Every now and then something happens and you realise the world’s getting smaller, more connected, somehow overlapping in strange and wonderful ways.
There I was last night, quietly putting my feet up after a satisfyingly hectic week. I’d gone out for a wedding anniversary dinner with my wife (our 29th), and we were enjoying one of those companionable silences that can only be enjoyed by people who’ve spent lives with each other, reading peacefully. And then I remembered something I needed to do before going to sleep. It involved my having to leave the bedroom and go online.
Which I did. And I noticed that a good friend and erstwhile colleague had sent me a FollowFriday recommendation:
He’s known me for a long time, and he knew that the Gerald Waller 1946 photograph was something that meant a lot to me. No surprise it’s been my Twitter background since Twitter had backgrounds. No surprise I’ve written about it years ago. I’ve met many people who like that photograph, so the #ff didn’t make me jump into action.
So Stu decided to press home the point:
He didn’t stop there either. He went on to share a youtube link with me, one that featured the musician in question, Nicki Wells (@nickiwellsmusic)
Then Saturday came along, I went about my chores, settled down for the afternoon. And watched the video. Liked the music, carried on.
And then stopped. Thought I recognised the drummer. Rewind. Replay. And there he was.
My nephew. Jivraj Singh.
Coincidence? I guess so. But that world’s getting smaller, the connections are getting more and more wonderful.
That made me call up his mother and speak to her, and I found out more about what Jivraj is up to now. Rolling Stone had already told me he was working on five different album projects.
For some reason, I’d missed learning about the Chaiwalla Sessions with Nischay Parekh. Big miss. Big mistake. Now corrected. Now I’m hooked. To Jivraj Singh, to Nischay Parekh, to Nikki Wells. To Nitin Sawhney.
Don’t make my mistake. Go listen to them. Go listen.
Coincidences. They make the world go round.