My Crazy Life

You know, just when things are starting to settle down and life begins to have some semblance of normalcy, something comes at me that is totally unexpected and exhilarating. First semester finished with a bang... I had the Delhi gig, the Venice gig, I had gone to Paris for one of my good friend's weddings, I had brought my vocal students up to a level that I was happy with, and for the first time in my life, I had found the courage to stand up in front of hundreds of people and speak at the TEDx Chennai conference.

Second semester began and I picked up where I left off - I had to get 20 new students up to par while planning and executing a staged opera/musical theatre scenes concert (with very little money, very few resources, and no performance space) which consumed my life till February 27. In between all of that, my colleague George and I flew to Delhi to see the opera which we had trained a few of our students for (The Neemrana Foundation puts on fully staged professional level operas every season and this year a few of KM's best vocalists were invited to join them. George and I trained them for 3 months before they left to rehearse with the others. The opera, "Si j'etais roi" was performed by a melange of French professionals, Indian locals, and Sri Lankans.) Then, immediately after the scenes concerts, I left for Delhi where I experienced my first Holi Festival! That experience requires a completely separate entry, it was so crazy. [from the right: Andrew, me, and Ayesha, whose family we stayed with in Delhi]

After that however, life just came to a standstill. Getting completely soaked and having to run around in wet clothes and synthetic color during Holi was fun at the time, but gave me the worst flu I think I've ever had in my life. (Those of you who know me well, know that I always.... ALWAYS get sick either right before a concert or right after a concert. My body doesn't take mental stress well...) I was out for 2 weeks. And I mean OUT. I eventually picked myself up and returned to work to continue the semester and finish off the year with a bang. But nothing... out of the ordinary... or truly exciting had happened... for about a month. And I was starting to get antsy.

Which is when I realized: Achievement is a drug..... and for the first time, I realized it's MY drug of choice. All of this... my work, teaching, recording, training, conducting, the publicity, the recognition, the praise is so addictive, that when it's not there, I feel loss, I feel cravings, I feel like something is missing. It makes me not want to sit still. It makes me go nuts and I fall into a bizarre quasi-depression where I don't know what to do with myself anymore.

Just when I had given up and thought to myself "That's it.. life is over... back to reality" (I know I'm being a tad dramatic, but it's more fun that way), I got a call to do two recordings at AM studios that ended up being really fun and challenging.

The first one was for the music director Joshua Sridhar who asked me to sing some background operatic ooos and ahhhhs in one of the songs in his upcoming Kannada film "Thunta Thunti". It was one of those experiences that just leaves you feeling bewildered, but in a good way. I went in... he played me what he wanted me to sing... he wanted lyrics so I called Viviane and came up with French lyrics on the spot....I sang it... we finished within half an hour and I left with cash in hand. Bada bing bada boom.

The second recording was the next day, and it was for the directors Bala and S. David. I had met David during the planning of the Michael Jackson Tribute concert in September. I happened to run into him at a restaurant a couple weeks ago and he asked me if I'd be interested in singing a Tamil song. My response was.. "Uh... I don't sing Tamil, I don't sing Indian music.. but if you're willing to try me out, I want to try!" Turns out that the song was in Tamil, but they wanted me to sing it in a western operatic style anyway. I went in and had a blast trying to pronounce the Tamil. It was hilarious and challenging, but I managed to do it and I walked out of there, again, with cash in hand and feeling like I had truly accomplished something.
Me? Tamil????? Ha!

So long story short, life is back to normal and full of excitement. In addition to the recordings, I have just agreed to write an article for the magazine "The Brew" which is a new mag centered around cinema, music, art and fashion. The editor of the mag is Sameer Ram who I met a while back. He approached me and asked if I'd write a piece about classical music in India. He also wants to do an interview.

Yay!