A world where all is free
Monday, February 07, 2005
 
Sting came
It was a traumatic experience to start with. We left office at 5:15 to attend the concert which was to start at 7. We picked kind samaritan Seemant on the way (6:30 pm, M.G. Road). Seemant picked up some wraps, a packet of Lays, a Coke and many Cadbury's Perks for Aarti and me.

Now, I am very notorious with losing my way everytime I head towards that side of Bangalore (and indeed, most sides of Bangalore - for instance, we reached Kalasipalayam once, when we intended to reach the airport. Notes: K'palayam is 25 km away from the airport). This time I tried to ensure I got it right, and took directions from someone and kept a printout of the map that had appeared in the papers that morning. The map gave what I thought were clear instructions - reach Cauvery Theatre and follow the arrows for the Rs 900 entrance.

But long before we reached Cauvery theatre, we spotted a young lad standing by the roadside with a large placard saying "Sting concert. Rs 900 this way." This, of course, was not what the paper said.

Who were we to challenge the placard holding boy?

So we followed his directions. Till we reached another crossing - and no placard holding boy this time. Panicstricken, we turned left. And then I noticed from the corner of my eye another placard holding boy on the opposite side of the road, obscured in the dark. But I had turned left, and the placard wasn't visible from the distance and there was no way to take a U turn.

So I assumed, as a matter of convenience, that I had taken the right turn, i.e. the left turn. We went straight ahead and later were advised by a kind gentleman to take the first left turn and drive straight ahead. (Seemant at this point made a prophetic statement - "I am very wary of these take first left instructions. It is impossible to determine if first means first or if it means a higher dimension)

We took the fist left and went straight ahead. The lane narrowed slowly. I assumed this was a one-way. It was not. This fact dawned upon me only when I noticed a large bus heading towards me.

I skillfully negotiated the traffic.

It was 705 by now. And then an auto overtook me. The auto contained (besides the driver) a shiny woman and a clean shaven boy screaming into a phone and moaning "O shit he has already sung desert rose." (We later realised they were wrong, evidently one of their brighter friends was taking their trip). But thats not important.

What is important is the following error in assumption: "Shiny girl, shaved boy in auto evidently means Rs 900 ticket, hence we are going in the correct direction." At 715 we reached the Rs 2000 entrance. Seemant's prophecy was bang on. The first left actually meant the second left.

Turned around, negotiated the traffic, (Seemant reminded me of my earlier observation that this was not a one way and that we should be thankful for that).

At 745 we reached the venue. Ours was the 8, 638th car in the park. Or thereabouts.

I had just driven 2 and a half hours, if you failed to notice.

We picked up two Perks to eat at a later point in time. We knew no eatables/drinks were allowed inside, but come on, how can someone stop you from carrying chocolates?!. Unfortunately the cop outside frisking thought otherwise and confiscated the chocolates. The choice then, was between eating the chocolates pronto versus donating it to the Bangalore police force. Unfortunately we had just eaten those wraps.

So we entered the scene sans two Perks (and me desperately needing to urinate).

In that sorry state we caught our first glimpse of Sting. Sting was the size of a peanut. Rs 900 ticket meant the dregs of the society. We were a cross-country track away from the stage. We tried various stunts to catch a better glimpse. Finally we went and stood under a tree; it was growing on a mound and we thought we could see over everybody else's heads.

Now trees are virtually inanimate, but can be very deceptively serene. This one in particular was playing host to a gathering of large black ants, who in turn assumed I was a part of the tree. The next 5 minutes were spent jumping around trying to get rid of the menace.

(Somehwere in between I went to the "gents". It was a posh, outsourced urinal. Western style, plush, flush, air-freshner et al. However, there was one drawback, which is so representative of Bangalore's infrastructure. The organisers assumed two such loos were enough for a crowd of 25,000. Since I had no choice, I contributed to the stink.)

Back to the show- Sting yells "Namaste India! Namaskara Bangalore!" Crowd goes ecstatic. Then he bursts into music. Thankfully, super. Old stuff, new stuff, experimental stuff, popular stuff, jazzy stuff. The rest of the show was spent atop a table (improvised from a nearby HSBC stall), smelling whiffs of grass (Please note irony: Our Perks were confiscated at the entrance.) and in front of a romancing couple.

The show ended 945. We ran, and found our way back thanks to Seemant's brilliance.

All in all, great show, too short, though.

And if anyone knows the way to that part of town, please send me a map.

- posted by Rallix @ 7:17 AM
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