So.... wassup?

Looked at my blog and was amazed to see my last post, more than a month back. Life has been so busy, that the time to sit and take notes seem impossible. I know that I need to do something about it, maybe manage time better or add a few more hours to the day :P, the latter being a little difficult.

Work has been very busy, bordering "hectic" but not quite yet. Spending 11 hours at work is definitely tiring but then when you like doing what you do, the pain itself has a healing effect. Project's on schedule, have taken care of most of the surprises that it could throw at me. In terms of training a horse, I hope I have broken it enough and it will now start to behave :)

The past one and a half month has been a mixed bag but nevertheless a packed bag. Time has been flying. Had a great outing with the office guys to a place called Murud near Dapoli along the Konkan coast in Maharashtra. Had a brilliant Holi last weekend at Khandala.

A lot of things have changed in the past few weeks. So far so good...

Bryan Adams in Pune!!

It rocked from the word go! I have been a fan of Bryan Adams' since I was a kid, since I was in class 5. The first album I heard of his was So Far So Good and I was hooked on to it. By the time I was in high school, he was back with his hits, The Best of Me and a few albums in between. This is one guy who has stuck around churning one hit after another, entertaining fans all over the world and supplying a long list of songs to lovers everywhere :)

I wanted to see him live for quite sometime now. When he first came to Bombay in 1995, I too had just moved to Bombay and there was no way I could go and see it (my Dad wouldn't take me and I was too young to go alone). He made 3 more trips to India since then and everytime for some reason or the other I missed him. Finally, one day while returning from office in Pune, I see this huge poster informing about his arrival and i had made up my mind that I am going.

After a little help from a colleague of mine got a decent 50% off on tickets and got myself and a friend the second cheapest tickets (actually can't really call Rs.3500 cheap but then again these fuckers levy such a huge entertainment tax that it makes things a pain in the ass). The show was to happen in Amanora Park in Pune. Its really a different corner of Pune considering the fact that I live in Kothrud. The show was to start at 6:30, though I knew that it'll be started with some local band, "Highway 61" in this case. Reached Magarpatta (bang opposite Amanora) at around 5:00, picked up my friend and then we walked. We walked and we walked. We walked a lot. Must have been more than 3 kms. All we kept seeing were, long lines of vehicles and posters with arrows pointing ahead. Anyways after the "holy-walk" we finally reached the place.

Let me fast forward a bit. We got good places to stand, there were 2 RJs boring shit out of people, then there was some performance and a weird ass fashion show which I really didn't care about. There was also a performance by this band called Highway 61. They played well and blah blah but seriously, we had gone to see Bryan Adams and didn't give shit about the other performances.

Finally at 8:15 p.m. Bryan and his band came out and suddenly the energy level jumped up by a factor of few thousand and the noise level by a few hundred decibels! That guy is 51 but believe me he'll be 18 till he dies. He was witty, energetic and absolutely fantastic! He sang most of his hits and entertained us for 2 hours. Summer of 69, Here I am, Please forgive me, Everything I do I do it for you, Straight from the heart, Can't stop this thing we started, It's only love, 18 till I die, Let's make a night to remember, The only thing that looks good on me, Heaven, You've been a friend to me, cloud number 9, when you're gone, Cut's like a knife, Somebody and One night Love affair (a song I hadn't heard before). I am sure I am missing out a few more he sang. I think he sang close to 20 songs that night.

It was funny to see him introducing himself, "Hi! I am Bryan". And then he looked up at one of the nearby buildings where there was someone sitting on the window watching. He had a monologue with him and even offered to give him tickets if he came down :P

The band was awesome. Keith Scott rocked like a true rocker. Runing all over the stage, jumping around doing crazy stuff and simultaneously playing flawlessly. He did some super riff work on some of the songs and he improvised on a few. After one such improvization, Bryan ended up asking him how he manages to do that :D. Mickey Currey did an equally awesome job with the drums as did the rest of his band.

As is his normal way of singing When You Are Gone, he called a female fan to sing the song with him and she did a good job :) The funniest part was the "Encore". Usually in rock shows, they always keep a few songs for the encore where they go out, and then come back in to sing. A lot of extremely stupid asses started leaving the place once they went in, instead of shouting, "Once More!" Is it that difficult to understand that the lights will go on when the show is over??? Luckily the guys in the front did a good job with the requests!

Well it was an absolute dream come true for me on the 11th of Feb 2011. Next time I am taking the 10K tickets and standing right in front of the stage!

blog.shubhayu.com v2.0

My first entry of 2011... hmmm... Have been away for sometime, 3 weeks to be precise. A few have asked me the reason for my absence. I just needed some time off to think of a new way to do this and hence the sabbatical. And after giving it a lot of thought, I have come to the conclusion that I no longer want to share as much as I have in the fast few months. Though I would like to blog regularly, the current situation does not allow me to do so. I have also decided that the topics will be a little less personal. I have realized that just as I have appreciated some friends read my posts and enquire about them, I have been equally uncomfortable with the fact that a few strangers have been reading them. I had not realized how I would feel about this fact when I started writing, but now I exactly know how it feels. So from now on, the posts will be a little different. I have also realized that some of the topics I write about are prone to judgement. Given the fact that, I am not always the best at conveying my thoughts, there are times when a topic, read without the reader not really knowing how I am, might be misinterpreted. And of course it also means that the readers would jump to conclusions about me :) I don't give shit about those who don't know me and those who do, won't. But those who I would like to know and who might are the ones I am a little concerned about.

2010 was an eventful year, there were things that went my way, there were things that didn't. But I loved the experience either ways. If I look back to January 2010, I would say that I am in a much better place now, both as a person and in life. The year was packed with lessons to be learnt. My real friends stood by me through all my highs, lows and stupidities :). Discovered some new people and rediscovered a few. My family has always been my strength and they continued to be so. Except one thing, I think I have kept up to my folks' expectations. Career has been decent. I have moved on. There are a lot of things to do, a lot to prove. I continue to follow my Dad's talisman about concentrating on the work and not on what you would get from it.

Like all, I expect good things out of 2011. My resolutions are not in place yet but it started off on a good note, with one of my closest friends getting hitched (ummm... I mean engaged) and the reunion of the 3 stooges :). With an extremely packed schedule all through out January, its gonna be rocking, atleast thats what I hope :) Now ideally I would have written more about it but according to the new plan of action, I won't :D

So thank you for coming back and reading, do come back again :) just don't expect the same stuff. Let's say I am evolving with absolutely no idea whether you would like what I evolve into. Happy New Year!!