I’ve had this keen desire to master at least one instrument before I finished my engineering.I tried my hands on the keyboard way back in my second year, and all that i could play on the instrument was the default pre-loaded songs in it! ) Well, its not that i gave it a strong try, but that was my first attempt. Things really didn’t materialize and I kept myself occupied with other chores.

I tend to get creative (rather idiotic) ideas only during my examinations. A few months back, sometime last year, my interest in instrumental music again reached it’s peak. I knew it was the most inappropriate time for me to start, because there were different Examinations fast approaching, but my enthusiasm got the better of me. I started fidgeting with a violin of one of my friend’s. I held it on my lap for a week or so, tweaking out discordant tones in variegated pitches. As such, I’ve never been a disturbance to my room mates :-) , but this was something that i just couldn’t avoid. I could never obtain the cadence which I craved for the violin to dole out, and being as such a guy with little patience, I never could compel myself to learn the basics right. It was like, i just wanted to challenge my friend ( who knew to play the instrument decently well) the very next day.Wish things worked my way!But most of the wishes that you yearn for are never satisfied.

Frustrated, I just gave up within a week and started looking out for some other activity which I could spend my free time on. Days went by with life getting quite monotonous. In a casual chat with a few of my friends , for some reason , the violin issue sprung back and I was ridiculed at my failed attempt to learn the instrument. Well, the mistake was on my side , but still Mr. Ego crept in and I challenged Calvin that I would learn to play the violin by the end of my fourth year. That was just an impromptu statement and never ever had I even dreamt of learning it professionally.That episode aside, things were soon forgotten, and the routine monotony set in.

A few weeks back I got back to hyd. and if not seriously, I at least started working on my project. With the work at least partially complete, I wondered if it would be really worthwhile if I could spend some time on any other activity besides reading novels , the project and of course sleeping :-) Well before setting off from Chennai I had decided to. optimally use the two months time I had. I was knee bent on getting back to Swimming , but with not many pools close to my house dropped the idea. One day something just reminded me of the challenge that I had posed to Calvin (rather what he had posed me ) ). But for some reason, I felt learning to play a violin, of all the instruments, wasn’t really quite appealing. I Placed a few inquiries here and there and finally got to know through Collin, that there was some place called Melowings which tutored people on instruments. I just went in for a casual inquiry and had a chat with the instructor. I was highly impressed by the way he spoke and was sure this was definitely not a place not to start learning a Guitar! Yep! you read it right…a Guitar!!

I developed a strong desire to learn playing a guitar when I first set my hands on an electric one at Satyam Hyd. Shekar, one of my friends from Bombay had been to Hyderabad on a casual visit. One of his close friends, Pavan worked in Satyam Hyd. He had invited us for a weekend visit to his office and it was then that he had showed me how interesting an instrument can be! Then and there, I had decided to lay my hands upon a Guitar sometime in my life when things were slowly settling down.

At times I feel, only subtle challenges drives a person to make his life worthwhile. For instance, I learnt to swim just because I had to prove my sister wrong when she said I just wouldn’t pursue my airy desires.

This was sometime in my sixth class, when I, again for no particular reason, chose to go for a swimming course during my summer vacation. Dad enrolled me and my bro. in a close by Swimming pool. My brother was never interested in Swimming . But then he was compelled to, because Dad just didn’t want me to jump into water alone.Both of us had never ever been to a swimming pool before. There were quite a few kids in the pool besides us and just one guide.The guide instructed us to get into the pool and hold on to the support rod fixated to the walls of the pool. I in my childish excitement and my bro. just to be on my side, got into the pool. As more and more kids came in, we were asked to move further inside having a firm grip on the rod. We definitely perceived the level of water to be rising and assumed that it was because they were filling water in the pool [This as you would have guessed, and little did we then, was the inlet for the purified water].Little did we know that it was actually because we were moving unknowingly into deeper areas of the pool. ) At one stage both of us in panic, let go of the rod and started drifting away from the rod. We were literally drowning. I’m not sure if it was me or if it was him, who managed to drift towards towards the rod and get hold of it . We summoned all the strength we had and sprang out of the pool. The moment we got back home and doled out the episode to our sis and declared that we are never again going to have a look at a pool, she was in peels of laughter. The whole episode was forgotten in a few days and the summer hols just got over without anything really chirpy.

Next summer again I felt I had to try swimming again, and this time my sis had a real valid point to say no. I could somehow persuade my dad to take me to another pool and enroll me.My bro was pretty busy with his exams then and he couldn’t join. The moment I saw the pool again, a shiver ran down my spine and just thought of going back home. But I was thankfully sensible enough to weigh my options and give swimming just another try before i make a fool of myself. I carefully went into the pool and just stood near the ladder. Didn’t budge an inch from there! For the whole two hours I was standing there just making myself accustomed to water, and when the bell was given, Phew!! I was the first one to jump out. With victory on my side I was on cloud nine. Just wanted to get back and show my beaming face to my Sis. But for her subtle challenge, I wouldn’t have overcome the phobia…

And now let’s see how far the Guitar challenge rides the tempo..with my opponent wading the water in the same boat :-)