The Sweet music at raagam?
It was a sultry after noon like any other. The wind had come to a standstill and the sun was beating down. Hastily packing the bare necessities, I made my way to Mangalore station, only to be challenged to a test of my auditory capacity, with the driver of the express bus toting a horn which made the most blaring sounds I had heard.. I was to expose myself to a lot of music(noise??) over the next two days.. I was going to witness two major concerts at Ragam '06, Parikrama and Strings(??)..
The train was not alien to me.. The memory of the misadventure I had on my initial trip by this rather sparsely populated train will remain with me to my grave.. My juniors booked the tickets for the wrong date and so we had to pay a fine of thrice the cost of the ticket.. The wrath we felt on that day has since dissolved and forgiven they are, but the memory remains..
After a picteresque train ride and a picture perfect bus ride to NITC, we dismounted, only to be greeted by a sight that was as shocking then as it is hilarious now... A gang of what looked like final years charging towards us wielding hockey sticks.. NITC was apparently thirsting for revenge over another college that had roughed up a few of their final years over that most amusing yet common reason....A GIRL!!! That out of the way, I entered the gate and I was greeted by my friends, those that I had expected to meet and those I didnt but all people hadnt seen in 3 years.. Then I got the most terrible news of the weekend, that strings had cancelled on us and that their place will be taken by a Delhi based band that "sunk" after one hit, Silk Route. Amidst the hype and the hoopla surrounding Strings, this was the news that ultimately proved detrimental to the success of the fest, as our headcount shurnk drastically from an expected 140 to around 45!!!
Dumping my luggage in a corner of a B Block hostel room, I headed straight for the show that turned out to be the unforseen main draw for the fest, the Parikrama show.. It was quite a good show, with a healthy dose of Psychadelic rock, Acoustic songs and slow jams.. What it could have done with, however was the exclusion of all Parikrama's own compositions save one, the meodious But it Rained.. Overall an enjoyable show, one which I thoroughly enjoyed singing along with..A drink after parikrama seemed the best thing in the world at that time, but the hideout where the booze was stashed turned out unfortunately to be the same place where the fight was planned to take place that night.. Even so, we made ambitious plans and went to gauge the situation outside,though, realizing that the police had cordoned off the campus, we made our way back to where we belonged, sleeping 5 in a room for the night..
The next morning appeared, bringing with it new expectations, most of which it failed to meet..After the excruciating loss at the lone wolf and the complete drubbing in the general quiz, I watched panda steal the lit honours at the fest with third place finishes in both quizzes.. Before I realized, it was time for the show which we all had been waiting for but was now only a formality..Having come all the way, I had to see Silk route live in concert, a big letdown, being all of one hour long compared to parikrama's 2 and a bit. A feeling that was all too familiar-That ripped off feeling- was tearing through my psyche. But the night still was young, as the booze that we were unsuccesful in consuming the proevious night could not keep itself from our thirsty lips much longer, and gulp it down we did like hungry desert wanderers. I slept like a baby at- I do not remember the time, but Keyur's histrionics that night keep me amused to this day.. In a bid to outdo his limited capacity, Keyur went a little bit-- NO, WAY OVERBOARD and ended up puking at 4 am, only to be so bummed out he didnt realize that he had puked when he woke up again one hour later.
The last day of the fest dawned, and was to bring more bad luck, with the "College debate team" making their way by the 4 am train only to supercede my team as the lone twosome representing our college at the Ragam English Debate.. Also the eastern musical, the event that brought 80% of the NITK contingent to the hostile climate of Calicut. Exceeding the timelimit unabashedly despite warning, we just had to play the song that has been looped atleast 3000 times in Left wing, First Floor, 4 th Block, NITK.. Jal "AADAT", which most likely cost us a place in the top 3.. Disheartened by the lack of laurels as far as the college goes, we hastily boarded the afternoon train and headed straight for the hostel, reaching in the wee hours of the evening, after a 5 hour conversation with the girl's rep that I would like to forget as soon as possible, and an enjoyable jugalbandi between shanky's flute and *insert any mallu violinist from any arbit mallu engineering college*'s violin, doling out our bus ride entertainment..Back to where I belong..
The aftertaste that the trip left was sweet, even if strings ditched and the other aspects of the fest were also nothing to write home about, but I met a lot of people who were previously inaccesible but are now only a phone call away, people who I somehow lost touch with but now am renetworked with, and that for me was the main draw of this trip, thus personally it was a resounding success.