A night in the life of a Band in Kolkata

It starts right at the beginning of the talks....
"Remember you're playing for people who don't understand too much of english music(whatever does the term "english music" mean for God's sake?). Play five or six fast numbers. Fast ones maney bojho toh? Maney audience ko naach karne padega. Samjha? We don't want those noisy songs. Aunties and uncles don't like it."

There they go...walking out of his office. So much for the grand dreams of a rock band in Kolkata.They enjoy playing Deep Purple,but they're audience doesnt know anything beyond Smoke on the Water and that's noise to auntys' ears. So much for the dreams of long hair flying in the wind...so much for walking on the stage with girls trying their hardest to grab you...happy they are...even if they get to touch your dirty dusty shoes. Perhaps dreams are only soap bubbles...

And so they arrive. Fatso uncle asked them to be 2 hours before "show time". Sound check is done....but where are the people? It's past the time they had promised to start the show at!
Damn...
we keep on waiting
and waiting
and waiting
and....
VOILA!
a soul comes floating from somewhere.
and then they start coming in....
The place is teeming with people.
They start with a rocking number. The Beatles. Aunties and uncles will know this one!
Waah! what do you know...uncles and aunties staring at you blankly!
"Look at the lead vocalist! He's so cute nah?"
"Oma ki shweet dekhte! Dekh byapok shirt pode achhe nah?"
"Ei aajke dinner e ki achhe re? Menu ta dekhte bhule gechhilam"
"Hey! Are these the diamonds you were mentioning to me the other day?"

There is perhaps only one girl,perhaps in college,who sits and listens to these guys intently. Clapping and shouting when she finds them doing a particularly cool riff or an improvisation. But she's just one.

The lead vocalist has had enough. Calling all the kiddies onto the dance floor or the stage won't be such a bad idea really. So he does it. But what follows is more than a mayhem he can handle.
After the "fast" number is over,he tries a John Mayer. Gravity: The track is particularly difficult,slow and beautiful. He dedicates it to the ladies...
Whoa! What do I see? A kid just ran across the stage,waving. And then another,and another and another!
Tch tch. Kids!!!!!!!
By then Gravity had gone down into the dumps...gravity did act upon it. Silence. An infrasonic applause maybe.
Hmm. Change in plans. "Let's try La Bamba!!"
That does the trick. The LV's convinced the audience likes foot tapping numbers. The dance floor is filled with teenagers and a few aunties dancing like they would do for all Rabindrasangeet songs. But who the hell cares?
The next number was 'sindbad the sailor' from the movie Rock On!! That was clearly a hit. This isn't too bad: Our audience is pleased with hindi numbers,and so are we beacuse the songs are good. God Bless Shankar,Ehsaan and Loy!
And then the freak moment.

A few drunk uncles and a few aunties shout ,"we want pappu can't dance saala!"

So much for a rock band....

Yesterday was one of the most memorable days of my college life...for reasons entirely unrelated to college...

It was 11 30 when we logged onto the internet through the library comp. After begging and pleading the librarian it was purely for academic purposes,Priyanka,Chandrayee and myself started searching for info for an upcoming presentation. Priyanka had been nagging me to watch Dostana since AC's class in the morning. It was while we were searching for info that we suddenly came up with the idea of watching Dostana (oh....note: Chandrayee and i had sworn that very morning we would'nt ,for anything in the world,watch a movie like that. I quote Chandu...."poysha khorcha kore Dostana dekhar kono maney hoy?"). A glance here,a regret there on missing work...and off we were! And we ran...

Cheap food cheap food....here and there we hunted. And after too much of thinking and extra cautiousness landed up with....emm...heh....a clone of promod da. I would like to believe he's Promod Da's son or a product of his able tutelage. The deja vous was too much clearly!

After shelling out 110 bucks for that movie...all we get is a stark naked John(but he's cute...sigh..),a pouty Shilpa, AB baby who revealed the truth about his sexual preferences to us (watch the movie and you'll know what i mean....on second thoughts....please dont watch it!),double meaning dialogues..tch tch...Tarun Mansukhani truly has THEM! I wish we'd gone for Deshdrohi instead :(

But i can't deny we had fun....we had good company in the first row...the only other occupied row except ours. Couple of students who had bunked like us. Their comments made the movie watching experience far more tolerable...i think...

And then...icing on the cake: I obviosuly hadn't told my mom. What greeted me after i came home was "how was Dostana?". Needless to say i was shocked. And then the culprit was caught. "Hamare jaasoos kone kone mein faile hue hain"...indeed! Whatever happened to privacy. And well...people don't have a life so they go about spoiling others' by reporting whereabouts. Humph.

But i avenged it...I wantched Dasvidaniya today. Again without informing. Hah!

It's a really nice movie. Really liked it. Especially because i had good company:D Now i'll go make a list of the ten things i want to do before i die. Puncturing someone's nose definitely figures on that list! :D