Touring and Tutoring in North England

DonkeyBox gig Rochdale

Last Saturday I had the absolute pleasure of travelling to the North of England for a DonkeyBox gig, it was the first time the band has ever hit the road and I was very excited to say the least, in fact the buzz from that night’s gig is still going on.

It was truly an amazing gig in a great backdrop.

The gig was in Rochdale, which as its name suggests is well, by a dale. In fact near Manchester and has some pretty windmills amongst the hills. After the gig I headed off to do my residential tutoring further North as if this wasn’t enough!

On the way I stopped over at Leeds and had a look at the Sunday Christmas market, there is something warm about the spirit of Leeds, you can just sense it there. It is also known as a great student party time maybe that’s why

I then went to Harrogate, a picturesque town in Yorkshire and eventually ended up at my final destination in the Yorkshire dales. I was there for another 4 days and was lucky enough to see the first snowfall on the hills, which I must say was absolutely gorgeous.

Snow on the dales

In fact it was snowing more intensely on my final night there and I almost didn’t make the train back down south due to the adverse snow. But here I am now back in London so it all worked out.

Two nights before I started my tour north I met some of my old work friends from Tribology at a Christmas social party. Some still wondering exactly what I do now for a living and what am I doing now that I have quit a 9-5 job.

Well, the answer is obvious really, touring the country with my band and helping students out at the same time, both things that I thoroughly enjoy. What could be better than that?

The Maharaja Exhibition

So after blogging spectacularly about blogging itself last time, I actually didn’t blog at all for over a month ahhaa ha ha ha ha. Anyway I was back in the South Kensington area last Friday afternoon. It is really good to see its pedestrianisation going so well. While I was at Imperial College London for my magic decade I saw all the plans for it but to actually see them come to reality is a great thing.

The Maharaja Exhibition

One of my tutoring students had enticed my interest in the Maharaja Exhibition at the Victoria and Albert museum in London.  Given my Rana roots from North East India itself I really had to go there

My journey started off by talking to the security staff at the museum, the guy checking my bag happened to be Nepalese and he got into a light chat about the exhibition. Nepalese people also have the surname Rana and both his and my presence was a reminder of how history had bought us together at that spot in that moment of time.

The exhibition detailed the history of India’s Kings from about the 18th century onwards, the royal courts and how Indian royalty adapted to the changing political landscape through the centuries. From a state of complete control, to partial administrative control (during the Raj) and ending with no control after India’s independence when royal rule of every form in India was abolished.

Rani of Jhansi

There were a range of exhibits in several rooms there from mock elephants, swords, jewellery, clothing, giant paintings to a room full of cars, furniture and modern photographs etc., To me what was doubly fascinating were articles like the sword of Tippu Sultan and a hand written letter from the Queen of Jhansi (A Boudicca like figure who has significant legend attached to her). Both Tippu Sultan and Queen of Jhansi have had a whole TV series dedicated to them in India and are part of staple history lessons there.

I was quite interested in reading the notes made by later historians on the letters in pencil. The letters were in Urdu (maybe even Persian) so I couldn’t understand the actual letters but the Hindi and English writings were pretty interesting. Flying off on a little tangent here; Indian English handwriting and British English handwriting are very distinctly different and it is easy to tell them apart.

At £11 for an adult ticket the exhibition is not cheap but it is certainly worth a visit. The exhibition captures the colours and spirit of India well without getting too political or heavy. It’ll take you at least 3 to 4 hours to visit it properly.

One Year of Blogging

At a gig

It has been one year since I set up this blog and I am really happy to see that I have managed to keep the blog going. I’ve had on and off blogs going on my myspace, facebook and hotmail accounts but this is the first time I have got this WordPress baby going continously.

Starting a blog is the easy part, but maintaining it is the tricky one.

My first posts on a formal blog were in early 2006 over here. Although it can be argued that before a blog was called a blog it was a news update and I had started doing that well early in 1997, back in the days of Geocities websites.

All this means that my first post on wordpress about being a geek still remains true so here’s to more blogging

Back from Diwali India Visit 2009

I just got back from my annual Diwali trip to India last night. It was as always a crazy experience that is hard to sum up in words or even pictures for that matter. First feelings are always reflective and pensive looking at the experience as a whole. The hard sunshine, chaos and general noise were blinding at the time and it is impossible not to miss it.

Sitting in a restaurant in Shirdi, India

I was mostly there to visit family in Delhi, but I did get to travel outside Delhi as well. The key trip this time was to a holy place called Shirdi which my father always used to visit. Getting there involved a 22 hour train journey! We stayed there overnight and then returned via another 22 hour train journey back. Man that was a lot of train journeying, we met some interesting people on the way and luckily one of my co-passengers had an electric guitar, so we both played for about 2 hours each on the train

Shirdi was a calm and peaceful place and there sure were some dedicated people who had made it to their destination from all over India seeking peace of mind.

This time I also went computer shopping with my cousins and nephews. They live in suburban parts of Delhi and it is always great to see them. I was really happy to get them up to speed on the internet and the information super highway 4 years ago. A generation ago their parents had barely been educated to A Level standard but now their children will be finishing high school and be ready to start university. The kids have never owned a computer before so it will be so cool to talk to them on the net via webcams and all.

Diwali shopping in Dwarka, New Delhi

It was also great to see the pace of development of Delhi, a lot more metro stations have opened up and the concrete jungle of construction is slowly materialising into infrastructure ready for the 2010 Commonwealth games.

 

Being in the heat

It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best knows achievement and who at the worst if he fails at least fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.

Theodore Roosevelt – From a speech given in Paris at the Sorbonne in 1910

I read this quote one of the first things in the morning and it rang true with me. I asked myself why this was? The answer to this helped me find out a lot more about how I tick. In fact it made me take instant action and I did one thing that I had been holding back on.

I share this quote with you and I hope you are really really inspired by it. And if you are it will give you a great insight into your mind if you can answer that question. Also I don’t really have to explain the meaning of this quote, it is about getting out there and taking action!

Not for everyone though…

I love every gig

Live Rock

Many people ask me the natural question on how the gig with my band went? I am not really sure on how to describe it.. Sure, within the band we discuss the energy we had, technical aspects of the set and any other things that we were really excited about.

Perhaps it is hard to describe the fact that this is the moment that it all boils down to; rehearsals, arranging things with other bands and the venue, email marketing campaigns and a million other logistical things. Our concentration and focus on stage is something that is impossible to describe to someone who doesn’t perform or do sports etc.,

I love playing every gig as each performance is unique and special in that way. To me it doesn’t matter if there are 2 people at a gig or 200 people. I totally respect the 2 people who have actually made it to that gig and that performance is totally for them!

I would even look forward to a gig with no one in it.

There is so much to learn and pick up even with just that! How to cope with on stage monitors, getting a sweet sound, being on stage..moving around. There are just loads and loads of things that are useful just when you get on to stage.

And historically we’ve had some great gigs where there were just a handful of people. It was those handful that talked to us and gave us many opportunities and ideas.

So every gig is special, truly special. Before I am even on stage I know that the gig is going to be great and I make sure it will be great with lots of positive energy

My answer to how the gig went will pretty much always be the same.

GCSE and A Level Results 2009

As a Maths and Science tutor, GCSE and A Level results day are quite important for me as well.

It is the day when it all comes together! For me it is a great feeling as to see students achieve their best since I put in a lot of work with my one to one tuition. Not only do I work on the actual learning side of it, but I work on building confidence in general, organisational skills, exam technique and many other things.

And it means so much to students to get a grade that improves their confidence and a belief in their ability. This day marks a great new milestone after which they decide the next phase of their academic journey. For A Level students that means they got to the university they wanted and for GCSE students it means they can now choose the A Levels they wanted to do.

As for me, it means I get a lot more recommendations for my own tutoring work and thanks to that I can continue to make a living at something I enjoy

Infact, I have started watching teachers.tv and I’ve been learning some really cool new teaching techniques myself.

Congratulations to all on results day!

Freakonomics and The Undercover Economist

A couple of years ago I accidentally got into teaching Maths for Economics use. A year later I ended up at a company that deals with world Metals and Mining economics, while I was still tutoring.

So I found the whole subject quite fascinating.

I ended up reading The Undercover Economist. It is a very easy to read factual book that requires no previous understanding of Economics whatsoever and he explains things in a very nice, easy to understand language. He explains the concept of “externality charges” and how congestion charging in central London was a good way of dealing with externalities.

He also discusses:

• How the London green belt means you are paying loads for rent and mortgage
• Why the poorest countries remain poor
• How the cost of a life is calculated by the NHS

..and many other things. I would highly recommend you read this book!

The other great book I read recently was Freakonomics. This book discusses things like

• Why drug dealers live with their mums
• How teachers in some schools cheated to get their school ratings high and how this got caught
• How a lowering in crime rate was explained by an effect from 2 decades earlier

So yeah, go and have a read at both books and connect to your inner economics geek, I know I did

I Love Moo Cards

DonkeyBox Moo Card

I love those tiny moo cards, they are tiny, just fit into my tube pass holder and so unique in shape and design that they always stand out in your wallet.

The best bit..they cost only £15 for 100 cards and you can have 100 different photos on them if you want! I have now ordered two batches of these cards and finally figured out which photos make for the best DonkeyBox moo cards

DonkeyBox Moo Cards

Moon landing anniversary

One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind

It is a real exciting day today, 40 years since man landed on the moon. Even after so many years this remains an amazingly remarkable feat of achievement for humanity. Ever since the beginning of time we must have wondered what the celestial bodies would be like and if one day anyone could get there. And our nearest friend in the sky is the moon, with it’s mystique and all.

The laws that Newton came up with and imagined were put to the test and they were proved to be truly universal, centuries before he could realise their full application!

The fascinating thing about watching the moon landing programs is that most of the mission control crew were really young. When Kennedy announced the moon landings, there were no experts in space exploration whatsoever! Imagine working for NASA at that time as a brand new graduate. And every time they were successful in a mission, they celebrated by smoking cigars. In fact you could see people in mission control smoking away. Unimaginable in today’s era.

Being an engineer myself I know how long it takes some projects to come to fruition on earth. Yet they had less than a decade to send man to the moon. There were several stages in this project, starting from the Mercury Missions where they simply had to get man into orbit after building strong enough rockets to break earth’s gravity and culminating with the Apollo missions, where they gradually got man to orbit moon first.

The space suit itself was a mission to make, the lunar module, the primitive computer control systems, life support system and everything else.

Such a shame that we don’t value the moon landings as much anymore and take them for granted. That’s why I am really excited that there are new missions to the moon coming up, this time I will witness this amazing spectacle in my own lifetime.

First moon landing