About

 

I immigrated to the US in 1983 from India. I feel that I have been here long enough to not be called FOB (Fresh-off-the-Boat) by my kids. But I guess they seem to have some other standards which involve pronouncing words like “Vote” ,”Vending” and “Video” properly – which I guess I will never achieve (because of my 21 years in India) – so, I am going to pass myself as that Indian with an “exotic” accent!!

My interests :

WRITING – Just realized that most of my work so far has been Nostalgia-centric. I enjoy this genre and feel it’s an un-ending well that I can draw from. As a matter of fact, this right here is fresh nostalgia for 10 years down the road!! (-:

GOLF – I am terrible at it and it’s a damn frustrating game, but I still love it (“painful pleasure”). One of these days I will actually take lessons so that I won’t embarrass myself too much on the golf course. As long as there are golf courses around here (with low standards) that would allow me to play – I will play and enjoy golf!!

STAND-UP – I have started dabbling (performing) in stand-up comedy in 2019 and am loving the feedback I have been getting! I am going to attribute this newfound hobby to a midlife crisis! 🙂 (as an alternative to a toupee or a red sports car or a girlfriend-on-the-side!!). Here’s a clip of my very first performance on April 14th 2019: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScMLgRAGyNs&feature=youtu.be

MUSIC – I am a huge fan of Shakti (John McLaughlin, Zakir Hussain, Vinayakram, L.Shankar) as well as their later avatar – “Remember Shakti” (John McLaughlin, Zakir Hussain, Selva Ganesh, Mandolin Sreenivas, Shankar Mahadevan). Thoroughly enjoyed the two live concerts that I attended of this fusion group. I enjoy Hindustani and Carnatic classical instrumental music.

YOUTUBE – YouTube has an unbelievable amount of entertainment from which you can draw your specific narrow niche!! In my case – these areas happen to be – street foods from various parts of the world, Indian classical music, debates about religion & belief, Indian Classical Music played by non Indian (e.g. Ukrainians doing wonderful Bharatanatyam, a French lady performing amazingly in a Carnatic Concert, a Chinese lady teaching Bharatanatyam in China etc.)