Circumstances

Someone told me of late, that what I know, is very akin to the same thing about Jon Snow (and she doesn't even know about the Song of Ice and Fire). 

It's one of those random mornings when it's supposed to be your day off, but you end up opening your eyes at 6.00 am, and you're unable to go back to sleep. Oh, right, I said I'd wake up early and go for a run. It was still pretty close to impossible to shut off the alarm and sleep. 

Then what do you do, you wake up and exercise because it's too hot to run. Your workout happens, you're pleased, and then you wonder if you should go back to sleep, but with your body functioning the way it does, the adrenaline pumping, you're aching to jump into a boat, pull up the main pull in your sheet, get the hull to plane and get into a blazing fast reach downwind somewhere. But - you're Delhi, landlocked, and not a windy water body in sight (I will administer great pain to anyone who quips in with a 'Bro, there are rivers close by bro.' , believe me, it will be a lot of pain. )

So instead, you go to the kitchen, dump some fresh beans into the grinder, and you grind, brew, french press, and it ends up being one of those hot mornings where you're sitting, post workout, sipping some brilliant South Indian gourmet coffee (you miss the ladies from the region), and as my brother says - contemplating life. I have started posts with some amount of randomness, but this is probably far removed from all of those. Still not writing with purpose, intent, conclusive topic areas etc. I've gotten back to reading a decent amount, somewhere between books on economics and innovation (not in the same book) and quite a bit of fiction. I also discovered that based on certain facts twisted to make a decent storyline(the Shiva Trilogy) that Shiva is actually half Tibetan half Parsi. That might explain the BC, MC taari maai ni reaction to a lot of things. I wonder if he curses with equal amounts of love as well, Though the whole ' I want to blow shit up and/or destroy it because it doesn't float my boat, oh yeah, and because it's evil' tendencies are pretty cool, slightly unexplained, and totally opposite of stoner tendencies. Fun. 
As always, its been an interesting month in my head with regard to the larger ideas of life. I don't even know if that's what I'm actually trying to say but you get my drift. And well, if you don't get my drift, then you don't get my drift. Maybe you should move more downstream from me. 

I've been more and more drawn to Formula 1 off late. Not its glam, not its world stage, not its scam side in terms of money issues, budget cuts etc, and CERTAINLY NOT Pirelli, who make tyres that last just about as long as this cup of coffee (the huge difference is that the quality of the coffee is probably waaaaayyy better).  I've been drawn to the drive (yes - laugh, no - i'm not being punny. Ok, who am I kidding), the sheer willpower and strength that people draw from the will to actually make a mark and progress without giving up. Regaining former glory, and not giving up till the very last lap. There's always been some sort of a draw toward the sport, not as a driver, but as a strategist, team management etc. Who knows, maybe one day I'll live that Rush (yes, for those of you who get these blog titles). 

The FIFA world cup has been great. Sleeplessness due to the odd match timings and all the other insomnia that kicks in just about as regularly as a baby has to eat, sleep and poop, have got my boss thinking that I've probably been hitting the bottle regularly and watching each and every match. Man, I really wish life was that much of a cakewalk. 

Every now and then I have one of those 'must....play....more... rock n roll' moments. And in those moments, I make plans, which at this level seem more like threats (you know the - we're going to play more gigs and record this year, variety). We'll see what rolls out, pans out (yes sound engineers, i punned again). 

I have been writing a little bit though, and when I have some coherent sets of lyrics, maybe I'll just put them up here for you lot to read and hopefully not steal. As is, the head tends to go to a load of funny places, ifs and buts, will or won't and all sorts of things that are signs of a total and lack of complacency and contentedness, which is pretty much a good thing, because it means movement. Nobody (read as me and the several monsters that live in my head after they moved in from under my bed) likes to sit still and be totally content because maybe that just lacks the idea or motions of progress and evolution. It's time to leave behind all the hipsters and repeatfest (yes i said it) bastards and shoot for the moon. 

However, I guess at this point, with the sky(and then some) being the limit,  lines from Troy pretty much echo my thoughts perfectly.

'Men are haunted by the vastness of eternity and so we ask ourselves will our actions echo across the centuries? Will strangers hear our names long after we're gone and wonder who we were? How bravely we fought? How fiercely we loved?'

I've also been obsessing over Tales of Brave Ulysses off late. Cream made the legend sound so much sexier than it is. 

So here's to an early morning, reasonably pointless post that rambles on about all things bright and beautiful, creatures great and small. We aim to please(ahem), entertain, and hopefully make you tear your hair out at some point. Until the next time, enjoy the weather, and ask nicely, I'll come and sing you a song. 

Cheers,

The Beast.

The Way the Wind Blows

So this time around, I most definitely stuck to my promise (or attempted promise) to write more often. In the same way that one of those ill-fated dramatic character kinda soldiers from a war movie leaves his 'sweetheart' behind and promises to come back.

The last few months have been something like a faulty bike with a kickstart that initially refused to work, and then with brakes that failed, but you're not really complaining about the latter, though you're still trying to get them fixed on the fly.

December, January were reasonably strange months that were listless in the sense that I felt like I was floating in this random bit of jelly, flailing my arms, trying to catch my breath, and push in some particular direction, but nothing really worked. So I decided to flip the equation on its head and do something different. Took myself out of the jelly, and put myself back into the water (which is kind of like home for me, except that I can't hear people nag, and yap and all sorts of strange words that describe a commotion, and so it allows me to think), and decided to swim, to somewhere.

After what seems like this huge, odd, gap, wherein you know what was going on, but its all this vaguely slowly being blacked out piece of time, (something that's more akin to classified information in your stereotypical govt. case file) I picked up my bags and moved. I don't know how I did it, but as to why - I just needed to make the changes. In the only way that I go about doing stuff (which is still relatively unknown to myself), I managed to land myself a job as the Manager of Marketing and Communications at a user-centric design research firm called the Centre For Knowledge Societies (also referred to as an innovation consultancy). Why THEY did it? As the wise Ashaal Dabholkar put it (subtly enough),' Heh, Those guys must be on crack.'
Bombay was like walls around me, and there was no way that I could possibly kick them down and do anything. A dead-end corporate life would've ensued wherein my dedication to my job and how hard I worked would be defined by how late I stayed at office after hours, how much I sucked up to my boss and other such crap (as opposed to really working).
Music, (yeah that thing that I will always have in the true sense of the term)was as always at the mercy of the hands of general Bombay hipster organisers and managers of venues, festivals who believe in the firm philosophy of ' Only if you repeat the same bands over and over again and laude them for a century and a half and make them content with their lack of evolution shall anybody grow', so its all good.

To quote a certain Mr.G.Lee - And when the music stops, there's only the sound of the rain.

For me, the music will not stop. Ever.

I do miss the sea, truly, apart from the bands, and sometimes home, the one thing I really really miss, is the sea and the part of my life that goes with it. The boats, the sailing, the adrenaline, the mad people..all of it.. But someday soon.......... because from what I understand(and I could be mistaken, considering the newspapers have something conflicting to say everyday) the sea isn't really going anywhere.

Life has changed, I live in the land locked capital of India, work as the marketing man for a consulting firm, live in a rented apartment, fend for myself and other things that go with the territory. Oddly enough I got accepted to the University of Cranfield for a MSc. in Air Transport Management(which I've deferred to next year). A couple of other crazy things(yup, they're pretty crazy, and etched into my memory, at least all the sober parts) happened along the way, including this kind of an opinion of me at the place I work http://designpublic.in/blog/where-do-they-think-i-come-from/

I played my first international gig in Singapore with Sonam and TSGP. Great experience, good times, and always a cherished memory. Though I daresay, it's time to bring back the rock. Hellwind, Spook, LHD, will be back pretty soon, old and new material, owning the space and the stage like we do.

 I pretty much threw myself at the log-in page of the blogspot site, because I figured I just hadn't been writing. Not healthy at all. So this came out as a 'bits and pieces' vague account of the last few months.

Initially there was just not enough juice or life or anything to make that kickstart work. But when it did, it was all powering through from there, fast, decisive, adventurous, challenging, dynamic, loads of curved balls and more. At this point, there are no brakes, and I'm not complaining. But it would definitely be helpful to have a working pair at hand.

There probably will be something earth-shattering, ground-breaking and life altering ( in the same way that paint dries, grass grows, amoeba evolve.....etc......etc...) sometime in the near future . So next time (in case you exceptionally bright people didn't get it) I hopefully will not force myself to write.

I probably bored you this time around, but if you're still reading, thank you, we aim to please and keep you entertained.

Until next time.
Cheers

Beast