That is because a lot has been happening over Chai, at the new firm I am working at.Do check us out on Facebook and be a fan already!

A six day week at work has made life hectic and intense, but immensely fun at the same time. The Bangalore love that I was displaying to bore the living daylights out of anyone that cared to listen still exists, lousy traffic and some weird encounters notwithstanding.

The weather is still wonderful and I get to work on my laptop on a comfortable bus with my data card while in transit. Pick up a Volvo pass – the darn thing costs INR 1500 and is worth its weight in gold.

The expression on the faces of people that speak to me in Hindi only to be asked if they don’t know Kannada in turn is also as priceless as ever. While travel has taken a backseat, a Gurgaon trip is on the cards to reacquaint myself with the awesome North Indian winter and with good friends that were the reason that Gurgaon seemed like a crazy fun ride when it lasted.

The magazine focuses on the bright side of things related to India and showcases, as its tagline states, on Positive News, Happy Stories, Unsung Heroes.

I just wrote in a piece on one of my favourite places, Bylakuppe that was published in the magazine today. Do check it out and spread the word about The Better India. You can also follow the magazine on twitter.

Yes, here is the link.

Much gratitude to Madman Aadisht! And there is more to follow!

As someone who considers himself a connoisseur of the written word, it is quite surprising that I have read very few books related to music writing.

Sure, I’ve read books about bands, about artists and as an ardent fan-boy, gone through statistics and collected information that I thought would serve me well during times when I needed to access it fast, though the occasion to do so hardly ever presented itself.

Most of my reading has been through music magazines and in online content that I thought was fun and
interesting. Neither, however, compared to a book and I guess this is why I picked up “Love Is a Mix Tape” by Rob Sheffield, which is an autobiographical tale that documents Rob’s love story, told with a mix-tape of songs associated with each chapter.

It was an appropriately nostalgic tale interwoven with enough music and pop culture to keep an information junkie like me feel intelligent when I recognized all the references it was peppered with. Additionally, it exposed me to a whole new set of artists and songs for my grooveshark listening.

What it also did was to make my mind trip down memory lane to a time back in 2001 when I had made my first mix-tape for a girl. Before you think this is a cheese-fest of sorts, dear Reader, let me inform you that by the time you reach the end of this column, you will realize that this anecdote is far from it.

I met this girl (let’s call her mixtape girl, for obvious reasons) when I was in the first year of engineering college at the college canteen and we began talking on random occasions. The occasions were, for the most part, engineered by me because I knew her time-table and knew on what days she’d show up at the canteen and at what times. I thought it wasn’t fairly obvious that I was there only to talk to her, because I was widely regarded as a loafer who didn’t do much else in college except hang in the canteen.

I quite fancied her and I did all that I could by way of trying to be funny / charming / interesting to endear myself to her. So much so, that on one occasion during the brief period when I was interested in her, I played her a song on the guitar after much practice, only to be somewhat nervous when the moment of truth arrived, which resulted in me forgetting the lyrics and making a total mess of the song.

Quite like in the movies, this tale also had a villain. Quite unlike the movies however, I wasn’t the flawless hero. In fact, in retrospect, I was quite an asshole myself as you will see.

The villain was a chap who I considered a complete douche of the first order, and he and I were the two kids that played the guitar in our batch in college. As things transpired, we were engaged in one-upmanship to prove that one was cooler than the other.

This chap, who we shall refer to as guitar2, liked a girl. This is where things get messed up some more.
The girl he liked was a family friend’s daughter, and as luck would’ve had it, was the one girl that I was in love for the past five years since I was thirteen.

See, I told you this is not the average cheese-fest. Yes?

I wasn’t able to tell her how much I liked her because her conservative family wanted her married soon as she finished her undergrad studies, while I was the typical hippie that wasn’t sure of what direction his life would take.

Guitar2 confessed to me that he liked this girl and I shamelessly went and told her about this. Being good friends with her, I also told her what a douche guitar2 was and this resulted in him never having a glimmer of a chance with her. Not that he stood a chance in the first place, or so I’d like to think.

In the meanwhile, I was trying to woo mixtape girl like mad. I found out who her favourite bands were and she gave me the usual jazz about how she liked Pink Floyd. Every engineering college student in the late 90s and early 2000s liked Pink Floyd. If you didn’t, you were so uncool that you could’ve as well lived in Gurgaon.

Wait. I live in Gurgaon now. FML.

Anyway, I put together a nice Nirvana unplugged live in New York tape for mixtape girl on her birthday and she was beside herself with joy. I thought I had a chance of being with her and continued with my relentless pursuit. The book that I referred to, incidentally, has an entire chapter deconstructing the Nirvana unplugged album.

Guitar2, seething with anger because I let the family friend girl know of his intentions decided to pay me back and told mixtape girl an exaggerated tale about things that I had supposedly said about her behind her back. Mixtape girl fancied another guy anyway, and she felt that my supposed transgressions were enough for her to not talk to me anymore.

Guitar2 had his revenge, while I ended up making a mix-tape for someone else without getting anything in return. It ended up being the only mix-tape I ever made for anyone.

I guess Karma came back to bite me in the ass and made me realize that I was horribly wrong in what I had done. I know that I’d have done things differently if I were faced with similar circumstances now, but having hindsight isn’t really empowering.

As the title of the book goes, life is indeed a mix-tape. No super-evil villains, no goody two-shoes heroes. We’re all more multi-layered than we’d give us credit for.

Finally, do read the book. It does get cheesy in parts, but it is well executed music-related writing. If nothing else, it will trigger those parts of your memory that will probably make you think of the mix-tapes you’ve made and the stories around why you made them.

The same was the case in a few shopping centers and affordable (cheap) restaurants which aren’t up-market per se, but would like to try and get an ersatz air of pretentiousness about them, which they feel might attract a few more clients.

It was at one such place that I caught myself singing word-to-word a song that was massively popular in the mid 90s. And no, I’ll not quit playing games, and I intend to keep you in the dark regarding what song that was.

But listening to that music brought back a flood of memories that got me thinking about how we tend to evolve as the years go by, and how drastically our musical tastes are altered and shaped by our exposure to new genres, our environment and life in general.

I had a strong pop music phase when I was in school, and had tapes such as Now That’s What I Call Music (Volumes 1, 2 and 3) and Channel [V] Ultimate Dance Collection and such. Those tapes are now as good as useless, and when I tried playing them a few days ago in some tape recorder, which I was able to locate with much difficulty, the songs were running at about 80% their speed and were quite funny to listen to, until I got bored and gave up.

If you’ve not had a phase where you’ve listened to Pop music, at least to start off with, you have issues. You’re probably languishing in jail and your name is Charles Manson.

Contemporary pop slowly paved the way for more music, and as the parents found out that their son’s interests lay beyond his text books and his other reading material, they indulgently gave me access to their music collection, which comprised of a few rare tapes of Santana, the Ventures, The Beatles and a few other oldies which I now know are timeless, and would be worth introducing at the right time to my own children in the future.

In the mid-teens and later, as the rat race became more and more pronounced, and the need to do well in the 10th and 12th boards to secure a good education became strongly evident, the angst and the pressure built up led to a slow but sure shift from the optimistic and uncomplicated hues of pop towards music that was slightly more aggressive and complicated in nature.

Classic rock and metal was the way to go, as bands like The Who, Led Zeppelin, The Doors, The Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd soon became staple music, and a false air of superiority was then acquired, and it was at this time that the whole black t-shirt phase made its presence felt.

The parents were, quite understandably a little worried about the sudden increase in length of hair, the constant singing of the ‘teenage wasteland’ bit from The Who’s ‘Baba O’Riley’ and a slight hint of negativity that crept in as a result of exposure to this music.

Simultaneously, satellite TV played a crucial role in providing me exposure to contemporary artists, and I discovered the alternative genre, which forms a huge part of my play list till date. I must count my blessings for having had a chance to expand my musical sensibilities during a time when Channel [V] and MTV weren’t showing the nonsense they’re currently dishing out. Incidentally, do you have any clue as to who got eliminated this week on Roadies?

Yes, I did have a Kurt Cobain phase as well, where I hated myself and I wanted to die. It involved a case of a premature heart break and a feeling of being hopelessly lost in space and time, and Nirvana’s songs seemed to give some meaning to life back then, although when I listen to the band now, I can’t understand half of the lyrics. I think it is an age window during which time you need to appreciate bands like Nirvana and then grow up.

Metal made its presence felt in my life with my first ever listen of Iron Maiden’s ‘Live After Death’, and I was hooked thereafter. The standard issue metal bands then became a regular part of my musical diet, and my parents were left wondering when their son’s head would snap and roll off after extensive head-banging sessions. Thankfully, no such thing has happened till date. The type of music being listened to became heavier and heavier, and it hasn’t lost steam even now.

An increase in exposure to the different types of music has led to broadening of my musical horizons and sensibilities, and off-late, I’ve discovered new and interesting genres and sub-genres such as post-rock, piano-rock, alt-pop, emo-rock, folk-rock and also faced a revival of pop music appreciation, thanks largely due to how hot Nicole Scherzinger and the other Pussy Cat Dolls are in their videos. I still can’t name more than two songs of theirs, but hey, I’m a big fan nonetheless.

Over time, I have seen people who seem to think they know a lot about music ridiculing those that they think don’t have corresponding tastes and sensibilities, ‘poseur’, I believe is the word they use for such people, who pretend to like some forms of music just because it is cool to do so.

I have been guilty of being prejudiced myself on previous occasions, but as time has gone by, I’ve come to realize that I am better off doing my own thing and being at peace with myself musically, rather than evaluate someone else’s musical tastes and being judgmental about it. If people are indeed ‘poseurs’, then they’re not worth the time and the effort to ridicule and they’re better off left to their own devices.

Having said that, I’d like you to please excuse me, as I go ahead and complete listening to the (relatively) new ‘Take That’ album. Cheers!

Hence, I have a chance to unleash it on my website as well. Check it out under the fold.

So you are part of a band. You guys know you are the next best thing since bread came sliced, you’ve got it all, you’ve got it right. But the avenues for you to succeed are few and far between, and the road is long and winding, the lights are blinding and you don’t know when you will get there, if at all you will.

You’d want to quit your studies and your job, throw caution to the wind, and embrace the life of a rockstar being courted by record labels, the media, artist managers and most importantly, the fans. These castles in the air also need to have a concrete foundation to begin with.

As a new band, you need to create waves and be in the limelight for all the right reasons. Your music should do all the talking, rather than your possible involvement with substances or your outrageous attire or your fake accents while on stage. Of course, showmanship is an important part of being recognized for a distinctive style, but without good music and without believing in yourself, you’re as good as the next garage band which will split when members either get married / relocate or move out for higher studies without even having been a storm in a teacup.

There are many eventualities that you can’t deal with, and so this column will not focus on trying to show you the doomsday scenarios that your band might encounter. What I instead intend to propose is a novel way of trying to get your band seen and heard by a lot of people, without you having to invest too much into making it happen. Sure, you could perform at pubs, and in festivals and at the odd live gig and so on, but what I am about to suggest might hasten the process and help you get there faster.

This venture is one that a few bands might have already implemented inadvertently, without being aware of it. What I am about to tell you would just formalize this process and give it concrete shape.

Consider your jam room. It is the place you chill out, the place where you sit and write songs, where you experiment and try out new riffs, where you fight amongst your band members and eventually develop the camaraderie and friendship that will last you for a long time to come.

This is the place where you are in your element, and are uninhibited by constraints of time, and can play whatever you want for as long as you want. You can set the sound levels to your liking and not complain about a shitty sound guy wrecking it all for you. You remain in your comfort zone, and in your jam room, you are King (or Queen or whatever).

How about if you converted your jam room into a venue for having a show? Sounds daunting, innit? Yeah, it does at the outset. But think about this. What if you were to allow people limited entry into your performance area and play out a show for them?

Your room might not accommodate more than ten to fifteen people at a time. They’d have to stand cramped or squat next to a bass amp, or God forbid, sit right in front of the bass drum and then turn permanently deaf. However, if you end up getting a small group of people for your audience, and they promise to behave themselves and not mosh (and cause destruction) you’d have a show on your hands.

The parents, neighbours and other people in the vicinity who might complain would already be used to your incessant practising, and as a result, if you were to just get in a few people and jam like you always do, you might find a few fans in the audience.

Do this once or twice a week, and rotate the crowd in your jam room, and a steady buzz would be created about you guys, if you are really good. As the word spreads, and more and more people listen to you, utilize the power of social media such as orkut, youtube, our RSJ forums and create communities, upload your videos / audios and generate a vibe that would suggest that if fifteen people at a time can be provided a fabulous experience by your band, imagine how hundreds of people would react to it simultaneously.

The possibilities are mind-boggling, eh? I know. There are many pitfalls to this method as well, but with a little diplomacy, a little politeness and perhaps a little ingenuity and most of all, with pragmatic rather than an obstinate form of will-power, your band might just have a good platform to end up going places.

If you are a music lover, rather than a band member, and if ten bands that you know of follow this system of regulated live performances in their jam rooms for limited audiences, you could as well end up attending ten live shows in three months, for free! Now, if this isn’t a win-win situation, I don’t know what is. If you do make it big thanks to these suggestions, do send me your autographed album so I can add it to my growing collection. Good luck!

Yes, I’ve been given a full page dedicated to myself and whatever I want to write on the magazine, and I plan to unleash propaganda and spread arbitness in the best and most effective manner possible.

The title of the column is the same as the title of the website, and the title of this post. Under the fold, you will see the contents of my first ever column piece that was published in the October 2008 issue of the magazine.

It only promises to get more and more inane after this.

I for the life of me haven’t been able to figure out what CBD means, but I am sure I’ll kick myself for a simple explanation that it will eventually provide.

My Citizen Matters user page is here.

However, nothing beats Greatbong’s Review for the same, at least so far as entertainment value is concerned.