Honesty Personified: Arijit Singh

Where do I begin? However hard I try, my words will fall short of the experience I had watching this out-of-the-world artist. 

As soon as we heard about this concert we grabbed the tickets. Though still a Bollywood buff, I find it hard to keep up with the details of all the artists in the entertainment circuit these days. To be very honest, I wasn’t even aware of all his compositions. 

After a hectic work week, we dragged ourselves to the arena. These events are a must for the sheer delight of finding desi-janta on fleek. 😊

Anyhow, we took our seats and after a few minutes, the familiar melody of ‘Ae dil hai mushkil’ was heard on the central piano. It was being played by none other than the maestro himself. 

Pic courtesy: Twitter

The entire auditorium roared. In a matter of minutes, thousands of Seattleites were seen grooving to the symphony.  But what caught my attention was the sheer simplicity I saw on stage. There he was, the most sought-after singer of one of the biggest entertainment industries of the world, in a pair of blue jeans, a simple sweat jacket, and a very contagious smile that lasted all through the show!

I realized, unknowingly, I had been his fan for quite some time now. Those were some of the tracks that are regularly played on the radio. The hopeless romantic in me was thrilled. He not only sang for three straight hours but either continuously played the guitar or piano. He sang a lot of his own songs, others by artists from yesteryears, and a few classics such as ‘pal-pal’, ‘kahin dur’ et al.

I was beyond impressed. But that was just the start. The next three hours were an absolute bliss! 
Do you believe in spirituality? Ever seen somebody meditate?  
I have, that day, for three hours! 
Until then, I had never seen a more honest live performance by such a young artist. It appeared as if every cell of his body sung that evening. 

As always, did some research on him. Quite evident is his humility, versatility and abiding passion for his craft. His classical background is noteworthy. He is truly an inspiration and one can take a lesson or two from him on how success should be handled. Take a bow superstar! 

Power Claim Game

She said the design would be a surprise. This morning as I opened the chat window in anticipation of the final product, for a second my boundless imagination went wild. Think about it, given a chance to creatively express,  how would you go about it?


My heart sank a bit at the sight of the familiar pattern on her arm. The tattoo read something related to 'love for freedom'.

Everybody seems to be talking about peace and freedom. But shouldn't freedom, like love and care be an inherent right of all individuals? It's the basis of existence. But we girls, often embroiled in our societal pressures find a need to express ourselves in such a manner. Actions speak louder than words and if those words happen to be on your skin, I wonder how much the world really cares.  The issues faced by women are far-reaching for us to trivialize them in this fashion.

How refreshing would it be to see some strong women, swank through their tattoos, about will power and strength 💪 

Lean-In!

https://leanin.org/book/

One of my favorite professors gifted me the Sheryl Sandberg's bestseller "Lean In". I hadn't heard about the book until then but instantaneously recognized the face on the cover.
The author, of course, is Harvard-educated, current COO of Facebook but the book is inspirational in more than one ways. I do not plan to review the book, rather I want to discuss how I personally felt about the ideas presented in the book.

For me, it was just an assurance that self-doubt comes, by default into the female DNA. It was good to see somebody articulate my everlasting feelings about the present day professional and personal worlds in general. After spending a few years in the software industry I found myself agreeing to most of the professional scenarios presented by the author.  Even in this century, strong, confident girls are attributed "bossy". A female being ambitious is still tantamount to being individualistic. I am not saying you will agree to every line in the book. But you will for sure find your share of take-aways from this read.

I have learnt my lessons the hard way. I now know that you are lucky if in this 'jungle-gym', opportunities are served to you on a platter. 'Leaving' before you actually leave is a blunder which often results due to societal pressures. Until now I felt most of it had to do with the Indian culture; but when a Harvard alumnus and one of the most powerful leading ladies of the world talks about facing similar issues, I realized these problems are more universal than I could fathom. If I knew these facts earlier, I would have dealt with numerous such situation differently.

I would highly recommend this book to everybody irrespective of the gender. If changes are to be brought in, it cannot be done by just 50% of the world. Lean-In!

Back to School!

Yes, it is the back to school season in this country. Autumn marks the commencement of schools and colleges here. And my stint as grad student starts this year.

After such a big break from academics, I cannot help feel overwhelmed by this new advancement in life. Post-graduation definitely is one dream that remained unfulfilled til now but had given up on this idea long before. Let's just say, Mr. Coelho's thesis has found another supporter ;)

Who said it was going to be easy, but thanks to the big support I found in my better half! 

Let's see where we might end up....