Chennai – Melbourne –Accra. Nandan Nilekani’s vision of winning in a flat world was slightly modified to ‘Playing in a Flat world’. This was possibly just the fourth time in my life that I was performing on stage. The interesting aspect being, no two times with the same exploits.
This time around, I was part of a students’ ensemble playing the Djembe, which is a West African drum, an instrument I have been learning for three months now. We were performing at the Esplanade which is one of the oldest Hotels/ Pubs in St Kilda which is the Summer Capital of Melbourne for its beach and added fun and frolic ;).
Our part lasted for just about ten minutes, but it was truly memorable. Since this was the first gig that I was performing in, the intial moments were jittery, but once into the groove, it was masti! I had a bout of nerves, before the event, but after I saw my fellow performers already down with a couple of beers waiting for our turn, I just told myself that it would not be as tough I thought it would be.
Once on stage, I had the shock of the evening, when I found that only one of classmates was on stage, and the rest from a different batch! Fearing that I was possible ascended on to the stage earlier than required, I checked with my teacher, if I was in the right place, and only later did I realize that rest of my class mates were sitting on the chairs they had brought for the event, and hence were occupying the first quarter of the audience space themselves.
The group was truly multi ethnic and the output just vindicated my belief that Music can be a Great Unifier.
The performance/stage is not even remotely comparable to the December season concert in Music Academy, but never the less, it was an enriching experience. There is nothing that quenches a performer’s thirst more than the genuine applause one gets from the audience, not even two bottles of Castle Lager!
A big thanks to my friends Pramod, Sriram and Dhaval for turning up early for the event, and standing up (literally), for me!
If you are interested in catching glimpses of Shivamani II in the making, feel free to mail me, and I will send across the photos/video clips, proudly presented to you by ace photographer Pramod!
3 comments:
machi, you wanted some daily to cover the article, no one did, so you have reported vebatim on vaaman :) anyway great to know that you performed...why see glipmses of Sivamani II, he will be called Arun II after some time :P
hey arun!
My first time here :).. nice round of up the events !.. as for the gig.. am sure u must have kalakified.. :)
PS: though am not sure if your 'ace -photographer' took pics of the gig .. (coz I've known him to concentrate on the "giggies" :D:D)
@Shreyas.. U summed it up right.. Since the Age and Herald could not make it to the venue, because of unprecendented crowds starting right from the road, I had to fill in as the performer cum journo :P.. all in a day's work.
@ Gayathri.. thanks for gracing vaaman... the ace photographer atleast showed some pics where I am at the edge of the frame.. cant ask for more from him on a Saturday evening :)
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