Wednesday 26 August 2009

A Clarks Act

During the winters of 2007, I kept in intermittent contact with Pablo. He informed me that there was a chance that they would get to perform a live gig at a Christmas party. Being held at a decent hotel ('Clarks') in Varanasi, I believed that there would be a throng of pretty girls in attendance. And loads of firangi chics too.

Pablo invited me to 'cover' the event, and since I didn't really have much to do for the week, I booked my tickets and for the first time that year went to the Holi City, this time not in my capacity as a journalist for ***, but to enjoy a short holiday. And over time, I had grown to be a bit fond of the band.

I met Pablo and Alex at the place where I had first (for want of a better word) interviewed them. They were sitting at the tea-and-samosa shop discussing the merits and demerits of feeding biscuits to stray dogs. And for their experiments a stray dog was present at their feet.

"If you feed him something sweet," Alex said, "all his hair will fall off and he would be as bald as...you know, anything that's bald."

"You don't say. Let me feed him a biscuit." Pablo said.

"And tomorrow, this dog would be bald. Say, there's Nikhil."

They greeted me and turned their attention back to the dog, I said, "So tell me more about the gig?"

It took them a while to register the fact that they had a gig coming up, Pablo said, quite smiling, "Well we don't know much about that, since all our instruments are locked up in the hostel common room, and the warden isn't kind enough to allow us to retrieve them."

"And we can't really practice with accoustic guitars you know, there's no use. Can't hear them over the drums. So we are waiting for that..."

Not for the first time I regretted not making a thorough enquiry before setting off on a journey. "You do have a gig though? Right?"

They were laughing at the antics of the dog, or maybe secretly laughing at me, "Of course, Of course, we are going to perform on the 25th."

"Or 26th, it's not sure yet. But don't worry, we still have three days..."

I panicked, "And where is the rest of the band?"

Alex said, "Oh well, there's that as well. PC would not be joining us at all, and Adi would be here tomorrow, or maybe the day after."

I wiped my brow, "And till then? What do we do?"

Pablo said, "Good question." And then he proceeded to not answer it, and threw a piece of the crust of the samosa at the dog.


Adi arrived the next day, and using his exceptional skills at palavering, convinced the warden of their hostel to open up the locks and procured the electric and the bass from their rooms. The rest of the ensemble was provided by another college band, who was an year senior to them and lacked a rhythm guitarist and a bass player, this was provided to them by Broken Tooth, in return for the services of their drummer.

"Another drummer? It's a lot like Spinal Tap you know..." I said.

"Except that our drummers do not die, either of spontaneous human combustion (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spontaneous_human_combustion), or of anything else." Pablo answered, the band looked visible perked up because finally they had a chance to practice. Though a lot of practice time was hogged by the senior band, they were more or less content. Since Pablo wasn't doing anything while the other band practiced, I decided to ask him about the gig.

"So tell me, how did you come by this chance? Did the management at Clarks contact you?"

"No actually, it was the Alumni association of our college."

"And...why would they be interested in hosting a Christmas party at Clarks?"

"It's not a Christmas party." Pablo said, "It's the Twenty fifth reunion of the batch of 1982."

My vision of a gang of pretty girls and firangi chicks shattered. "I am leaving!"

"Why?" Pablo seemed shocked at my sudden decision, "Er...did we offend you in someway?"

"No, I didn't come here to see you guys perform in front of a bunch of old dudes!" And then I outlined my original view of the expected audience.

Pablo was crestfallen, "I thought you had come to see us perform!"

I realized that I had been rather tactless, I moderated myself and said, "Ha ha, I was joking. And anyway my tickets are confirmed for the 27th." Mentally I rued the fact.


PC did arrive on the desired day. Apparently he had planned to come even later, but his parents had sort of pushed him out of the house and thrown his luggage after him. So he too came to complete the band. They had decided on a simple set list. The songs being-

1) Satisfaction (Rolling Stones)
2) Time of your life (Green Day)
3) Last Kiss (Pearl Jam)
4) Take it easy (Eagles)

The arrangements to go to the venue were good, the Alumni association had spared little expense on making their evening good. Earlier in the day a gentleman had come and had been rather happy of the fact that Broken Tooth was playing 'Satisfaction.'

"We used to play it during our days, at that time there was a band for every hostel...and us being Electronics engineers, we made the speakers ourselves."

The same gentleman met the band in the evening and told an acquaintance, "You know these are the same guys we heard practicing."

"Was it you?" The other person didn't have a favourable expression on his face.

Pablo's manner was brusque, "Sir we play better than we practice."

The Electronics Gentleman quickly came to his rescue, "Ha ha, these youngsters and their jokes. Maybe it's the fatigue from practice. Come on guys, push along."

After the sound check, and a couple of songs from the senior band the Older guys took the stage. Effectively saying, "Thank you for bringing musical instruments. Now kindly vacate the stage, and allow us to play."

Broken Tooth were visible disappointed. They decided to head to the bar at the buffet, "It'd have been like playing to a restaurant crowd you know." Adi said, "It's perhaps a good thing we didn't get to play."

Alex didn't share his view, "This is not what we practiced for! I think, we should have gone on stage before them."

Pablo said, "Look! Free Kurkure! The day is saved!"

Of course, apart from the free kurkure was the free liquor, and Adi, Alex and the seniors decided to raise their spirits by downing some.

And well, in my capacity as a journalist I couldn't have refused the hospitality.

Over an hour passed, and the band decided that it was better to have the free food and call it a day not totally lost, after all, their friends Pushpi (who had tagged along) and Prakhar (who had provided the drumkit) were making a good use of the bar.

Adi's whole demeanour changed with each peg of Rum, and he seemed quite upbeat, "Come on! We will get to play yet. Look, the stage is empty! Whoops!"

The stage was quite empty because all the people who had been playing had come down to have dinner. Broken Tooth, whatever being the merits-demerits of the band, could see a chance when it presented itself. They rushed on to the stage, Adi dragging a chair to keep a leg on, and a filled glass of Vodka and Orange Juice for other purposes.

They announced themselves and began performing 'Last Kiss.' The post dinner audience relaxed, and slowly started paying attention to the noise from the stage. When they had got the listeners decently warmed up, they launched into 'Time of Your life'.

The drummer was inebriated, but thankfully wasn't missing a beat, and seemed quite lively with the alcohol inside him. And his great moment of triumph came when the band played Satisfaction. They relished every chord, every beat, and they dedicated the song to the gentleman who had come to visit them earlier in the day. He too was visibly buoyed, pushing his chair very close to the stage.

Of course it was just after that that the Hotel Manager came rushing towards the stage.

"Please cut out the noise! I have a group of Chinese (or Japanese) guests who are going to leave the hotel because of you!"

Pablo went to appease him, and was in the process of doing it when the band (both the bands from the college) kick started 'Keep on rocking in the free world.' The hotel manager shook both his fists angrily, but somehow Pablo convinced him to allow for one last song.

After the performance, the adventure continued for a while because though they had been given a good reception, they found themselves stranded while exiting. They discussed their gig, and because most of them (including me) were five pegs down, were quite content in loitering about the hotel lobby waiting for the vehicle.

"You know there was thus alumnus' daughter who was singing along with me." Pablo said.

"Dude, that's what you always claim." Alex countered.

"And besides, she had a moustache, I saw her up close." Adi summed it up.

6 comments:

  1. Seems like "20 saal ke ho gae ho.." :D

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  2. 25 saale ke ho jaayenge tab bhi kuch nahi ho paayega

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  3. "dude,that's what you always claim".......ekdum sahi kaha

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  4. adi always has a trick up his sleeve...poor guy :D

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  5. Thanks for dropping by my blog. :) Yes, I am from Navrachana!
    And I like how you write, you have a new subscriber :)

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  6. "They were sitting at the tea-and-samosa shop discussing the merits and demerits of feeding biscuits to stray dogs." -- sexy :)

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