Enchanting Engineers - A Musical Journey

After the monthly session last week, we at Enchanting Engineers were so happy with the outstanding results that we had feelings of a dream come true. All members felt fortunate to be part of a group of people who have an admirable combination of talent, passion, and commitment. I look back with satisfaction on what we have accomplished in a short period. It has been a roller-coaster ride for us with never a dull moment. We have certainly come a long way in past couple of years; but the journey goes on..

Before you ask, "Who are Enchanting Engineers and what do they do?", let me tell you that this post is my attempt to capture their story. As I begin to write about it, I get a very warm nostalgic feeling, with images and sounds of cherished memories floating in my mind in random order. Where should I start? To keep it simple, let me start from the very beginning. 

The Starting Point
Enchanting Engineers is a music band formed by employees of Synopsys in Delhi and Noida. Its journey started two years back in September 2011, when Jagminder initiated the formation of a music group in the company with an email. He did not get a lot of response at that time; but the email got the two of us together. Jagminder is an accomplished Guitar player, who had extensive experience of being a part of a band earlier, and was keen to start something similar at Synopsys. The two of us hit it really well together, doing impromptu Jam sessions after office hours, in which I learned some relatively new numbers from him, and he got to accompany on some of my most favorite old Hindi songs. At that time, we had no idea that this will soon grow into a full-fledged music band.

First Performance
Around the same time, a team dinner was being organized for Diwali in October 2011, and we decided to do our first performance there. We prepared five songs, including baatein, dooba dooba, taarif karun kya, dum maaro dum, and hai apna dil to awaara and performed it live without an audio system. It was a wonderful experience for us. Before this, I was used to performing a song or two at informal events, but never did five songs at a stretch. We got good appreciation from the team and it gave us the confidence to go ahead. 

Proving our Potential 
We continued our after office Jam sessions and then Karan joined us as well. Karan has the voice and persona of a rock-star. In January 2012, we thought of participating in the worldwide Synopsys Talent Competition. The three of us got together and spend a day working on an adaptation of the beautiful song Ashayein. A lot of effort was needed as the entry was required to be less than two minutes long. After a lot of trial and errors, we managed to complete the entry by evening and were so thrilled at our first creation that we spent the rest of the evening singing a lot many songs.
Next day, we submitted the entry and frankly, did not expect a lot from it. So, when it reached the top ten, we were really thrilled; And our excitement knew no bound when Synopsys employees worldwide liked our song and made us the winner of the contest. This was scary as for the first time in our lives, we came face to face with our own musical potential. We decided that it is time to get serious about music.

First Stage Performance
Synopsys completed 25 years in 2012, and we planned an all employee event in July 2012 in Taj Palace Hotel to celebrate the silver anniversary. The event was named Confluence 2012, signifying the fact that many different teams from recent acquisitions were part of Synopsys NCR team. Enchanting Engineers were asked to put up a performance in the event, and we did a lot of preparations for it.
Radhika joined us around this time. Radhika's mastery on violin has to be heard to be believed. It is her addition to the team that really helped us qualify to be a band, since before her, it was just one instrument. Shyam also joined us, which increased our strength in the singer's department. We were a five member band now. We took services from Mahesh, an external drummer for the event to complete the band for the event.
We put up a memorable performance that evening with several songs including Pani da rang, Neele Neele Amber, A medley of Kishore songs, Woh Lamhe, Hosh walo ko khabar kya etc. We also did an instrumental number Saawariya. The performances got a lot of accolades, and we got a great exposure to stage performance. Performing on stage is a very different experience as the only feedback you have is through the monitors kept near the stage, which sound very different from what you hear when you sing in a small room. The difference of feedback can easily throw you out of tune or rhythm if you are not careful.

Rise of a New Star
Later in the year, we got another good singer when Rubal joined the team. Rubal is no less than a singing sensation with his fresh voice, wide range and versatility in singing. When we were asked to perform at the Diwali team lunch of SLS team in November 2012, it was a difficult time for us as I and Karan were not available to prepare. Rubal and Jagminder pulled it off completely on their own, and filled the performance with popular foot tapping songs like Hai Mera Dil, Saiyan, Luka Chipi, Purani Jeans, itti si hansi, Bulla ki jana, and Challa. It was a hit performance and announced the rise of our new star, Rubal.

The Birth of Enchanting Engineers 
We got together again when we were asked to do a performance for Synopsys annual dinner in June 2013. We got Himani to join us, filling up the void of female vocalist in the band. Himani's voice and command over higher notes is really exceptional. Given the fact that she has to manage a full-time job, home and kids, her sense of commitment deserves appreciation.
Rothin and Gaurav also joined us around the same time, with great singing talent. We were a nine member band now, with two musicians and seven singers. It was time to give a name to our band. We thought of several alternatives for days, and then Radhika came up with the name "Enchanting Engineers", and all of us took an instant liking to it. We also came up with a logo for the band and decided to wear it during our stage performance.
Given the abundance of singers, we decided to do a 20 minute medley of songs at the annual dinner to trace the 100 years of Indian cinema. There were a couple of solo performances as well - Hai mera dil by Rubal, "You say it best" and Tum hi ho by Rothin. The performances went well with the audience. It was our first performance after the birth of Enchanting Engineers.

Monthly JAM sessions
Till this time, we were not holding our Jam sessions regularly, but we decided now to meet once a month on a Saturday and spend the day pursuing our music. It speaks a lot about the passion and commitment of the members that we eagerly look forward to the monthly meeting and make it to the session even in the midst of a busy schedule. We work on a few songs in each of these sessions. Over time, we have done instrumental by Radhika and Jagminder like Sholay theme, Ye jo Halka Halka suroor, Bol na Halke Halke, Ek pyar ka nagma. We have also done songs like Aane wala pal(Sanjay), Tinka Tinka(Himani), Do Lafzo ki(Himani), Love ki Ghanti (Rubal), Khuda Jaane(Yash and Sadhana), Kyon na hum tum (Rothin & Rubal), Kabira (Rothin & Rubal), and Jaane jaan (Sanjay).

Gaining Popularity
In our monthly Jam sessions of July this year, we recorded the popular number Slow Motion Angreza from the movie Bhag Milkha Bhag and uploaded it to Youtube. Jagminder and Radhika created fantastic music for the peppy number and Rubal sang it perfectly. We expected it to get good feedback, but the results astonished us. The video started attracting lots of hits on Youtube from the day one, and it has already received more than 17000 hits. I believe that this outstanding success is as big as the Synopsys talent award we got last year.

Expanding the Group
By now, Enchanting Engineers was already well known inside Synopsys, so we decided to invite more members to the team by sending an email. To our surprise, we got such a good response that we had to do a round of auditions with the new members. We got extremely talented members -  Prashant Dubey, Prashant Joshi, Ankit, and Sadhana in the process.

Becoming Wholesome Entertainers
At this point, Yash joined us. Yash has a freshness in his voice and has a great potential as a singer. In October 2013, SLS staff gathered in Noida for a offsite and we planned a team dinner on this occasion. Enchanting Engineers were asked to take charge of entertainment for this occasion, so we prepared for an hour of performance with songs like Slow motion Angreza by Rubal, Debut performance by Sadhana with Iktaara and Hona tha Pyar, Pyar Hua chupke se by Himani, Pal Pal by Yash and Himani, Batein on violin by Radhika, O mere dil ke chain by me, and Zoobi Doobi by all. To utilize the singers in the team, we chose to have songs with chorus in them. However, this event was radically different from earlier ones since here we were responsible for everything. To break the monotony of a music only program, we added a dance, and many games as well. We also took care of compering, which was very ably done by Rubal. This went very well with the team and we received a lot of positive comments after the event.

Our Shining New Gear
By now, we had started to see ourselves as a group on its way to become a full-fledged band. We felt that to reach there, we will need to procure some essential equipment for improving our skills, so we listed the following equipment for procurement:

• Congo and Zembe
• Dynamic Microphones with stands
• Condensor Microphone
• Zoom R16 - mixer-cum-digital recorder
• Stranger PM 102 Amplifier.

When we approached Synopsys with the list, they readily agreed to fund our purchase. So, we got our shiny new gear in October 2013. Our feeling on getting it was not very different from a kid who has got hold of his favorite toy. The new equipment gave us an ability to do our music in a far better way, but it also caused a major change for some of us.

Enter the Sound Engineer, Zembe Player and Congo Player 
When we think about Jagminder, we think of Guitar. But when we got a Congo, it got him interested in trying it out, and it turned out that he is naturally good with Congo as well. We tried to have him play Congo in our last session, but there was a practical problem - if he plays Congo, who will play Guitar? Well, technology came to our rescue and we used layering to solve this issue. Simply put, we recorded the song with Jagminder playing Guitar, and then recorded him again playing Congo over the previously recorded song. 
Along the same lines, Radhika tried her hand on Zembe in the song Do Lafzo ki, with layering again, and it came out quite good.

Similarly, I started working on the recording equipment and mixing techniques. You may ask me," Why do you need to do recordings? You are a band, why not work on performances alone?"The answer is simple. Recording our performances allows us to share it with others and test the waters. Besides, it is also a valuable tool for working on our performance and technique:

• Recording allows us to listen to our own performances and identify the weak spots to be improved. This way, we can learn from our mistakes.
• It allows us to give feedback to each other and thus is a great tool for improving our skills.

But for good mixing and recording, every band needs a sound engineer, and with my past experience with Audio mixing, I found myself gradually drifting towards that role in our band. I was pleasantly surprised to see that I got more satisfaction by ensuring a good recording than what I would have got by singing the number myself. The more I explored the art of mixing, the more I felt that there was a lot yet to be discovered in this exciting field.

Conclusion
The sum total of the story is that in a span of two years, we have grown to a 14 member team, sung hundreds of songs, done many memorable performances, and had a lot of fun together. All this and more while simultaneously juggling our full time jobs. As a result, we convinced ourselves that there is no such thing as being too busy to find time for activities of one's interest. If there is passion, you will make time for it.

We know that the journey has just begun, and there is so much more to explore - Prashant Dubey's flute and singing, Prashant Joshi's songs, fresh singing talent of Yash and Sadhana, Ankit's flute, find a drummer, add a Bass Guitarist.. the list goes on and on. We look forward to a lot more learning and fun moving forward. 

Before I sign off, If this post got you interested in checking out our performances and recordings, you can access them at the following links:

Videos on Youtube - Click here to see our videos
Audio Files - https://app.box.com/s/71te0usefzqu4uc6c956

Read next post in the series - My Recipe for Home Recordings

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Music Series - My Experiences 

Welcome to my Music Series blogs. There are following posts in this series;

1. Life before Digital Revolution

2. The Dawn of Digital Era 

3. Fun with Digital Recording 

4. Enchanting Engineers - A Musical Journey 
5. My Recipe for Home Recordings 
6. Tear-down of a Music Band Performance 
7. from Audio to Music
8. A Recipe for Karaoke Recordings  
9. Live Recordings at Sur Swaranjali

Your Best Teacher

We all agree that a good teacher can change the course of your entire life. Most people can recall at least one teacher in their life who was instrumental in shaping them. It may not be easy to pinpoint one or two key areas where he made a difference, but if we think carefully, a teacher helps us in the following ways (and more):

• He imparts you with the knowledge that you need
• He is an able guide who shows you the right direction
• He motivates you towards action
• He monitors your progress and corrects when necessary
• He understands you well as a person, your strengths, weaknesses, what motivates you and what puts you off. 
• He has strong belief in your abilities and affirms you, even when you have self-doubt

There are many situations in which you may find that self-learning is the best option; i.e. you are the best teacher for yourself. Let us take a closer look at it to see why it makes sense:  

• While a teacher can give us knowledge, we ourselves are responsible for any learning that we go through. 
• When we work on creating a sound value system, it can act as the magnetic north to us, and point us the right direction
• It is a well known fact that self-motivation is the key to achieve success in any endeavor,
• Since we are so close to ourselves, we can track our progress more accurately than anybody else.
• Who can understands us better than we ourselves? We know our strengths, weaknesses, and preferences only too well. 
• Belief and affirmation are key areas where a teacher's role is vital. But as our own teacher, we can develop a strong self-belief in our abilities and learn to use self-affirmations.  

So, let us get into a habit of self-learning. This makes us our own best teacher.

Why not be your own sculptor?

An Inspiring Story of Faith

A couple was peacefully going in a boat across a broad river. The husband was rowing the boat. Suddenly out of nowhere, the waves started rocking the boat and the current got stronger by the second. It was becoming almost impossible to control the boat. Help from another boat was out of question as they knew very well that they were all alone in the waters.

The wife was terrified completely. Initially there was only panic in her face but as the rocking increased, she started weeping uncontrollably. To her utter surprise her husband’s face was peaceful in spite of the uncertainty to life. But in the midst of this roaring wave of tides and currents she could only think about living through it. With great effort, the husband could somehow control the boat and they reached the bank safe.

The wife let go a big sigh of relief on escaping alive from the ordeal, but the husband continued to be calm and collected. She finally could not keep her curiosity under check, and asked her husband, “I saw your face there; it was as if nothing had happened at all. Of course you were trying hard to save us from drowning but you were at complete ease. How was that possible? Why didn’t you panic?”

The husband smiled pleasantly and drew a small knife from his pocket. He pointed it towards her throat and asked, “Are you scared now?”

The wife burst out laughing and said,“We have lived together for so many years now. We have shared more than our lives…I know you better than any person in the world. I believe you. How could you point a knife and expect me to panic?”

“Exactly!” said the husband, “Even my relation with my God is long enough for me to trust him. Not even for a nanosecond did I have a thought that the waters would topple the boat. I knew he wouldn’t do that to us." 

"I had no reason to panic, I simply believed him!"

How often do we start fearing the worse when faced with an adversity? Do we ever pose a faith so strong in God in difficult situations? I am sure if we do it, He would not have let His children down. 


अक्सर जब हम उम्मीद खो बैठते हैं और लगता है कि अब अंत आ पहुंचा - उस समय भगवान ऊपर से मुस्कराता है और कहता है, आराम से डियर, कोई अंत नहीं, यह सिर्फ एक मोड़ है!

A Magic Formula to Find the Right Time

This post is about how to deal with a condition I would call Closet Procrastination, in which you tend to put off important actions with innovative justifications without being consciously aware of the habit. I know from painful experience that I have been a victim of this condition at many times, and I will share a formula to deal with it that I tried and found very helpful for myself.
 
How do I know what is the right time to take an action that is very important to me? The answer is not easy. Very often, I find a very important task remains pending for too long. I may start with quick action and run into some hurdle; or I get distracted with different priorities; or I get affected by mood swings; or interrupts like phone, email, etc prevent me from finishing the task.

Over time, I conditioned myself into believing that there is a right time for carrying out any action, and I am most likely to succeed if I time everything right. In my efforts to find the right time, I sometimes resorted to methods like finding the auspicious muhurt, consulting astrologers, check with spiritual gurus, going by my star forecast, use my gut feeling, etc. but it did not always work out.

As examples, I have often seen myself and my friends grappling with situations similar to the following:

• I am planning to start a new business, but it must be started at the right time for it to be successful, so I am keeping it on hold for now till such time.
• I have to buy a house, what is the right time for it so that the house turns out lucky for us?
• I will surely study harder, but next year will be the right time for it.
• I want to start exercising regularly to get the health benefit, but not now. I will take it up when the time is right.
• Can someone tell me what is the right time to make an investment in stock market / gold / properties to get the maximum benefit?
• I know that I have to spend more time with my family. I will take a resolution this year to start it from next year. 
• I desperately want to do something to fix a relationship that went sour last year. Just waiting for the right time.
• I want to do this good deed to help someone, but looks like this is not the right time for it.
• I love to spend time on hobbies like Music / Painting / Sports, but I have to find the right time for it.
• I am convinced that I should quit smoking, but I need more time to implement it.
• Time is just slipping away and I have not been able to do retirement planning and start a habit of saving regularly. Don't know when the right time comes for this.

Sounds familiar?  The above example are all from very vital areas of our life, still these vital actions continue to be on hold, and we get this nagging feeling of being burdened with so many unfinished actions.. all waiting for the right time.. and in many cases, this right time never comes. As a result, some of these neglected tasks resurface as critically urgent forcing us to take immediate action. For example, if we ignore taking care of our health for too long, a medical emergency may force us to take a break and attend to our ailment.

I propose here a formula to find the right time, which is so simple that it sounds like a magic formula. But just because it is simple to understand, it may not be easy to implement. It may still require you to put the necessary focus and effort to take the action to its conclusion.

Here is the two step formula:

STEP 1:

Ask yourself, do I have all the necessary inputs for this action? If yes, proceeds to STEP 2; else this is a "blocked" action. Your immediate task is to list what you need to do to get the missing inputs, and repeat STEP 1 on each of these new actions.

STEP 2: 
You have all the inputs required for this action, so this is an "unblocked" action now, ready to be executed. The right time to complete that action is TODAY and NOW.

Do you see the simplicity and power of this formula? If you give it a try right now, you will uncover many actions that are "unblocked", ready to be executed right now, and you can prioritize these actions based on their importance and go about executing them one at a time. This should minimize confusion in your mind about what to do and when.

You may ask, "Wait! Why TODAY and NOW is the right time for any "unblocked" action?" The answer is very simple. TODAY and NOW is the only time available to you for doing anything. You can not go in the past and do something yesterday, and you can not go in the future and do something next month.

Do it right now and get it over with.

If you follow this approach consciously for a few days, you will find the burden of unfinished tasks will gradually vanish, leaving you a in a much more happier state of mind.This formula really did magic for me. Why not give it a try, and share your experience with your comments?

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Trivia - I was thinking for long about writing this blog post, waiting for the right time; and then it occurred to me that this is a case of "closet procrastination". So, I forced myself to finish it TODAY and NOW :)