January 2, 2024

 The first day back in the office in the new year. Inertia, Lethargy and an unreasonable sense of dread- these are the natural emotions that always seem to adorn this day as far as I was concerned. But I made an effort to inject some positive energy instead. Evan having slept not so well the night before, I awoke on time, dropped Neo to school and then fixed myself up to get to work. It was not a hectic day at work, given some of the senior staff was still on leave and mostly everyone was clearing their emails. I had a conversation with Muhammad Qureshi- the VP for Government Relations- who opened up to me about some of the frustrations he had been encountering at the workplace professionally. I was pleased to see that he trusted me enough to open up to me. And he was always good company- dry witted and slightly naughty. As is the case with Emiratis, he had one or more side hustles, so it is not that he depended on the workplace all that much. One of the few guys who was  relatively outspoken and wanted to do the right thing. Aside of that, a quick lunch at the canteen which I enjoyed a lot somehow. There was a veggie lasagna and sweet and sour fish- and although they don't go together, each was individually brilliant. I was still beset with fly like symptoms which resulted in some ennui, and this had been going on for the last several days -perhaps weeks. As the afternoon progressed, I began to feel rather more unwell. I called my mum-and chatted with her for around 30 minutes. 

The other conversation I had was with Sumalya Bhattacharya. This is a guy who was in a band and had asked me to audition as a keyboard player in May/June 2023- soon after I returned from Manila. I had auditioned once before in 2021 but then I pulled out since I was moving to Manila. Now that I was back, I was looking for a band to keep well-oiled my limited keyboard playing chops. Whilst in Singapore, I played in two bands but since moving to Dubai I had put playing in the backseat. In terms of being a member of a band, I considered myself a generally good find- especially as hobbyist who was not seeking to monetize this labor of love. I played keyboards- which is already rare. You had many pianists but they could not usually play in a band- where you had to decidedly underplay since there were many other musicians to fill the soundscape. In addition, I could sing at a relatively higher register- which helped to cut through the mix for loudish rock bands. Finally, I could sing harmony- which was also a somewhat rare skill. And more recently I had added to my repertoire some handy rhythm guitar playing as well. The audition was a struggle. The band was loud, and I could not get my keyboard to stand out amidst the sound. I still did what I could and what I could see is that the band was average at best. There was no major wizard in the group, but they held together ok. Having a keyboard player meant they could cover many more songs than what they were doing- always a good thing to have a wider repertoire. Imagine then my surprise when I was not even contacted after the audition. I was dinged but without a ding phone call even. Reminded me of my INSEAD days where this often happened after an interview. The recruiter from the company went radio silent. A month would pass, and you would still wonder if they had forgotten something, so you'd sent them an email reminder asking for an outcome of the interview. And almost immediately you would get the "Rejection" or "Ding" email in your inbox with due apologies for the delay. In this case, unlike the INSEAD interviews, I fancied my chances rather highly so was quite disappointed at this outcome. A few days passed and I didn't think more of it. Occasionally, I would be reminded of it, especially when I went to see a local band somewhere in town, but it would be a fleeting matter. In December of 2023, out of the blue, I get a message from Sumalya saying he'd like to have a brief call. Then went silent again until today. He finally called me and said that he didn't get back to me after the audition and had been feeling bad. To which I said, I was equally expecting that he would get back- with a yes or a no. He went on to say that the band was still there, on and off, but that it is not that the members were friends outside the band. He also said that while he wanted me in, the other guitarist (a Bangladeshi chap called Imran) did not- and this was somewhat also apparent during the audition. I did not care much for his body language especially with me. To piss him off, while we tried "Final Countdown", I played the guitar solo on keyboards too. To which he stopped in his tracks and called for a time-out. And then he said to me - " I will play this part, thank you very much!". I replied with a laconic " Oh, ok".

Anyway, I am glad that he called so that there was closure on this matter.  He wanted to hang out socially, irrespective of the music part, which I did not much encourage since my social scene was already too busy, and way out of character for the likes of me. I did however leave the door open for some musical collaboration in the future. Perhaps we form a Bengali Band outside of this current band- and then get on stage during Pujas and other times as well. We needed a drummer and bass player which he said he could try to round up. And we could always meet for a beer to catch up.

I also spend some time ruminating on the subject of college admissions for Tintin. It was 4 years too early but somehow it came to the top of my mind and I was looking at tuition fees at various US, Canada and UK colleges. And I realised that if I had to put both Tintin and Neo through college, I could have no plans to retire for the foreseeable future. And for me, if you are not retiring, you might as well give it everything you have got. As I mentioned in my post earlier, I did mean to engage more with Tintin this year regarding his future plans. There would have to be time made available for this- and no mistake.