Saturday, September 30, 2017

Musical Night.

Scrolling though news feed, I found an event at Lamakaan. An hour later, I'm at Lamakaan waiting for the musical performance. 

As a mandatory task, had samosa and Nimbu Paani.  After a while, S.S Negi was introduced. He is a hyderabadi born and brought up at Uttarakand. He travelled a lot of places. To cover it all, he's musician at heart. He wears many hats for many purposes. 
S.S Negi's performance

He performed few of his songs. Dil Banjara brought the energy into the crowd. Had great time listening to him. 

Evening with the Senior- Sharayu.

To see her coming out  without a smile struck me a bit. It was drizzling all the way. Gorgeous in black dress, senior worried about reaching home amid rain.  She stood staring at the rain wondering when she’d reach home. As ever, she looked elegant and charming.

As we started conversation about her work, it went on from music to memories. While we were talking, she showed her new phone which she gifted herself. One has to keep oneself  happy always. Loved listening to her about how she gifted herself many stuff. We were standing out at corridor wishing the rain to give a break.


It was weird to call her out in singular form. I was always in awe of her. There was respect to her all the way. All of sudden, I couldn’t believe that I’d strike a conversation and spend some good time with her.  Would need more time make myself realise that ‘Yes! Senior is best friend of mine.”

After staying amid crowd, wished to have tea  and walked across the place.

As we both started walking in rain, we shared what songs came across our minds. Started from, “Nahi Saamne,”we trailed  to Guru, Ok Kanmani, Malargale, and a lot more. We were least bothered about the crowd and started singing all the songs that came across our minds.

To my excitement, she knows the song, “Piya Tose Naina Laage re’ There are so many song requests from me. This one got added into the list just then.

Soon after spending some time, we strolled to another place enjoying the weather.

After a stroll, we ended up sitting and started our jamming session again.

Amid drizzling weather, senior next to me was singing. I was the sole listener. She was just  being herself and enjoyed singing.

I had goosebumps listening to her singing all the favourites. Sharayu is such a kind soul and special person.

On a request, she sang, “Rama Chakkani.”
Closing my eyes, I could enjoy her voice  closely.

Munbevaa, Newyork Nagaram, Chinni chinni aasai were among the few she sang.

Time was never known when I was listening to her singing. I don’t know if I ever get a chance to listen her singing again in this kind of weather.

Her voice seem compelling to me now. Her voice became one of the voices, I wish to listen again and again.

I also got a chance to listen a single  composed by her brother. I wish I can check that out in stores soon. I wish he releases it very soon.

As we kept on singing and listening songs, Nikhil, Sharayu’s friend joined us. He’s the friend who gifted her A.R.Rahman shirt. She got amazing friends who always make her feel happy.

I had great time listening to all the stories from him. How she keeps forgetting things, how she keeps spoiling the plans at times. She was laughing all the way listening about herself.

It was fun to see both trying to make fun of each other. My senior is awesome!

I can spend all the time just listening to her. It’s a great sight to see her being herself and singing.

As it was raining and we had to leave. Though hard to bid a bye, we left greeting with a  smile. September is indeed a special month as I got chance to spend some good time with her.

Dream come true!

Words wouldn’t suffice about how I’m enjoying this moment. Sharayu is going to meet A.R.R
It’s a dream come true.  And sharing her happiness is such a joy. I can’t stop thinking about it.

She loves singing and she does what she loves.

Nothing could give me this feeling. I’m exhilarated!

Everytime, I think about it, I’m overwhelmed. She is going to sing infront of A.R.Rahman!  My senior is such a honest soul, she enjoyed each and every moment singing his songs. Her dream is going to turn into reality in no time.

She dreamt of meeting him someday. Someday! But, never thought that day would be very soon. Though missed many chances of meeting him, we both were intuitive about meeting him someday. For now, I’ve no clue about how i’m gonna meet him but, my senior is not only meeting him but also singing in front of A.R.Rahman.

23.September 17:21

Sharayu makes fun of me that I always miss her calls. True that she called me twice and I didn’t check my phone.  Soon after I looked at the missed calls, I called her immediately to know what she was upto.

Before she answered my call, I was in my own thoughts assuming that she’d released new video or she got featured again.

She answered the call and it was a mere 10 second conversation. I was told to check fb, whatsapp and call her. She hung the phone. With same assumptions, I checked the phone and to my excitement and happiness there was this message.

“Hi Sharayu,

Congratulations! You’ve been chosen as one of four artists who will perform live to AR Rahman as apart of our #ISupportOneHeart Campaign.

Location: Chennai
Date and Exact Venue will be communicated soon.”


I jumped out of excitement and started sharing this news to strangers who were around me at that time. I was at Gachibowli Stadium working on TEDxHydearbad.  “My senior is going to sing infront of A.R.Rahman! My senior is going to sing infront of A.R.Rahman!”

I immediately called her up and started talking! “Senior!!!! I’m so happy!!!! God bless you! It’’s happening.” And as I started talking to her, there were tears of joy and I started crying realising that the dream came true.

Nothing could give me this feeling. I was overwhelmed. I was contented. To see her dream coming true will be the best sight ever to witness. She made my day!     

I was overwhelmed by the best thing that happened. I was overwhelmed by the talent of her. All i could keep saying to her was, “Stay blessed. Stay blessed.!”

Now, I really don’t mind meeting him some other time. All I wanna witness is to see her singing live in front of A.R.Rahman.

God bless her!





Wednesday, September 20, 2017

The purpose is defined- TEDxStories

[Sep.24.2017]

The purpose is defined all the time.



Crowd of 25 people are gathered every friday. Number of 8-9 people are gathered every Wednesday and Saturday. Of 7 days, 3 evenings  throughout the year are almost huddling with the TEDxHyderabadis.



Right from the start, the community kept spreading like wild fire sharing ideas.
From the start of the day, the purpose is defined. When we're low without partners back up. It was emphasized. Whenever we are looking for the experience zone, we're concentrating on it.
It was always, one idea at a time. It was always one task at a time. With the clear defined purposes,we covered in whole to give the best experience the Hyderabad has ever seen. TEDxHyderabad. Kudos to the team

Tuesday, September 19, 2017

Stockdale Paradox- Story that keeps me moving.

As everything is setting at it’s place, I’m occupied with lot of works and responsibilities. We’re just 7 days to the D-day  (TEDxHyderabad) There’s a huge change at workplace. So many stories are floating in mind. Many drafts are stocked up at the google docs.


There’s lot on the plate. Not so cluttered but everything seemed messy in organised manner. Just giving a glance at my situation, it was frightening to give a thought for a while.


Was I getting scared? Yes.


Thanks to people around me, little conversations pushed me to distance myself from works and give a glance. While I was in the process of telling myself that “everything will be good,” the story of Stockdale Paradox boosted me to be in good spirits.

Harimohan shared this story with me when he was sharing about the book, “Good to Great”


The Stockdale Paradox is named after admiral Jim Stockdale, who was a United States military officer held captive for eight years during the Vietnam War. Stockdale was tortured a lot  by his captors. He never had a reason to believe he would survive the prison camp and someday get to see his wife again. And yet, as Stockdale told Collins, he never lost faith during his ordeal:



Jim Collins, author of “Good to Great” interviewed Stockdale to find how he found strength and courage to survive.

“I never doubted not only that I would get out, but also that I would prevail in the end and turn the experience into the defining event of my life, which, in retrospect, I would not trade.”




I didn't say anything for many minutes, and we continued the slow walk toward the faculty club, Stockdale limping and arc-swinging his stiff leg that had never fully recovered from repeated torture. Finally, after about a hundred meters of silence, I asked, "Who didn't make it out?"

"Oh, that's easy," he said. "The optimists."

"The optimists? I don't understand," I said, now completely confused, given what he'd said a hundred meters earlier.

"The optimists. Oh, they were the ones who said, 'We're going to be out by Christmas.' And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. Then they'd say, 'We're going to be out by Easter.' And Easter would come, and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart."

Another long pause, and more walking. Then he turned to me and said, "This is a very important lesson. You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end – which you can never afford to lose – with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be."


He believed that he’d get out  of the trouble no matter what but, he also acknowledged the brutal facts that he had to face during the hard time.

To face the brutal facts is the most important thing in life to move further. The optimism in me always make me fly towards the sky but, the story of stockdale paradox taught me to face the brutal facts which may deter me at times but helps me to be realistic and also optimistic at the same time. It’s paradox indeed!

Holidays with Harimohan Paruvu

I reached home and found Harimohan being busy with his work. Anjali was also busy but, she was okay to have my company. She was  finishing a task at Khan Academy on Java.

She knows more than I ever tried to know of the languages. She knows SQL, Java, Html and I’m looking forward to see what she’s going to learn in future.She showed me her works at Khan academy.  I showed her what I was tweaking with my domain. She  shared her webpages. She also taught me few parameters in Html. I showed little interest since, it was regarding webpages. (I’m all up to do something at my website ;))

She made me sign up at Khanacademy.com and assisted me to take a course on Html. I took few lessons and finished few tasks. We spent little time on it and called it a day for Html.

We were caught up with random stuff and I joined her while she was preparing for her exam. Started with General knowledge questions and we ended up asking random questions.

Shoba mam made dinner for us. Never I left their home without having either lunch or dinner.  After a simple supper, I left home bidding bye to Pooja, Anjali wishing to meet them on another holiday.


Thanks to Anjali, I started learning Html. Hope I spare sometime and finish the course on Khanacademy.



TED Talk- There's more to life than being happy





Speaker Emily Esfahani Smith delivered a beautiful talk.

There was always a question on happiness.Is happiness is the sole reason for what we do in life? A line flashed in my mind. "Happiness is  a state of mind." Again, this talk reminded me what's more in life than happiness.

Emily narrated the story in a beautiful, organized manner. Loved the talk.

Interesting read.

"Empathy is essential for democracy. "

Inspiring and motivating to be more grateful for what I have in my life.

https://qz.com/817272/when-an-investment-banker-and-an-mit-graduate-lived-like-indias-poor-on-0-39-a-day/

Saturday, September 16, 2017

A gentle wish

Enjoying the cloudy weather, I returned home on weekend.  At quarters,I tend to walk corner to corner, enjoying the greenery. On one such stroll at night, I was wished by security with a question
 “Oota Ayitha.” I was fumbled for a second and he asked again with a concern, “oota Ayitha”



I've never stayed at those quarters for long. I barely knew people.
A gentle smile, honest concern, simple question. I was touched by the gesture. Immediately I answered him, "Ayithu.”

There were times I ignored the crowd to avoid social conversations. There were times, I indulged in social conversations for the sake of being social. This simple wish and concern pushed me to be honest and concerned whenever possible.

Also this question reminded me of Carolyn.  She told me that, any where in Karnataka, people wish each other by the question, “Oota Ayitha.”

Friday, September 15, 2017

Whispers of the mind- Creativity


Beautiful things happen when I’m all random being at peace.

I love sleeping for the sole reason of dreaming. Lucid dreams are what I look forward for, when I hit bed.

Whispers of the mind- Creativity
After a long tiring day, I hit the couch, gouging on the news feed. Being very unconscious about what’s happening inside me, I was on a run with so much of feed on my phone. Out of the blue, there was a power cut and it was a dusk time. With mere light of the sun, there was no light switched on in the room and I fell asleep enjoying the darkness.

Without a trace of light in the room, I fell asleep and started living in my dreams.I slept for more than 2 hours and I was unaware of my dreaming.  I assumed I was living in that situation in real.  I dreamt of myself being at a desk, writing.

Now after the whole dream, I wasn’t sure of what I was writing but, it was a honest piece. Those words were from bottom of my heart. I could experience the catharsis of my mind, soul when I was living in that dream.

As I was drifting in dreams, I slided into lucid dreaming where I was aware of my dreaming. Soon after, I realised I was dreaming and I’m writing in that dream, I woke up in rush to jot down those words.

In the darkness, I grabbed pen and paper and was trying hard to recall the dream. I stood up, switched on the light and sat down to write.

And it’s all blank!

I couldn’t even find the trace of my dream. All I was left with, was a beautiful experience. There’s sense of exhiliration, relieved feeling of writing down those words in that dream. But i can’t recall those words! I can’t even figure out on what I was writing. Not a single word could be traced.

I couldn’t write what I wrote in the dream and I wanted  to write about the experience atleast.

This experience is special since I couldn’t even figure out a single word from that dream. There were times where I could write at least 2 lines of what I was writing in my dream.

There was one such dream where I scribbled the moment I got out of my dream. I wrote in a rush scared of forgetting the words I wrote in  my dream.

One such beautiful piece in recent times was,

“The faintest smell of all

Toss it all
Top it allYou’re sweet, brutal but, not all
Moreover you look real.


Scribbled words after I woke up from dream.

It’s about the person whom I met in my dream. I can’t even recall how the person looks but these are my impressions of the person whom I met in my dream. I’ve never met such person in real life and I don’t know how that person looks like.


As I was contemplating on this experience, I got to know that A.R.Rahman got tune of  “Tu hi re” from the movie 'Bombay' in his dreams itself.

He had a long day and slept off.  In his dreams, he heard this tune and lucky A.R.Rahman always had a sound recorder beside it seems. He documented the tune, the moment he got out of the dream and, the rest is history.


Also, recalling about this whole experience,  I get reminded of Elizabeth Glibert’s talk where she describes about the creativity perception by west back then.

“People believed that creativity was this divine attendant spirit that came to human beings from some distant and unknowable source, for distant and unknowable reasons. The Greeks famously called these divine attendant spirits of creativity "daemons." Socrates, famously, believed that he had a daemon who spoke wisdom to him from afar.”

It’s unexplainable yet, a beautiful experience indeed.  I wish to relive in that dream. Now, I wish to move out to a place where I can seek words in silence.

Tuesday, September 12, 2017

Sharayu Sakri- favourite artist

I’m grateful to spend some time with my favorite artist and senior, Sharayu Sakri.

Sharayu is a singer who loves nature, long walks, family, coffee, music and not the least of all, A.R. Rahman.  The intensity with which she love these stuff is immense. None can explain but, her smiles. She smiles with an awe when she really loves something and feel beloved by the things she is at awe.  Her reactions to my surprises are one of those most honest and intense expressions I've ever seen.


She’s the person who gets off the vehicle to enjoy the view of a landscape, to enjoy the blueness of the sky. Be it amid traffic, be it on deserted roads, she bothers least about anything but, nature. She loves to travel on roads which are covered by trees on both the sides. Of all the colours, black and white is what entices her a lot.
Beaches are her rehabilitation houses. She loves spending time at the beaches. Time is never known to her when she stays at the beaches.
She has the voice one wishes to listen when they’re amid nature with the beloved ones. Not so loud, not so soft. It’s like the gentle breeze amid a cloudy day. There’s sense of huskiness in voice but not enough to deviate from the sharpness of her voice. The more I concentrate, the more I enjoy listening to her.


I don’t mind joining her when she sings few of our favorites. She loves singing more than reminding me of my bad voice. The way she completely gets zoned out when she is into music is what I can totally relate to.


She also plays veena. “Should start playing again, It's been long time” says Sharayu, excited to play few of her favourites on it. She has a brother who seems super cool and is also a musician. She jams with her brother often and upload few videos.



 Sharayu a.k.a  Senior

One of the videos which I love and keep listening to, is the mash up of few A.R.Rahman songs. This video is simple yet special. This video puts a smile on my face. This video brings happiness to me for no reason. Will share much more about this on next post. Check out the video at






She got featured on a website for this mashup. The title says it all,

"Girl’s Simple Yet Beautiful Mashup Of AR Rahman Hit Songs!"

http://chaibisket.com/mashup-of-ar-rahman-songs/

She’s the person who keeps learning and keeps improving her talent. She will reach places for sure to receive all the love and goodness in this world. I wish her all the love and peace in her life.

Thoughts of the hour- writing

Ruskin Bond once wrote in his memoir, saying “ Lying on the grass and doing nothing is, of course a wonderful occupation, but I did not survive as a freelance writer for over forty years simply by lying on the grass and counting lady birds. if the grass is to mean anything, a time comes when you have to get up, brush the lady birds from your shirt and trousers, and proceed to your desk to write, type or word-process all those ideas you get while sitting out there doing nothing.”

I can totally relate to it. A few days back I was wandering around a college campus and many thoughts were flashing in my mind. In a moment, I found an auditorium near me and I sneaked into it to sit and write. I opened my book and started writing. I didn’t mind the weird looks from strangers. I didn’t mind any attention I caused by solely doing my work.  It was a cloudy day, and amid trees, I was enjoying the walk. I knew that I had to process my ideas and write rather than being there enjoying the moment.

While I was writing, Ruskin Bond words flashed in my mind, “During my idle moments I receive many good thoughts(and some that are not so good), but these thoughts have to translated into intelligible and readable language if they are to convey anything to others. And that’s where the hard but pleasurable work comes in. The composing, the revising, the rewriting.”


And also, thinking about writing, Harimohan’s words at my book launch flashed my mind,”Everyone wants to write. That’s the problem. Everyone wants to write but hardly they sit to write.”

I feel tempted by various ideologies to enjoy the moment by doing nothing. but again, it’s Ruskin Bond who comes to the rescue answering what is it to sit and write.

“I live through my writing, just as my writing lives through me.”

Learning many life lessons from these writers, I wish to keep writing no matter what.

Art- Empty Spaces-Flow

The abstract of the exhibition is out.  https://www.graduateinstitute.ch/communications/events/empty-spaces-flow-art-exhibition-abhinay-renny