infact I didnt even knew that a concept called mastering existed.
Then I met one of my friends who was directly blessed by God to create musical masterpieces that had great soound engineering. I started observing him and asked questions to both him and myself. As I always used to do, I tried to discover the answer myself. This quest for the secrets slowly started teaching me the tricks of the trade.
Then I met my friend Praz (refer first Para) who continuously bombarded me with questions regarding sound, mixing etc. I patiently answered him from whatever little experience I had. But my little creations were done using freely distributed lo=fi soundfonts that had little or no sibilance in the samples. So I resorted to the technique of garlanding the equalizer to make it sound brighter. I would eventually learn the right way later, but that day I explained how I garlanded the mix to praz sincerely.
My concerts continued. My college timings really helped me go to many concerts. I wouyld be back from college by 3:40. So I was free to attend any concert after that. I got more and more contacts and started playing more and more fusion. Each time the expectation out of a concert increased and I was now up to the challenge because my confidence was building by then. Eventually I got to play solos that were very Carnatic. I started observing how people played solos and when an opportunity came by I would grab it and play something that would surprise the band mates as they would not have expected something of their kind from a person who was supposed to play chords to ragas. I even observed percussionists and learnt how the kanakkus and thaniavarthanams are played and the norms that are to be followed. I started following them in my solos and after some point I started expecting what the musicians would play in their free style solos and followed them accordingly. This was possible because of my grasping power and I can confidently say this one gift of mine that God has given me has helped me achieve a lot in my life.
In the meantime I started to listen to Hindustani music and I realized what bhavam is all about and analyzed how musicians were able to reach the heart. I started to follow these in solos and this variety surprised a few unsuspecting souls. Also my abaility to do programming, mixing, mastering got noticed and I got to work for a few albums.
Things had been going smoothly and I was about to take music as my career when suddenly I found myself in a job. I had to work in Infy and I had to go to Mysore for two and a half months for training. I cursed my fate but I was left with no option but to join. But things were to be different when I went there. Several of my friends who were into music had joined with me for training. They had told about me to the bosses there and they were waiting for my arrival. In less than a week since I stepped into Mysore I played my first concert in Infosys Mysore. the folks were very appreciative of the output. Later I went on to perform 2 more shows in Infy. But there was a difference. In the first show I played the list the bosses dictated. In the second they made a list which I dictated and I spearheaded the first ever fusion show in the history of Infosys, which concsisted of my own fusion compositions and some film songs. Then my training was over and I had to join Chennai branch. Never in my life had I seen so many sad faces that I saw in Mysore when they I heard I was leaving the place. I joined chennai branch.
But things were always happening around me and the Mysore folks missed me so much that they invited me for an extremely important concert there, the third one. This was in front of the top delegates including the Chairman Mr. Murthy. The video of the show even appeared in Infy Intranet. This show was huge and received lots of applause. I even heard a few mobile ringtones of one of my fusion pieces. For the first time in my life I was stunned by the response for a concert.
I came back to chennai. My name had become common here, so the folks here asked me to compose a song for the 10th year celebration of the Infy Chennai branch. And now even after 7 months of joining Infosys, I am still doing music. And its intensity is only increasing. I even went for a couple of concerts abroad and my work caused no problems with them.After all this experience, I have come to the realisation that whatever happens, happens only for the good, quoting Gita. How true these statements are! I am a living example of this. Things have been falling in place. My worst fears never came true and the "muttukattais" all melted when I approached them. Nothing is bad in life as it first seems. I have come to that realization now.
Yesterday I chatted with Praz again after a long time. He asked one question - "U told me differently about mixing those days. Now u tell me differently. Why is that?". To that I replied, "Those days I was trying to make bad things good. Today I'm trying to make better things best." What I actually meant was what I had written till now in this post. That one question made me trace back in time to all that had happaned in my life. So now I'm still working and awaiting newer "muttukattais" but as a much more wiser person. Thus my journey continues and so does my learning........................

Ucha katta warmth was what i felt when i recorded "nee illa oru nilayo" with RR. The window was closed and the fan was switched off to prevent noise and the ever scorching sun wouldnt show its mercy on us. So we were literally feeling the warmth inside the room.
I dont know whether it was because of this reason that my mood changed to create a warm mix of the song that doesnt disturb u in any case (not of course if u're a ripper of music who rips open mixes to identify which chord lies where) unlike what is found common in Indian songs i.e nammooru mixes in which the sound engineer puts a garland on the equalizer producing a V - curve to create mercilessly cold mixes aka Harris Jeyaraj.
Amidst the sweat the song's feel made me feel as if i was in a cool place with the piano i played killing me back and the pads turning me on. The warm mixes actually soothed me so much that i have already heard the song over 200 times and it hasnt been 24 hours since i mastered it.
Hats off to Girish for creating such a masterpiece in his mind. RR also sang with a feel that peeled off the gray matter in my brain and i was left senseless enjoying the song like a goldfish which cannot remeber anything for more than 3 seconds. I was somehow forced to hear it again and again that i dozed off in front of my PC beside my keyboard and mixer that was happily reciving the signal from my media player that was looping continuously. And there i lay on my bed, with headphones on the ears and nothing inside the head, sleeping peacefully. And the window was still closed as i continued to be warm yet asleep......

This is my new Motifating Factor