~IF MuSiC Be tHe FooD of LoVE, PLay oN~

Ting Ting *pause* Ting *pause* *pause* Tiiiing

…. This is how I, a musical amateur, used to play my guitar or gittu a year ago.

It began in a funny note though. I approached my guitar sir, who happens to be the lead guitarist of a very famous Indian rock band. The first thing he wanted to know “Why do you wanna play the gittu?”

Pat came my reply “I just wanna remove the monotony from my boooring life”. An impulsive reply, and he could easily interpret that I did not have a boyfriend at that time. (Lol!) I had known that music could people your solitude at once.

Although the main reason for gittu was not clearly defined. I believed anyone with good vocals, should know (atleast) one instrument properly… so that’s why hello guitar! You can't stay the same. If you're a singer and not a musician, you have to change, that's the way it works.

There was this amazing beauty in this power weapon that used to give me a new life whenever, I plucked its strings E-A-D-G-B-E. My imagination took flight, heart took wings, and brains became an untamed territory, coz I could never play and feel sensible at the same time. At once, I could feel no pain, absolutely. It only had the beauty of loneliness, strength and freedom.

I vouched that day – “Come what may, I will take guitar seriously. Not like the other futile attempts to learn forms of dance.”

**PS: Cometh the first cIass and I quite confidently bunked it, given that I had learnt the basic strings in school :-D !! (Wow, my so-called dedication had just started to take flight :-P )**

Enters guitar sir on the second class – Late twenties, married, down to earth, awesome levels of patience, super cool (Oh wait! Did I say married and STILL super cool?). He was more like a friend than a teacher.

He taught me the three golden rules associated with the powerful weapon:

Rule #1: Always carry a pick with you, so that you can play anytime and anywhere

Rule #2: Always sing along while you play. Only playing (and not singing), can very well make you lose the rhythm and go off-beat.

Rule #3: In case you can’t follow Rule #2, here’s an alternative rule. If you aren’t able to sing while you play, choose a popular song, so that your audience can sing.

Then I learnt the string players' motto: "Better sharp than out of tune."I was told that guitar can even help you get laid! (wtf!)

Enlightened, as I was, got back home that day and put the gittu at one corner of the room. Came the next Sunday, and the gittu still laid untouched and unperturbed.

As soon as I entered the next class, a smart ass cracked a PJ:

“What is the difference between a guitar and a tuna fish?”
A: “You can tune a guitar but you can't guitar a tuna fish.”

Lame joke it was, inspired from the “fly can fly but mosquito can’t mosquito” joke. Huh!
**PS: It’s very rare for a joke of any damn kind to NOT amuse me! But this was a terrible one! And that too, coming from a smart ass!**

As soon as the gittu hit, I forgot almost everything. I could never realize how intimately I was bound to the strings, and how much I missed it after 2nd year in college. Life was back to Rock n Roll~
It took me almost a year to grow from “Ting Ting *pause* Ting *pause* *pause* Tiiiing” to heavy metal.

I am a big fat n proud tuna fish now :D

Without music, life is surely a mistake!

Each day begins with a SMILE! =)

As they say,

"Being happy doesn't mean that everything in life has to be perfect. It rather means that you've chosen to look beyond imperfections"

I can't recall since when I developed this weird habit of showing my teeth all the time, probably someday in high school. But I feel, whatever happens, happens for good!
However like HOWEVER, in my defense, I firmly believe, it's NOT me, but the people around who give me real reasons to smile.
So crazy is my affinity to happiness that people even call me lunatic and attach taglines to me which somewhat go like

“Better find a no non-sense reason for me to laugh, else I’ll start giggling for no reason at all”

.

Oh, did I say ‘people around’ who give me real reasons to smile!? Well, justice will stand in denial if I don’t revisit that statement.

The moment I reach my desk at office, I am greeted with a wide grin. Enters Isha Chawla, with a smile that makes me regret not carrying a camera. A complete blabbermouth (to say the least), in contrast to my utterly mundane, boring, dull, dreary, introvert and lackluster nature (PS: I am a girl of few words, you see!!!) I wonder how incessantly she can go on and on, and derive sense from non-sense. :-O

Then would enter the DON! Quite dude-dashingly (only he thinks so!) he would slam down his bag on the desk. Call him Kanav, Kaaaaanav or Bebo, it’s totally your call. (PS: Bebo stands literally here, as he is fondly called by his folks *mischief managed :-P *). His favorite dialogue would be “Chaanta maarunga!”, although he is never high and mighty about it to take it head on. With his highly eccentric antiques, he can make you roll on the floor laughing even in your worst times. He has a strange fetish for irritating others with his extremely disgusting BUT funny remarks and awesome critics!

As I open ‘Microsoft Office Outlook’ and struggle with the booooring client emails which Charu, our cute project manager wants me to work on for the day, my spark starts sparking – a new message from Neha Aggarwal(RG-2). She would be requesting for a break at the very start of the day and I would quite hesitantly (seeing the length of the client emails) say yes. Once the ice is broken, and as the day progresses, the frequency of breaks only accelerates. :-P
*PS: Rahul Kaushal even named Neha and I - the "Happy Club, (Rs. 4000 membership fee)!"*

Aleksandra, her all time reaction when I show her my slide “This is not looking good to me :-(” (While saying this, her specs would slowly slide down her nose, until she puts it back upright). Consider yourself unlucky if she stuffs this into you, as then you can exhaust all the possibilities and draw a blank everywhere. She would giggle giggle like “Gigglegoo” when she is chatting on spark and yes, she is in love with Barista!! (just like me)

Dilip loves to search mistakes on the slides I make, and most of the times he is successful. However, no specials credits to you Dilip, coz those mistakes are quite blatant, and any five year old can spot them :-P * Yes, I so love making data errors :-) * But I do give you full credits for one thing - the mutual cribbing sessions on spark lit up my mood always!! :-D

Charu - I have always been scared of my Project managers (that's something called fear-of-the-boss syndrome), but she's really sweet! She would not miss an opportunity to wittingly pull my leg when I slack at work. I must say, she has that rare gift though - to bear with laggards and irritants like me in the team, and still maintain her cool!

Akshat or THE AXE effect, wonder from where he gets all those brains. I love picking them :-) He hides his humorous nature beneath a veneer of scientific objectivity. He with his flatmate Jayan (rocket scientist), I am sure would discover/invent something great someday.

Then enter ME- I am totally appalled and made helpless by the people around me. I can’t see a reason NOT to laugh when I closely observe their seemingly wild hysterics. And then they say in unison like the joker of batman “Wheizz so hilarious son?? Lets put a zzzip on that smile”.

So I put this much-needed DISCLAIMER: “I am losing it too often these days. If you find me smiling at you without any obvious reason, please don’t consider thinking that you’re looking funny, or worse still, that I am making a pass at you. Apologies to all the victims!!!!!!!!!"



*wink wink*

As my last day in office approaches like a Gun-man in hiding, I realize that what had started as a depressionland, is now an indispensable and fun part of my life. Just wanna say, I’ll so miss the place and its inmates. Its real pain saying goodbye!

Hullo Mr. Joel Thomas (or JT for Jewel Thief), Kaise hai aap!? He would start grinning as soon as he would see me. And then I would shoot a famous Jagjit Singh song at him, “Tum itna jo muskura rahe ho, kya gam hai jisko chhupa rahe ho??”, he would say “YOU LOOK HILARIOUS!!” *Grrrrrr…. And this makes me furious like a red bull blowing up his horns and brushing his foot against sand, to charge into action (ok, I mean only metaphorically here)*