Youth Nexus – Part 1

Hi friends,

It's said that man is a social animal but I guess the 'social' part is missing in me and hence it can be concluded that I am more of an 'Animal' than a human being. Somewhere down the line, I knew, I have to pay the price of being not a part of a group, a set of people I can call my own and I guess, today was the day when I realized it in a bitter way, when I asked, not less then 12 people, to accompany me to Youth Nexus 09 at North Campus and all of them declined unanimously, except Amit who showed some interest but it was too late then, for him to convert that feeble interest in boiling zeal.

But I was sure of one thing; I didn't want to turn a deaf ear to my heart's craving just because there's no friend to accompany me. I thought it would still be loads of fun. I know, it's bullshit for most of you to even think on those lines but I guess, I am a bull (animal) and I do a lot of shitty things!! Also, I didn't want to lose a wonderful opportunity to enjoy mind-blowing (and eardrum shattering as well) music, meet some crazy and fun loving people ( 'Bird watching' goes without saying) and collect enough masala to write a blog (hehe).

So, after an unsuccessful attempt to convince Amit, I picked my Activa and zoomed to my flat. Earlier I thought to park it at the metro station to save time but later changed my mind. I went to my flat, became a bit informal, googled the exact location of the fest and left for the station. unfortunately, Murphy's Law worked this time and the metro eluded me when I was about to catch the escalators for the platform and the next one came after a good 15 min; it felt like 15 hours to me b'coz I was running short of time. It was already 7 and the official time of the fest was till 8 PM (hey, I am not doing a surrogate Ad for the very famous daru here).

After much hustle and bustle, I reached the vishvavidyalaya metro station. From there I took a bus for the venue (I googled it after all, so that I don't have to depend on the auto/rikshaw walas). In the bus I met with the General secretary of Zakir hussain college who helped me to get to the place through a short-cut  (I bet, even google wouldn't be knowing that !!) If my memory serves me right, I explore that place (shakti nagar) for the first time (and I am a delhite!!).

Now, I could hear the electric guitars and see the dancing lights in the sky. I was close and the next thing I can recall is, 'Them Clones' performing on a much larger and sexier stage, with much better sound Quality and a fantastic laser light show in the backdrop, adding zing to their performance. The electric guitar's sound is very intoxicating indeed. It hypnotizes you, if I can put it that way and the rest it automatic. You start feeling the vibe and the mood starts building. The next band was, the very Indian but truly international, Parikrama. It's a band which I can compare with salad (lolz); it's fabulous when consumed as a whole but the ingredients still maintain their individuality and are unique in their own way. The vocalist, lead guitarist, bass guitarist, violinist and everyone comes in the front to give a taste of their raw talent and capabilities (except drummer and keyboard player of course!). I really envy the lead guitarist for his guitar skills and his incredibly long hair! But unfortunately, their performance was ephemeral; hardly 3-4 songs and they didn't even obliged the crowd's and the emcee's request of 'one last song'.

But it wasn't something to mull upon because a lot of thing including 'Fashion show', DJ Sumit and RDB's live performance was scheduled for the next day i.e 19th dec.

But unlike most of the North Campus fests, there were hardly any girls (the concept of HOT or NOT comes only later!) in that ground which was as smooth as sensex! Nevertheless, I came to know that Kailash kher is coming to SRCC on 22nd during conversation with few SRCC guys over there.

U think it's over? Hey, the fun has just begun, at least for me. When I came out of the ground, I met with the guys from my college, ABS, Amity; viz. Jaggi, Aashish, Puneet, Gagan and surender, and together we went to CP to have some food and loads of fun. Let me introduce jaggi to you. well, he's been placed with TVS with a whopping package (for Amity standards) of 6 Lacs and one more identification which he earned that day was, his phone got stolen in the metro and he was quite happy about it except some fleeting moments of afsos.

Although at our age, guys hardly have any liking for milk, but we were different and I guess the difference paid coz the milk was fantastic, bole to ekdum faad. Next we went to Subway and then we barged into KFC. The ambience of KFC, I must say, was fantabulous; I just kept looking at it to get ideas and inspiration, in case I get into retailing.

It was already 10.30 by then and the danger of missing the last metro started creeping in so we decided to get down to the metro station to avoid any further hassles. At the metro station, I noticed a change which was heartwarming. Dilli ke log insaan ban gaye hai! Ya, they were standing in a queue at the corners of the stainless-steel railings, making way for the passengers to get down first. The important word is ‘first’, it is an unprecedented gesture if dilliwalas to let anyone get down first and  control the irresistible urge of grabbing that ‘peacock throne’ which is lying vacant in front of the eyes but only for a billionth of a second and if he misses that once in a travel-time opportunity he has to keep standing in one of the stance of ‘kuchchipudi’ dance with one hand up (holding the handle) and the other at the back (prob. Holding the pole) and with only one leg bearing the entire weight of the body while the other one relaxing with the knee protruded and the heel raised. Fortunately, Most of us got the seats except few who preferred standing and with plans to meet the next day as well, I bid adieu to all my friends.

I believe most of us have seen the video of steve jobs’ speech at Stanford in 05. In his address, he said that, “you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in the future…. Because believing that the dots will connect will give you the confidence to follow your heart even when it leads you off the well worn path; and that will make all the difference”. By ‘dots’ he meant the decisions you take in life.

What he said was relating to career, to life. I am a lesser mortal and so, I associate those deep words with the outrageous and sometimes, crazy things I do. But anyhow, I followed my heart and that had made all the difference.

Thank you

(and ya, you can still catch the fun because nothing is lost yet. Make your own plans or give me a buzz. And I would appreciate your comments on the blog)