THE PIT v.5 - RISING FISTS

Kolkata, the City Of Joy.  A city that takes pride in being a major cultural hub of India. A city known for it’s great writers, poets, artists, musicians and film personalities – people like Rabindranath Tagore. Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay. Satyajit Ray. Yonsample. Chronic Xorn. Evil Conscience. What?????

Yes, as hard as it may seem Kolkata isn’t just about award-winning literature and art-house films and about jazz and classic rock. Heavy metal has slowly but surely made an entry into the local music scene as well, and by the look of things, has every intention of staying. And why not? In these last 2 years the number of heavy metal listeners and metal converts has increased by leaps and bounds – the number of gigs held by out-station bands (from other parts of the country) has doubled – in fact, most band competitions in Kolkata these days are being swept by promising new local metal acts. A sign of the times.

Of course all of the above would not have been possible if it weren’t for the popularity and awareness drive started by THE PIT, a group of local metal bands and metal music lovers who have, for the past few years, been working their socks off to make Kolkata a better place for heavy metal. The journey is still nowhere near it’s final destination, but the fruits of their hard-work is there for all to see – more bands trying their hand at this genre and a steady increase in the metal-listening masses. The previous 4 PITs held in the last 2 years have been instrumental in allowing both young and experienced bands to showcase their music to the metal-loving community of the city. And this string of metal music fests also helped to bring the metal community under one roof – kind of like a metal-heads get-together party.

The last PIT had been held on the 20^th of October, 2010, with a turnout of 850 crazy metalheads. But this time the PIT committee was aiming for an even larger audience, something in the region of 1000-1200. And rightly so since tickets were selling like hotcakes the moment the date for the “PIT v.5 – Rising Fists” was announced. The PIT working committee had even managed to get hold of sponsors for the event – LIZARD SKIN TATTOOS and VIBRATIONS: THE MUSIC STORE – a 1^st for any sort of heavy metal event in the city. There was a huge buzz around town and this even spread to other neighboring regions in West Bengal and other parts of the country.    

The PIT v.5 – THE RISING FISTS. The theme for this PIT, “Rising Fists” emphasized on how us local metal-heads would not bow down and be controlled by the rest of the city’s music circuit just because our musical genre of choice was not on top of the popularity charts. In fact “Rising Fists” was a call to all metal-heads to protest and fight for their rights to listen to metal, and to stand together as one with raised fists. Did we sound like revolutionaries? You bet we did! But it was also very obvious that this protest would only be a success if the city’s metal brethren responded to our call to arms – to come and be a part of THE PIT v.5 – RISING FISTS.

And on the 19^th of April 2011, we were not disappointed. The metal community of Kolkata heard our call to arms and they responded in droves! The scheduled start time for the PIT v.5 was 12 noon, but by 10 AM the venue, Tapan Theatre, was surrounded by excited, expectant and enthusiastic metal-heads. And a quiet neighbourhood in the Chetla area of South Kolkata had turned into a massive sea of black-tee wearing metal maniacs!

A word about the bands – this PIT had 8 bands on the roster and the line-up was a combination of both young and experienced. 2 bands, DARK RITUALZ and BURNOUT SYNDROME, had been selected through a rigorous audition round, while 2 Kolkata veterans, SINFUL OATH and NOYZE AKADEMI, were making come-backs @ the PIT with new line-ups. Also in the list of performers was WHAT ESCAPES ME, the young pretenders to the Kolkata metal throne. And to top it off were the current 3 heavyweights of the city’s metal scene: EVIL CONSCIENCE, CHRONIC XORN and YONSAMPLE. The crowd certainly had a lot to look forward to.

So when the gates were finally opened (after an hour’s delay – the inevitable last minute goof-ups!), the crowd swarmed in like flies.

DARK RITUALZ was the opening band for PIT v.5. The crowd was still settling down when they went up on stage but this did not deter the young band, as they belted out a set-list which comprised of 4 originals and 2 Lamb Of God covers. For most people in the crowd, this was their 1st taste of DARK RITUALZ’ brand of music, and they certainly were not disappointed.

The comeback kids NOYZE AKADEMI were the next band on stage. This band was one of the founding members of the PIT committee and they had had a short but successful stint before their initial break-up, their RSJ pub-rock performance 3 years back being a definitive highlight. This new avatar of the band had only one original member left, plus there were rumours about the band experimenting with a new death-core sound. Well all questions were answered and emphatically so. NOYZE AKADEMI blew the crowd away with their short power-packed stint on stage – 4 OCs and 1 cover (Impending Doom) – the crowd did not know what had hit them! The moshing had truly started by now and even an impromptu wall-of-death followed suit. And so was time for the 3rd band to perform…

BURNOUT SYNDROME! This band, although fairly new, were playing their 2nd PIT (having also featured at PIT v.4) – the crowd knew them and so they had no problem warming up to the band, especially after the performance of their set-list which included a mix of originals and covers by bands like Threat Signal and Veil Of Maya. The performance of their OC “Tormented Psychopath” was the stand-out in their set-list. It was also interesting to see that the OCs of BURNOUT SYNDROME had a distinct djent texture to them, and it looks like they are gradually making a shift from their metal-core roots, an interesting approach indeed!

The day’s second band on the comeback trail, SINFUL OATH, was the PIT’s 4th band on stage. Although being regulars at each PIT version, SINFUL OATH had been inactive in the Kolkata metal circuit for a very long time. A string of line-up changes had led to the band introducing a practically new and unknown line-up apart from 2 previous members. And although their set-list was short (comprising of 4 covers and 1 instrumental), a bout of nerves did take a toll on the newer members. But they did manage to recover their poise and delivered a solid performance, much to appreciation of the audience.

Half of the bands on the list had played their part for the PIT – but the 2nd half had much more to offer because it was time for the city’s heavyweights to get into action. And even now the crowd was still pouring in, with a steady stream of school/college/office goers arriving at the venue after a long day of drudgery.

EVIL CONSCIENCE was band number #5 and they rammed the crowd into a brutal submission with their set-list of originals and metal covers. The band played a total of 7 songs – 4 originals and 3 covers, and the brutality of their musical assault left the crowd feeling like they had been smashed with a sledgehammer. Especially so, when they played their popular original “Your God Is Burning”. The moshpit by this time had become a war-zone, which suited the band just fine. EVIL CONSCIENCE’s performance left the crowd drained and drenched in sweat and blood and but the audience had absolutely no time for respite! Because following this deadly assault were…

CHRONIC XORN! After the very successful release of their EP “Death.Destruction.Sermon”, the popularity of this Kolkata band had increased by leaps and bounds, which was evident from the amount of cheering and sing-a-longs to their songs. The metal-heads in the front row were now indulging themselves in a hefty bout of stage diving and crowd-surfing, and the band loved it! Each song performed by CHRONIC XORN was met by a huge round of applause and their vocalist literally had the crowd eating out of his hands! For the record, CHRONIC XORN performed all the songs from their EP as well as a new single “Bleeding” and a re-worked version of an older single “Valentine Of Nightmares”. And as always, the band ended their set with a Lamb Of God cover (on public demand!) – “Black Label”, which got the crowd wild!!!

PIT v.5 was fast approaching it’s end – but not before YONSAMPLE got their chance to blast the crowd! The current darlings of the Indian metal scene, YONSAMPLE has been getting rave reviews for their newly released debut EP “Paraphernalia”. The band kept it simple by performing their entire EP for the head-banging audience, which did not disappoint them at all! And when Yonsample performed their crowd favourite “Breaking Through”, 1000+ voices broke into song, singing each and every line of chorus, much to the amazement and also to the immense satisfaction of the band. It was a breath-taking moment indeed and one of the highlights of the entire PIT v.5.

Closing out PIT v.5 was WHAT ESCAPES ME, a young band which had been sweeping, left and right, 1st prize at most college band competitions this season in the eastern region of the country, including top honours at the IIT Kharagpur fest. Unfortunately due to time constraints and due to the un-cooperative venue management, their set-list had to be cut short to just 3 songs – 2 originals and a cover – which was extremely disappointing for both band and metal-head alike. But for all those who were witnessing WHAT ESCAPES ME for the first time, they did get a taste of their sound and also a listen to their most popular OC, “Section 66 Part 5” – a song which has already become a metal anthem in the Kolkata circuit in these last few months.

And so the curtains fell on another PIT - another glorious day of metal in the City Of Joy had come to an end, leaving everyone in attendance totally wasted, completely exhausted BUT extremely happy. Rightly so too, because the crowd response was beyond belief – and what a response it was! At last count there were approximately 1500 metal-lovers in attendance, not only from Kolkata, but from other parts of West Bengal. In fact metal-heads as far off as Chennai and Sri Lanka had come down to be a part of the PIT. Totally unprecedented in the short history of Kolkata metal!

I guess this is a positive sign and proof that the Kolkata metal scene is alive and kicking, and that the metal-heads of the city are willing to stand up and be heard. The future of metal in Kolkata indeed seems to be bright, all thanks to the success of the PIT. But there is a lot more to be done and scope for improvement is always there. So people, look out for THE PIT v.6 – and for an even better and more brutal show of hands from the Kolkata metal community!

What Is Wrong With The Kolkata Rock Music Circuit? Chapter:2 - The Way We Were

Lets go back some years... no not 1 or 2 years. Not even 5.
How about when I was still a school student? Like way back in the 1980s. When rock music was something only the "elite" few ever listened to. When only a handful of students from English medium schools and colleges would get initiated to. When English music was all about the melody and less about the genre. Unlike today.

Rock music. No not metal. Not punk. Not blues. Just "rock" - music that encompassed any type of popular English music form. Pink Floyd, Bob Dyan, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Joan Baez, Dire Straits... classic rock to the core. But back in those days THIS just wasn't classic rock. It was the ONLY form of rock music available.
Back then you couldn't just do a search for a particular torrent and download the latest album of some obscure artist. Things were different back then. Hell, there wasn't even anything called a torrent back in those days. Downloading? In the 80s that would have almost sounded like something being done in a sci-fi flick.
So ok, maybe you could just walk into the nearest Planet M or Music World shop and get wowed by the collection of CDs on display... wait wait wait. Walk into "PLANET M"??? Walk into "MUSIC WORLD"??? Latest ALBUM??? CDs??? What the hell am I talking about!!!
Back then we didn't have CDs!!! We only had dinky cassettes and we listened to music on dinky cassette players. No CD players, no MP3 players and most certainly no I-PODS!!! Yes kid, you probably wouldn't have survived back then in the good 'ol 80s without these goodies that you obviously take for granted in the 21st century.
And nope we didn't have mp3s or the INTERNET. The latest albums were not available @ music stores because there WERE NO MUSIC STORES! Liberalization was still a distant dream. An album that was, say for example, released in 1981 in the USA would only reach our shores 2-3 years later. And these would be available only through HMV. On cassettes.
Back then there weren't any other recording companies around that were willing to deal with English popular music so this was as good as it got.
Yes, you might not like him, but you me and everyone around town have a lot of thanking to do to Dr. Manmohan Singh. He brought in liberalization to this country when he was the finance minister in the cabinet of then Congress Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao. Yes, the guy involved in the Bofors scandal. And the Babri Masjid scandal. A scandalous dude no doubt - but at least he got Manmohan Singh to change the direction this country was taking.
   
So anyway, whatever we see now - the good stuff, that is, is post liberalization INDIA. I was born and brought up in the era just before that. In the 1970 and the 1980s. When rock music and pop music were things that you listened to if you were a part of the "in" crowd. Almost like a mini caste system - whether you were a fan of this music or not allowed you to be classified as "English-cultured" or mainstream desi. Funny no? Nowadays everyone is exposed to English music in some form or the other. Hell, yesterday I saw an auto rickshaw driver wearing a "BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE" tee :D metalcore fan is he? Sorry I didn't ask I was too busy laughing.
Anyway as I mentioned above, the latest music was hardly available back then - not at shops, not on the TV, not on the radio, not anywhere. We didn't have cable TV or TATA SKY or whatever. No Channel [V] or VH1 - MTV had just been given birth to in the USA anyway, so it was a long long way away from our shores.
If you had an aunt living in England or a brother working somewhere in the USA, maybe, just maybe she or he might bring you the latest blah blah blah played by blah blah blah. A big maybe. And not all of us were so lucky. You did get pirated cassettes galore here and there. And they'd probably play for a week before falling into ashes 
No FM Radio in India back then. MW radio was just All India Radio in a nutshell - and they would have the odd English popular music program with the same old songs played again and again and again, week after week after week. The same old songs listened to by us music lovers from all walks of life and from varying age groups. There was nothing else available anyway so what could you do?

Which brings me to the topic of bands. In order to have a live music scene you need bands to perform "live". No?
And there were bands certainly. College bands. Established bands (Shiva was one of the noteworthy ones). Trincas was no more a viable music venue - The days of the swinging sixties (and prior maybe) where Usha Uthup and Carlton Kitto and Lou Majaw and all those stalwarts would be gigging @ Trincas were long long gone. Someplace Else? Hahahaha! Non-existent for at least another 10-15 more years.
Basically there were 2 categories of bands - the English music playing bands which would only play classic rock because the musicians here were ONLY familiar with such artistes. And nothing strange with that - that was the only kind of music they had been listening to. Also, the people who came in to listen to them play ONLY listened to that stuff as well. Classic rock and pop. That was the music you played if you were in an English band.
Category 2 was if you were in a Bangla band - something new and trendy in the college circuit. A different story altogether. The concept of Bangla bands was a growing one, and it later blew up into a totally new sub-culture in Kolkata (and other parts of West Bengal). But we shall leave this topic for later. But suffice to say, if you were a musician and interested in rock music then you (a) followed the majority and played in a band that performed classic rock covers and popular contemporary English mainstream songs. OR (b) you rebelled and joined a bangla band which would play folk, folk rock or classic rock - whatever took your fancy.

Such bands would play the odd gig @ college fests or @ college band competitions but that was about it - you would most likely see them playing @ your college canteen in all honesty. A few bands at the top did go on to record albums... but all this later later later :D

So yes, back to the classic rock bands. Bands like Shiva - they would play the odd gig @ The Open Air Theatre (now called Nazrul Manch), sometimes be the headliners @ college fests like Xavotsav... but more than likely you would see them playing @ the clubs. The hang-out for the "elite" - the "English-cultured" of our society. Shiva, Fifth Dimension, Rila 'O Brien (nee Banerjee, and yet to marry Sumeeth Ramachandran - you know the story. If not ask an old-timer.). They'd wow the crowd with a "Hey You" or a "Comfortably Numb" or a "Jumping Jack Flash" or a "Sultans Of The Swing". And they crowd would go wild. A few would dance. Most would sing along to the chorus. And the band would be in 7th heaven.
So the next time they were up on stage the same old routine - play the tried and tested covers. And watch the crowd go wild.
As easy as pie. And you got instant fame as well. Plus the girl too. (Yes sexist I know, but the scene was and still is kind of male-centric even today).
Bands turned into live jukeboxes. Yes, they probably did play some of the covers really well, but at the end of the day, they were just that, covers. And so bands were just that, live jukeboxes.
New bands that came into the scene didn't have any role-models BUT these jukebox heroes. And so all new bands wanting to play in English did nothing BUT covers. And thus did get born the culture of the Calcutta cover band. This culture had it's hey days in the 1990s and was still going strong even as recent as 2000 - 2005.Young bands thought aping was the next big thing. Never did they even try to break the trend - and hey, why would they? Because playing covers WAS the trend.
And this, while the rest of the major music hubs in India were already well into the concept of playing their "OWN" music. Original music. Such a culture shock even within the same country.

Kolkata was well and truly in a 70s and 80s time-warp post-2000. And no one even thought this was a strange thing.
No wonder we are lagging behind the other cities. Someone once wrote, "What India thinks tomorrow, Bengal thinks today"... or something like that.
Well this certainly wasn't applicable for rock music.

Luckily things have started to change. A kid fresh out of school and into the music scene TODAY would be really surprised how much the scene has changed in just a couple of years.

What Is Wrong With The Kolkata Rock Music Circuit? Chapter:1 - The Intro

That is the question...
I've thought about it long and hard. I've had long discussions with musicians about it. I've spoken to music lovers in the city.

Everyone seems to know what the answer is. Or conversely, no one seems to know what the problem is. Most kids don't even realise that there is a problem. Which is such an irony - because it is these very issues and problems that result in their bands breaking up a year or 2 after getting formed. Sometimes they don't even last 2 months. And things remain the same, until a new set of kids come along and follow in the foot-steps of their predecessors. Sort of like the blind leading the blind.

I have a theory. Or theories actually. And I'd like to share them here. Yes, probably no one is going to read what I have to vomit out anyway, which is a good thing actually, because my intention here is to be direct and caustic. I am probably gonna step on a few toes here and there, and diss a few bands and musicians in the process - something which I am not very excited about, but I want to be as brutally honest as possible. I don't really hate anyone in the scene, contrary to popular belief. I mean, in order to hate someone you need to know that person... and I hardly know anyone from the circuit in the truest sense.

Another thing which I hope people understand is that my point of view is totally an unbiased one... yes baby, you better believe it! I am not a musician after all. I'm a listener. A music fan. I am a part of the audience who is standing in front of the stage while the performers do their thing. I am the person who is there attending YOUR show. I am the guy who is at the music store buying YOUR album. And as much as I need YOUR music to keep me sane and happy, YOU need me to come to YOUR gigs to cheer after every song YOU perform just to boost YOUR ego. YOU need ME to go to the store to buy YOUR album, YOUR band tee-shirt, YOUR band poster, etc etc etc. We have a 100% symbiotic relationship going on here - so please remember that. I scratch your back, you scratch mine. It's the way the world is.

So this is me the listener, standing in the audience, listening to some band... its just me and the music. Nothing else. It's not about the drummer who I hang out with once a week at the local pub. It's not about the sexy hot babe standing in front of me who's phone number I managed to get in exchange for promising to introduce her to the vocalist. It's not about the guitarist who nicked my chemistry notes before exam time during our college days.
It's not about that at all.
It's just about the music. Only the music.

Sometimes musicians are so deep into their ego-trip that they lose a sense of reality. I find this very funny. Silly actually. I hate this pseudo ego attitude thing that musicians seem to go through. And I haven't met a single musician that wasn't affected in some way and to some degree. Sickening really. Take pride in your body of work, but don't make it turn you into a bloated carcass.

Similarly, there is this section of society who need to pass a comment on everything that moves, sings, dances and farts. They can't get a good night's sleep if they do otherwise. You can't miss these parasites, gigs seem to attract them like light-bulbs do to a moth - the guy/gal who knows everything about music inside out. The moron who will analyze to death each chord/beat he/she hears. That member of the audience who feels he/she needs to be heard even more than the vocalist singing on stage.
A poison in the circuit. Every city has a few. So does Kolkata.

I never understood how their brains work - if you don't like a particular band then you don't - it's cool. Who said you have to like every damn musician in this city? But why do you have to be at their show then? Does your being present provide the performer divine strength? Does the band's ratings improve with you in attendance? I mean, what is it???

Whoo!

Before I begin the serious stuff, I'd like to reiterate a few things here.

As the title of this blog states, I'm here to toss around a few theories - some good, some bad, some ugly. I am not here to sing the praises of certain venues like Someplace Else or to list down the achievements (in chronological order) of Cassini's Division. This here blog is not an attempt to convert everyone into becoming a metalhead like me either.
Also, I am not going to rant and rave about the negatives of classic rock and why singing covers are so uncool.


No. None of the above.

I have been attending gigs and checking out bands of different genres in Kolkata for more than 10 years now. Times have changed certainly, bands have come and gone. Some have done pretty well for themselves while others have just vanished like your shit being flushed down the toilet. Musical styles have changed. Times have changed.
And yet, despite all the changes that have taken place it is very apparent that me, the listener and you, the musician have remained stuck in some kind of weird limbo. And like I mentioned at the start, sometimes it's like we don't even realise that we are in a motionless maze. You've seen the Matrix Trilogy? You've seen Inception? Yes? Well that is exactly what we all are in - in this dream-world where apparently things look perfect. And yet we are just one second away from waking up and seeing that everything around us is just a dream and that life is total crap. And yes we haven't even moved a single inch from where we had started.

I'm sure that if you were as jobless as I was, you'd come to the same logical conclusions that I am about to propagate. You'd have to. It's all about fitting together all the pieces of this jigsaw puzzle... the pieces are all there right in front of us. You just need the patience and the time. Ya, being jobless like me does help as well, to be honest.

Some of the pieces for us to look at:
** The live music scene in Kolkata pre 2000 AD

** Classic rock and it's popularity
** The emergence of a parallel Bangla rock scene
** The young generation and the Indian education system
** Indian society vs. the "School Of Rock"
** Why do we fear Heavy Metal?
** Torrents, downloads, Planet M and Music World
** The internet
** Bollywood is not the enemy

... there are probably a few more pieces I will be listing but right now this is what shall get me started. If anyone is reading all this, well I hope you stick around. Feel free to agree/disagree with me as you please.

Why Do We Blog Anyway?

Been a long time since I blogged. More than a year.

And a lot has happened since my last piece on Aila and Sector-V.

Apart from the proverbial "I'm a year older" (which is a given), quite a few things have occurred this past year and they have been rather interesting "things". Well most of them at least... and most of these "most of them" have been positive "things". Of course there have been the few negatives as well. And there are the few unsettled-still-not-done-and-dusted issues that have merrily rolled over from the previous year to the current one.

No, I'm not here to compile a list of my achievements and failures since my last blog-time. I'm not that kind of a person actually. What's mine is mine and not for everyone to know. My list would probably bore the death out of the casual reader anyway.

But it is funny how some people I know have converted their blogs into a daily diary of sorts. And they have no qualms about vomiting out in detail stuff regarding their love life and even their sex life. It makes for interesting reading to be honest, and hey, it's not my duty to say what's right and what's wrong to them. It's their choice - freedom of expression using whatever medium they so desire.

There is this one blog which has left me totally totally fixated, almost to the point of obsession. A young woman who's name is Radha - she's an air-hostess flying with Singapore Airlines. And yes, she's Manipuri, just like me.
I don't know her personally. She most likely graduated from Bangalore - and we had exchanged scraps a few times on Orkut during her stay there. She had this really interesting profile, this apparently excellent taste in music (rock obviously), and she was hot and very attractive. So being the weirdo male that I am, I scrapped her. And she scrapped back... we exchanged the odd scrap for 2-3 weeks. Then she probably got bored of me.
And that was that :)

Well, I thought so at least...

For some reason (call it the Curious George syndrome), I happened to re-visit her profile. I guess to check out her photos again (ya ya I know!), but my luck, she'd deleted all of them from her Orkut album.
But she did have this link to her blog. And I decided to check it out, since, as you all are well aware of, I am a blogger too (otherwise you wouldn't be reading this shit).

And what I read from her blog was nothing short of edgy, gripping and gut-wrenching. Not to sound over-dramatic, but it has left me a changed person.

For most of you who aren't aware, Manipur is a small teeny weeny state situated in the North-East of India. It's kind've locked between Myanmar and other hilly states like Meghalaya, Nagaland and Mizoram. The capital city of Imphal is predominantly a Hindu belt. And when I say Hindu belt, I mean hard-core Hinduistic! Liberal, open-minded house-holds (to my knowledge) are few and far between. Especially so since most families are of the Hindu Undivided Joint Family type - so that would mean 2-3 families (maybe more) living together with a typical patriarchical figure-head acting as moral/local guardian for everyone residing under the same roof. The young generation doing their "thing" is looked down upon by the elders of society. And the young generation, in my opinion, reach a point where, when they do manage to leave Imphal and break the shackles of society, automatically get afflicted by this "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" syndrome - and this leaves them undergoing a sudden transformation in lifestyle and beliefs. Principles and values and other moral lessons that had been shoved into their brains seem to get lost or they undergo a complete re-working after their so-called-freedom is attained.

Am I rambling?

No I am not. But let me elucidate some more...

For me, having been born in the USA and then having spent most of  my "educated" life in this big bad city Kolkata, the rules and regulations of life in Manipur were never an issue for me. I've lived my life colorfully, the way any city-bred guy would live. I've done things which I would never blog about, I have gone to extremes on many an occasion, and there are certain incidents in my past that I certainly do not look back upon with pride. I obviously cannot run away from my past or my present. So hiding is no solution. But learning from my past is. And this I try to do, sometimes with success, sometimes not so successfully - but yes, I try. Of course each day brings about a new challenge. And we do new things, meet new people, have new experiences - so all I've seen, all I've done, all I've experienced, all I've learnt has hopefully made me a more mature and wiser person. And liberal too. Modern, open-minded and liberal.
You see a kid doping on the side-walk. You see a woman puking out her lungs after a drink too many. You see a young teenage girl smoking like there's no tomorrow. You see an old man making out with a college kid... you know, stuff which society frowns down upon. My folks would have a fit if they saw some of the things that I'd seen. Most of my relatives in Manipur would have passed out from shock for sure. Hell, getting a tattoo is like a big deal to them.

And that is normal, ain't it? Because these people haven't come across such scenes in their lives. And they do not know how to handle incidents like these - the normal reaction would probably be to look the other way and ignore, pretend you hadn't seen anything. And of course you also start to dig deep inside your mind, looking for past references to lessons that would give you direction and help allow you to handle such scenes. Chances are though (if you are in their shoes) you won't find any such references. So you start to invent labels. Labels for each person involved in each act that you find is a violation of your principles and values.
Values are important. If you don't have any, you couldn't classify yourself as a human being. We all have them, as do rapists, murderers, dictators, anarchists, everyone (even though their value system pretty much has no resemblance to ours, you can bet on that). Values are what guide you through your daily life till the day you die.

So yes, I've seen stuff, done stuff, blah blah blah. I've had the opportunity to edit and modify my "value" system on a few occasions. So when I see a kid doping or a young woman smoking or whatever, I don't freak out. I do have the sensibility and intelligence to understand what is going on around me. And I don't need labels to make things easier for me. What is happening around me doesn't always need to be black or white, because there is enough gray in this society of ours to provide me with suitable explanations to all the things that we get to see and experience in our society.
Does that make me an open-minded, mature, liberal person?
You betcha it does.

But sometimes you come across people, or in this case, a person (and a virtual person at that!) who's life experiences and life-style totally baffle you. Blows your mind away. Hits you like a sledgehammer. And then you start to understand why the older generation freaks out when they see things that they don't relate too. Yes you suddenly find yourself in their shoes as well. You start frantically searching for references inside your brain and you find nothing. Suddenly simple equations which you thought you knew blind-folded don't seem to make sense anymore. And you then start to question the liberal open-mindedness that you seemed to be so proud of.

I do not know Radha. Scrapping a person a few times does not amount to "knowing" a person. I have never met Radha. And I probably never will. She is a complete zero in my life. And yet everytime I read her blog I can't help but feel for her. It's like I want to look her straight in the eye and tell her to get a grip on her life! To push her off this self-destructive road that she seems to be treading. To just shout, "WAKE UP WOMAN!!!"

I spoke of young adults breathing a fresh air of life once they leave their home Imphal behind - and how they change into something that they were so not what they were - well, this young woman takes the proverbial piece of cake. Probably nothing in her wildest dreams would have allowed her to know how her life path would take the course that it is currently on.

I think myself to be open-minded, liberal... and yet what this Manipuri "leishabi" has experienced and done, I'd probably need a ladder to reach her level. And the worst part? Reading her blogs you can feel her pain, her awareness that what she is doing is wrong and totally "NOT" what she would have been doing if she was back home in Imphal. And it's like she's trapped in this vicious cycle - not knowing how to break free from it... and sadly, it doesn't seem like she wants to break free from it either.

My whole point in writing all this probably got drowned somewhere after the 1st few paragraphs. But let me go back a bit before I end my long "come-back"
Like I was saying, many things have happened in this period since my last blog. And as I said, I am not the kind of person to list them all down here in my blog site. But there are people who consider a blogspot to be just that... a place where they can vent their feelings and emotions, for lack of any other mechanism to do so... a place where things can be safely said, since such things cannot be expressed publicly or explicitly for fear of repercussions... or just a place where the blogger sends out a silent cry for help - silent, since he or she knows that no one is going to respond to their cry.

But whatever, I am back. I like to blog and hopefully I shall continue to do so at regular intervals.

And I shall also continue to follow Radha's blog and feel her pain from a distance. A pain that is sure to increase with each passing day in her life.
I hope she proves me wrong and I wish her the best

Her blogspot, if you are interested:
http://fierycrotch.blogspot.com
Wreck Of The Day

Cyclone AILA and Sector-V

A very boring title for my blog - I suppose it could have been a lot more grandiose to give you an idea just how bad the devastation caused by AILA was. But I guess you can read all about the destruction and havoc that occurred on the 25th of May 2009 almost anywhere on the net (complete with statistics and 1st hand eye witness reports etc. etc.)

Me, I just wanna show you what it all looked like in Sector-V (or at least in my section of Sector-V - the Block EP and GP area) AFTER Aila was so gracious enough to leave us for the northern parts of West Bengal (via Howrah et al).
It's so funny, the 24th (The previous day) was a Sunday and it was like raining the entire day - and here I was thinking "OK, the Monsoon's here - and now it's gonna be hell getting to work, what with the flooding and all). I had even gone out to watch Monsters Vs. Aliens in the afternoon with my cousin bro Bumba and sis-in-law Debina in the rain, not even realising that the next day was going to be Kaos in Kolkata :)

I woke up on Monday (after spending most of Sunday night watching the final day of this season's English Premier League) - late as usual I might add... I didn't read the papers - I didn't watch the news - I basically had NO idea what was just about to hit us.

Big mistake. Big big mistake.

It wasn't even very cloudy going to work. Very windy yes, but no rain - just a drizzle while on the bus (if I remember correctly). And I'm inside office early as usual. 9:25 AM.

Cut to 11:00 AM - raining like hell outside and AILA has broken loose.

By 11:30 AM gossip/news from everyone everywhere (tough filtering and sifting through the facts when they all hit you in the face at the same time) and I am hearing about this cyclone and how there's been a city-wide warning about how people should be inside their homes and should not be venturing out.

12 noon - the entire office knows about AILA now. People have basically stopped working and everyone is surfing weather reports on the net or listening to FM radio for details. It's actually very funny seeing everyone like this. And the drama king that I am, I can't help but NOT make jokes about how we have to build ships to reach home or how we should ration our lunches because we probably WILL NOT be reaching home at all :)

Anyway, 1:00 PM and it is pouring and the wind is howling. Every so often I open the window and boy, is that wind blowing! And I can see people flying, I mean it - literally being dragged by the wind outside. Poor souls. Lotsa pretty women too running after their umbrellas. Brollies are no use in this weather at all.

Phone home a few times - Mom is worred. Phone Baba, he's at work but thank god he's aware of the situation. He wants to send the car to pick me up - and I refuse, because I can see that the usual stretch in front of the Omega Building + Megatherm + Infinity Building + RDB Boulevard is already flooded big time.

At 2:00 PM during the roughest part of the storm, I convince Shrewam to take out his car and to brave the journey. We reach as far as the underground parking area of the RDB Boulevard, but Samit and the parking attendant discourage him from venturing out. And it is pretty bad (although Bina and Anup did just leave 15 minutes prior) - the road in front of the Systron Building and the RDB Boulevard looks like a war-zone - trees uprooted, and an electric pole lying in the middle of the road. Things looks very very bad.

Anyway, am back at office but not for long.

3:00 PM - the rain has stopped finally (for how long, I have no idea!) and I have finally convinced a few of the Venturi idiots to leave with me.

3:30 PM - most people have decided to make a dash for home now, because the MET office says that this is just the lull before the storm. Unfortunately it doesn't look like there's gonna be any space in any of the cars. So me Arindam, Manasi and Sanjay decide to leg it 'till we get a taxi. In the rain (yes it's started to rain again). No other option.

We walk 'till Nicco Park - I graciously refuse a lift from Debayan/Debdipto. Manasi has to take off her heels and walk barefoot after a point in time. And it's totally madness now in Sector-V - like the exodus of the Jews... or maybe like during the partition when people were shifting sides to India/Pakistan/Bangladesh. (was that excessive)
There are people walking EVERYWHERE. Hardly any buses (which are packed like sardines anyway). No TAXIS. All private cars are full to the brim. Uprooted trees on the road (well 2 to be precise) and a portion of the Nicco Park wall broken down. And people. Everywhere. Just walking. Actually, this reminds me of the video of the REM song "Everybody Hurts" - see it to know what I mean.

Plan A - walk till Nicco Park and we'd be sure to get a cab.
Plan A - zilch.

Plan B - walk till Chingrighata and we'd be sure to get a cab there.

We dumped Plan B. And opted for Plan C instead.

When we reached Nicco Park, not only did we see NO taxis, we saw another ocean of humanity standing in the middle of the road! And there was this funny scene we saw where this female stops a Skypak courier van and makes the driver give her a lift... and suddenly a whole bunch of desperate software nerds jump on to the van and whoosh! Taxi service for the desperate!

So going down to Chingrighata would have actually ended up being a disaster and thank god we didn't do so. Arindam and me then decide on Plan C which is to get inside the heart of Salt Lake (via Ishita Dasgupta's bridge - well it's not HER bridge, but I like to say so just to make things more identifiable for everyone concerned).
This of course means more walking. In the rain. It's past 4 PM already.

We walk and we get wet. And we generally enjoy the wind et al. And we walk some more.
Until we are finally on the Beleghata connector at the EZCC bus-stand.

So now more decisions -
Plan D: do we stay here and try and haul a cab.
OR
Plan E: do we walk down to the AMRI hospital (you always get cabs from hospital areas!)
OR
Plan F: do we walk down to Hotel Hyatt (you always get cabs from 5-star deluxe hotel areas!)
Decisions decisions.

Anyway, we finally opt for Plan D - and we literally hijack a passing cab and force the cab-driver to take us down South (that is South Kolkata). And on the way (once we are on the EM Bypass) we are witness to the carnage that has taken place prior to our departure from Sector-V.

The EM Bypass is a mess - trees uprooted everywhere, people walking and walking and walking, signboards torn to shreds (and in some cases blown away), adjacent neighbourhoods under water. People walking and walking. Oh btw did I mention the people? :)) Some guys were actually standing in the middle of the road trying to forcefuly stop cars to get a free ride. It was pretty brutal where-ever I looked. And all this in the rain too.

Anyway I reached home @ approx. 5 PM. No power. But we were the lucky ones. The power failure which had started in the afternoon was back to normal before 6 PM. For most parts of Kolkata however, things were very very different. Unfortunately. I won't go into the gory details. But I will say this - if Kolkata is hit by a bigger cyclone than AILA in the future then we are so so screwed. The Disaster Management of our city failed BIG TIME. In fact I seriously doubt we even have a working Disaster Management team for our city. The chaos caused by AIULA should never have happened and the mess should have been cleaned up within hours. Sadly things are still screwed up in some parts of the city almost 3 weeks after this disaster.

The 26th of May 2009. Tuesday.
I am back to work @ Sector-V. And from the snaps posted all around you can get an idea of what I saw all around me that day (and the next day as well).
For the record - it took whoever was in charge 2 freaking DAYS to clear up the 2 uprooted electric poles. The general mess was cleaned up in approx. 24 hours - but even that is too long considering that Kolkata's Sector-V is supposed to be the HUB of West Bengal's INFORMATION and TECHNOLOGY industry.
Anyway enjoy the snaps that have been pasted randomly (courtesy monsieurs Shantanu K. Roy and Arindam Banerjee - and moi). These were snapped on the 26th and 27th of May.

Scientists think I am highly depressed, am contemplating suicide, drink and drive AND indulge in unprotected sex !!!

I have this habit of saving/collecting articles I find on the internet, that I "might" find interesting OR which I might possibly think have a "Collector's Value", if you know what I mean.

The funny thing is, most of the time these saved html files remain lying on my PC for months and months (sometimes years!) - and I eventually end up clearing everything out when I want to free up hard-disk space.

Anyway, the above cycle... was busy deleting old old files when I came across this beauty, and boy, I just had to post it here in my blog!!!

And yup - for those of you who don't know (and I find that extremely WEIRD) , although I listen to most forms of music, the genre that I love the most is HEAVY METAL!

Alright - enough yapping, you may proceed to the reading room :)

Kids' choice of music may reveal suicidal tendencies

Tue, Aug 5 2008
Doctors can determine whether a teenager is at the risk of developing a mental illness or committing suicide just by asking him or her what type of music they prefer, according to a new study.
Published in Australasian Psychiatry journal, the study showed that teens who listen to pop music are more likely to be struggling with their sexuality, while those who prefer rap or heavy metal could be having unprotected sex and drink-driving.
Teens who favour jazz are usually misfits and loners.
The authors of the study say that these observations go to suggest that teens' musical tastes may serve as a diagnostic indicator in mental health assessments.
"There is no evidence to suggest that the type of music you listen to will cause you to commit suicide, but those who are vulnerable and at risk of committing suicide may be listening to certain types of music," smh.com.au quoted the author of the study, Felicity Baker, as saying.
She said that an Australian study of year 10 students had shown significant associations between heavy metal music and suicide ideation, depression, delinquency and drug-taking, while an American study had also shown that young adults who regularly listened to heavy metal had a higher preoccupation with suicide and higher levels of depression than their peers.
She further said that deliberate self-harm and attempted suicide was also linked with children who listened to trance, techno, heavy metal, and medieval music as part of the goth subculture.
Teens who attended dance parties were much more likely than their peers to be taking drugs, she added.
Dr. Baker also revealed that some genres of rap music, like French rap, were linked to more deviant behaviours including theft, violence and drug use, while teens listening to hip-hop were usually less troublesome.

THE PIT v.2.0 - 18th April 2009

And so to the biggest event of April 2009 – bigger than the National Assembly Elections… THE PIT v.2!
I doubt whether any review would do justice to the actual event. It is far easier to review band competitions or one-off gigs, because you can actually get away with being critical of a particular band or a musician.

But events like The Pit are far bigger than just one musician or a single band – to me, this is more than just about the music. This is more than just about a horde of metal-heads congregating at some metal shrine and headbanging like lunatics… No, The Pit is a concept, a message from the heavy metal loving fraternity of Kolkata to the rest of the metal loving maniacs of our country. So to insult (or to be overtly critical) of any musician performing @ The Pit would be an insult to The Pit itself.

Anyway, for all those who were NOT present, The Pit v.2 was not just a success, it was a MAMMOTH SUCCESS! This entire metal slug-fest was so well organized that it left me totally flabbergasted.
Me being the perennial pessimist, I was expecting pit-falls and goof-ups at every corner – but no, apart from the 1 hour delayed start, I was left totally disappointed!
I couldn’t lay my finger on anything.
The concept – A+

The venue – A
Granted, it is definitely not the classiest theatre in town. And ok, the toilets stank and the dearth of ACs (April 18th – 40.8° centigrade – one of the hottest days in 10 years!) was a killer – but regardless, the compactness of Tapan Theatre just felt so right that I couldn’t think of any better venue to hold such an event! (an outdoor gig in this weather would have led to all of us dying of sun-stroke anyways!). Plus, this joint being in South Kolkata… what more could I ask for? Heh! I hope all such events are held in South Kolkata! Heh!

The sound – A
Again, no complaints. The sound was very clear to even a deaf person like me. No boom, no feedback, no reverb and all that trash which makes listening to music torture. What more could one ask for?

The music – A++
Like I said, it would be totally unfair to criticize any of the bands – it wasn’t just about the music after all, The Pit was around to make a bold statement.
In any case (and this is the good thing) none of the bands did anything for me to be critical about. Am I being diplomatic? No absolutely not. I enjoyed the performance of all the bands. Maybe I was too caught up in the entire wave of metal enthusiasm to be too bothered to listen to every note and line of the songs being played as intently as I might at any other concert. Who know! But whatever, I loved the music dished out by all 8 bands that day. And this, despite my having some reservations initially before the event started.

Amongst the 8 bands, one band I had never ever heard before (live or online) – and there were at least 3 bands who were playing for the 1st time with new members (and supposedly very little practice as well!) – yes, you know which bands I am talking about.
So yup, I wasn’t very sure how good the music would be – but looking back I have to honestly say that all the bands (new line-ups, old line-ups) all gave solid performances.

The crowd – A+
A Saturday was always a great date for such an event, especially for an office-goer like me. (I still regret having to miss the 1st edition of The Pit). Anyway, I expected a pretty decent crowd on the 18th.
But what I saw that day was far beyond my expectations – this was like the biggest assembly of metal freaks ever. And there was this particular time, just after the Flash Flood gig, when the entire crowd seemed to pour out of Tapan Theatre… the neighbourhood then looked like a sea of black tees. It was really an awesome sight! I’m sure the “para” folk were scared stiff seeing so many menacing freakos in their area.
Yes, I know – a major chunk of the crowd consisted of wannabes and pseudos. Girl-friends of metal-heads, friends and relatives of musicians, curious “para” folk… all these sections of the society contributed to the numbers – still, the response to The Pit v.2 was absolutely heartening and bodes well for the future IF such events can attract such huge numbers. (Hey stuck-up event management people, wake up! Even metal shows draw great crowds in Kolkata!)

Being a DEATH tribute band is no easy task and so my hats off to the 4 members of In Human. For a 1st time listener I can only say that they were brilliant and I kick myself for not having heard them before in the past. They did a splendid job getting the event started.

The same goes for DIOT B. I had only ever seen them play half a set (@ Bethune College!) which is a crying shame. Anyway, here they were and they just let rip. 30 minutes of deadly music. The crowd was fully utilizing the space available for moshing activities.

A special mention goes out to Flash Flood. I don’t want to rank any band, but if you had to give out prizes then they were probably the winners of PIT 2. And Leeyong is such an insane muthafucka – he is the living embodiment of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, a classic case of a person having 2 sides, a 2 Face - who could imagine such a docile well-mannered kid going so bloody crazy when you give him a guitar and put him on stage?
Flash Flood was brilliant – maybe instead of leaving, Diwash and Leeyong should stick around. I know I am trying to be politically correct and I shouldn’t be saying such stuff, but ya, that’s what I feel right now.

Chronic Xorn? What can I say – another great gig and more bad luck as usual! Playing to a crowd that had just survived Flash Flood’s assault was tough enough… but the massive power failure during their set was the icing of the cake. Anyway it was good to see Anindya playing with the gang.

Sinful Oath is another crazy band that I just love to watch. Maybe the thinnest band around too – from what I saw after seeing their topless performance. The most improved band in the circuit.

To me, this was my best gig I have seen Cicatrixx play. They performed far beyond my expectations. Regardless of the bassist change I found this to be their most mature gig to date, even better than what I saw @ the Karunamoyee Kings Of Rock competition. Good going.

Crystal And The Witches with a new guitarist. And the young chap did a great job. So that obviously helped the band to put up a good show. No hiccups, loads of energy, great choice of covers, and Leeyong going crazy as ever. Plus Diwash is a great front-man, no doubt about that.
I’m not very happy that Arthur is missing and I sincerely hope things can be patched up and that CATW return to being what they were + the new guitarist. No problem in being a 5 member band after all. Anyway, their band dynamics are not for me to handle. I will always support this band regardless of them being a 4 member band or a 5 member band.

Lastly, Noyze Akademi – also with a new bassist, but a talented one at that. This was just my 2nd NA gig and yup, I enjoyed this one far more than my 1st one (@ the Scholastic Beats final). I think removing the DJ was a good idea. Nothing against him, he’s a nice chap – but the sound of NA is far more solid because of this line-up change. There aren’t too many hard-core nu-metal acts in India so Noyze Akademi has loads of space to make a name in this genre.

So that was that, The Pit v.2 done and dusted. Special mention must be made about the massive power cut which lasted for what, 2-3 hours? It almost killed the event. And the heat, well that was even worse.
But nothing seemed daunting enough to the Pit organizing committee. And so the show went on and we all had a great time… and now everyone is dying for the next Pit to happen. And I am sure the rest of India are sitting up and taking notice of our “little” community here as well – I can guarantee that those “big daddies” from Mumbai and Delhi will be dying to be a part of The Pit v.3 whenever it happens next. Managing team, be prepared for a flood of requests from these bands!

\m/