When the Gods manifested …

Pinch me! I’m yet to believe myself that i’ve seen Gods, the Gods of metal! Every one who was present there at the palace ground has this feeling, i swear. Let me give a brief account of the day, when Gods alighted, enthralled the pious throng!

We started our journey by 12 noon, braving the traffic through the  MG road, cursing each traffic signal! Kaushik was skeptical if we were a wee too early, the thought which was refuted when we realized the presence of iron maiden t-shirt companions all around us. Oh yeah! we (Riju,Bhasi,Kaushik & me in bikes and Midhun, Kishore, Raja, Nikhil, Nithin chetan,Pramod etc guys too) were also in iron maiden t-shirts! After an enormous amount of lingering through the traffic, we made it to our destination. The journey made me sing in mind, the song The Man on the edge..”The freeway is jammed and is backed up for miles, the car is an oven and baking is wild, nothing is ever the way it should be, what we deserve we just dont get you see…” The place was crowded and we could see people who have even spent their time since morning! What really caught my attention was the huge female population. Most of the girls reminded me of withces, no offence meant, might be their black dresses, jwellery and even dark lipstick gave them a black-magic appearance. All of us aligned ourselves in the long queue. After about half an hour, by 3 pm, as they had mentioned in the ticket, they opened the gates of heaven. They had made a narrow passage for controlling the flow of audience into the ground and for ease of administration which failed to serve its purpose. As soon as they opened the passage, people started rushing in, creating uproar, screaming, abusing and pushing their preceding people.I cursed those nutters who havent even heard of the term maturity. I regretted for not wearing my shoes when i lost a part of nail from my right toe and it started bleeding. Though I had expected a full dusty environment (Palace grounds as always), to my surprise, i could learn that the whole place was covered by mats. People gathered at the front of the stage as closer to it as possible. Stage decoration was still going on, lights glowing once in a while, fixing ladders etc. Each time a head turns up on the stage, one time the electrician, next time the decorator, the crowd screamed ‘Maiden’ ‘Maiden’ Though initially it irritated, i found myself joining the crowd – herd mentality, may be. They had turned on Radio Indigo through the sound systems, which kept the audience away from the hot sun and the hubbub. Kaushik and I were totally astonished by the lady standing nearby who kept on singing any song that was played through the radio. She along with her friend was singing even Judas Priest songs. She was cursing the radio when they played Def Leppard, she cried out loud – “Oh No! Not Def Leppard today, please stop!” I really respect her taste! I’m desperate that i couldnt get any contact id from her or her companion, though we talked for a long time. At around 5:30 pm everyone became active at the sight of FTN on stage, the band which won the campus rock idols! Poor Guys, they didnt have any takers, among the 18000 people who were anxiously waiting in the sun for the gig to start. They were playing new age metal, which was very much unsuitable for the real metal heads, who started booing, throwing bottles, abusing and i believe given a chance the crowd would’ve even tried manhandling! When they realized that their own comps failed acceptance, they tried switching to covers, which again failed. FTN summoned on the sight of a guy who was lifted by his companion imitated ‘hanging’ with his own belt. It brought laughter to the irritated crowd. With obvious disappointment and defeat in their faces, FTN went to backstage.

Parikrama entered the stage causing a loud applause and sudden change in mood. Vocalist said – “This is the first time we are playing in front of such a crowd, the most unforgettable day in my life, opening stage for Iron Maiden” (not the exact phrase) They could handle the crowd nicely. The violinist of the band mesmerized the audience with his speed runs and metal-like leads that was perfectly blended with the heavy backing rhythm. The band was performing a ‘JugalBandhi’ when suddenly the crazy guys on the left made a human wave pushing the guys towards their right. A lot of people almost fell down, if they did, they could even have lost their lives. I received a nice stamp on my wound in the toe. After a few seconds of confusion, the guys at the right retaliated by pushing them back. Though it sounds very simple, you should’ve experienced the same to understand how it feels! Suddenly the music stopped – the vocalist made an announcement that injected relief into the multitude. He said – “Guys, you are here for listening to music. I’m telling this for your own dear lives. Guys on the left dont push towards your right and guys on the right dont push towards your left. People will get crushed in between. I’m here for the same reason as you are (a small pause) to listen to Iron Maiden. So stay where you are, enjoy the music!” (not the exact phrase) Many thanks to him! His announcement did help. They played for nearly an hour or so.

Lauren Harris entered the stage, next to Parikrama started playing crappy music, though the guitarist was greatly talented. He looked like Zakk Wylde and his style of playing was exactly the same. Though I really liked his performance, had to give a second thought, when Nithin Chetan commented about his imitation as a foolish approach and none should imitate some one but develop their own style! Yeah kind of thought-provoking statement, that was, indeed. Crowd tried to boo them away from stage, waved their middle finger up in the air whenever Lauren screamed “throw your hands up in the air”  :D That was a funny scene! After some more time of irritated waiting, audience were happy that Lauren’s band stopped playing!

We waited for not more than 10 minutes when suddenly the stage was under light – crisp tone of guitars, heavy Steve bass – yes! they were on stage, performing the song A different world! Nobody seemed to be listening, everyone was jumping and prancing around, incredulously, screaming “Iron Maiden” And i sang in my mind – “And I felt I was in a trance and my spirit was lifted from me…And if only someone had the chance, to witness what happened to me!!!” Once the song was finished, the screams and yells echoed the whole ground! Then came the song “These colors dont run” “…for the passion…for the glory, for the memories…for the money…you’re a soldier..” After this song I decided to move to a side as I was again and again suffering stamping on the wound. I struggled and procured some water and got ready for the next song.For each song, they had a different display, the corresponding album cover, at the screen on the stage. After one more song from ‘A matter of life and death’ they played these songs in order – ‘Wrathchild’, ‘The trooper’, ‘Number of the beast’, ‘Fear of the dark’,'Run to the hills’, ‘HBTN’, ‘Two minutes to midnight’, ‘Evil that men do’  The crowd response was simply amazing, I’ve never seen such a crowd, save in videos. I was overwhelming with joy and excitement, when i sang along with the crowd for each songs. Bangalore ROCKS!!! The sight of some guys canoodling their girl friends and guys nearly unconscious out of drugs were causing a disgrace to the faithful metal heads, but the latter hardly had time to pay attention. The obvious smell of weed/grass endured in the air, throughout the show, though the faint breeze tried to drive it.

I screamed out my vocal cord and banged out my brains! The crowd roared when Bruce yelled ‘Scream for me Bangalore’ after each song. He announced “You all waited 17 long years to watch us perform, but now it will be just another 17 months for us to come to India again” (not the exact phrase)

I’m desperate to have missed taking photos and videos, people have posted a lot of them in Youtube. Thanks to each one of them!

 If anyone asks me “Tell me about an incident, very important to you, that happened in your life” or “Which is the most unforgettable day of your life” I’ve the answer – “March 17th, 2007, Palace Grounds, I saw the Gods, the Gods of Metal, They lived in front of the multitude, an agile  Bruce running around with his mike, Steve shooting the people with his bass, Dave Murray and Adrian smith pumping the leads and Nicko McBrain ruling the drums”

Thanks for reading! Come join the relegion, the relegion of rock! Hail the Metal Gods, see them live, listen to their divine anthems!

Count Down begins…

Bangalore is zeroing in for hosting a mark in the History of this rock hub! Only 8 more days to go! From all over Asia, people will be flowing to the mighty Palace Grounds! Too excited, I’m… Not sure about the time when the show begins, but the gates will be open by 3pm. I’ve taken 13 tickets till now, for 3 of us here (Bangalore) and 10 of my friends who are coming all the way from Trivandrum to headbang!

March Metal Mania

There are some feelings which we cannot express with words. They may or may not have names too. But it is omnipresent, might appear as a glow in your eyes, a whiff, a weight on your mind a lot of other things too. I had a similar feeling which I cant express, when I watched the Performance of Extinct Reflections, Bhoomi & Kryptos at Guru Nanak Bhavan this Friday. When techniques meet the required perfection, its sound takes you a different world - a world where you imagine yourself playing the guitar, tackling the difficult tapping sequence, you will find yourself holding the air guitar and banging your head either following the drums or the rhythm guitar – provided you are not one of those chocolate bollywood or pop music fan – provided you know how difficult it is to deliver the powerful note perfectly to quench the never ending thirst of the metal heads in front of you. I reached the auditorium by 6:15, when i could make out that stage set up is still going on, by the sound coming out once in a while. I was so desperate to learn that tickets were sold out, but i follwed the organizers’ advice and waited there. I found Tony (Lead/Rhythm – Bhoomi) coming out of the hall. I thought of talking to him and in addition I could collect a ticket from him after introducing myself as the guy who talked to him over phone regarding the ‘difficult to tune’ guitar Extinct Reflections started the gig, I’m yet to get used to all this new age style, but they were too good in what they did. I have not come out of the Thrash style that ruled 80’s, which I’ve been a die hard fan since ‘02. After 3 songs, they gave way for Bhoomi to perform which i was looking forward to listening to. Their songs in the order they had played - Crime (The same one that they had played at IIT Saarang, 05)-which reminded me of a song(dont remember the name) from Judas Priest, Dead Time Stories (from their new album-which could be enjoyed at http://www.mosh.in/bhoomi), Vertigo (From new album again), Aces High (As a tribute to the legends of Iron Maiden and to the Lead vocals Leon of Moksha who had passed away recently) and Raise the hell (Again a song with the 80’s touch) . They emptied the stage after this mindblowing performance for Kryptos to enter. I dont remember the name of their songs, as this was the ever first time I’m listening to them, but made it a point that I will grab a cd as early as possible. Its kind of black/death metal I felt.

 Then…thats about the Metal mania, i had a very boring weekend as usual, eagerly waiting for Monday morning to kick out the weekend blues Too tired after cleaning the whole house, washing clothes and doing nothing, gonna sleep well. Goodnight!

Are you Satisfied?

A question that appears to be a simple one, but if you brood over it, you will find it difficult to answer with an open mind. I really get disturbed thinking about this one liner. I know you will all say – “No, I’m not” In fact, Nobody is! Have you ever asked yourself the meaning of your life? Have you ever thought where you are heading to? Your ambitions, goals you have set in your mind, appraisals etc, an exhausting list right? Have you ever pondered why we need all these? Who is the one who gets benefitted with all these?  The answer is ‘You’ – the only one who gets exhilarated by your actions. So in fact we are all satanists – though we pray to God, visit temple/church/mosque we really hail the satan inside each one of us. We just think about ourselves and live for our lucre. Its high time that we searched the meaning of our life – i dont mean the eternal light or enlightment or some crap like that. But if you read about Satanism by Anton La Vey and compare your life, you will find yourself a Satanist, do you really fancy that?

http://www.churchofsatan.com/ - For the ones who believe in indulgence against abstinence

Memories of an Old Jobfair

Recently I read in papers about an upcoming Jobfair conducted by The Hindu Opportunities, which evoked in me the sour experience I (We – Riju, Manu, Sreenath, Tom, Sujeesh and me) have had in the past. I had written a travelogue (nearly one!) on that journey which Pangu had put in his site. Oh yeah!! As you may know he has been a damn serious blogger (http://gurupanguji.wordpress.com)  since time immemorial. Thanks to him for his deed so that I could get hold of a soft copy of the same now, without much difficulty. Anyway he has switched from Lycos to WordPress sometime back, so i dont want to take a chance and lose this piece of writeup, I’m just pasting it below.Those who have gone through this before, please read it one more time Just Kiddin… 

The Story begins here…

Hi everybody…

This is my second travelogue (if you are kind enough to call it so!!!). This time its not SSB but a jobfair. Anyway this time also it has an employment rapport.

A lot of jobless fellows in campus were excited to see the ad of Jobfair that will be conducted by CTS and ‘The Hindu- Opportunities’ on 26th and 27th in Coimbatore.It clearly specified ‘final year’ students can also apply.All of us started preparing for the tests too.We bought ‘Cambridge’ trousers and ‘DH’ shirts for the interviews.

All of us were shocked to see last thursday’s (24-02-05) ‘The Hindu’ supplements.Thirty plus companies had given their ads in which they specified the requirements and qualifications they were looking forward to.It broke our hearts into several pieces.Most of the firms wanted only experienced candidates and those who wanted final years just needed a candidate from any discipline and even +2-undergraduates.

“Tell a man there’re 300 billion stars in the universe and he’ll believe it. Tell him a bench has wet paint on it and he’ll have to touch to be sure.”
GODSPEED…..
It is true.We were not driven back by those ads.We wanted to make it sure and boarded the train ‘Sabari Xpress’ on 25th morning(7 am).It was really an arid journey.’Puzzles to puzzle you’ by Sakuntala Devi found itself resting in peace even before the train reached Mavelikkara.The heat evoked the journey via Andhra Pradesh while returning from Bhopal (ref:last travelogue).Sweat exuded out and succumbed to the heat.To cap it all, innumerable cockroaches infested through out the coach.(Next time on “Sabari” i’ll surely take with me, one or two of big spiders from my bathroom which devour cockroaches,to maintain a balance in the train environment).I wonder why the TTRs are not eager to fine them all, albeit more than two have gone through our tickets.

Finally the train reached Coimbatore at 4.45Pm. The station is not as big as Chennai Central.Our friends in Coimbatore came,picked us and took us to their place.Time was 5.00 pm and it meant congested roads.

“Why they call it rush hour when nothing moves?”

We were taken to their house at a place called Lion’s stop near Hopes junction, where we could see ‘Medical College’ and some other famous educational institutions ( unfortunately i didnt take down the names and i dont remember them now).It was a nice location distant from every city affairs.Lot of pea-cocks trudged around their house casting amorous glances on their female counter parts.Our friends informed us that, the place we were standing was once an untouched bush region and those peacocks were there from the get go and it seemed they are not ready to devolve their arena to anybody.The local people there do respect them and never harm those innocent and innocuous birds.

That night we went out and roamed the city.We went to ‘Gandhipuram’, a nice little town where we had our dinner. Then we went back home and after wasting some time watching television we went to bed.

D-Day has arrived (26-02-05).Everybody had bath and got dressed in formals.We went to Hopes and had our breakfast.All the busses en-route to Codissia were inundated with candidates.After waiting for sometime we found it was a Herculian task to get ourselves into any of those vehicles. So we hired a taxi-cab and headed to Codissia complex. Two kilometers from Hopes we found ourselves drifting between a multitude of cars and autos.The driver confessed his inablity to move the car any further.So we got out and started walking.We were shocked by the 1 to 1.5 km long queue that appeared to be longer than the queue in SabariMala.Without hesitation we joined that human chain.It started moving very slowly like a python with a heavy prey in its belly.After one hour in the queue we could see, at a distance, the great Codissia Complex.It seemed to be a huge monster opened its mouth to imbibe everybody who got there.There was an initial registration and then we got inside the complex.

The story changed inside the building.About twenty to thirty stalls were there but surrounded and blinde by thousands of unemployed youth.Literally, there was not enough space for sand, if dropped, to reach the floor.Should the heat be mentioned, With tucked in formals and shoes? Outside the hall,in the queue which led to the complex we were praising the organizers for managing this much candidates thronged the place.Once inside we found ‘all that glitters is not gold’.We really thought we will soon reach Almighty’s sanctum and we bagan envisaging our funerals.

Somehow we managed to deposit our resume on HSBC stall.Then a ‘human tsunami’ hit and washed away all of us into different corners.As we got drowned in that human sea submitting resume seemed a pipe dream.But fortuitously we could submit our resumes in most of the stalls.Albeit they didnt want any final years, they took our resumes as if to console and to express genuflection for our great adventure.We submitted our resumes on Nipuna( A Satyam co),Wipro BPO,Office Tiger,Getit,CTS… other than our debut stall HSBC.

At around 2.30 pm we extricated ourselves from that pandemonium.As we had with us mobile phones we could meet at in front of the complex, though with much difficulty.Then we waved bye to Codissia,went to Hopes, had our lunch and returned to our sojourn.

We started our return journey at 5.30 pm.First of all we went to Ukkadam where we could find lot of second sale books for promising prices.Some of us spend lot of money there and boarded a bus to Palakkad at 7.30.At around 9.00 pm we reached Palakkad and felt releaved to land great God’s own country.At 10.30 our return journey started in Amrita express.

I started reading one of those books from Ukkadam – the controversial ‘The DA VINCI CODE’.I dont remember how many pages i could go through.When i got up it was 5.00 am in the morning and we had reached ‘Quilon’.The book was still open and i could see the heading ‘chapter two’ staring at me.

For any Jobfair- “think twice before you leap”

A perfect Stranger – My debut Credit purchase

Having a Stranger in  house wouldnt be a great idea if it was not a 40W output amplifier …;) Anyway I’ve one at home now worth Rs 6750 bought totally on credit. I never fancied for credit cards and had always had an unknown fear against the same (even now I’ve) Recently I decided to go for a Gold card. Though the card was not made of gold, I could make good use of it which proved that its as good as gold. I swiped it for the first time to bring home the stranger

[One more time I'm gonna swipe it, not very late, to buy the processor]

But, I’m now totally tired trying to tune the guitar. An usual guitar takes a wee bit of time to tune whereas this Floyd Rose takes one’s life time. I’ve been trying for the last 3 days just to tune it to the standard E. Though I’m very patient in getting things done, I almost had a nervous breakdown after having failed in the umpteenth earnest effort to put the strings under right tesion so as to balance the bridge springs tension. Today I’m taking it to the shop, I might need to have one more spring to balance the bridge as advised by Bhoomi’s Guitarist Tony (I had met him last year when I was going to i-flex in Raju’s cab. He stood at Kagdaspura Bus stop holding the guitar which drew my attention. The cab carried me about 100ft forward when I recollected his identity - I had seen them performing for Saarang at Madras IIT. I told Raju to stop the car, ran towards him. It was early morning with a few people at the bus stop who all stared at the guy running towards them from a car that came to a halt at the middle of no where. I asked him (panting…) “you are Bhoomi’s guitarist right?” With an obvious pleasant light of excitement and happiness he said “Yes” I had taken his number that day, called him yesterday after almost an year)

Hopefully I’ll be able to post soon saying I’ve tuned my guitar n started practicing

My Ibanez GRG 370

I had a strong feeling in my mind that i should spend my first salary for a guitar! It was about 2-3 years back that i had this thought in mind, when I was not even sure if I’ll get a job. Time passed by, got my first job, but the tight schedule and heavy atmosphere swept my passion away. Days with no music, no headbanging, no guitaring… no life at all. As we all know every night has a dawn… How muchever we try to suppress our passion, how muchever it gets suppressed, it will make its heads up one day… My dream turned out as a tangible Ibanez GRG 370 this saturday. Notwithstanding the absence of a band to practice with, I’ve made up my mind to spend, rather invest, big money for resuming my lost touch. I had played and checked almost 7 guitars before getting hooked on to this one. It has got a nice Floyd Rose, a mechanism I’m yet to be familiarised with! Now I’m lubricating my fingers with exercises, soon I’ll start learning songs, have a list of them in my mind. On Sunday I again had to go back to the guitar shop so as to procure a manual for the kit, I’m yet to read it completely though. I’ll buy an amp (Stranger/Marshall) and  a processor in the near future. [Dont know if i would be thrown out of the rented house, if so, I've to find another place soon] So guys…be ready to see this guitarist in the making playing mind blowing riffs and be all ears when I make my tremolo arm howl a shrill harmonic note… Soon I’ll post a snap shot of my six string!

Back from the Sanctum Sanctorum…

If you have not visited Tirupathi yet, strap your boots and start your journey. We boarded the bus on Friday 7.30 pm. It reached Tirupathi at 2.15Am, Saturday morning. From Tirupathi, Thirumala is about 12 Kms away. Though there is an option of travelling by bus till the temple, we chose to climb the steps, a total of 3500 of them! I’ve been to Kudajadri, to the famous Chitramoola Cave, where adi shankaracharya did his meditation, which is a 13km trekking through hilly forest, which is the only comparable experience I’ve ever had. After coming to know the myth behind the Tirupathi origin, I decided to tonsure my head. It took 3.5 hours for us to reach the Temple, another 4 hours we stood in queue. The darshanam was fine, though amidst 1000s of people who push from behind. We were all exhausted by the walk, but souls refreshed by the sight of the deity, boarded a bus to Tirupathi. No sooner did we reach than one of us (Nachu) found a bus to Bangalore and we boarded that. I slept rather knocked out inside the bus, till i reached K R puram when i was got up by Kaushik’s wake up calls! We all were home at around 11-11.30 on Saturday night. We do have plans for trekking to ChitraMoola, not very late…

Tirupathi…

After an interval my mind again seeks a break, to pray, to appease my mind, to stay away from this routine. In October I had a great trip to Kollur Mookambika temple. Tonight I’m leaving Bangalore to visit Tirupathi temple, for the first time. This is my first trip to Andhra Pradesh too, I’ve passed by the naxalite-struck Warangal border when i went to Bhopal (3 years back) which was the only visit to AP i’ve done yet. I hope I would be able to give a write up once I’m back.

A journey to the past

I had a short trip to Thiruvalla on this New Year, which evoked sweet memories of tender toddy and frog fry! When we were in our 7th sem of BTech, we (Riju and I) had visited Sujeesh’s home (We were on our way back from Cochin, after Satyam’s test, I was in a very bad mood because of getting out in GD after getting through the test) from where we had gone to Changanasseri for drinking fresh toddy (Though intention was to drink fresh toddy, ended up mixing fresh and strong, devoured all possible kinds of fauna including frogs ) Had a long walk (6 kms) drenching ourselves in rain. I had a heavy hangover on the next day… I’m sure Riju, Sujeesh and I will never forget that trip

This time i went there  to attend Sujeesh’s sister’s wedding giving him a pleasant surprise. I reached there on Sunday after a tedious night spent inside the Kerala KSRTC AC/Air bus which is apparently serving as an ice factory. At around midnight i started shivering (not exaggerating, i literally did tremble because of the un bearable AC). Then i grabbed my bag which was the only weapon i had with me to fortify myself in fighting against the bone-pricking air conditioning. Thanks to my W810I which could keep me engaged. I’ll never board that bus without carrying a blanket with me. By 11 in the morning I reached Thiruvalla. Though i had visited his house long back, the roads didnt appear strange to me. I reached his house, came to know that Riju also has come and then we were given accomodation at Elite Hotel, Thiruvalla. At noon we came back to his home after freshening up. We had heavy meals with mouth-watering sear fish curry and beef fry! In the evening we were back to our sojourn and took a nap. By 6 pm Manu also joined us. As it was New year’s eve, we decided to celebrate with some alcohol. But we had to restrict ourselves from getting intoxicated much as we were supposed to visit Sujeesh’s home again. Again at night we had great food- fish, mutton, beef We can never compare the insipid Karnataka food to the real taste of Kerala (Kannadigas should be thinking the other way around) Wedding was in a church at Kottayam. Feast was too good, Appam and Mutton Stew, followed by rice and curries and pudding. After the feast we went back to Thiruvalla. Had a plan to booze and went to Elite bar just to find desperately that it was closed. Then only we recollected – First of every month will be ‘Dry-Day’ in God’s own land. Thanks to Karnataka Govt, here no bars remain closed even on Gandhi Jayanthi day

 I had managed to book 2 return tickets for us in a special train. I wondered what was so special in that train, curiosity came to a sad demise when we came to know that the train is late by 4 hours! Anyway as the train was so special it brought us to Bangalore from Thiruvalla in 12 hours!!!