Back in Manipal, while trying to salvage a degree, I happened to attend a lot of inter collegiate culturals. The participation was divided into two groups, one the geeky category which took part in the quizzes, pot pourri's, dumb charades and the like, while the alternate groups satisfied the senses by being part of the dance and the music performances. I am not divulging where I tread, but the highlight of these cultural fetes and a part I enjoyed the most were the rock shows/ battle of the bands as it was popularly known.
I am not a metalhead but I do believe I have a sound ear for music of different genres. A small bunch of us ( not many were fans and the rest had to get up for class the following day) made sure we stayed till the very end of these culturals when these rock shows were scheduled. Everything about the show amazed me, right from the sound checks to the final performances, taking it to a new level. Talent was in abundance and there were many a times when I have imagined myself on stage trying to be the next best thing in guitar history. Manipal had a number of bands who were exceptionally good and things kept getting better when bands from all over the state competed. As part of our own college culturals, we had Euphoria visit Manipal in 2002 and Shaan in 2003. I remember Euphoria's performance distinctly as they performed on my birthday. As part of the festivities early morning, my friends doused me with water and left me in my shorts and Tee's in a corner of the city, right when the band were performing their sound checks. Here I am, at 2 in the morning, wet and wasted, listening to Palash Sen and his guys perform their take on Collective Soul's Shine. I was never this charged for their concert that evening. Needless to say, Euphoria did not disappoint. Right from AR Rahman's vande mataram to Deep Purple's Smoke on the Water interspersed with their own hits, It was worth the 100 Rs paid for the tickets.
Watching ROCK ON this weekend took me on this trip down memory lane. The movie itself is a fine watch and has much more to say than just about a band's rise, fall and resurrection, and I would love to talk about it soon. This little trip that I ventured into had a lot of my college buddies, trying to squeeze through every possible gap while inching towards the podium, moving to the riffs and the drum beats and showing off our half baked knowledge of music. In short, we were having the time of our lives..even though it might have lasted a little over 15 minutes and three songs.
On a different note, I have missed doing a lot of things that I love and I will be making up for most of them soon. I just got started.
Showing posts with label growing up. Show all posts
Showing posts with label growing up. Show all posts
Hope'n
When I was small, Dad used to frequently travel around the country on work. The morning of his arrival was a mini carnival for M and me, anticipating gifts and goodies from his sojourns. Our earliest memories were him getting us fairy tale books (I still have them, bound and
treasured). Coimbatore trips brought back soan papdis, om podis and books. Calcutta meant
Rosgollas, Mistidhois and Mithais. Bhavnagar or Surat augured lots of attire for us. We grew up, dad travelled less and the excitement fizzled.
When I moved on from Ruston, I left behind a lot of my stuff to ease out burdensome travel as I
did an impromptu roadtrip across the country. I did get part of it a little while later, but it
was not until this week, thanks to that lovable woman, was I able to get the reminder. I honestly
forgot what I had left behind, vague memories of some books and clothes were hovering around but that was it.I have the bag in front of me, and a motley thought of curiosity, inquisitiveness and excitement blends in my head.
My flutes, My roller blades, My music-thank god. CDs, MP3,s and a lot of wacky junk I deem hearable. I was grinning from ear to ear. A lot of my books including an amazing transalation of the thirukkural I had picked up from the Chennai Book fair in Jan'06. A small statuete of Vinayaga and the Ashoka pillar, carved in wood along with a bronze OM figurine, bought at Sundari Silks in T Nagar. My Coudroy worker pants, which was incidentally the first piece of clothing I bought in this country..and it still fits. I have stories for each and everything I found in that bag.
As I pored into my bag and pondered, anticipation doesnt always hurt. The fact that I was unaware of what was in store, made me enjoy the moment even more. Tiny things trigger memories, some unwarranted albeit enjoyable. The best part is when thoughts concatenate, leading you through various backalleys of your mind. You're lost, its all good.
For some wierd reason, I have been humming U2's Beautiful Day since morning,
What you don't have you don't need it now
What you don't know you can feel it somehow
treasured). Coimbatore trips brought back soan papdis, om podis and books. Calcutta meant
Rosgollas, Mistidhois and Mithais. Bhavnagar or Surat augured lots of attire for us. We grew up, dad travelled less and the excitement fizzled.
When I moved on from Ruston, I left behind a lot of my stuff to ease out burdensome travel as I
did an impromptu roadtrip across the country. I did get part of it a little while later, but it
was not until this week, thanks to that lovable woman, was I able to get the reminder. I honestly
forgot what I had left behind, vague memories of some books and clothes were hovering around but that was it.I have the bag in front of me, and a motley thought of curiosity, inquisitiveness and excitement blends in my head.
My flutes, My roller blades, My music-thank god. CDs, MP3,s and a lot of wacky junk I deem hearable. I was grinning from ear to ear. A lot of my books including an amazing transalation of the thirukkural I had picked up from the Chennai Book fair in Jan'06. A small statuete of Vinayaga and the Ashoka pillar, carved in wood along with a bronze OM figurine, bought at Sundari Silks in T Nagar. My Coudroy worker pants, which was incidentally the first piece of clothing I bought in this country..and it still fits. I have stories for each and everything I found in that bag.
As I pored into my bag and pondered, anticipation doesnt always hurt. The fact that I was unaware of what was in store, made me enjoy the moment even more. Tiny things trigger memories, some unwarranted albeit enjoyable. The best part is when thoughts concatenate, leading you through various backalleys of your mind. You're lost, its all good.
For some wierd reason, I have been humming U2's Beautiful Day since morning,
What you don't have you don't need it now
What you don't know you can feel it somehow
Its Scary..
One of the sureshot symptoms of addictive joblessness is when you start listening to each and every song on your computer hard-drive. On a lazy saturday, that was precisely my plan of fruitful action. This particular song caught my ears, tinkered with my mind and made me do things I did not want to be caught doing today..retrospecting, introspecting, speculating and in general, thinking.
25 is a scary age man.A fourth of my life just whizzed by along with 16 years of schooling, 2 degrees and a year on an insipid profession. Its an eerie thought of disbelief.
So many things have happened so fast. Mom's cooking now become a thing of the past and cooking for yourself is trendsetting. Being dropped at school has transitioned to walking to college and commuting to work. I have moved from people making decisions for me to being consulted on to make decisions and eventually making decisions for myself and others. I dont know whether this wind of change is for the better or the worse. Better-because it makes you responsible.Worse-because you are responsible.
Anyways, to cut a long story short, change is growth. Sometimes, things take a while to change making us anticipative. Most of the times, change is so fleeting that it catches us short of our breath. Either way, it is upto us to make the most of what change brings.
Without further ado, may I present "100 years" by Five for Fighting.
I'm 15 for a moment
Caught in between 10 and 20
And I'm just dreaming
Counting the ways to where you are
I'm 22 for a moment
She feels better than ever
And we're on fire
Making our way back from Mars
15 there's still time for you
Time to buy and time to lose
15, there's never a wish better than this
When you only got 100 years to live
I'm 33 for a moment
Still the man, but you see I'm a they
A kid on the way
A family on my mind
I'm 45 for a moment
The sea is high
And I'm heading into a crisis
Chasing the years of my lifeHalf time goes by
Suddenly you're wise
Another blink of an eye
67 is gone
The sun is getting high
We're moving on...
I'm 99 for a moment
Dying for just another moment
And I'm just dreaming
Counting the ways to where you are
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