Bandish Performing at SaReGAMA, Austin- TX on 31st March 2012

Dear Friends, Families and Fans,

Howdy, Y'all !!!

After a good year of live performances in 2011, we will continue our journey to play live Music this year (2012) too. Our first performance of the year 2012, will beat SaReGAMA presented by Greater Austin Malyalee Association @ Austin Waldorf School, Austin-TX.

We invite you to see us perform @ SaReGAMAon 31th March,Saturday. This time we willperform a medley of Bollywood and Hollywood songs.You will also see many great performances from other Musicians/Bands/Singers andDance groups, which will be delightful to watch.

About Bandish

A multi-cultural Music BandThe love and passion for music has brought together the members of this group.They strive to enthrall and entertain you with their high-energy, creative performances.Bandish showcases melodious compositions from various music genres.Bandish means melodic composition. The word is Hindi (Indian).

Event Details:-

Event Name- SaReGAMA 2012

Event Website- http://www.gama-austin.com/

Event Organizer-Greater Austin Malyalee Association (GAMA)

Venue- Austin Waldorf School, Austin-TX8700 South View Road Austin,TX- 78737

Date- 31st March,2012, Saturday

Time slot for Bandish- 04:50pm

Event Time- 2:00pmto 07:30pm

Please see the event flyer Below:-

Members of “Bandish”

Mehul Dave- Vocalist, KeyboardPlayer, Music Composer and Arranger

Tanvi Dave- Vocalist, Harmonium/ Keyboard Player, Manjira (Hand Bells) Player

Pablo Arias- Guitar Player

Please do support our band by showing your presenceat the show, spread the word and we will make sure you will be entertained byour Music.

Please Join us on Facebook :- by clicking on the link below:-http://www.facebook.com/people/Bandish-Mandali/100001885127451

or

Scan this QR code on your Smart Phone

Music at its Best @ South by South West

I am a big fan of Live Music. No matter what type of music, language, country it belongs to, i would like to see them. People who has similar taste will love some place which has tons of Live Music and Austin is very well known for its self-proclaimed nickname "The Live Music Capitol of the World". It is not just the nickname, i would say, it is really the live music capitol of the world. It has two Mega Music fectivals in a year- "SXSW" and "Austin City Limits". I recently tasted my first Experience of Live Music Festival @ the South by South West (SXSW) Festival which is a combo of Music + Film + Interactive and i thoroughly enjoyed the music festive this year. Here is my experience @ The SXSW:-

Day 1:- Friday Night
On a wonderfull friday evening, Sudu, Arvind, Prem and i decided to see some Live bands @ the SXSW. None of us had any information about any bands, but still we were enthusiastic enough to watch some live performance. Well, we started with the great Texan House Martini @ The trudy's and headed straight to the Auditorium Shores, Downtown.

First group we saw was - "The ARC Angels" from Austin, TX, Music Type- Rock. This is pretty famous and tight Rock Band. One of the band members from this group had performed with Rodger Waters and also became a member of Eric Clapton's Touring Band. Listening to such nice live music @ the open air auditorium is a different experience alltogether. Auditorium Shores is the perfect Outdoor place to see any live performances. Typical Spring weather which has light breeze adds more flavor to the show.

After watching 45 mins of live music @ the Auditorium Shores- we went to "Hooters" for some chilled Beer and food. Then we went to 4th street. We briefly checked this open air club "Cedar Street Courtyard". This club allways has some amazing International Bands and it lived to its expectations. The band was amazing. The music band that electrified everyone was called- "Peter Bjorn and John" from Stockholm SWEDEN, Music Type- Rock.

After a quick glance at the Cedar Street Courtyard, we went to 6th street and entered club "Barcelona". We met bunch of our frens (Mohan, Praveena, Ravi, Girish, Tim, Pablo, Prameet, Sid) @ this club. This time it was POP music. Music band name- "Fannius III" from Los Angeles, CA. Band was pretty impressive. They performed 4-5 very upbeat songs. After the Fannius III came the next band name- "..Music Video?" from Tcsan, AZ. Music type- POP. I did not like this band. Well that is just my opinion.

It was allready 1:00 am and the night was rocking. We came out of Barcelona and went to this club name- "Vice". One band had just finished performing and it was time for some other performance. What we saw was- instead of live music band, they had a DJ. This club had few people when DJ took the stage but the dance floor was jamm packed within few mins of the DJiin. The name of the DJ was:- "Papparaazi" from Los Angeles, CA- Music Type- electronic. The real name of the DJ is Cesar Rios and is just 24 years old but a well-known name on the dance floors and he surely was a surprise package for us. This guy is one of the best DJ i have ever heard. The music was mostly Trance/Electronic. His music selection and mixing was amazing and the transition was very impressive. This was the highlight of the night.

Day 2- Saturday Night
This time we had a big gang (Arvind, Prem, Sudu, Ullas, G3, Jameel, Kunal, Arun, Prameet, Nivas and i). We were outside the "Chuggin Monkeys". This band sounded pretty nice, so we entered the club. This group was playing some awesome music. The name of the band was- "AutoVaughn", from Nashville, TN, Music Type-Indie, Rock. This band is very much influenced by The Beatles, The Police, MJ, Pink Floyd. Interestingly, this live performance was not the part of the SXSW. It was part of the RedGorilla Music Fest which was going on with parallel to SXSW. RedGorilla Music Fest does not have any association with SXSW. Well, overall this group was certainly the highligh of the night.

AutoVaughn @ Chuggin Monkey's

Next stop was at my all time favouraite club- BD Riley- Irish Club. Arvind and i saw two performances at this club. First group was - "The Orchid Highway" from Vancouver BC- Canada, Music Type- Rock. It was a 5 member group. Drummer was simply rocking. This was their first road trip to Austin, TX and group members were very much excited. I would rate this band as "Tight Band". It was simply awesome. We also managed to had a great conversation with one of the band members for a long time. The next band in the same club was "The Parties" from San Francisco, CA, Music Type- Rock. It was a decent group too. Out of two bands- I personally liked- "The Orchid Highway".

Next was at The SXSW venue. Some music group was playing, Music Type- Country. It was ok. They played some nice soft songs. It was very relaxing though. Ya this band had celo instrument too.

Apart from the regular music bands playing @ the clubs/shores/venues, they also had street bands. I saw two such bands- One was country music and other was african music. One thing we missed was the group name- "Delhi to Dublin". That was one one of the highlight of the festival this year.

I liked this festival very much. You go downtown where hundereds of music bands are performing live. You listen the music from outside the club, if you like it go inside the club, get your drinks and njoy the live performance. There are tons of clubs in Austin- Downtown. During the festive- every single club has live music band and every hour different band performs. Simply exstatic.

Well to end my note i would simply say if you want "Music at its Best, be @ South by South West".

Texas Tadka

Yo everyone. This article is to introduce you to austin's most talented, enthusiastic and energetic dance group - "Texas Tadka" and i am proud to be the active member of "Texas Tadka" (TT).

When and how was "Texas Tadka" formed?

Texas Tadka is fairly a new dance group and was formed by bunch of talented young chaps in austin. It was formed in Jan/Feb 2008. How was it formed? Well, everyone in our group is dance maniac. We use to go for dancing @ the clubs on regular basis, so we knew our dancing strength and over the period of time, the spirit of performing on stage in public was evolved. Couple of us thought of taking part for group dance in Jashan 2008- Indian Cultural festive organised by UT of Austin. Initially, "Texas Tadka" had no name and in no time people suggested couple of spicy / happening names for the group. I remember, top two names recieved the maximum votes- "Chance Pe Dance" and "Texas Tadka". And final voting round made "Texas Tadka" as the clear winner for the group name.

When did "Texas Tadka" first Performed?

TT's first ever performance was @ the UT campus in South Mall in March 2008.

How was the Experience?

Simply electrifying. This group did lots of hardwork in bringing up their first performance. we have enjoyed each and every practice session that we did together. It was jan end when we decided to do punjabi dance on super hit song "Rang De Basanti" (RDB) from movie "Rang De Basanti". It was one of our talented member "Praveena" who came up with most of the choreography for (RDB). The best part about our group is you will find lots of talent in different forms in each individual. Also, rehearsing together made each person closer to other in terms of friendship. We were becoming a bonded group in very short time which is very essential for group dancing. On the final day of the performance, we all got ready in the dressing room. We wore punjabi costumes. Boley to sab log ekdum punjab de Kudaas and Kudiyas lagte thein:-). We were waiting for the announcment and from the stage they announced- "Our next performance is from Texas Tadka. Up we go on the stage and before the music started, the beautifull mother nature started showering. It was drizzling but not bad at all. The music started- Ting ning ning ning ning ning ning, Ting ning ning ning ning......and our Rock stars started awesomely. The dance stage was wet by the ongoing drizzle, but we did not fail to perform. Everyone danced nicely with full energy, very expressively and very much in synched. Our Dance ended with our great styling and while we ended we heard a huge round of applause from the lovely audience. For me, that was the best part of all hardwork. Listening to the applause from the audience and people appreciating your talent and hardwork, that was the great feeling. Simply awesome. Watchout the Video of the Dance Performance

Where else TT performed apart from Jashan 2008?

TT's next dance type was medley- It was a fusion of three songs- Mehboob mere, Hare Raam, Hare Raam.. and Mauja Mauja- 1 min each. It was very well choregraphed and very much different then the first performance. This dance performance was initially planned for a public event @ Barsana Dhaam. We did not perform @ Barsana Dhaam. Finally, this awesome dance- The Medley was performed at my brother Vishal's Wedding Reception party in Dallas in May 2008. The performance was simply awesome and energetic. Again, Texas Tadka recieved huge round of applause from the huge audience.

What's next in the agenda for TT?

After the "Medley" performance in dallas, we took a long break of around 3 months without any new dance idea. Finally, in November, we decided to get back and start working for any new dance. We decided to take part in "The Show of Hope" by Asha Education. It is the talent contest. There was prelim round. Texas tadka was selected as top 3 Dance Group among Adult Dance category. We will now be performing for the main showcase on 25th Oct to compete among three groupss. This time the dance theme is Hip Hop. we are dancing on the song name:- "Aai Paapi" from Kismat Konnection. We are very much looking forward for the main performance.

What are TT's future plans?

TT's main goal is to entertain everyone, inspire others to expose their hidden talent, to create new dance steps on different dance themes, participate in public events and have fun.

Any Group Slogans?

Recently we have created some of the slogans for our group and we would like you to cheer us by shouting- following slogans at the show when we are performing.

Tadkan's- Austin ki dhadkan

Tadkan's- Sabke Dillon ki dhadkan

Texas Tadkan

Active members of Texas Tadka:-

Mehul Dave

Gitanjali Mathur

Ullas Pazhayaveetil

Gayathri

Bijal Sanghani Shah

Steve

Praveena Vadrevu

Ravi Mathur

Mohan Rokkam

Deepti Busireddy
Vamsee Krishna

Sitha Bhagawat

Well, i hope Texas Tadka have a great future and perform in many many shows and entertain everyone. Thanks for reading this introductory article about Texas Tadka. I will keep you informed about future performances by TT. Till then goodbye from a tadkan.

Jal Pari and Doorie- Great Music Albums

19th Jan 2007:- This is my first ever experience to write for someones music album. These albums has touched my heart that its now unavoidable to not to write about it. So whats so special about this music albums. In one word its "Awesome". Well, i have heard the singer/maker of this albums earlier. His name is "Atif Aslam". I heard his earlier songs such as "Aadat"- Jal Pari , "Tere Bin" - one of my fav. Both songs were exceptionally great. His songs has lots of specialities in it. First of all the words are so touchy, secondly the tunes are great, third is the composition of the song is awesome and fourth and important thing is the way he sings (especially his voice). His voice is undoubtedly different then many other singers. He is a talented person. He is exceptionally good for performing live concerts. Though i havent seen in personal, but have seen the videos.

Well, his first album "Jal Pari" had some good tracks. Among the hits were "Aadat". Aadat was a hit song. It was mega hit in bollywood. This song was also videographed in the movie "Kalyug". The orignal song from atif aslam was an excellent composition. Especially the use of guitars. One of the main reason this song is all time favourate is its Lyrics. Just read the following lines for song "Aadat":-

"Aadat"

"na jane kab se .

umeedein kuch baki hain

mujhe phir bhi teri yaad kiun aati hai

najane kab seEeEeY

duur jitna bhi tu mujhsee

pass terey meinnn..

ab to adat si hai mujhkoooo aise jiney mein"

Other gud tracks and especially my favourates in this album (Jal Pari):- * Ehsaas, * Mahi Ve and * Yaqeen. Ehsaas is an average song which has nice rhythm. Mahi Ve has typical punjabi ascent and very well sung. My fav in this album and topped as number 1 is song "Yaqeen". Ohh man, this song says it all that it has to be my fav. Excellent starting music that has the mixture of guitar and piano. Then the way atif has started singing is so special. Ohh man, i love this song. The words are really touchy. Maybe thats the reason i love this song a lots. You should definately listen this song.

"YaQeen"

aaj dil dukha hai tum yaad aaye

anjanay loog hain apnay kahan dhoond payein

jagay hain sooye nahin

aisi hai meri yeh baichaini

din bhi wohi raatein wohi

sansoon main sansain hain nahin

shamain ab dhalti nahin

anchal jo tera simat jaye

aap yahan hamesha rahein

duuri rahay na houn faslay

ab agar tum milay to itna yaqeen hai

hans deinge hum to roona nahin hai "

The latest album "Doorie" was released on 22nd Dec 2006 and is already a big hit. Atif decided to continue his love related songs in "Doorie" too. The hitest song in this album is ofcourse title song "Doorie". This song has all top qualities in it. Again, as of in all Atifs songs, words are always the higher then the average words you find in any other music albums. Lines makes intense meaning. I am highly impressed with atifs songs. His songs lyrics have reall meaning and is not made just for the rhyming purpose. Great atif, you did a great job. Checkout the Doorie track"-

"Doorie"

Doorie ....Doorie ....Doorie sahi jaey na ...

sahi jaey na ...

sahi jaey na ...
khamoshiyan ye seh na sakun ....

awaz dey key mujhe tu dey ja sakun ..."

I was amazed to listen this song "Hum kis gali ja rahey hain (Dance Mix)". This song starts with just guitar and light chords with slow start from atif and then the drums comes in. Uhmm very impressive. Especially on every antraas he takes the song with lower scale and then repeat it on higher scale uhmm yaaar thats too good. Excellent mixture of electric guitar, acoustic guitar with the drums and the punjabi ascent of atif ohh man simply good. Excelent composition."

"Hum kis gali ja rahey hain (Dance Mix)"

hum kis gali ja rahey hain ..

hum kis gali ja rahey hain ...

apna koi thikana nahi .....

apna koi thikana nahi .....

Armanoon ki anjuman mey ,

beysud hai apni lagan mey ...
apna koi fasana nahi ....

apna koi fasan nahi ...."

Other good tracks from Doorie are "Kuch is tarah" and "O Re Piya". You can check out his website to know more about him at www.aadeez.com. I give my best wishes to this young and talented singer. He has bright future ahead. Its great to listen and watch a talented person such as Atif Aslam. Too good. Keep it up Atif.

Austin Freezes again

Ice Crystals formed on our house roof

17th Jan 2007:- Goodmorning everyone. Austin freezes again on wednesday, making sure that all business stays closed. When i got up this morning and glanced from my window and saw that it wasnt raining neither snowing but roads were wet and icy. I guess everything was done by early morning. Early morning it had Light Freezing Rain , Light Snow , Light Ice Pellets (sleet). These caused ice pellets formed on roads which is is very dangerous to drive. The weather channel shows that by noon the weather will be above freezing level and ice will start melting soon. Maybe by 3pm everything will be up and running. Meanwhile, i have started my work from home. Its pretty good on such weather day to be at home, have jot cup of tea. work from home while watching news on TV. What else you need more..?

Well regarding the condition outside, today its much of ice sleets rather then snow. To take a glance i went outside and saw my car conditions.Both cars were freezed with crystal ice. Our palm trees git shrinked and was on the verge of death due to extensive freezing. On our roof, the crystal ice formed were much longer then yesterday. It was nice to see such scene. Yap i packed every such scene on my didgi cam. I guess digicams are made for such things only:-).

OK OK enough of blogging now. I better go back to work now. I have plenty of things to do.

Its snowing in austin

My sweet home in austin, TX

16th Jan 2007:- Uhmm, this is the special day for all austinites and especially for me for a special reason. Well, this blog is not for that special reason. Today in austin it snowed. Thats a rare scene you see. Last time it snowed was back in 2004 on valentine day. The weather man predicted that there will be storm and snow too. On monday, 15th jan, our office got closed at lunch time and almost everyone in city were at home by 3pm.

Well, this morning wen i got up, i saw outside my window and to my amaze i saw that its snowing. Well, aur kyaa karnaaa thaaa...I brushed and freshen up and took my camera and we all went out. Its a rare scene in austin like this. Its so nice to see snow. I love it. I shud tell you all that i am lucky to see snowfall again. In past 20 days i have seen low to heavy snowfall for 6-7 times by now. Here snowfall was not heavy. It was mild. Our cars were covered with snow and our house roof ends was formed with crystal ice tubes. It looked beautifull. Lots of people came out and took pictures. It was very nice weather. I love such cold weather. Our grass were completly dead. Wen i walked on the grass it made crunching sound haha. I asked my mom, dad n bro to pose for kodak picture moment:) and they gaved a nice pose haha.


Most of the business were closed. Travelling was disscouraged unless its important. Roads were covered with snow. In news, they reported that ice sleets has formed on some roads. Approx 20 flights were cancelled from ABIAirport, many were delayed. In such conditions, the bridges are the most dangerous. Mostly, such bridges are closed but even if its not closed people shud avoid travelling on such roads and if its unavoidable you may have to drive with extra care and skills.


Well, it was gud to see such weather with office closed particularly (had to work from home though:-( ). Still weather guys have given storm alert till wednesday noon. If it continues to snow, office will be closed again for tommorow. Lets c wat happens. Most probably storm has already moved towards east.


I wish austin shud get such snowfalls every year. Njoy the cold weather austinites.

Escape from Death - Adventorous journey of New mexico

31st Dec 2006:- Year 2006 was one of the worst year i ever had in my life. It was last day of the year and i was a bit relaxed cos i was waiting for new year. But i never knew that something bad was coming up later on the eve of 31st Dec 2006 . I along with my fren sid, went to new mexico for the x'mas week vacation. It was amazing vacation. Trip was great. excellent snowfall and nice skii experience at NewMexico. Everything was perfect untill the eve of 31st Dec 2006. We were on our way back to austin from New Mexico and suddenly we met with an unfortunate accident on I10 East bound near Sonora, TX. This is wat happened:-

I stopped the car at the gas station at the inersection of US285N and I-25E. we were driving a SUV. FORD Escape. It was time to refuel and change of driving shift. We refuelled at the gas station and had gatarade and candies. Sid took the driving seat and started on our next 270miles journey towards Austin. he took I25E. It was perfect Interstate Highway. nice weather. It was one hour now from the point we changed the driving shifts. we were discussing about the New years plan and other stuff that were problamatic in 2006. then we started a new topic about what we gona celebrate at austin that same nite. We were woried whether we can make it before 11pm. I was changing songs from my iPod which was being played on our SUV audio system. Suddenly i told sid, that even if we cannot make it to austin on time, we will celebrate our new year party at Fedrigsburg which is just 80 miles away from there. Thats all at this time something happened. I dont know wat really happened but sid lost control of the SUV. It was moving on 65-70miles. it went on left side and then he moved wheels to right side and again left side and so on to make the SUV stable. I shouted that sid what are you doing make the car stabilise. It was moving fast and zigzag and the SUV was out of drivers control.

Our SUV before accident :- 31st Dec 2006:- 1pm

He applied breaks and then our SUV bashed the nearby Cliff (rocky mountains) on the left side and then our SUV rolled off the right side. All this while i was watching and i sensed the death in my mind as our car was in speed and out of control. That was a tragic scene. As our car rolled off on one side, i found to my amaze that my organs and my body accessories were all perfect. I was protected by the Seat belts. Thats y they say Buckle up your seat belts all time. My first reaction then was, i shouted and asked sid that is he allrite..? he said he is fine but his legs are stucked. As soon as he replied i saw a cop coming to our rescue. he first enquired both of us about our condition. Sid again said his legs are stucked. A passerby passenger stopped and came to our rescue. he fed lights on us so that cop will know wat to do next. Cop asked me to swtich off the ignition. I unbuckled my seat belts and stood up and switched off the ignition. Then sid shouted pls unbuckle him. I unbuckled him and tried to pull him to free his legs but was unable to do so. Then he himself pulled and somehow freed his legs.

Our SUV after accident :- 1st Jan 2007:- 7am

It was hardly 2-3 mns and i saw 5 cops cars. Now both of us were standing inside car and our head were outside side window which was already broken. The cop said to close our eyes and move against the winshield. We did so and he started breaking the winsield. he tried his best, but winshield just coulnt break in whole. He then told me whether i am all rite and asked me if i can jump out of SUV. I climbed on the window and jumped out of the SUV. As soon as i came out i sensed pain on my left chest. It was paining a lot. Cops pulled out sid from SUV. he was out and i saw his right knee was badly injured and his face on left side was bleeding minorly cos of window breakage. he was shivering a lot as it was cold outside. I was leaning on my stomach and a sherriiff came nearby and inquired about my health. he said a ambulance is on its way. He then asked sid about his condition and asked him for his driving license. He started filling accident forms and asked about my DR license. After filling the forms he returned back the DR License. Meanwhile Ambulance had reached. Two ladies started treating us. They took us in the ambulance and took us to hospital. At the hospital they took all our Xrays, took urine test and treated Sids knee and treated my neck and chest pain. Luckily all our test came positive. Non of our ribs were broken. They finally asked what we want to do next. I told them that as it was nite time i dont want to call any of my frens and family. We will better stay at some hotel and will depart tommorow by bus or train. They called sheriff and the sheriff took us to the nearby hotel. Bad part was that we were in a very very small town. they did not had any rental car service. Luckily the hotel was good. We stayed there for a nite.

Next day early morning i called the Wreckage company to take our luggage from the car. The wreckage company guy came to pick us. As sid was injured i went alone with the towing guy to pick our stuffs. When i reached there i was shocked to see the SUV condition. My god that was horrible. How the hell did we survived was my first reaction. Then i gathered all our luggages and small stuffs from the destroyed SUV. To my amaze everything was fine. My laptop, digicams, My iPod and to the surprise i found my glasses stucked inside but were not broken. This is a big miracle. Nothing was broken. I took the stuffs and that guys dropped me to the hotel. Then we took Greyhound Bus towards San Antonio. It reached San Antonio at around 3:30pm. Our next bus for austin was late. That was again bad. we had to sit and wait for next bus. Finally we were boarded in the next bus at 6pm. We reached austin at 7:30pm finally. Ohh my god. Got relieved wen i saw dad to pick up us.

Just take a look at the destroyed car photo. We are really lucky to be alive. We just escaped from the mouth of the death. This is surely a big miracle Some proven facts to note down:-

1. Always keep your seat belts buckled all time while on roads. (We did thats y we are still alive).

2. Dont drive too much for long hours. we were driving for almost 11 hrs. (This is the lesson learnt by us).

3. Always expect the unexpected (One more lesson learnt).

4. If you driving a long drive, always take a Big SUV like we did. I am sure if we were in small car we wud not have been alive. I thank the FORD Escape for protecting us.

5. If you are renting a big CAR, always buy full coverage or LOSSS and DAMAGe plan. I am glad that i purchased this plan so i dont have to give anything from my pocket.

6. Believe in miracles (One more lesson learnt). As the worst ever year 2006 has finally ended, i hope the year 2007 will show me some good days.


I really like to thank to the cops and the paserby passenger for rescuing us, the Hospital crew who took care of us, the sheriff who took us to the hotel and to the towing guy Mr Black who helped us get our luggage back. Thanks to all for your patience for reading such a long true story. You all have a very Happy New Year

Regards Mehul