Since we din’t have an oven, it din’t leave us with much choice but to make pan fried pizza’s and obviously they were hand tossed! there was some wonderful music playing courtesy the lovely hostess Ankita and the wine was flowing from the makeshift ice bucket we put together and everyone seemed to be in high spirits and hopeful that the pizza’s would not disappoint. There was some impromptu dancing and nice conversation as the pizza was being cooked. My blocked nose meant that I could not smell the lovely smell that everyone else was vouching for so for me atleast, tasting was believing!

The Pizza’s finally arrived and they just beat all our expectations, they were the most amazing pizza’s we had ever tasted, at least, I had ever tasted in my life! Shilpa’s culinary skills now were beyond dispute and the first pizza had our jaws on the floor and stomachs rumbling for more! The customary fruit punch was prepared and it set us in the right mood for the rest of the evening The original plan was to go party hopping, which Sheila did (and how?!?!) or to have a movie marathon session complete with pop corn and juice! which we never ended up doing because all of us were so full and tired and sleepy.

We polished every little bit of pizza that was left and then just wished each other a hurried Happy New Year and plonked ourselves into bed! I am not so much the party type anyway, and Shilpa was not in her party mood either (I guess it has something to do with the driving around and the crowd, the parties we like are with good friends that we know and in places which are not too crowded) so it was perfect for both of us and for Ankita! I somehow stayed up till midnight, wished a few people who called, and then went to sleep after watching ‘Brothers & Sisters‘ for some time.

All in all, it was a wonderful, short and sweet start to the new year which in many ways will be one of the BIGGEST years of my life! Three cheers of course to the lovely chef of the evening and the hostess! and thanks to Sheela for the lovely company :)  I couldn’t have asked for more! Here is to many more lovely new years together!

Posted on Mar 8th 2008 by admin. No Comments ».

Taking the long way!

Just finished watching the Dixie Chicks documentary "Shut Up and Sing" and I must say its been a LONG LONG time since a movie made me want to pick up my guitar and start making music!

This is a definite must watch for any music lover and if you like the Dixie Chicks music, this just can’t be missed!

You must admire the courage and conviction with which they make their music and all those songs I keep humming now have a whole new meaning!

Posted on Mar 8th 2008 by admin. No Comments ».

The Raghu Dixit Project Blog

The final stretch for the band is finally here and I have set out to document the journey from here on religiously! I know I should have done this a year back or so .. but then … its better late than never!

So without much waiting .. I present to you .. http://theraghudixitproject.wordpress.com

This is where I aim to document the journey of a band that just released its first record internationally, what happens on tour and off, how things proceed etc .. Keep this marked, a LOT of exciting things are expected to happen!

Posted on Mar 8th 2008 by admin. 1 Comment ».

Valentine’s Day

This is from a year back, I was interviewed for a Valentine’s Day special about things we love … and I had to speak about my beloved guitars! This is my part of the article

“Agrees guitarist Gaurav Vaz, who recently spent upwards of a lakh on a new Warwick Streamer guitar. “It’s like getting a friend for life. And the personality does affect your music. Because of the way it sounds, and because when you are familiar with a guitar and are comfortable with the string positions and distances and so on, it’s easier to improvise because instinctively you know where what goes and what sounds you’ll get.” Of course, that process of getting accustomed isn’t complete until one formally names one’s cherished objects. Gaurav’s latest guitar, for instance, is called Deborah , after the woman from the U.S. who paid for his guitar with her credit card and shipped it down to him even though she had only met him for three days.

And his first guitar is called Gretchen, which means “little black pearl” in German. The only other necessary thing for most of these men is the wife or girlfriend that understands that she has to share his love with other things in his life or even take a backseat occasionally.”

The full article is at http://www.hindu.com/mp/2007/02/14/stories/2007021400220100.htm

This a picture of the beauty on duty!

Please note the lovely guitar strap made by the most beautiful of all my beauties the lovely Shilpa Sequeira !!

Posted on Mar 8th 2008 by admin. No Comments ».

I got it from my mamma!

“There was no Bass guitar!!!!” …. that was my first reaction when I walked into the ‘Black Eyed Peas’ concert yesterday. The place was filled with kids 3/4th my age and all of them ready and eager to watch the Peas “rock the party”!

How I got in there is a big round about scam .. I not only got in there but also made some money doing it! So in all, it was a profitable show for me! I mean, it was a concert worth attending if you made some money just going there! So the 6 of us including Sharvari, Jason, Jonty, Sherin and Bunny were ready with our skeptical minds to scrutinize the show to the minutest detail!

So on to the show … The Black Eyed Peas are a bunch of solo performers and NOT a band! They are decently passable individually but when they get together, you wish there was some way you could just mute the show. They started with a few familiar tunes from their album “Monkey Business”, I’ll be damned if I remember song names ..

When the show started, it was Fergie all the way! everyone’s eyes were on her and I guess thats the only reason they got past the first few songs and Fergie was all over the stage flaunting every bit of her surgically altered self and the few crowd shots on the big screen indicated clearly that the first few rows got more than their money’s worth!

They had some sort of an intro worked out for each song where they would do some rehearsed script readout thing and from nowhere tie stuff to the title of the next song! and that included a lot of “India is great etc…” to keep the audience cheering all along and forgiving them for those completely pointless and disconnected intros!

Then they went into a few of their ‘more popular’ numbers which included “My Humps” and others which I don’t recollect right now .. More girls joined them on stage for these numbers and it proved the old adage .. “the more the merrier!” .. some cheers got louder and we decided it was time to ‘Yenjoy’ the show, atleast I did.

The band then launched into some of the solo stuff that the band members are doing including ‘GLAMOROUS’ and ‘London Bridge’ (For the uninitiated, it is NOT about the bridge in london) and the lowest low of the night .. Will.I.Am’s disgusting “I got it from my mamma!.

They also went through an extended version of ‘Where is the love’ where they sufficiently pitched Nokia, the event sponsors and thankfully, and unlike their repeated threats, the show ended much before 11.30!

All in all … it was a good show ONLY if you are a fan, if not, it was not worth the trouble at all! I’d give it a 2.5/5 rating!

Posted on Mar 8th 2008 by admin. No Comments ».

Work is where the heart is?

It is a wonderful day for an organization when anyone in the company can sit across the seniormost of management with a drink in hand and tell them things they think should change in the company!

Right from the focus on work instead of things like attendance and timing to things like this, Citrix has fostered a wonderful work culture and I am proud to be part of that!

There are a lot of things that need improvement but they’ve got some parts of it nailed down right!

Here’s to bigger and much better things!

Posted on Mar 8th 2008 by admin. No Comments ».

Its all about the music!

I have finally made up my mind and I am almost through convincing myself that I need to experiment with my music.

For as long as I can remember, I have been circling around in the prog rock circles and also the classic rock circles and not even looking beyond. But over the past year or so, I have seen so many people doing so much with music, experimenting, introducing cool sounds and concepts that I think it is unfair to only try or do one type of music …

I am not saying my love for prog rock and classic rock has dwindled, not at all in fact! I am just saying, I will now be looking to do some more cool music with interesting sounds and/or concepts!

There are a few things lined up from my end around this … so lets see where that goes!

Posted on Mar 8th 2008 by admin. No Comments ».