Sunday, April 16, 2006

Indian Ocean

Okay, looks like everyone is going to be "treated" to all the happening events of my weekend ;-)! So after yesterday's momentous meeting, today was concert time.

About three weeks ago, I came to know through one of my friends that the Indian band "Indian Ocean" was coming to town. I have heard of Indian Ocean before because one of my friends, V, is a very big fan and had once asked me to get a CD of the band when I went to India. So I promptly told V about the concert and he was very excited and all set to go. He asked if I was going to go and I was like "Hmmmm... let me see". Then, another friend S also heard about the upcoming concert and was all praise for the band. S looked incredulous when I told him that I was still wondering whether to go - what was there to think about!?!

Oh well, I have always enjoyed the concerts that I have been to and all the sample bits of music of IO I had heard so far were pretty decent. So I decided to go. Then, me being a very generous and altruistic person ("the whole world should get whatever happiness I get" is my motto ;-)), started spreading word around about the concert. Finally, eight of us were all set to go.

Today dawned bright and sunny. Ooops - make that cloudy and rainy. Nevertheless I landed up at the concert hall about the time they were beginning to let people in. The show was sold out. Of the eight people who were supposed to turn up, I could see only yours truly. I anyways went inside the concert hall, and in true Indian tradition, put my sweater on one end, the program on the other and then sat in between those eight seats I had "blocked", waiting for the others to show up.

Two more showed up but of the rest five there was no sign. They called and said they were on the way. Grrr - I just hate it when people maintain Indian Standard Time. Anyways, the show started. The music was simply awesome. Especially listening in a concert gives music a "feel" which is out of this world. I was thoroughly enjoying myself. Unfortunately, my enjoyment was marred somewhat by the fact that every 2 minutes one of the organizers would come and ask us whether the 5 empty seats were taken. And we would be like "Yeah, those people are on their way". After some ten times of this, it was hard to decide whether I was more annoyed with the organizers or with my unpunctual friends. Nevertheless, I made a mental note to kick V hard when he and his friends did show up.

Thankfully, the rest of them all showed up some 30 minutes after the show started. The performance continued for a while after that and there was a break. During the break I bumped into some friends from grad school and some friends from my undergrad. There were tons and tons of desis there and so I guess my usually low rate of accidentally bumping into people I know got a big boost :-)!

Well, back to the performance. The second half was even more awesome than the first half. Their kind of fusion music is energetic and lively. I was tapping my foot and enjoying myself very thoroughly. I like their "Bandhe" (you can listen to it on Raaga from the Hindi movie Black Friday) and "Kandisa" renditions the best. It was mesmerizing.

All too soon the show came to an end. And it was time to leave. Which brings me to why I am putting this post up today. Apparently, Indian ocean is playing in Washington DC and Morrisville (North Carolina) soon. If you live in nearby areas and get the chance, do go and check them out! All the four players are immensely talented and the show will be worth your while. You can get more details on the Indian Ocean website.

Anyways, after the show, I bought a CD of one of the Indian Ocean albums (am listenting to it right now :-)). Post-concert, all eight of us decided to have dinner together. We managed to congregate at the correct meeting point and had a good dinner at a Thai restaurant. Perfect ending to a nice day :-). Now, if only tomorrow was Sunday instead of Monday ....

11 comments:

Prabhu said...

Wow in North Carolina soon?
Cool, you can expect a writeup from me soon :)

Did the show start on time? I guess even the show would have had a delayed start due to people coming according to IST?

Anita said...

ah. to set the balance right maybe you should write about the other concert you did not like quite as much - the bryan adams one.

Archana Bahuguna said...

Hope you had a great time ...

And thanks for the valuable information that it is going to be held in NC soon.

Archana said...

Prabhu, yup, yup, will wait for your review :-)! Mercifully, the show was only slightly delayed. It started some 5-10 minutes after the scheduled time!

Sindu, hehehe - I liked the concert - it was the horrible journey back home that I hated :-(. But yeah, good idea, should write abt that one!

Archana - are you going then :-)?

Shilpa said...

Grr...ppl who r late annoy me too !

Good to know u enjoyed...I think they are playing in Dallas too...got many emails about it...

Archana said...

Madsies - oh, too bad :-(! Maybe next time...! Yeah, meeting P was good fun :-)!

Shilpa, waiting for people to turn up is such a pain! Hey, how come you did not go for the concert?

BZ said...

I get annoyed when people are late too :--(
I go to all lengths to keep up the time, like skip food, or leave some work unattended.. just to be on time. I once forced a friend to have a hurried dinner, just so we could be on time to meet some others, and ended up waiting for over 30 mins for _them_! I did apologise profusely to her. :--)
I dont know _why_ people cant be on time.

Nice to know you had a fun-filled weekend lady! :--)

Shilpa said...

Well...I am in the middle of a ton of exams...:-( no fun for the next 3 weeks...

Archana said...

Saranya - wow! Someone _just_ like me :-)! I am very particular about being punctual too - simply hate making other people wait. Needless to say, I seem to be spending most of my life wating for other not-so-punctual to turn up :-(!

Shilpa - oh, poor you :-(!

Lalit Singh said...

IO concert.... hmmm nice
bloody no-one performs in this snow infested Aalborg. DAMN!!

Archana said...

Lalit, thats probably because you would have been the only audience :-))! That's why you need to live in desi-friendly places *nods philosphically* ;-)!