Saturday, February 28, 2009

Visit Us. And Eat Too.

I hate socializing. I hate meeting family friends. I dont hate them, but its the visits that i hate. I hate replying to their very stupid questions in an alright?-is-your-hunger-quenched-now? manner. I hate it all.

Every time I go home, I have to attend at least one of those very stupid social gatherings or the friendly visit-us-and-eat-too things at various family friends’ before my parents are convinced beyond doubt that I get extremely bored -just sitting there-. Here’s what happens:

When we’re still at our place, ready to leave, I give it a shot. One last shot. I try.

“Mom, I’ll get bored. Please! Let me stay here. I’ll eat something.”

“No. They were asking about you. They are very eager to meet you.”

I acquiesce unhappily. I don’t know a single family having a guy-kid of my age. Even a chick of my age would do. But no! Kids having jobs or kids studying basic polynomials. Where’s the –between- gone? So I know that I would have no one to talk, with remote normalcy, with. It so happens that if the friends of my family haven’t seen or met me for more than half a year, they ask me this:

“Arrey! Look at you. You’ve grown so big! The last time I met you, you were (gesticulating with their hands, suspending the palms at knee-level) this small.”

Fuck! I was that small when I three. But they don’t get that. Somehow, I was just two feet high before six months. We enter their house. We sit on those sofas. We drink the served water. The uncle tries to show that he WAS looking forward to meet me. Like this:

“So, holidays, huh?”

“(I don the best smile ever.) Yeah!”

“When are you going back?”

“Blah (blah’s the date.).”

“Hm. (turning to my dad.) The stock market has gone insane! Hasn’t it?”

This is what I was brought along with, for. This is usually the intensity of their eagerness. Did they just want to know when my college reopened? For the remaining of the –very exciting- visit, I do nothing but watch TV along with the still-polynomial-learning kid who finds really horrible jokes funny. And then there’s the cell. I message a few. Hi!-Wassups. No replies.

This goes on. I feel jaded. And it’s only after we come back that my mom agrees with me. And I get to avoid the next social visit that’s there. Barring the food, everything sucks. But as the vacation bells toll again (next time), the reality hits me with such lacerating ferocity that it becomes difficult to keep my cool. The QED is there no more. I realize I’ll have to attend several visits again to prove it to my parents that I –get bored- there.

The friends of my Dad and Mom might probably have concluded that since half a year has gone by since they last saw me; I might not be a three year old anymore. And so it becomes utterly important for them to meet me. Very eager they become.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Of Mosh-pits, Chicks, and Maiden.

With great bad-ass behavior comes great confidence.
- Analogous to that dialogue from Spiderman.

FUCK Bush.
- Vocalist, Cyanide Serenity.

This is what happens when you FUCK with nature. Or, let me put it in simpler but more graphic terms; This is what not to do when a bird shits on you.
- Bruce Dickinson, Iron Maiden, before starting Rime Of The Ancient Mariner.

The greatest spiritual leader a nation ever saw was a music concert.

Maiden! Maiden! Maiden!
- One of the many requests for an encore at the concert.

Words fail. The sheer awesomeness of it. Its Brobdingnagian appeal. Amplified.

But I can try. The only way to describe it is the DB- way.

1. DBT : Death By Train : Try traveling more than 24 hours in a train. 6 hours of which were spent in a general compartment. With people around you, digging their nose-holes wildly, see if you can survive the torture.

2. DBC : Death By Chocolate : The ice-cream which costed us a bomb. Here's how its made: A thick layer of vanilla at the bottom. A thicker layer of chocolate brownie on top of it. Then comes the hot chocolate. Lots of it. Lots. And lastly, a huge layer of nuts. And we ordered three. One for each of us. Tyrant proved himself worthy of his name and finished all of his DBC. Slash and I couldn't.

3. DBP : Death By Pit : The CRI winners covered Lamb Of God. That's when all the moshing started. Crazy shit! And to an alien eye, it may look/sound very enigmatic. But to one participating in the mosh-pit, the mere idea of crashing into someone else itself is intoxicating.

4. DBM : Death By Maiden : Two hours of Iron Maiden! I can finally start a -done- list with IM's name checked off it. Less than 50 meters away! That's where they were! Plain -Fuck!-!

5. DBR : Death By Rickshaws : Fuck them! All of them! Assholes! They fucked us badly. The rickshaw-walas.

This is it. This is how it was. How it went. Awesome! And i didnt even miss a single practical class. The Tyrant missed three though. I want to list out a few points worth remembering. Here:

1. The Tyrant's business card. A joker. And the guy at the entrance gates who laughed when I informed him that what he happened to see accidentally in the Tyrant's wallet was not any ordinary joker of a cards-deck but a business card.

2. The general compartment.

3. The grandness of the ISKCON Temple.

4. Corner House. Not all of us were able to complete the DBC. But the first bite of it is totally unforgettable. The look of it! DBC. Respect!

5. Mosh Pit. Easily, the best thing (after Maiden, ofc) that happened there. Then. I regret not moshing for whatever time I might not have been present in the pit for whatever reasons possible. But the time I spent in there gave me a high unachievable by anything. Bliss!

6. Chicks! Hot. Hot. Very very hot! With piercings here and there, a few looked super-sexy. And the fact that all of them listened to metal amplified their sexiness. Laurren Harris was hot too.

7. Iron Maiden. All hail Maiden.

8. Andhra Style Family Restaurant. Saved us from possible death by starvation. Hogged like dogs.

Tyrant, Slash. Any additions?

Body's still aching from moshing incessantly. Kaan abhi bhi baj rahe hai. But I give no fuck. I saw Maiden perform live. That's one off the list. Slayer should come. Lamb Of God too. Many.