Greetings to all readers of this blog. A few of you have reached out to me in recent times. Some people have had questions about what type of tabla to buy. Some had questions about posture or injuries. Others had questions about gurus, where to find a guru etc. It’s great to connect with fellow tabla players, no matter where you are in your journey.

It has been a long time since I posted anything on this blog. I was somewhat caught up in my own things. But more than that I sort of felt that I had nothing else particularly new or important to say, so I left it as is, although it was pleasing to see that people have continued to read the content I posted and some people have found it useful.

I have been through some ups and downs in my musical journey. I think anyone who goes on this journey, or indeed any journey, inevitably hits some roadblocks, or some bumps in the roads, or perhaps may come to a crossroad. I somewhat came to a crossroad in the past couple of years. Prior to that, I had been extremely “gung ho” about performing tabla on the stage. Whether as a solo player or as an accompanist. However, I came to a point where I no longer found that interesting, or satisfying. It started to feel repetitive. It has its place, but I somewhat felt that I needed to move away from all that.

For the past one year or so I have completely stopped performing or playing in public. The surprising thing is that I don’t miss it at all. Not only do I not miss it, this has in fact been a very fruitful period for me musically. I feel that I can now fully commit to engaging with the instrument, without being distracted.

I’ll write another blog post soon about some insights I have gleaned during this period. Thanks for reading.