Tuesday, March 31, 2009

How I Met My GUITAR....


Present Day--
“Finally the time has come to meet “The One”… “The One” who will be mine and only mine, the one who’ll accompany me in my moments of solitude and my moments of ecstasy…I have been waiting my whole life for u my dear...” These were my thoughts as I walked into the Guitar Shop called JINGLE BELLS to buy my guitar and what follows is a sweet love story of me and my guitar…

It was my elder brother who first said that, it’s time that u get one. But I was hesitant. I thought I was not ready or was I?? May be time has come, its’ now or never…

Flashback--
There is this music shop in Apollo “Jingle bells”, which I have been visiting since god knows when. It was like a ritual for me to pay a visit to this amazing shop every time we went to Apollo. I would just drool over all the gorgeous guitars just hanging inside…all the dreadnaughts, the f-cuts, the metallics and the evergreen Spanish. There was this Black-Signature Jumbo that I had my eyes on for quiet some time now. I would just stand there and daydream how it would feel to hold one in my hands. I would picture myself humming along with it in my room, then maybe performing it live in front of screaming crowd. I would be recognized like the “the Dude with the guitar..” but all my dreams would shatter with voice of my girlfriend, Payal, or my friends, whom I had smartly brought along with me, and who apparently had no interest in guitars what-so-ever, to get going. They all would say the same thing, “Why don’t you buy one if you like it so much…” And I would ask myself, “Why don’t I??” I have been practicing on an old guitar, which my cousin gave to me. I never took any guitar lessons from a tutor, but I played well, not Rockstar-stuff, but yeah m getting there. Then why don’t I buy one for me?? Maybe I was just afraid to take the BIG step of actually buying the ONE!!

Flash-er Back--
In every summer vacation we would visit Indore and sometimes Ratlam to my masi and cousins. It was my cousin, whom I call Bhaishab who first inspired me to play the guitar. He would play the guitar for me and my brother in the evening. One memory that I have in my mind, is of him playing the guitar, sitting on the “JHULA” in his front yard. There was this bulbul in their garden that sang with him. It was very nice and I wished then, if I could play like that someday.


Time Travel to 2001--
Iam in Indore, studying in 11th, when my Bhaishab gave the same old Spanish guitar to me. It was in a dreadful state.. Strings broken, neck bend, but it had the potential. How we got that guitar working again is a totally another story. Will blog it separately, may be some of you guys could make use of it. But after painting and denting it was all good and in no time I was playing the guitar. Learned to play the ever-so-famous tune of DDLJ. I had sore fingers from playing.. but it felt good.. Soon I bought some books on guitar, searched the net for tutorials and guitar tabs. And was able to play decently.

Present Day--
My elder brother just put his foot down this time that I should buy one for me now.. He was probably aware of the desperation for a guitar inside me. So we, me, my bhiaya and my girlfriend Payal, who by the way is my lucky charm, went to Jingle Bells in Apollo. I clearly remember that evening my brother was in a hurry to get back to home, as the finals for Indian Idol season 1 were due that night. Abhijeet sawant and Amit sana were fighting it out, with all their soberness intact, to win the First Indian Idol ever..

When we reached the shop, my heart was pounding like anything. One more thing-- we had to remove our shoes outside, before entering the shop, which made the place seem more heavenly to me.. :) But my joy was short lived as the Black-signature guitar that I had been eying for so many years was gone!! Why god why??? The shopkeeper bought another piece similar to the black one..but it was not Black.. it was BLUE.. Carbon Blue to be precise. It was love at first sight !!

BIT OF GYAAN FOR U GUYS – Never go for a looks of a guitar !! As they say a guitar must not look good but sound good. And if you have a guitar that looks as good as it sounds then you are one lucky chap man.

The shopkeeper brought the owner of the shop. The Shop owner or as I Call him “Sir” has played for several music directors/orchestra groups in Bollywood, I deduced this from all the Pics hanging all over the shop. He told us to sit down and brought few of his good models and told me not to be fascinated by the Blue guitar but listen to several other guitars then make my mind. He played few songs on few other guitars, but the BLUE one was still lingering over me all this time. He then, gave me a Brown guitar to play. I played few songs..seemed alright. Then I asked for the BLUE one. I sat down with it, played few songs on it.. Few chords.. The sound was like angels playing their harps in my ears..

Then Sir told me to try another one.. as soon as I tried putting the blue guitar down, its strings got stuck in the button of my sleeve..clinging on to me..unwilling to let go.. Like the scene in the movie Om Shanti Om, where Deepika’s dupatta gets stuck in SRK’s button during the premier and the song goes “aankhon mein teri…” Ya somewhat like that.. This was the moment when I realized this is the one for me!! Even Sir said “The guitar doesn’t want to leave you!!” There were smiles all over, I had found “THE ONE”!! Finally.. Sir took it from me and started playing chords of “Chura liya hai tumne jo dil ko” on it and asked us to sing. Me being a bad singer, have never sang in public before, my bro too was hesitant, and Payal was already red. But my guitar had other plans. It made me sing to it and I sounded good too. After singing one verse, I was pretty sure of my decision. My brother made the payment, it was a gift for me..my lucky day and I happily brought it home.

Its been 4 years now and I have been faithful to my guitar (never eyed on another guitar after that.. I even stopped thinking of the BLACK one too..), taking good care of him and he is returning the love back by giving me company even here in Gurgaon.

And this is how I met My guitar..
Hope you guys liked it our love story ..

MY FIRST EARTHQUAKE...


26 Nov 2007.. 4:45 AM...
Its not that this date will make a significant impact on my life, but its still something that i will remember and speak about in the years to come,Cos this was my first experience of an Earthquake and i hope remains the only one...!!

I finished my share of MAGGIE (as our tiffin-wala did not come, and we were in no mood to go out to some fancy rest or a cheap dhaba even...) finished off "DIL DOSTI ETC"...a truly fantastic movie, capturing the state of young-confused-Indians. Then got inside my cosy blanket , preparing myself, with a very heavy heart for the dreadful long week ahead and even worse MONDAY that was about to come in a few hours..

Around 4:45 my whole bed was shaking tremendously, at first i did not understand what was happening,may be some dirty lil trick was being played by my roomies.. but they were too lazy to do that in the middle of the night, then i heard howls and growls of all the animals.. the bed was still shaking by the way.. And till the time it sync in on me that it was an EARTHQUAKE...the home-made vibrations by mother nature have passed by..

I survived it !!! My first earthquake !!!

I rushed outside to see how my roomies where....but i found them sound asleep..i went outside..and people were all out on the streets, "Earthquake" and "Bhukamp" were the only words i could make up, and they were enough for me to understand that it was not a dream and that I really faced an earthquake !! Now i was in a position to wake all my roomies up and tell them about the event with "Namak Mirch"..

Now i have to survive the after-effects and point by point analysis that ppl do after any major incident in India.. I think the heavy discussions,debates and the predictions are more heavy for me than the actual earthquake..

After all said and done.. and lil analysis and predictions done by my roomies.. I knew more of this was to follow, when i wake up in the morning..I again went to sleep..fearing if it would occur again..will it strike again??? Will it be more severe this time?? What if the roof falls on me?? How fast can i reach the door??? What if i die??? SHITT i should have bought that iPOD NANO man !!! DAMN.. ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzz......

Woke up the next morning with the loud sound of AAJ TAK stating it was a 4.3 Richter scale earthquake. I felt proud that i survived a not-so-little-but-not-so-major earthquake !! AAJ TAK ppl also said all the major earthquakes occur on 8 or 26..coincidence or some deep mystery i dunno..

Reached office.. Life was all pretty normal on Monday..DAMN my Office towers was still standing tall..lol.. I was just thinking man how only a few Richter scales that would have made the difference.. Difference in people's thinking, attitude towards life, respecting mother nature.. but a 4.3 on a Richter scale is just not enough for people to understand some simple things in life..

Well , so now earthquake is cut off from my-must -experience-before-u-die list..... Looking forward to more simpler and heart warming experiences... Like getting my next salary hike maybe...

Till then...CHOW
keep smiling