Freedom : Pause and Play

Things are never as simple as they appear. It is a feeling euphoria that is seeing me through all these days. The official and the unofficial vote of thanks should go to a bunch of amazing musicians and add to that list an amazingly cool friend (Randeep) and perhaps the most enchanting song writer and vocalist, Sarab. Last two weeks have been damn good for me professionally while I am still trying to cope up with a lot of things personally. Let that stuff for some other post in the blog.

I read in one of the most famous and much hyped book called ‘The Alchemist’ that the most simple things in the life are the most extraordinary. It is so true. Two of my decent ‘friends’ rocked my city and my people while I was in the bliss of strange melancholic ecstacy. Prestorika was good, they performed better than my expectation and parikrama was even better. Catching up with the people, chilling out, setting up the drums, though I wasn’t supposed to handle that show but still couldn’t help assisting Robert and that poor soul was having tough time doing it all alone.

This time, the moments I spent with parikrama were more enriching than the ones I have spent earlier and somehow I was keen on experimenting with different genres of music. Couldn’t satiate my hunger with all that I had and the ‘heard over and over again’ type of songs so ended up asking for music here and there. Suddenly while refreshing my mail account I saw this mail by this guy called Randeep Singh and I was surprised to see that mail. He sent me song titled ‘The Doll Is Mine’ by some ‘Blonde Redhead’. That’s not the issue anyhow. The name of the person who sent me the mail did the trick and I recalled, Oh Cool! Even this guy has a band called Menwhopause (MWP) and I fortunately I had their first album Home on my PC. I have heard it several times before and I have conveyed my compliments to the band as well.

There was something strange that particular night. The breeze carried the fragrance of someone I love and then I felt my eye lids getting moist. I was at home but yet far away and all of a sudden a voice, mingled with melody started singing –

Home

Mother, I’m waiting

Patient, you’ve been so late

I’m alone



Son, you’ve been gone too long

I’ve been waiting

Say that you’ll be

Home again soon



Home, is where, where I’ll be

HomeIt’s been raining shadows

The sun’s out

It’s clear enough for me to see the light



And I know it’s right for me to be moving on

I’ve beenLosing the battles I’m playing

With my mind

I need to let it go

Let it go

Move on



Home, I’ll sing a song, I’ll write a tune for you my

HomeI'll miss you, I'll miss you

So someday soon

My home

My home



Home

My home

My home

It was Sarab and I knew I have heard these words earlier but I just wasn’t getting them. I started listening to them and I was taken away by the same breeze itself. I landed up at some place which I don’t even know. That had no name and it was located somewhere with red walls around. All I could make out was that I am somewhere in my own heart and trying to recover. I was trying to recover from the hope, despair and melodies which added many unsung tunes to my memoirs.

The play list progressed and so the songs. I was lost in time and space. I wanted to move but sat there on the chair like a lifeless carcass. The music took over and I am perhaps the biggest admirer of the band now. I rushed through the trees, I swam across the biggest of the oceans, I jumped into the river and the music made me do it. Free, Sarab filled the vocals with soul and life and I never ever wondered ever before that free is such a powerful word. I then realized that even if I am nothing, the worst and the ugliest person, I know what I have got and I can cherish that for the lifetime and this is Freedom.

Receding down my own self and then I suddenly felt the pain which I knew that it has been burning deep inside me. With a Shotgun, I wish I would wake up one morning and would find myself dead someday dead. While she weeps on my side with a shotgun in her hand. The body that’s no where to be seen, with blood strained sheets of clothes is now flying high in the skies of eternity. I always knew that death is beautiful but Sarab made me realized that it has beautiful manifestations as well.

Things were going fine and then all of a sudden something come up which was so me and if someone deep with in me have been telling those things –

Little boy you've been dreaming too long

Don't you know I laid a path ahead for you

You're fooling with your funny dreams

Aim higherDon't you know I need you to

Born again, my little one

You're squealing but I got a song for you

Go sleep until you're fresh enough

Awaken now, you've got to face the blues



I, have I been wasting time?

I, have I been wasting time?



Been wasting all my time on you

Been hoping you would learn a trick or two

And now you're walking up to me

You're saying you don't know if I have you



I, have I been wasting time?

I, have I been wasting time?


I wish I can write the band’s name high on sky. I just feel like a flower in the desert rain and I know I can’t stay for long. The aura of the members speaks volumes and this is by far the best band I have heard and trust me, I have heard a lot of them. Parikrama is an exception though. Randeep has always been a good friend and he finally managed to get me tripping over the words like “Sahi Hain” and “Kaafi Sahi”. This is one piece of dedication I would like to put forth to these guys. I feel so helpless compromising at points when I want to paint the sky red and blue with their praises. I have mailed the song to over 400 people in last three days and I m still counting. The reason is that I cant help myself making others to listen to that awesome track.

Randeep thinks that I am helping them out with their PR, but this is just a token of respect, love and friendship I share with these people and all those basics Sarab taught me about the Ad World and ‘ideation’. I wish I can climb up the tallest building in India and scream out your name. These guys with their music have re defined my life and I dedicate my life to the feelings and attitude these guys have instigated into me. Way to go MenWhoPause and yeah, Randeep, as you say play and pause are the part of one single button. So now you know what to do, eh?

Writing Credits : Piyush Singh
Editing Credits : Aaishwari Chouhan
Image Credits : MenWhoPause

Rock, Rock, Rocking Season of Summer

Once again in the city was Lucknow, the winds blew harder, strong enough to blow off the tents and the backdrop which read “Samanway – 07” and “PRESTORIKA”. The band Prestorika started off their third performance in city among lots of chaos and “bloopers”. Oh No! The band was not responsible for these.

It was the concluding day of the annual festival of amity Lucknow, ‘Samanway’. Feedback, or the other Feedback or the ‘Lucknow-wala’ Feedback as they may be called was supposed to open for the Delhi based band Prestorika. In an untidy turn of event which was categorized as sound malfunctions and power related problems, Prestorika ended up ‘opening’ for our own commercial sellable band known as Feedback.

Delayed flight, delayed sound setup (lets call it, ‘Incompetency of the Sound system’) and power failure resulted in a delayed show. Prestorika took stage and they were raring to go. The crowd was lovely as Vasav Vashisht, lead vocalist of the band likes to put it, “The crowd was fabulous, atleast those who were there for us”. Seems like quite a diplomatic sentence. Throughout the Prestorika’s performance, the less ‘rock mature’ members of the crowd kept on holding the posters high up which read something like “We want Atif”, “Tere Bin” and many other ‘commercially sellable tracks’.

Others who were too lazy to hold their hands up against the gravity were keen on getting themselves involved in scuffle and brawl with their fellow crowd members and things even went beyond words when a couple of lens men caught a couple making out and that too in the front row. The band kept its calm despite the fact that they have to leave the stage thrice during their unfortunate short performance because of the technical issues of electricity and sound.

The band played some of the brilliant compositions and in the most enchanting manner. The initial start made sure that Prestorika is going to rule the night but then the sound went kaput and so were the lights on stage. The band had to leave the stage for some time then and this happened thrice. “It is difficult and yeah obviously uncomfortable to leave the stage again and again while you are performing but we did our best to make sure that we come back with greater energy and into ‘it’ everytime we left the stage”, claims Nitesh Vasandani, the Prestorika drummer.

With songs like Trooper, Wicker Man, Sweating Bullets and much more, the evening was just a rendition of Iron Maiden and in such an awesome manner. Four out of 10 tracks were by Iron Maiden and Lokesh Bakshi, lead guitarist quips, “The hangover is still on”, referring to the recent Iron Maiden tour of India.

Their set list for the day also compiled songs like Knocking on Heaven’s Door, Enter Sad Man, Fear of the Dark, Don’t Die and their Prestorika originals like Sycopanth, Lost in You and the brand new rocking track, Not My Way. At the end of the show, Vasav admitted, “We wanted to play our tracks like 447, Fuck the Politics and Hoist My Soul because Lucknow loved them the last time but things on stage didn’t allowed us to do so. I guess this city has to wait till we are around for the fourth time”.

People could not get enough but there were some heroes of the day. The first one was the band Prestorika itself for not acting finicky with the sound and light arrangements and did their best to keep the crowd entertained and they succeeded as well. They were seen sweating it out on stage but didn’t give up. Just four of the measly twenty four power cans were put to use and they were all yellow. They left the people spell bound with music.

The second one was Gaurang, officially a class 12th student at La Marts and unofficially the whole and sole of the rock show. He got his reward when the band dedicated one of the songs to him on stage and he innocently claims it to be a big learning experience. The credit also goes to Sidhu (Prestorika Sound Engineer) to give what ever best he could out of the things he was given.

Finally Prestorika winded up their performance and the next band to go on stage was Feedback and what a disappointing performance. Gaining in the advantage of the local home crowd, the band couldn’t even hold the fraction of whatever was left. The performance which seemed lousy at the beginning ended up being even lousier. They played ‘Teri Diwani’ and ‘Ashayen’ after the previous band have covered bands like Iron Maiden and MegaDeth which in turn proved suicidal for Feedback’s performance.
The guitar solos were more like Saxophone solos and the crowd had no idea what they were there for. They kept on encouraging Aditya (Lead vocalist, Feedback) all through out but things weren’t just getting in place. They decided to play their original composition later in the slot and if they would have done that a bit earlier then there would have been a different story at all. The clock struck 10 and it was Aditya’s turn to announce that the time is up.

All in all, it was a good day at work for Prestorika while Feedback failed to make hay while the sun shone. It was an excellent sight when the breeze made its way through the stage while Prestorika ruled the mind and the hearts. Vasav won many a hearts and an equal number of female fan-following. He shyly admits that the most memorable thing of the trip has been the beautiful girls and beer. The band is working on the album which is supposed to be released later this year.

One event is winded up and another one is brewing up. The next band to rule the Nawabi skies is the undisputed God of Indian rock, Yeah! You guessed it right – Parikrama. On being contacted, Subir Malik, Manager and Key boardist of Parikrama said, “We all are excited about playing in Lucknow this time because it’s been 10 years since we have played in this city apart from IIM”. The 27th of April is waiting for another chapter to be added in the history of this rocking city. Hope the crowd gets its rock etiquettes right this time.

for snaps related to these gigs check out -
www.flickr.com/photos/piyush_nift

Writing Credits: Piyush Singh
Editing Credits: Aaishwari Chouhan