'The World Is Sound'

Virginia, Washington DC, Maryland, Florida. 3 weeks spent in these states on the East coast. Admittedly, DC and Maryland were basically day trips but they still count right?!

Week 1 - Virginia, Concert 1, Washington DC I stayed at an Airbnb place which was lovely and super comfortable. The host, Angela, was lovely and even drove me to Walmart to stock up on food as I didn’t have a car to get around! I basically went for walks, went to lessons and Starbucks and that was pretty much Virginia! Concert 1 was in a temple in Maryland and drive there and back was all I saw of Maryland.

The day after the concert was a free day and so took the opportunity to go down-town and do some sightseeing! Going around all the memorials and monuments in Washington DC was an interesting experience. I felt surrounded by all of the symbols of America’s past all around me me and can’t say I could relate to all of the American patriotism gloating at me. My favourite, however, was the Martin Luther King memorial and standing on the steps of the Abraham Lincoln memorial (where MLK delivered his ‘I have a dream’ speech). I then joined Ashwin and his friend in the evening and we had food and watched Zootopia which was AMAZING!

Week 2 - Tampa, Florida, Concert 2 We flew to Tampa and I stayed with Ashwin’s family. The week was very chilled with lots of eating, playing music once in a while and going for walks in the lovely weather. Didn’t really go anywhere apart from the beach for about half an hour! Concert 2 was a house concert and was really fun despite the four hour car drive there and back!

Week 3 - Virginia, Concert 3, Jugalbandhi, Rockville This was the week before my solo concert so I spent most of the week practising. My biggest adventure was walking to the nearest McDonalds (a 50min walk away) and being asked by a stranger if I wanted a lift (they must have assumed I was stranded as I was walking?!). The solo concert was a great learning experience :) The next day my teacher had one of his concerts and I went along with my SLR (that I still don’t know how to use) and played being photographer! The concert was awesome and I had fun trying to get some good shots!

For the final two days we moved to stay at another friend/musician’s family place which nice :) My teacher had a video interview on one of the days which I went along to which was cool. Other than that, the days pretty much consisted of going for walks and being well fed!

So on my way over to the USA from India, I got to go home with just enough time to unpack, do the washing and re-pack! Having been away from the Western world for nearly 5 months there were so many little things I didn’t realise I had missed until I came back! It was very weird to be back, it felt like I had never left and I had been away for ages at the same time.

Here is a list of some of the little things I had forgotten about and re-discovered the joy of on my whirlwind stop at home:

Kapaleeshwarar Temple Tank, Mylapore, Chennai, India

Throughout this seven month break, I hadn’t make any plans from March onwards; the ‘world was my oyster’ as they say. Even though the flights have now been booked, I still can’t believe it’s happening. I somehow thought I’d always be in the Eastern part of the world and the USA wasn’t really something I had in mind!

I’m a firm believer of things working out for a reason and being flexible enough to adapt and respond to the happenings around you. I guess this is an example of that playing out in real life. With my Indian visa expiring and my violin teacher being away on a tour for a month at the same time there were lots of options available. But when your teacher invites you to join the tour, with the promise of lots of practice time and even a few concerts to perform in - that’s an opportunity that basically never comes by!

I didn’t say yes straight away as it is an extremely expensive option (America is not cheap dammit!). And in true ‘Kitha-style’ I existed in my perpetual state of indecisiveness, postponing having to make a decision for as long as possible. Finding a reasonably priced flight (with stops in London both ways) helped and before I knew it I found myself sitting in my teacher’s house last night, booking the flights!

So there we are, I am now going to Washington DC (just outside of it), Florida and maybe even New York City for three weeks in total, stopping over at home in London for a week before coming back to Chennai. EEKS!

Three point five months into the seven-month Career Break. 😭 My thoughts on this are: ‘Already?! It feels like I’ve only been away for a month or so?!’ ‘No I don’t want to go back to work!’ ‘Hmm still not a whole lot wiser; was I supposed to have found my soul or something by now?’

The first two months of travel feel like a dream now. Somehow I just can’t believe Rajasthan was three months ago? And did I really climb up a mountain? I’m also pretty sure I’m making Vietnam up? It all feels a bit surreal!

What feels real is life right now – living in Chennai for the last month and a half has been great. I’ve more or less been in the same place (YESSSSS to no travelling!). But it also feels like it’s taken a good month to settle down properly and focus on music the way I want to. Now that the hard part has started, I’m determined to get the most I can out of this. Sitting in my room all day trying to practice may not sound like fun, but it’s what I’ve come here to do and it’s also what I WANT to do. It’s just a shame that the visa people are making me leave in a month’s time so I only get one month of this focus. *throws rocks at the visa people*

The next three point five months are hazy. I know I have to leave mid March. On the cards at the moment are America (violin touring), Sri Lanka or Singapore (visa re-applying), New Zealand or Indonesia (travelling) and definitely more Chennai. Probably should figure it all out soon.. All I can think in my head right now is WAH I DON’T WANT THIS TO END JUST YET! (Even though I know I’ve still got a while to go..!) 

I had high hopes for January. It was the first month I was going to spend living in Chennai and I was going to do it right: Practice loads, eat healthily, get into yoga and generally be really productive. I guess it was to be expected that it wouldn’t go to plan!

On some days it felt like I had come all the way to Chennai just to watch Grey’s Anatomy and on other days I felt as if I was finally able to make progress. On balance, the not so productive days definitely outnumbered the productive days. I think this was mostly, if not, completely due to mindset – I have learnt that I am motivated most when there are people around me/checking up on me. If I have a free day I really struggle to motivate myself to practice and end up procrastinating (Grey’s Anatomy). I rely a lot on external validation and can otherwise easily slide into a spiral of hopelessness.

The most frustrating part of it all is that I know I have control over it – I just can’t seem to take control. So with that in mind, I’m setting myself a few rules for February:

 - Remind myself on a regular basis of how lucky and privileged I am to have the opportunity to do this and of everything that I am grateful for.  - If things start going downhill, give myself a change of scenery – go somewhere and take a break!  - No Grey’s Anatomy allowed during the day!

Here’s to a more fruitful February!

So it’s been two weeks since I arrived and I guess a fair amount has happened:

 - I found a place to stay in - sharing a room with Emmanuelle :)  - I did an intense seven-day Yoga course - had 5am starts every day :S  - I’ve been going to concerts - happyface :)  - I’ve started clocking in the practice hours (though not as much as I should be doing)  - I even got to perform once (unplanned but did it in the spirit of pushing myself)  - I’ve become addicted to Grey’s Anatomy again (watching it back-to-back yikes)  - And of course I’ve been stocking up on all the filter coffees (and food) I can handle!

Though there will never be routine in the life of a student musician, I’m settling down and making myself home. (Read: OMG I can take my toothbrush out of its travel bag as I’ll be based in one place now!) 

As always, it’s great to be back here, Chennai. :)

I’m a fan of lists. So I thought I’d make a few lists that summarised or captured a few things that happened whilst travelling around North India, Borneo, Cambodia and Vietnam. Three lists to be precise. They are a bit random and rambly but here we go:

The books I read:

1) The Orphan of Islam - Alexander Khan 2) High Society - Ben Elton 3) The Year of Taking Chances - Lucy Diamond 4) We Need to Talk about Kevin - Lionel Shriver

1, 2 and 4 were amazing and are highly recommended!

The less-fun-behind-the-scene aspects that are part and parcel of travelling:

1) Packing, re-packing and more re-packing - sometimes each trip requires different things in your bags and the repacking is endless 2) Having to re-wear old and sweaty clothes because there's no laundry available or no time for laundry and the night is too cold for any washed clothes to dry overnight. Even worse is having to carry around wet and muddy clothes with you for reasons above. 3) Early starts, late finishes and more early starts - always on the move, more often than not a 5/6am start is involved followed by long journeys- 4) Not knowing when you’ll next get hot water and/or wifi 5) Eating very unhealthily, more often than not because the only vegetarian option available are fries! 6) Random bugs/spiders crawling up your arm and being bitten by mosquitos and insects 7) Toilets - you feel like you've seen it all when it comes to disgusting/interesting toilets.

But it’s all worth it (I think)!

The things I did for the first time (not a comprehensive list!):

1) Ride on an elephant & camel 2) See the world’s largest sundial and world’s largest cannon 3) Sit in a women’s only train carriage 4) Climb a mountain 5) Go bird watching at night 6) Live in a rainforest resort 7) Go cave climbing and jungle trekking 8) Go on a Bamboo train 9) Cross a country border by boat 10) Go shopping in a floating market

...And so much more! :)