Elan-e-Jung the Band Brawl at IITH

It was a warm Saturday afternoon. I was minding my own business,trying to figure out how the Support Vector Machine works, when suddenly I heard the characteristic "ping" that I seldom hear (not that I am deaf or anything; it's just that I'm not a popular guy). It was my email account that comes with an embedded messenger. In case you've guessed "Gmail", you've guessed it right. I had logged into it hours ago (I had recently spent forty minutes explaining to my lovely mother that being online all the time did not imply I was chatting all the time, and I still doubt if she believed me), had not received an email since but this ping was a reminder that technology not only distances people from one another but also has the power to bring them together at times. It was a ping from one of my few (I wish mother reads this) companions. It said, "Kryptos@IIT?" Our ancestors would have failed to gain any sense from the encrypted message but the message hit home in my head. For those as wise as our ancestors, I'd like to extend technical support by saying that the message was an invitation to the rock show at IIT Hyderbad where the headlining band was Kryptos. I looked at my watch, it was three in the afternoon. "When do we leave?", I typed back. "5:30" came the reply. "Count me in" were my next words.

Next I opened another tab in my Mozilla and typed "IIT Hyderabad map" in the search box. No relevant results. I modified the query to "Hyderabad Map" and I selected the first result. A map of Hyderabad was on my monitor. I searched for IIT Hyderabad in this window, google instead responded with IIIT Hyderabad. At times I wonder if Google is really as intelligent an organization as it is supposed to be. Look at my goddamn IP before throwing those suggestions! I reminded myself that big table was optimized for speed and not correctness. The bottom line is, I could not locate IITH on Google Maps, so I had to make sure someone knew the way before we set off. It was Vedant who claimed he could get us to our destination and we believed him.

We set out at five; someone said the show would begin earlier than the scheduled time. We were five out of work blokes on three hard working bikes. Our destination was thirty kilometres from our source, give or take a couple of those units. Avinash (not Abinash) joined us at Lingampally. He perched his rear on Vedant's bike, Soumen's came behind mine and we set out to explore the terra-incognita, the part of Hyderabad that none of us believed was part of Hyderabad owing to sheer geographical separation. We raced forth on NH9 for about 18-20 kilometres and then took a left, speeding through the village markets and finally on thinner roads with agriculture on both sides. There were some chemical factories along the way that almost paralysed us with their utterly-butterly repulsive gases. For miles we had to constrain our inhalation procedures; at one point of time I craved mouth to mouth for fear of fainting but I just did not have the right company. At one point, I did a Pulsar Stunt Mania manouvre and Soumen and I almost ended lying by the road when the rear wheel slipped in the sand and the centre of gravity of the bike,biker and pillion system shifted by a metre and the net force forced us into the dense undergrowth on the side of the road. For forty seconds we experienced a complex harmonic motion superimposed by the centripetal gyration and accelerated motion on an inclined plane; then we were back on the road. Soumen uttered a four lettered word when we resumed rectilinear propagation.

We reached the spot (no pun intended). It was a stadium in the humblest of surroundings. One of the bands had just begun. There were chairs laid out in the field and a big stage was erected. The band that was playing was called Eagle Riders. It was good. We looked around for add-ons, there were none. It was one of those scenarios where you said to yourself "Just the Music, nothing else", except that this time the scenario was imposed upon you and despite the lavish arrangements, the sound was not exceptional.

We walked as close to the stage as our conscience allowed and started to bang our heads involuntarily, to cheer the jammers; no band likes a cold response and there were not enough people around to satisfy the quorum at a Gram Panchayat. A volunteer from the organising committee was sent to dampen our spirits by asking us to step away from the stage; he reasoned the audience was unable to see the performance. "This is not some Nautanki chum, it is a freakin' Rock show" I was tempted to say, but they were IITians, a species considered more evolved than our own, so I refrained. We complied. Our keyboardist Abinash, who is often found listening to bands like Lamb of God and Dimmu Borgir, and has had long chats with Mephisto, found the explanation preposterous and demanded "Why do you have chairs in the first place?". The volunteer gulped a lump in his throat, probably felt an outward thrust in his bladder, and responded "for families and old people". Another question was raised, "Families? Old people?" and the answer was "We support that". I intervened with "that is good,God bless your noble intentions" and the issue was not pursued further. Meanwhile the KB Bakers and Frankie vendors had arrived and they were selling edibles. We had something to eat.

The other bands followed, among which we adored All the Fat Children and liked Death Note and the track Maha Kali by Downpour. More people gathered; these included more IITians and several old aunties, several fathers and mothers with their small children. We met our friend Swaroop from Cerebral Assassins who shared our view about the crucial ingredients missing in the show. We discussed about the bands. Meanwhile the IITians had sprung into action. They were dancing, jumping around, throwing each other in the air, pushing, pulling, and what not. They were exuberant. We grabbed all the inspiration they had to offer and upon Swaroop's invitation -which was an elbow jab in my chest- started our own moshing pit. We took turns at head banging and moshing and observing the vigour of the hosts. We witnessed people doing Bhangra,Kathakali,Bharat Natyam,even Salsa at the growling vocals and heavy music. It was quite a sight. It looked like a disco theque, if not someone's Baraat. Young girls and guys, dancing hand in hand; the guys swirling the girls around; God it was annoying.

Suddenly it was time for Kryptos to set foot on the stage. The vigour of the crowd did not diminish, Au Contraire, it increased. Fathers, with their small kids holding their fingers walked up, thumping their feet and adding to the amount of dust in the air. Kryptos did a fine job; they were the reason why we were there. We still hope the sound system was better. It was brought to our attention that the Rock show was to be followed by the Dance Competition and our jaws dropped. WTF? Kryptos was given the hint and they played Descension, the last track of the evening. They did not play more than six tracks. Nolan, as he was leaving the stage uttered the words "Thank You guys for keeping metal alive in Hyderabad". I remembered the words of Pulkit, "Now you're being judgemental". Metal was on a ventilator and perhaps even a catheter that night if not lying peacefully in a grave. I expect all rock listeners to understand this statement.

All in all, the rock show was decent (another brick in the wall), but are rock shows supposed to be decent?