Thursday, April 13, 2017

Short Story - Fort High School Fest

Retirement had brought out a new side of AB. He saw retirement as a relief and now looked forward to starting his “real life”. A hundred days had passed since his retirement and he was making the most of not having to put on the suit. He would still suit up, but not because he had to look good in front of customers. He was after all a creature of routines.

AB got off the phone and said.

‘It seems Yesudas is singing at the Fort High School fest today, we should go.’

The Rama Seva Mandali established in the early 1900s hosted the month long Fort High School fest every year, and this would be the 79th fest.  The fest was among the biggest classical music festivals in all of India.  Though much celebrated, many felt both the fest and the Mandali had hit the twilight. They had no trouble packing the fest with performances. Four performances a day with popular artists taking the evening prime time slots. Sundays would see the best names come out and pulling the biggest crowd.

‘I remember going there as a child. I, Rukku and Viji would attend all the concerts, all thirty days. Of course, we didn’t have the money to buy tickets. We would go in late; an hour or so after the concerts had started. By that time the counters would be empty and gated unmanned.’
 AB was talking about his childhood again. Dev now didn’t have the heart of say no. He might enjoy it too, he thought to himself. Yesudas was one of the legends of classical music in India, both in his time as well as his father’s.



~

The line was too long, almost half a kilometer. The season pass was selling at 500 and VIP season pass at 1000.

‘Five hundred? One thousand? That’s all?’

Spoke Dev, to himself. ‘No wonder the fest is dying.’

‘It was 25 at one time’ said AB, happy but smiling.

Father and son were still not happy about standing in the queue. Although there was a sign of happiness and content on AB’s face. Dev was not sure why.

After about twenty minutes, they got in. The season pass had run out and they had to by the “only standing” tickets for 50 rupees.  The crowd was huge, not one seat available. There were people stuffed and pouring out of every exit, still trying to listen to the music. The voice of the aging Yesudas was just as refreshing and his music disarmingly fixating.

The Mandali had arranged for extra chairs, and they were still bringing in more chairs for those of the “only standing” tickets.

Dev was surprised.

‘What’s the need to get extra chairs? If the venue is full, it’s full. We don’t see people getting extra chairs or making room when there’s a game of cricket, or the concerts at Palace grounds’
It was beyond reason to Dev why the host would take that extra step.
‘Well, that’s just a good gesture, the fest was organized to give us good music, and wouldn’t music be better if you’re comfortable? It’s not a business or a “gig” as you people call it. It’s a practice and a tradition that these folks have been keeping alive for 78 years, and this is the way they do it.’
AB didn’t want to talk in long sentences, but believed sometimes it becomes important to put the young ones in their place.

AB, although was an avid fan of classical music and liked Yesudas, wanted to leave early.
‘We need to reach home in time for dinner, let’s leave after the next song.’ AB declared without taking his eyes off the stage.

‘Sure’ Dev one worded.

~

The bus stop was slowly filling up. People had just started coming out of the concert.
‘If the crowd is so good throughout the thirty days of the fest, the Mandali would be in a much better position, right?’ Dev casual questioned.

‘Yes’

A small pause lingered when both father and son admired a grandfather-granddaughter duo. The granddaughter more than the grandfather.

 ‘The Mandali has been doing quite alright these past few years’ AB ventured into a theory.
‘For the most part, the crowd consists of oldies like us. And for good reason. We grew up in the times when classical music was at its peak, and as we got busy making our career, starting families and making choices for you, we fell out of music or anything recreational.’
Bus number 212 pulled into the bus stop; they would have to wait for 215K.

AB continued

‘Now that we are retired, and that we have young adults like you, who’ve just stared realizing that parents and grandparents need care and some time out too, we can go to these concerts again.’

‘Yeah, there were a lot of grandparent-aged at the concert’ Dev pointed in agreement.

‘And young-adults like yourselves with them’ AB’s presented his finding.

Dev felt a little warm about going out with his father, thinking of it, he had even liked classical music of Yesudas.

AB started in his conclusive tone.

‘So to spot a pattern, or to paint a big picture, the Fort High School fest has found a new life in its new audience.’

AB looked at Dev with a smile before continuing

‘Us, the oldies have started getting back to the fest because we are no longer bound to our duties of earning the bread of the house, and you the new gen responsibles are ferrying or accompanying your elders to the fest.’

‘So they are getting twice the expected audience?’ interjected Dev

‘Yes, and hence the fest is going to live.’ It was obvious, but AB liked to conclude and Dev let him.

The homebound bus ride was quite. 

~

Dev muted the credits of the show on TV before going to bed and asked,

‘But dad, didn’t your generation take their parents or grandparents to the fest?’



Monday, December 26, 2016

2 Years Later


What’s wrong with you? Why haven’t you written in almost 2 years? I asked myself. Is it because you're lazy or because all of a sudden there are too many bloggers in the world and you suddenly realized you're not as good as you thought?' Not easy questions to answer, because it was asked by the self. Answering to oneself is easier than answering others, because as my dad says 'Nam devr satya namig gotilva?' (Literally means don’t we know our god's truth, or can mean don’t we remember that we hid the skeletons in the back?) So I answered to myself, you're good, but not good enough for a. you're not opinionated and b. you’re vocab is limited, of course your spellings suck too.
 

That’s ok, most of the writers these days are like that; sure, there's too much noise these days with everyone being a blogger, but everyone was always a blogger, everyone always wanted to be heard. Why is it more noisy now? Because English is easy? Because there are more readers now? more people want to Google before talking? And there’s more people willing to pay for writing? Because blogs are places to sell ads? Maybe. Are these not reasons for me to write? Guess not.
 
Ok, if you don’t want money, don’t want to talk, don’t want to enlighten people and are not opinionated, then why do you want to write and why are you mad at yourself for not writing for long?
 
Good one, inner me. I started writing because it was good; the popular ones had blogs at school.
 
OK you wrote because you wanted to show off your blog. Now you don’t want to show off?
 
You're being ruthless inner me. The truth is I still want to show off, I still think I can write better than some people and words line up well when I start putting them together. And I like it when people read and comment or appreciate my writing.
 

So you stopped writing because people stopped commenting?
 
Not true, I get comments. Some good and some bad because I started writing about politics and some were anti Modi.
 
So you're Modi fan friends started liking you less because you're anti Modi?
 
Wow wow wow... slow down when did I say I'm anti Modi?
 
Hello, I’m not Raaghu or Vatsie or anyone. I’m inner me. If I called you anti Modi then you are anti Modi.
 
Oh yeah... Sorry. I'm trying to put on a I'm not anti Modi, I'm just neutral costume so that others can still be friends with me.
 
Yeah, I know. Fitting in thing is hard, but it’s ok. As long as you don’t lie to me, I’m cool. But lying in general is not good.
 
Really? come on, you know that doesn’t work for me.
 
haha...
 
Ok, so you're posting this on your blog, I know you are. But why?
 
First, because it’s a long text and it counts for a literary work.
Second, because… Well I don’t, I had to post something. Even if it a selfie.
 
Cool, but we still don’t know why you didn’t write.
 
I told you, ok maybe not in this text, but I told you, I’m first of all, kinda lazy and lack-structure to stick to a schedule. Secondly, there’s too much noise. I’m kinda feeble, so I don’t talk much when others are talking loudly.
 
Hmmm... You mean empty vessels make more noise?
 
Yeah!
 
So all those talking are empty vessels and you’re intelligent?
 
Not really... I'm just saying, people talk confidently when they know, and people talk emphatically when they believe in what they know. So I think, too many people are convinced that what they know is the absolute truth and they want to put that out into the work as fast and as loudly as possible.
 
And you don’t believe in what you know?
 
Not like that, but yeah maybe a little like that. Because I call myself a reasonable person, like Brian, I want the freedom to change my view about things as and when I'm supplied with new information.
 
Hmm... ok.. Good talk. Yeah post this on the blog. Who knows? Maybe there are others like you.