It has been a while since I wrote about the weather in the UK. If you live here you can’t have missed the fact that we’ve had a very cold January, February, March and even early April looked quite chilly.
During normal winters we are used to seeing the odd week or two where the ambient temperatures drop down to 1 or below 0, and then things return to normal single digit temperatures. But this year almost every week has had a bite and indeed we’ve had snow on repeated occasions. The chill has been increased by cold and strong winds. And we’ve experienced the coldest March for something like 150 years.
Enjoying the snow in Yorkshire with snow drifts and all.
Well I’ve certainly had a higher heat bill to pay and I’ve even started wearing gloves in winter which I very rarely do. On the plus side I’ve had very little Spring hay fever this year as the winter scared off the pollen.
The warmth is slowly coming now in April so it’s great to see some sun and feel the warmth now that it’s finally here. Happy Spring 2013!
When I was reading The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle back in 2009, I started to meditate and access the immense power and presence of the now moment. I used to have lunch at a nearby park during my lunch break from work in the Summer and meditate for 20 minutes. Sadly I then fell out of the habit.
But one of the cool things I started doing in 2013, call it a New Year’s resolution/improvement is that I’ve started meditating daily, almost without fail. And the more I do it the easier it gets and it is becoming a daily part of my life.
Meditation helps to refocus the mind and clear it up from the dozens of thoughts, anxieties and feelings we all have racing through our mind daily. In computer analogy it is like closing many windows down and going back to a nice clear desktop. Talking about computers and screens in general (pads and smartphones), we now live in a world where we are constantly glued to screens and are losing having a sense of real, true presence in the real world and absorbing for all it is. Screens are causing a new type of attention deficit and this is a topic for an entirely new blog post!
A sunset is an amazing way to enter and experience a natural meditative state.
I’m fortunate enough to do a job where I go to places with amazing natural scenery and this is an automatic way of getting into a meditative and calm state.
And when do I find this 20 min time period to meditate daily? Easy, I do it while on the subway train (the tube as we Londoners call it). Yes, instead of reading junk newspapers I use this travel time to close my eyes and empty my mind of thoughts. And for some glimpses of time I’m able to clear it so much that I can feel just really calm and really alive for a few magical moments. For those moments I connect to the infinity of time that was there long before I was around and will remain long after. It’s very close to the feeling I get when I’m totally submerged in music or music making, which is another way I can enjoy the now in all it’s fullness.
I won’t say it’s easy to get into meditation as the chaotic mind is very hard to control and be made still, but gradually I’m getting better at this and I’m feeling more and more calm, centred and radiant within myself. The world needs meditation more than ever before.
Last week really was quite incredible for me. Some awesome awesome stuff happened. Monday started off with the band’s first ever radio show. That was such an amazing thrill. It was really tight logistically as we had to be there at 6pm to start the show at 7pm. Two of my bandmates couldn’t make that time so I really had to improvise with the soundcheck. No one seemed as excited as me either, so I had to have full faith that this will be an awesome experience, and that it sure was! We played two songs then did an interview. We ran from the live room to the interview room which was fun
DonkeyBox on Imperial College Radio
It was such an amazing feeling talking about the band and the songs on radio. We really felt like a band. Playing the songs was also very very different from playing live. We could hear each other through headphones and it was much clearer than a live gig. I had some problems with my guitar circuit being too crackly, but I managed. It was quite a lot for me to manage as I was getting soundchecks and photos taken as well on the evening.
Tuesday night I went salsa dancing and met a few nice ladies and had a great time dancing with them in the salsa club later. Wednesday was an amazing amazing day as I found out great news. Though I am not allowed to discuss that on social media yet, which is annoying! But that one event really made my day and the rest of the week.
On Thursday I was out again and bravely took to the stage at an open mic night. I played 2 DonkeyBox songs and a Green Day cover. It was a leap of faith again because it was raining and there weren’t many people at the open mic night. But I was there with a good friend Sam, and we had an amazing blast.
So, one hell of a week. Hopefully more of those to come
I’ve gone a bit slack with the blog here so I thought I might as well revive my video blog adventures. I was out tutoring up North and was in this surreal scene where it was snowing heavily, and as I looked out while tutoring I saw gorgeous cystal white powdery snow cover up everything. It was a country house set against a small lake and looked oh so pretty. I had to go out and film in it, yeah call me crazy but despite all the shivering, I really wanted to capture this scene and moment!
I have been having a fashion makeover in the last few weeks, one of the visible changes I have is a brand new beard that I trim regularly. Couple this with my black skinny jeans, the biker jacket I already had and a cool new black muffler, well I got a nice rocker look. But more on my style transformation in another blog post.
Here is the short, kinda random, ummmmmmmm video for you to enjoy.
I found this amazing quote that has been floating around the musician community for the last week or so on Facebook, and it struck a chord with me. I also played a gig last weekend and I am in a nice buzz so this is perfect time to write about this.
Singers and Musicians are some of the most driven, courageous people on the face of the earth. They deal with more day-to-day rejection in one year than most people do in a lifetime. Every day, they face the financial challenge of living a freelance lifestyle, the disrespect of people who think they should get real jobs, and their own fear that they’ll never work again. Every day, they have to ignore the possibility that the vision they have dedicated their lives to is a pipe dream. With every note, they stretch themselves, emotionally and physically, risking criticism and judgment. With every passing year, many of them watch as the other people their age achieve the predictable milestones of normal life – the car, the family, the house, the nest egg. Why? Because musicians and singers are willing to give their entire lives to a moment – to that melody, that lyric, that chord, or that interpretation that will stir the audience’s soul. Singers and Musicians are beings who have tasted life’s nectar in that crystal moment when they poured out their creative spirit and touched another’s heart. In that instant, they were as close to magic, God, and perfection as anyone could ever be. And in their own hearts, they know that to dedicate oneself to that moment is worth a thousand lifetimes.
- David Ackert, LA Times
Although not all musicians are motivated by these things, and believe me I have met a lot of musicians and each has their own reason for being a musician, ranging from “I got a guitar once” hobby to others who’ve left their jobs and tour round the world in run down vans with barely any petrol and food money.
As a singer a lot of these things in that quote really struck out to me, perhaps most so was the fact that you put your most vulnerable self out there. There is a lot of rejection as well during the process and so much uncertainty and a sense of being in an unreal world.
However, what makes it truly worth it is self expression and giving a glimpse of that magic moment to others, I believe it is this magic moment of pure emotion that connects people to songs, and I for one am really glad I found singing and expressing myself via music.
In my review last year I predicted 2012 to be a landmark year, and that it certainly has been. Perhaps not in the ways I thought but in loads of other ways. The 2012 name has been been in my mind and sight since 2005 when London won the bid for the Olympics. And when I moved to East London the 2012 countdown was on the big clock in Stratford for 6 whole years. Here’s a video blog I did 4 days before the Olympics were to open. I could barely contain my excitement for THE event for me in 2012, the London Olympics!
The Olympics were even more awesome than I could have ever contemplated and I was bang in the middle of the action. I even got close to performing in the opening ceremony but eventually my brother did that. I will never forget the experience and the feeling of being so close to the world’s biggest show during the Summer
I lead a pretty interesting life with a job that is people based and gets me a lot of travel. I learn so much from this and I also like travelling. This year one moment I was at a billionaire family home tutoring, another moment in rural India, or on stage singing with the band, or at an open mic might singing solo, or bass playing with a gospel choir, or organising a musicians meet-up, or salsa dancing, or out with my hockey crew, or out with the Saturday gang, or travelling to Lithuania, or tutoring in Hampshire, Worcestershire, Oxford or my most favorite county Yorkshire. Never a dull moment in Atul’s life!
So here’s the tally of my movements in 2012 as dug out from my diary.
3 days – Lithuania
7 days – Hampshire
59 days – Yorkshire
6 days – Worcestershire
1 day – Oxford
20 days – India
That’s roughly 100 days away from London, and that would explain why many friends can’t always get hold of me in London. I’d like to spend more time in London next year so I can dedicate more time to the band.
With DonkeyBox playing a gig. An awesome awesome moment.
So to finish off I’m really happy about my achievements and cool things I got done in 2012, here’s some of them:
Faced my deepest fears again and again and god it has been painful
Got a fashion makeover
Composed more new songs than ever before
Performed in a Gospel choir concert
Got my first provisional driving license
Got tutoring jobs walking distance from where I live
Turned down some tutoring jobs and learnt to say no
Got better at being a caring yet firm tutor by setting clear boundaries
Wrote more blog posts than ever and started videoblogging more
Bring it ON 2013. As always it will be an amazing year and I seek to make the most of what it brings. I definitely want to start dating this year so exciting stuff coming up. Happy New Year to you!
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 7,200 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 12 years to get that many views.
