Life Unpacked

If you have begun wondering about my whereabouts, I do not blame you. I have been missing for quite sometime now. The decline in frequency is not because of my falling interest in blogging (heck no, I love it!), but mostly because of the blog-o-sphere (aye, it is a legit word) becoming highly commercialized. Yes, when you are putting in efforts, you should be getting returns too; but these days, most of the bloggers write only  sponsored posts. It is a major put-off! In other news, my vacations have kicked in with full force. I have been listening to some great music and watching  binge-watching television series (Game Of Thrones, finally!). And today I am writing with the intention to share two tunes which have been constantly stuck in my head... Idle browsing through Instagram can be wondrous sometimes, and sometimes it can unwittingly introduce you to new music. My chancing upon this song is a direct evidence of 'em Instagram sessions. Honey Honey by Feist i...

After a long hiatus, On My Playlist is back. It has been quite sometime since I last wrote about the songs playing in my head on a repeat mode or the artists that have swooned me off my feet (even the Phantom of The Opera post was a few months back!). Currently, there are a few songs I have been listening to more often than to my all-time favorites. One of them is "Losing my Religion" by R.E.M., not the Rapid Eye Moment one, but the famous band from the 80s. I am pretty much sure now that I am growing up backwards in time; what else can explain my fascination and liking towards things from the 80s, 70s and now even from the 60s! Talking about the band, I discovered them a few years back through my then new Nokia Lumia which came with this amazing free subscription for a year to Nokia Music store; I might have somehow chanced up "It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" by them and downloaded it. Fast forward to these days, I wa...

I know, I know, I have been MIA since too long now. Well, I don't want to start a blame game, but let's just say the situation was too hectic. Finally, I am taking a break and doing things which are fun-fun, not study-fun; watching Revenge (Once Upon A Time is the next in line), snoozing as much as I can (yes, day-in day-out) and dreaming of witnessing an Opera live (Ah, this one is barely possible, I think). Talking of Opera, I've always felt a pull towards operatic vocals (you see, a reason why I subconsciously prefer bands like Iron Maiden and Deep Purple), just like how tides get pulled towards the moon on a full moon night. I'm not going to talk a lot about Opera today because essentially I don't possess enough knowledge about it in the first place. Despite that, hey, I can talk about Phantom Of The Opera. I have been meaning to read the book but as I am trying to cope with a burnout (which happened due to reading too much and studying almost all day, in...

It is Sunday today, exactly seven days ago happened a weekend which I haven't gotten over by now! Let's just break down that weekend into two parts, so that in this post I can talk about the amazing classical music concert that I attended, that musical concert which flagged the start of that lovely weekend. My first proper classical concert it was, expecting a low turn out for it, I went at a time which I assumed would ensure me a front row seat at the Asiatic Library steps (the venue); approximately half an hour before the scheduled time of 6'o clock and boy! How long the queue was! Composed largely of 20s-something people, the excitement they contained for the gig radiated from their faces. A long wait and finally the admission to the concert began and by the time I reached inside there were hardly and seats left! People had turned up in such massive numbers! A bit of adjustment on my part and some on the part of the people already seated freed up some space for m...

Looking back, I simply fail to understand how in the world could I miss two live gigs of this band when I was there both the times! The band I'm talking about is The Supersonics. I caught them live a few days ago, last Saturday to be precise, and all I could do was be all ears with my face beaming with awe. Yes, they are that good; classic rock and roll riffs married beautifully with Lynyrd Skynyrd-esque vibe is how I can describe this band. Honestly, I highly recommend you folks to check out them out. Awesome music teamed with a beautiful location (Bandra Ampitheater), what else can I ask for! Prior to The Supersonics, Bombay Bassment, an another great band performed. Their music type leans more towards hip-hop meets drums n' bass; giving rise to an eclectic sound which is indeed amazing and definitely a crowd-pleaser. The tropical hints in their music is what drew me in. Do try listening "Never be the same" by Bombay Bassment. All in all, it was a hot yet gre...

Morning of Day 3 was the craziest and sickest thing that happened to me. I understand that after constantly working day-in-and-out and being sleep-deprived one is bound to get frustrated, but how dumb is it lashing out at an another individual? It is horrible, you know, being constantly humiliate; for trying to help others, for trying to co-operate, and heck even for demanding rights for self! Well, that's a precise summary of the scene that forenoon. And after spending three lovely days there, occurrence of something like this did ensure a bitter aftertaste. There isn't much to talk about the performances of Day 3 because I couldn't watch bands other than Sky Rabbit, Pentagram and Karsh Kale + NH7 All Stars, although I did end up listening to a bit of Party Scribe in between as the stage on which they performed was diagonally opposite the Bacardi Stage. Pentagram's act was top-notch and a rare one too, as they rarely perform early evening! The crowd that had gathere...

After an undeniably chilled out Day 1, this day was an ultimate test of patience. From getting into conflicts to standing at one place for hours, everything was done. And in its amidst, I was being constantly reminded- "The real work has just begun, kiddo". Skipping out on the details of the day, let me take you directly to the evening which boasted of two headlining acts in its kitty. The bands which I wanted to watch (Devoid, Scribe, Skindred and Textures) were all playing at my stage i.e. Bacardi Rock Arena. So yeah, I managed to listen all of them and watch the latter two. Devoid's act signified the Barcadi stage coming into action and then the stage witnessed Scribe taking over it after Devoid. Unfortunately, I couldn't see  these two Mumbai metal scene legends but the excitement from the audience did manage to seep past the barricades and reach me backstage. The mosh-pit, according to the people who were in it, was legendary as almost no one in the pit escape...

Getting up at six in the morning after a sleep deprived Day 0 was a bit of a pain but all the tiredness vanished as I entered the venue- Laxmi Lawns, the cold winds that blew across was partly responsible and they were the thing which made me blame myself for not carrying my cardigan (Which I had packed but later excluded thinking that Pune would be hot enough to rule out the possibility of needing a cardigan). The day was indeed filled with some buzz as I worked right from the morning uptil the afternoon at Bacardi Rock Arena (I love my stage!). Skindred had their sound check during that time frame and boy! the sound check sounded so awesome that made most of us speculate how epic their performance scheduled for the next day would be. Later, as there wasn't any act or sound check pending on my stage, I was free from work and caught the bands and artists playing on the other stages. As only three stages out of six were active on Day 1, of which I was interested in two i.e. Dewar...

It was a Thursday morning, the clock showed the time of 4'o clock (approximately), after barely getting a three hours long sleep, a reluctant yet excited me dragged myself out of the bed and got ready to face the adventure ahead. The streets were empty and I struggled to find a rickshaw to the station, after a lot of waiting I did get one and from there it was a smooth commute to the office. The problems started arising once we hit Pune; the driver of the bus we were in was detained for about an hour by the traffic police without any solid reason and then later on, after reaching a certain road the driver had no clue about the direction to the location! It was a real test of patience as the drive to Pune from Mumbai which generally takes four hours at maximum took a bit more than six hours! Finally we arrived at the venue at around 12.30pm and then the rest of the day saw us touring the venue and getting segregated into our departments. Honestly speaking, the venue was done up b...

It has been two days since I last saw you, still I cannot get you out of my mind; even when I sleep all I dream of is you. Yes, this is how much I am missing you. My thoughts about you reach at a point where I wonder is if I don't manage to see you again how will I suffice? Well, some say this is love. Honestly I have never been one of the believer of the "love", so I don't know how it is like but if people say so...maybe it is love. And hence I declare: "I love you, NH7 Weeekender". (Ha, what you thought? :P) Honestly, I'd say that one hasn't "lived" unless that person has been to Weekender. No, I'm not exaggerating nor am I promoting because I have worked for it but the thing is, its a place where you are totally disconnected with the outside world (thanks to no network) and are actually soaking in what's going around you. I was there for three days (three and a half to be precise), totally clueless about the world outside, enj...