The Week That Was

Monday started off with preparing mango pie to be taken to Nithin's school for the Diwali celebrations at the Montessori.

Tuesday was the Diwali party. All the Indian moms contributed to a couple of hours of Diwali joy with music, food and crafts from India. It was a beautiful sight to see all the kids dance to Bhangra and Bollywood Music. We indulged in eating the goodies and savories made by other moms.

The week day evenings were busier than usual for the past few weeks due to practices for the upcoming Diwali Party for our community. Nithin was going to the Diwali dance with his age kids. I was happy that he was not clinging to me like last years' practices. I could just drop him off and pick him up and he went into the routine without issues. He is growing up fast and he is already 6!

Nikhil also was going to ramlila practices. B was playing guitar in the band that practiced songs for the Diwali party. I sang two songs - so music practice meant we four would go to the venue and the kids would play DS - but they were being good boys letting us sing. In fact, they also would sing our songs when we are back home.

Wednesday I had lunch with two of my fellow friends/moms. As usual, we chatted a lot about us and kids and this time we had lunch at the Thai restaurant near by. Fun times.

Friday was the arrival of B's parents. Their flight got delayed and it took them much longer in the travel than usual. They all got home at 1pm in the night.

During the day was the Halloween parade at the school which I missed at the last minute. I had mehndi applied in my hands by my beautician neighbor and that made me handicapped totally. I did not factor in the time required to get the mehndi dry, so I figured B has to go to the Halloween parade! It was a torture because I could not even make a phone call or pick up a call using my iPhone. I had gloves on my dried mehndi, so my swipe action would never work. Finally I had to use the thumb of my foot to swipe it ON and receive a call. Next time, I swear I will get it done towards the night, so I can sleep without feeling handicapped (pun intended!)

Anyway, mehndi was done and it looked colorful!

As I wait with bated breath for the much awaited Diwali Party in Saturday evening, Saturday morning begins with snow. All of a sudden, the weather turned unbearably cold. We had different engagements throughout the day and B and I were in the car on and off over the snowy roads. We did get through the commitments, went to party hall and set up music instruments and mic etc and came back home to get ready for the party.

The attire was decided already this time. B had bought me a saree just for this party from his India trip. I had also got the blouse stiched by an Indian lady. I discovered her through a friend and thank God, she had the bandwidth to stich my blouse in this festive season. So I was super thrilled about getting a blouse stiched in the US for the first time. With B's mom's help, I wore the saree, jewelry and the rest of the boys wore jubba.

The evening went by smoothly with our music performances. The disturbances of the mic were annoying. It was hard as usual to get the talking crowd to pay attention and keep quiet. But I was happy with our performance. I have to mention here that I could sing one of my all time favorite songs - I had been suggesting this song from before but the time time came now. It is 'Janeman Janeman tere Do nayan'.. from Chhoti Si Baat. I love Amol Palekar's innocence in this movie. So being able to sing my favorite song made the day for me!

Also I sang a duet with B - 'Sham' from 'Aisha'. Of course the whole orchestra gang did a great job and we all enjoyed the practices and the performance. The public review was encouraging as well.

Sunday was marked with the halloween parade within neighborhood. We lost power for the whole day almost. Heating up food in the stove without microwave is a pain. Thank God it came back toward evening and life soon became normal.

Monday evening was trick or treating. So finally it feels like we can breathe. That is the story of how eventful and happening last week was.

First Piano Recital

Not me. My son 1. He started learning recently. Just thought of trying it out - this place was close to him and we heard a lot of kids we know are going there to learn music. The teacher was a 'sir' and Nikhil was excited. We bought small piano and he practices at home. His teacher said that he can perform in a concert. All his students are going to go up on the stage and play couple of songs. Nikhil wanted to be a part of it right away. These are two very simple songs and I am sure there are tons of kids who are playing piano in the concert today. It may not be a big deal - but since it is the first time my son is playing in a recital, we are excited. I am getting his clothes and the new black shoes ready. As soon as he comes from school, we have to dress him up and feed him and drive to this place where the concert is. He seems to be confident. of course I have no clue on how play any instrument. Let us see how it goes!

It is concert time again!

No, I am not talking about musical adventures by me or B. This is the Grade concert in my son's school. Tonight is the third graders concert. It is that time of the year again. We all have to be there early enough to guarantee a parking spot. We have to stand in the line outside the doors shivering in the cold, if you want a fairly good spot for seeing the kids and recording them in camcorder.

It brings back memories of the past 3 years. I still remember how astonished and impressed I was when I heard the Kindergarten students perform. I was surprised because Nikhil did not mention anything to me about the songs or what the deal was with the concert. I never once heard him singing at home, so the whole concert was a total surprise to me. The kids sang so well, it was damn cute to see their actions. This experience built so much of an expectation that I felt unimpressed on the first grade concert. And then there was second grade concert. I don't recall much of these - but it has become a historical event to us.
It is a tradition now that we save the print outs the school distributes with all the song names and the names of the kids. This goes into the scrapbook I edit once in a year with Nikhil's works. And after the concert, it is another tradition to take him to the Icecream shop. The Brusters close to home was the first stop in first two years, I think. Then they closed the shop down forever, so we had to hit the Dairy Queen near by. Nikhil still recalls how tasty the icecream was in the Brusters.
Time flies, I could say. It is already 3rd grade concert. I am looking forward to the evening and the traditions associated with it.

Great party

The efforts put it by our party committee definitely paid off well. It was a well organized party with games and performance. Dress code was black and/or red. It was a treat to the eyes to see all dressed up. I myself wore a red saree which is 10 years old now. It is the saree I wore for the register wedding part of my wedding. Well, there was no time to relive memories as it was a busy day and a busy night.

Afternoon, we practiced our songs with the instruments and the mics/music system installed in our basement. And we awaited the evening!

Ours was the last but one item. I must say it has been ages since I stepped on any stage. We all sat comfortably with our instruments and even though I had never had trouble with stage fright before, why was my throat getting dry all of a sudden? We smiled at the audience, I spoke some introductory words impromptu and here we began. Singing in a microphone does boost one's confidence.

First song was 'Ajeeb Dastan Hai Ye' - an old Hindi melody. It is an easy, smooth sailing song - we sailed through it comfortably. Next was our key number - it is the song 'Give Me Some Sunshine' from 3 Idiots. We even called ourselves 5 idiots! It involved more coordination than the other song. But looks like the 'na na na' caught the audience - they asked for once more. After all, they have to support us - we live in the same neighbourhood..hehe! We sang it again and we felt on top of the world. B sang a solo from Guns And Roses. Frankly I was running around hunting for our camcorder to record his song and missed most of his song. Nikhil participated in a group dance by kids.

The rest of the night, I saw many talented singers among the folks there. We enjoyed a karoke session (again impromptu!) with old Hindi songs. Dance floor was open as usual. B and I enjoyed a lot more after the kids were asleep. It was fun! It is ironical that even though B and I both can sing and he can play guitar, we never play music together at home - this event brought a new beginning, I hope! I also hope to enjoy some music sessions with our co-players at the valentine concert in future.

Guitar, Mouth Organ, Tabla, Vocal = Our Band

In the development that we live, there is a lot of Indian population. We do parties by renting a hall couple of times a year where the folks showcase their talents. This means dance practices for kids of different ages weeks before the event. Kids do individual performances as well as group. It is fun to party with this group. Nikhil has been taking part for couple of times.

This time couple of folks who could play instruments just tried getting together one night and we tried out singing songs as a band. It was not a planned thing, it just happened impulsively. And it turned out good. It is 4 or 5 of us meeting every night this week at our home. We play music and sing preparing for the performance tomorrow. We enjoy it - it has been a while each of us has done this - B fingers ache strumming the guitar. I wish had practiced singing more.

We have mouth organ expert and tabla/drums expert doing their part. We are having fun. Hope we give a decent performance tomorrow.

This reminds me of the songs I have sung in farewell events (chalte chalte..my classmates tease me for always singing this song..!), the duet I sang with a senior in college day celebration, the group songs in school and what not. I am excited to have been singing after a long time. Wish us luck!

Cold, laziness and Judging Music

Cannot remember how long ago was it, when both B and me fell sick at the same time. The cold I caught on Thursday reached its peak on Saturday. B's allergies reached the peak the same time. So here we were - coughing and sneezing and consuming Kleenex tissues every minute. Thank God, Nithin was Ok.

Leave alone, doing anything fancy for the weekend, we lazed around and did absolutely nothing.
In fact, I don't remember sleeping two afternoons consecutively in so many years. It looked like how much ever we rested and slept, it just did not seem too much.

Sunday morning, I was getting ready to be the judge of music competition for sunday school kids in our church. When I was asked if I can be the judge, several comical notions came to my mind. I sing and I have had a good relation with music in my life that would help me perform the duty. But I could not help chuckle at the thought of being the 'judge'. I was reminded me of Somayajulu in Shankarabharanam. I pictured myself criticizing the singers on shruti, laya and taala and what not. Also I visualized Nedumudi Venu saying' kutteee nirthi nirthi padoo' in Sargam, a Malayalam musical.

During my school days, I have been on the stage singing or making speeches, awaiting the verdict of the judges. It was ironical that now I am on the other side.

I enjoyed listening to the kids sing. We marked their scores in tabulation sheets and handed them over to the people who added the scores. During the whole exercise, the thought that kept coming to me was that

a) real talent will show itself. When someone is able to sing well, there is no need to debate over it and I am sure the talent wins the prize automatically. Same holds good for 'not so good' singers.

b) Participation is KEY. This is what I have believed very much all through my childhood. If you show the will and desire to take part, you deserve a reward. My point is - never refrain from taking part thinking of the success/failure. Do your job. Many times, you will see that the reward comes after you. Sometimes, you will be the only one to take part in some category and you win the prize! Heheh!

That was the weekend that was. How was yours?