Monday, October 01, 2012

(Nahi) Ho!

Old,Old event- draft completed recently

In my entire life, I have gone to a few concerts, Rehman, Indian Ocean, Kailash Kher to name some, and I generally feel the experience falls into one of the categories, Amazing!!!, Good, kind of OK- you find some negatives, maybe it could have been better.

Till me (with N and J) saw Sukhi Paaji yesterday. I have(actually make that had) generally been a fan of Sukhvinder Singh- and was really looking forward to a nice sunday evening.

Here's how it all went - the scheduled start was 6 pm

6 pm : No, after being to so many Indian events, you learn that Indian Standard Time is at least 45 minutes past the scheduled time. We leave home in anticipation of a great evening. Though N and J had dressed to the occasion, I preferred traditional jeans and t-shirt

6:30 pm: Reach the concert, feel proud that we did not reach on time and still got a nice place to sit. In Gujju tradition, we step out to get some food.

6:50 pm: The show gives it's first signs of starting- a singer comes and sings a couple of songs - and the crowd kind of reacts, feels this is a pre-cursor for the show

7:05 pm: Random singer # 1 enters- he sings well- but people are now cheering for Sukhvinder to come in- my expectation is that he'll make a real big entry

7:30 pm: Random singer # 1 continues- the crowd gets a little impatient, with 'We want Sukhvinder' heard around

7:40 pm: The stage turns dark and someone comes onto stage. The music starts, and people think this is 'the moment' they are waiting for.

7:42 pm: The singer starts singing- the voice is suspicious - and as soon as the lights come on- it is revealed, it's not Sukhvinder , but random singer # 2, more random than # 1, and singing really bad Punjabi songs .

8:15 pm: Random singer #2 continues, there's an announcement, 'Now, we present what you all have been waiting for'. The crowd heaves it's final hurrah thinking yet again, that this is the moment

8:20 pm: The announcement continues 'We present Tanushree Dutta'. No one cares, she is hovered with insults, boos and even shouts to get lost

8:25 : Random singer #1 and #2 continue. Things are getting fairly bad with N,J and me. We update our status on facebook as things become popular in the outside world

8:45 pm: We make a call if we should go home. Think maybe we can wait for a little more

9:45 pm: 'Sukhiji ' makes it to the stage. A few apologies, and then he starts singing, the crowd enjoys it and some of us soon start enjoying the music. But, most people have lost enthusiasm in 3 hrs of wait

10:05 pm: Sukvinder leaves the stage for a 'short break of 10 mins' We realize that things are indeed as wrong as they seem to be .

10:10 pm: Going to a concert with a couple gets interesting when one wants to leave and one wants to continue to watch. I wasn't sure whom I would side with , except that I was equally pessimistic about any good music for the evening

10:20 pm : Leave home - realization of a sunday evening and a (I really don't want to go to office) Monday Morning strike you. Vow to never ever watch a Sukhvinder Singh concert
Since the show was so bad- it would be inappropriate to put Sukhi's photo. This was the only nice photo I could think of, an elderly couple sitting in front of us on a cold, boring , Sunday evening .