SINGING @ THE CHURCH!!

Well....now this is somethin i'd really wanna write about after not having written a personal post since quite some time. And this one was really an experience thats made it worth writing here.

We had been planning it out since a long time ,but i guess sometimes we were too lethargic to execute the plan and sometimes it just didnt work out .Ohh,u must be wondering who else comes under "we" ...well since this post is about the song that I sung ,the other guy was the guitarist ,Daryll and quite obviously ,the plan was none other than singing the b'ful and soulful You Raise Me Up during the Sunday Service

Lets rewind a bit to the time when this scheme was originally conceived .It was way back in January when Daryll played this really cool song at the church and later while talkin to him ,i harmlessly suggested -"Hey dude,why dont u do You Raise Me Up someday?" ... "hey yeah i think its a beautiful song and i've heard it too..but i dont remember the lyrics ...can u sing it for me once!!"...I heartily obliged and he started strumming efficiently coz he did remember the tune...and so i was on my way to the 'crooning glory' .Now just as I ended giving a sample of the song ,the guy suddenly out of nowhere ,popped in with -"Why dont u sing it??I'll blend with you!!" . I know i'm pathetic bt he was so excited and seeing that naeveity in his eyes made me fall in to his request . And from that day onward every Sunday when we used to meet ,he'd say-"we'll do the song definitely next week ...I'll probably call u someday for practice" .But i guess this world's a busy place and none of us could find the time.

Time passed without any progress and here we are 6 months down the road and a lot had already changed,including our determination which suddenly became rock solid .Last week we took an oath that we'd surely do it next Sunday and i was supposed to come 15 mins before the service so that we could finally have a dry run!!

Lets get back to the present scenario now. I fathom u already have a bird's eye -view of the situation (not that wer'e birds and can see things frm that perspective...its just an idiom dammit!!!) ,and so u can imagine me ,on a Sunday evening quite relaxed and walkin up to the church to reach well before 15 mins. But ,nahh...i have got so habitual of last moment running that uptil 5.20 that day ,i was in a completely surreal world and that it was Sunday,leave alone the fixed meeting at the church had completely slipped out of my mind. But then dont know with what divine intervention ,everythin came back to me and I looked at my watch at horror only to find that i had less than 15 mins to bath ,get ready ,write down the lyrics,pray to god(oh thats a daily routine....but u might wonder why i wanna pray before reaching the church...see the point is I aint no christian ,and I have this small vestige of responsibility to the God that we Hindus call our own,to who i have prayed ever since i learned to walk ,and in whose name I define my religion ...now u might be think if I do beleive in my God ,then why church..,.well,the only answer I can produce is -I have faith in God,not religion ) and cover the distance between the church and the hostel!!! But then theres always this training one gets at an IIT of getting up late and still managing to make it to class that comes in handy when all other contingencies fail!!! And so,i rushed with whatever speed i could summon and voila ,i was ready exacty at 6.45 . I picked up my cycle and rushed ,and thankfully reached at 6.50!!!

After practising a bit and when a considerable crowd had arrived ,the service began as usual with the prayers and I sat down on a second row bench. Surprisingly all the songs chosen that day were particularly lively and somehow that half an hour singing session that day was extraordinarily fun. Now this is where I come in. As i was invited on to the mike and just as i turned to face everyone, I was quite taken aback, more so coz i'm not used to seeing such a large gathering usually and to a lesser extent ,also wondering how fate had played its part and delayed my song only to be sung on this day with so many new faces and such a large no. of people.

My first reaction was-tightening of fists.Dunno why but i suudenly felt nervous. What if I let down all these new faces and what if I sang so unbearably that they'd never come to the church again!!! What if the mike failed in between ,what if the world came to an end!!!?? lol
Finally ,i tightened my sinews and said-"This is my first time here . My voice might not be bearable but i just wanna tell u -whatever i sing will be from the heart .And i hope i dont end up breaking any window panes today!!" With this I started my song ,and everythin thereafter went quite well

I was flattered with all the adulation that i received in the end -and some from the new faces too .I dont care if it was just to keep my heart .Maybe ,they enjoyed it and so would wanna come back again next week .As of now ,all i know is it felt really good to finally sing after so many years and after having selected and then shunned by the music section .And i definitely rose from obscurity to a known face even among the regulars. Hope they see a lot more of me on the mike now . And who knows i might up doing a Tu Ashiqi hai a la Jhankar Beats!!!!! :D

PS:If ure curious enough ,i'm putting that song here...do listen to it...its really gud..
PS2: Comments are always welcome...the more the better ;) :D

When September Ends...

Wrote this one fighting with myself...so it shouldnt be surprising why i'm so confused...

Its been a long tym
since i've given a moment for myself
This is my life
and these are my dreams
and i'm living 'em up
But there's still this thought
which rings at the back of my mind

This is my life
It is not what it was before
These are my dreams
that i've never lived before
somebody break me,shake me
coz i must be sleeping

The pace at which my life's running
is tearing me apart
pulling at every end and every corner
fate is playing its part
I think I dont need nobody
to talk to ,to talk with,to laugh with
coz thats the way it is
Without anybody to care about,
everythin becomes so easy
Its me,my life and my dreams

They say u've changed
I can only ask-"Didnt u change me?"
They say ur'e rude
I can only ask-"Did it pay to be otherwise?"
They used to ask who are you
and I used to say-"whoever you want me to be"
They still ask Who are you
and I say-"it doesnt really matter"
coz i'm not ashamed to be the person i am today

Its bin a strange life i know
All those mistakes it contained
I always wished i could let go
But now as i sleep over them
They finally start to go away
And i know still, that i can face the day

These are my words
that i've never said before
I think I'm doing ok
And this is the smile
that i've never shown before
somebody,brake me,shake me
coz i must be sleeping

Yesterday, a boy afraid
locked deep inside,my place to hide
lost in himself,cryin for help it's safe to stay
i learned to live without a pride
and now all it is-
just a shell with me stuck on the inside
a prison,not a place to hide
So i want to wake up
want to wake up when september ends

i'm so afraid of waking
please don't shake me
afraid of breaking
please don't shake me
But i'd rather not chose to be this way
Summer has come and passed
now i wanna see it through your eyes
i wanna see the wind change

These are my words
that i've never said before
I think I'm doing ok
And this is the smile
that i've never shown before
somebody wake me up
wake me up when september ends

TWENTY 20

Hey m back,and after a long hiatus frm blogging( well, the reasons are very diverse this tym and surprisingly have to do evrythin wid academics!!).. and me too ,like many others ,have got completely besotted with the new Cricket format -The twenty 20...and why not ,its the World Cup after all,and India has just beaten Pakistan in an edge-of-the-seat game played a couple of days ago!!!

I'm not really writing this to elaborate on what exactly the new format is about ,rather to share with you some interesting observations that i made as we watched the match ,and secondly,ofcourse, since i couldnt think of nething else to write (and ,hey dont cast aspersions on the monotony of my life, coz i'm enjoying every bit of it these days ,and its left me so exaggerated that therez no time to luk bak and wistfully wonder about the meandering course of my life )!!

So here we are in the TV room at my hostel ,and its jam-packed with almost every1 giving their attendane for the Indo-PAk match (as usual)... lemme make u abreast with the state of things as the match progressed :

1.The Pakistani players were given the best treatment by our proud IITians...after all theyre our neighbours and deserve due respect ..and oh,i forgot to tell you what due respect means in this context ... urrr....actually ,do i need to mention....stating the fact that its the TV room of an iit should suffice i suppose :P

2.The slogans of chak De India reverberated in the TV room,what with the success of the movie and its approbation by every one whoz watched it here!! It kinda instilled in me that once-in-a-blue-moon patriotic kinda feeling ...though its still sad that the shouts got somewhere lost among the love bestowed by the ppl on the Pakistani cricketers...lol!!

3. Whenever a four or a six was hot by the Indian team or whenever a pakistani wicket fell,there was a huge uproar ,whistles ,shouting ,cheering,and drooling!!!!!
Now u may ask ,whats so unique about this whole cheering and jeering stuff ..doesnt it happens whenevr India plays ...i mean obviuosly one is spposed to cheer when a certain Tendular or Dravid hits a six....but hey, then i'd say u missed out on that world which was innocuosly hidden among the many verbs that i used -"drooling"...
I suppose the gentleman/gentlelady or even any1 whoz a cross between the two is readin this post ,he/she or watevr is already of aware of the "cheerleaders" that adorn the ground during every match!!! And hey,the cameramen alwaz show a cute close up whenever sumthin "worth-cheering" happens...and lo!100 IITians and a bunch of sexy girls doin their jig in front of em...do i need to say nethin else as to why the decibel levels sore!!! (hope ure not wondering still!!)....and oh,forgot to mention...the girlz are pretty hot!!! ;)

4.A twenty over match ensured that every dot ball was precious ,and so,quite obviously ,the People couldnt feel less exasperated after the match after having cheered for that zillionth dot ball!!!

5.Well,in a normal ODI, in a scenario where one team chasing a measly target and still reeling under pressure comes back into the game with a certain determined player goin all out to hit the ball to almost every corner of the stadium ,and lands up requring 1 run of 2 balls ...its quite normal to expect the disheartned supporters to lose nerve and abandon their positions ,and thatz exactly hat happened...but hey ,this was no normal ODI ,and not only did India manage to tie the match ,and bring the audience bak to their TV screens, but also made the most outta the newly introduced Bowl-out!!! Though it was so hard to beleive that the burly Pakistanis couldnt evn hit the stumps once!! What a shame....muahaha!!

Now at the end of it,u might be wondering what exactly was i my dispositon in this hullabuloo...i'd say that i had the bad luck of being with arjun chaudhay at that time(weight>100 kg)...and as the match became more exciting ,his weight seemed to be increasing every minute,and i could harldy watch the proceedings overpowered under the tremendous pressure of his hefty body jumping all over and me squeezed against it!!! Gosh!! :D