Yeah. Right. Fat chance.
The amount of time and preparation involved in getting the whole act together and making it happen has been quite a brilliant, albeit exhausting experience that is worth documenting about, though I do remember saying in a previous post that I promise to put up topical non-MBA stuff for the most part.
However, the events that transpired over the weekend, and the set of events that led to it need to be captured in a small box and tucked away in the closet of one’s memories, for the absolutely awesome time had by one and all.
While most official reports on what happened would focus on a review, what I am putting forth is more related to personal experiences.
The ISB official rock band, ‘Conjoint’, named so after Conjoint Analysis (in case your mind wandered elsewhere and thought of things you shouldn’t be thinking about) put up a super performance on saturday evening.
The event itself was named ‘Bass Diffusion’ (some say narcistically so, because yours truly plays the bass) and featured the Raghu Dixit Project, Conjoint and the Class of 2009 band.
For the first time in my time here, there was a huge audience that had showed up for the show. The previous three shows which we’ve hosted and played at did garner responses that seemed lukewarm by comparison. However, they’d been followed up by some awesome parties and so all shows we had on campus were memorable.
There are numerous things that can go wrong in the run up to an event, and quite a lot of them did too. However, at the end of the day, I guess one can pat oneself on the back for a good job well done, thanks to the huge team that coordinated and put everything together and worked tirelessly to make it happen.
We spent two weeks practicing for this performance, and while there were quite a few goof-ups on stage, they were noticed by a handful of people in the audience. I know for sure that we’d not have won any competition we’d be taking part in, but I do know that we’d have the crowd love us.
When Raghu Dixit had to hit stage, it turned out that we’d missed out on providing them all with water bottles for their performance. When I’d previously been in charge of shows for Swarathma, I remember being yelled at once by Vasu Dixit (lead singer) for not having got him another bottle in time, and that lesson ensured that I’d never forget water on stage or ever undermine its importance for the performing band.
As soon as our performance got over with all of us taking a bow and having the audience clap for us, I had to rush frantically to pick up mineral water bottles from the Coffee Day outlet on campus and while sprinting around as waves of nostalgia regarding all the running around for shows rushed through my head, I realized how good the evening actually had been and was thankful for it.
It was a calculated gamble of sorts to have Raghu Dixit perform at ISB, knowing the crowd’s inclination towards music more familiar to them. The apprehension that the act would not be appreciated thanks to his stance on playing only original music was quite palpable and the repercussions, should that have happened would have resulted in me drawing a lot of flak for it.
Thankfully, mid-way through his show, we had people getting into the act, coming all the way close to the stage, singing hitherto unheard choruses and dancing, screaming, shouting and jumping in a manner that surpassed expectations. Raghu Dixit, Gaurav Vaz, Vijay Joseph, Karthik and Siva are performers par excellence and it was a pleasure to have them on campus, more so because they were so attitude-free and chilled out, thereby making our lives easier.
After the show, most of the people that I met said that this was one of their best weekends on campus. The others were too trashed to speak coherently. Some alumni mentioned that this was the best Solstice event they’ve been to and I guess the three month advance meetings and discussions regarding artist shortlists did pay off well in the end.
All’s well that ends well and hopefully, there’s more to come. I still can’t believe that its only over three months before I graduate out of here and go back into the real world.
And Vir Das rocked too!!