Maestro!

I used to wonder why people would stay up till the wee hours of the morning 'trying' to
work.It is 5.20 AM now, today I truly understand the joy of being up to hear the birds chirp as I prepare to fall asleep.Watching the sun rise in perfect silence,I am smiling.

I attended a concert by Mandolin Srinivas , a child prodigy and indeed a maestro in a true sense.
It was an absolute pleasure to watch the ease with which he churned music out of the Mandolin.
It seemed effortless for him, yet the joy that was shown on his face as he performed was magical.
Humility goes a long way in one's career.
Especially as an artist,it is essential to stay grounded.

From personal experience,I feel performing on stage for a large audience is a heady feeling.The first few performances are nerve racking. All I remember is blinding lights and a few eager faces staring at me. Only after 2-3 stage performances I had control over my senses and knew what I was doing.This is where practice kicks in,only if you can perform a few times without any mistakes during the rehearsals you can dream of having a flawless performance.

As I watched Mandolin Srinivas perform I thought to myself ,having played the mandolin for 35 years a stage performance must be more like a casual practice session.I wondered if he ever got bored of performing the same ragas over and over again.The smile on his face answered this question for me.A little later I was told that he practices for more than 5 hours a day.

I guess as an artist you can never stop learning.

hope!

Sometimes deep inside you know 'something is not meant to be' but there is one corner of you
which hopes and wishes that it should be.So the million dollar question is "Should we hope or plan for adversity?".

floating thoughts!

I attended my school's TEDx event yesterday.
The selection of speakers was a mixed bag.They had people ranging from wall street traders to scientists.
The moto of TEDx was 'connecting the unconnected'.
The most inspiring and yet a very simple message was by an economics professor.
He had worked in wall street for 27 years.
He had braved the infamous NY-NJ commute for years.(=waking up in the wee hours of the day and staring an Olympic sprint to get to work on time. )
Every morning when he woke up he had said to himself "I am going to earn the trust of the people I meet today."
He then went on to speak about how this gesture had paid back when he least expected.
I like the idea and feel it helps you function in an objective fashion.

Monday

I have complained and cribbed a few times on a Sunday evening about getting back to work on a Monday morning. Today has been an unusual morning where I realized that I would rather have something to look forward to on a Monday morning than not.