Golpeando en el mismo lugar..

During my dancing days, used to listen to a lot of Latin music. One of my favorite artists was and is Franco de Vita and one of my favorite songs is "Golpeando en el mismo lugar".. the funny thing is that we have a similar phrase in Tamil.. "Patta kaalaye padum" which translates to "the leg that gets hit, get hits again".  

Why bring all this up? It is all in a day's thoughts inside my hamster brain. 

Recently, I tried to catch a falling heavy lens with my foot and paid a painful price for it. Then the same thing repeated. My glass lunch box, which is reasonably heavy was in the trunk. While holding it in its flimsy plastic bag and trying to close the trunk, the bag basically ruptured and my lunch box was going to hit the floor. I tried to catch it with my foot.. same foot. Now the right toe area is bruised and hurts when any weight is put on it.

This didn't stop me from going to Yoga class the last couple of days, just that my favorite poses become painful experiences. Nevertheless, I did try and sit through some poses and finish the class. 

Do not know how long it will take to heal. So far using Tiger Balm patches and warm compresses to help manage it.  So far it is getting better. 

The jet lag added to my problems. Recently I have figured out the perfect way to beat jet lag.. or so I thought. Come home on a 40 hour day and go to Yoga class before going to bed. That gets the sleep cycle back. However, what I am learning is that there is two pieces to jet lag. Sleep timings and stomach request timings. Do not know what it takes to adjust the stomach rumble times. Given the tummy wants things at odd times, ignoring that request and sleeping is not a good idea. The stomach acid catches up with you and at odd times. Have to do some more research on beating this part of jet lag. 

The only good thing that came out of this accident? I put that old CD back on the CD player and listened to it. Brought back so many memories from college days! 

Jr. tries to play the Veena

The next stop on our 2015 year end trip was to Suresh mama's house. Let posterity note that we stayed with them for days and did not make a flying visit!

As soon as we reached Suresh Mama's (uncles) house, the first thing Jr. saw was the nice Veena sitting in their family room. His mom plays the Veena and she let Jr. try it and was giving her a quick lesson. 

Jr. loved it so much that she asked to say there and play while we wanted to keep traveling. We had to pull her off the Veena.

By day 2, she got the hang of it and with more coaching from Amala paati she was able to play "Vara Veena" 

Now she wants us to buy her a Veena.

Guess nothing beats a Tanjavoor Veenai, to get a kid hooked to Carnatic music!

Another first

It has been a busy November with business and personal travel and the first two weeks of December seem to have flown by as well. 

Now that the rains in Chennai have stopped and things are returning to normal slowly, that is weighing less on our mind. That didn't mean things came to a halt here in Cupertino. It has been an interesting week here. 

The little one has been learning the violin recently. However, she is very shy and reluctant to go on stage. Her message to us has been "I want to learn because I like it. Not because I want to perform. So if you force me to go on stage, I will quit". 

With a lot of encouragement from her teacher and us, she participated in the annual recital.

The best part of this for me was to watch her recover even if she made a mistake and smile through the whole thing. Now that she knows she can do it, she seems to be more confident. 

Hopefully this brings out the Violinst 2.0 in her! Given that she saw the other kids from the school perform for the first time, she is definitey inspired to practice more. 

Funny thing is that Jr. now wants to learn violin too and has been making a stong case on why she should learn Violin asap. We are now mulling that over.. 

Jazz time

Jr. performed with the Kennedy Middle School Jazz band at the Folsom Jazz festival. Unfortunately I missed it because of travel.

However, we got to see her perform at CMEA at San Mateo's Aragon high school last weekend. 

The kids were amazed by the sound quality in the auditorium. They also got to experience a "clinic" where prominent Jazz band teachers came and gave them detailed feedback on the performance and tips to improve.

We had a great time watching the kids perform so well and be so enthusiastic about learning!

These kids have come a long way in such a short time. It is great that their teacher and school push them and make them challenge themselves.

My phone ran out of memory. This video got cut off. Hopefully next time will have a full video..

Carnatic music on Alto Saxophone

Now that Jr. is very familiar with reading the notation and subtle nuances on the music sheets, she is back to trying Carnatic music on Alto Saxophone. 

The original plan was to have her do a few Geethams or varnams during the Golu season. There was a time in India where I developed an allergic reaction to "sri chakra raja simhasaneshwari" after listening to way too many girls sing the same song at golus. 

Here in the bay area the song selection seems to be more diverse from the group we interacted with in my childhood. Still, it would have been nice for Jr. to play saxophone at golus. For some reason, she was in the Jazz mood and skipped it.

This week having learned Nagumomu in her music class, she wanted to get the instrument home and practice! 

We were thrilled to hear that. She had attempted the first few bars of it earlier this year and said "too hard. Not there yet! How does Kadri do it so fast? he must have a special saxophone! etc. etc." So it was good to see the change.

Here is a video of her attempting Nagumomu and a thillana.

There is a lot more work to be done, but for a first attempt on the thillana, we were impressed. Now that I have mentioned it on the blog, she will promptly read it and call it quits.. have to work on that tomorrow.. 

Note to everyone else : This is pretty good

Note to Jr. : There is a lot more work to be done

Note to San and all older ladies in the family : No. Her fingers won't fall off because I posted a video on the blog

Note to self : Keep calm and coach on..