The making of a Great Guitarist

I had been in Love with Music for a long time now. Apart from shouting along with my Music Player and PC I haven’t tried anything seriously in Music. Now I thought it is high time to have a go. Guitar seemed to be my first choice as most of my favorite stars Bryan, Enrique, Avril, Linkin Park, Daniel Bedingfield have strong influence of Guitar in their music. So after searching for a short while I found a music school near my house. There were not much people learning Guitar over there but I was confident that I could somehow master myself once I am through with the basics. The classes started and my music teacher urged me to get a Guitar and practice at home coz I might lose touch if I just attend the classes. That seemed so reasonable hence I bought a brand new Guitar that might cost around Millions in a decade or so J …… I attended the class for about three weeks and then only realized that the teacher wasn’t a Guitar specialist. She helped me with the basics and when I was supposed to move on with the Chords, she said that she would arrange for a teacher who will help me further. I felt so bad. If she needs to arrange for another person to guide me through then I would have chosen another place to learn right? I felt that I had made a mistake out of my anxiety to learn Guitar and didn’t express much to her. Then I didn’t go back to the school. Whenever I look at my Guitar I just could have a deep sigh and curse myself for being such a dumb guy for giving up a venture that would bring a lot of energy towards myself and hopefully to the listeners too…. But I swear that I won’t be giving up in my venture coz of this incident and will surely learn to play Guitar one day or the other………….

Mission Thada falls

So after a long time, the plan takes its shape – Mission Thada falls. It is about 80kms from Chennai and then we have to walk for a couple of hours to reach the falls. All of us assembled at Saidapet and we waited for Santosh to arrive. Ajay was trying to call Santosh as we didn’t know his place. After waiting for about 15 mins Khaisir gave a brilliant idea of going to Santosh’s place and picking him up. Ajay said that he didn’t know Santosh’s place and that’s why we were waiting. But the ever-brilliant Khaisir was so proud that he knew Santosh’s house and said why can’t we go there and pick him up. All this time we were discussing that we didn’t know his residence and Khaisir kept silent all the time and came up with this stunning idea. So typical of Khaisir.
Khaisir as always didn’t know the route and we decided to follow Ajay and I warned him not to over take Ajay at any cost. We were following Ajay’s car for a while and after sometime Khaisir overtook. Just then there was a fly over and Khaisir drove over it while Ajay took a left turn. Khaisir did it again. Then we had to drive some distance to take a U- Turn and then Khaisir was telling the people in the other car how badly they had missed the wonderful experience of driving over the bridge.
After driving for about 2 hours we reached Thada and by that time we were all hungry. We didn’t stop by for breakfast as planned and missed all the hotels. There weren’t many places to eat and we didn’t have the patience to go and search too. So we decided to eat wherever and whatever. We managed to find a small idli shop. By the time we finished our break fast we got doubts whether we had traveled all the way to eat or to see the falls. The person wholly responsible for this was Murali. Such a talented person in eating and everyone were quiet impressed with his performance. No one even dared to challenge him. Aniz tried to give him company but was no match for the Glutton. After a long struggle we managed to pull him outside the hotel and then our journey continued. On further driving for an hour we reached a point from where we proceed by car and had to walk. So we all carried our bags with lunch and water and marched off with full of enthusiasm.
There wasn’t any road or route and we just kept walking with the assumption that we are taking the right path. As we walked along we crossed a couple of small streams. Further walking we came to a stream and it was about 3 feet deep. One by one we crossed carefully and suddenly I slipped and fell into the stream and got totally drenched. Simultaneously, Aniz also tripped by and Barath’s Digi-cam got wet. Barath was really upset and was very worried. All were curious whether the camera will work or not. Then, Barath decided not to operate his camera and will check with the service station. All this time I was standing there totally soaked in water and no one even bothered to ask whether I was ok? Jus kidding re….
We continued to walk and the mud road turned into a rough path and on further walking we had to climb over rocks and it was really rockin. This is what I would call TRECKING!!! Finally we reached the falls and the sight was damn cooool. There was a pool of water and beyond that was a high cliff. One has to climb the cliff in order to reach the falls. Some people said that if we could climb further we could reach another falls but it’s a bit risky to get there. We were very keen to get to it and decided to go for it. There was a steep rock, which was about 20 feet high, and a small slip could be very fatal. Moreover we didn’t have any clue as to how the path will be once we climb over that rock. We decided to send Murali and then if it is ok we could follow. Murali went up and disappeared. We could not spot him, as we cannot see anything apart from the rock. I tried to climb but slipped and fell down and managed to cling on to a rock and did not move for a minute. That was a close call. Then we decided not to go up and decided to go into the falls. It was too cool and we had a wonderful time. Then we came down and played around and swam in the pool of water below the falls. Then we had Lunch.
After finishing Lunch Barath once again asked why don’t we climb further up and see what is there. I wasn’t exactly sure how I accepted to that after having been tripped at the same spot. Gokul also joined us. Barath and Barath but me managed to climb over decided to step down. We never had any clue how we could get down but didn’t want to think about that now. But once we were over we didn’t regret for taking such a risk coz the view was fabulous. There was a narrow stream with cliffs by the side, which was about 50 meters high. There were some people already there and warned us not to get into the water if we didn’t know to swim. We swam into the water and the water turned into a place from was we could see the FALLS. It was too dark and creepy as it was covered on three sides by huge cliffs and was lit by the water falling from top of it. That was a stunning sight. We were very keen to go in but decided against it, as it was too risky, as we didn’t have any idea about the depth of water. So we stayed at a distance in the water and admired the beauty of the falls and returned back to tell others what we have just seen.
Thankfully we had another way to climb down. As we were coming down I slipped for the fifth time and it felt very weird. We split up into groups and after walking down we lost track. We found ourselves inside a bush and didn’t have any idea whether to try the left or the right side of the path. We tried both but didn’t find any way on both sides. We didn’t know what to do and after a while thought time was very precious to lose coz it was already getting darker. We decided to walk by the side of the stream and were blindly confident that we will some how make it. After walking through the bushes for about 15minutes we heard some voices. Now we got some hope and then spotted Murali around. We were really lucky. We decided to stick together and continued to walk down. It was such a beautiful and memorable trip and when we reached Chennai it was about 10 pm.

attitude

Hi I am posting a small write up I found in my friend’s application to an University in US. Actually I found it a bit impressive and wanted to share it up with you all. Here is an extract of it :
We can touch or influence the lives of others in ways we often do not know. People come into our lives momentarily and can leave us forever changed. Before I sat down to write this essay, I thought about writing on “Imagine” – a piece of cake and easiest of all. I was typing my thoughts down when my younger brother turned off the PC. All my thoughts were just lost and I got really upset with him and we had an argument, which left my day really awful. I had close relatives of mine come over for dinner the same evening. I was not feeling like myself. I felt bitter and sour from what my brother had done. I love my brother and forgave him but still was not in the best of my moods.
When the guests finally arrived, my uncle who always plays tricks on me did the same when he greeted me. I do not recall what transpired, but I snapped back and was rude to him and did not even smile back. But my uncle caught my eye and gave me that ever-pleasant smile, patted my back and left the room. I was not expecting the look he gave me, the same caring look he gives me every time. I was astonished at this behavior and stood there for a moment wondering what happened here. I calmed down and then got curious to know why he continued to be nice to me and smile back when I was discourteous.
As soon as I saw he was alone for a moment, I approached him and asked “So why did you not get upset at me when I was rude to you?” And he said something that echoes in my ears every time I see someone upset – he said with a gentle smile on his face, “Why would I let someone else control what I say and what I feel or what kind of day I am going to have?” He said this and left me, leaving me behind to digest what he had said.
Till this day, I have not forgotten the words he said or the way his smile seemed like a beam of light on that gloomy day. The impact this had on my life has lasted. Just before he left, I thanked him for his words of wisdom. The way in which I try to choose to look at life as a result of those words is his legacy to me and my thanks to him. I was able to take this as I always see the glass half full.
Our interactions with the people we encounter can impact many people that life encounters. A smile and words of simple appreciation multiply themselves. We cannot control people and situations that come to us, but we can always control our response to them. And in such positive decisions lie our control and personal power to make a positive difference. And it's something anyone and everyone can do.