“Bhai I don’t think we can have any fun at this place, let’s go back,” said Gomes with a face which certainly said the story. James followed him. I stood in a state of shock as to how convince them that Indian Habitat Centre, New Delhi was a different place.
“I guess it’s our bad luck today, else trust me almost every day they have a rock band performing here. Chalo koi nahi I have my digi cam so we can click some pix here,’. Now ‘being clicked ’ is something no one has an objection to. We all are ever ready to pose all the time, at all the places (don’t think of objectionable ones).
“Hmm Ok. That should be some fun,” said Gomes, with an expression as if our parents caught us with CD's of porn movies. We began our hunt for suitable locations.
So there we were. As I had promised James and Gomes we were on a weekend outing. They were adamant to visit Priya or Saket but I somehow convinced them that they should once visit Indian Habitat Centre(IHC), as it’s a place that has a lot of creative atmosphere. Adding spice to my conversation I also told them that every evening there is some or the other rock band performance as well plus the crowd is young and attractive. Just for the sake of a Rock Band and a young crowd, they were here and all we found was a photography exhibition (no matter how hard we tried we couldn't take a message from any of them) and screening of a soundless-expressionless documentary film (we didn’t die as it was not motionless).
"Hows this? Shift a little…no no to your left…or no, to your right…what the hell…left or right?...no no to your left and my right…ohho now don’t fight…waaaow! What a beautiful sight!!"~ Is a brief of the photo session.
The photo session continued and continued, 3 of us posed a trillion times in zillions poses and we gave up once we fell short of better poses. Now the situation was worse, we all were extremely tired and we kept walking just for the sake of it. These are the times when you think if you had a machine which could take you home in seconds. James and Gomes were still disappointed as they were here to enjoy music and the young crowd was much younger than they had expected. So my funda of a Youngistan failed.
“The pix are really nice,” I tried to divert them from ‘This-place-sucks!’ mode, to which they just nodded which meant I failed again.
The last time I visited Indian Habitat Centre with my college friends, it was an amazing experience. I personally liked the creative, lively atmosphere. We had a local rock band performing, and all of us had a gala time, and yes not to forget few hours could be easily spent praising the USP's of the young crowd. I felt bad for James and Gomes who didn’t complain as they knew that it was more of a bad day than a bad place. I cursed myself and thought I should have taken them to one of the PVR’s.
“Dheen chiiik!! Dheen Dhun Dhun! Thudd! Doom doom! Triiing tringgg!!,” was a sudden noise which mingled into our ears. Before both of them could realize what it was I said “Rushhhhhhhhhhhh guys! That’s a rock band!!” We ran and ran and ran and what we saw was something unpredictable. We had this band performing before us and their dress was Kurta and lungi! And and…the lead singer had a ghunghroo in his legs as well…was it a ‘normal’ band? We didn’t have time to think about this. The band began with its first song-Ambar. Within no time we were a part of the crowd jumping, clapping, singing.
“Waaaoww!!! Amaaziing!!! Who iss hee?,” now this was unexpected, almost hundreds of us were tuning ourselves to the tunes of this amazing singer. Everybody was flabbergasted, as most of us didn’t know him at all.
He sang a series of songs. The boring place suddenly turned out to be a pleasant sight. The crowd was electrified after witnessing brilliant performances one after another. Three men played the guitar, to give them company were a drummer and a violinist. Every performance was a master class! He finally introduced himself. He was Raghu Dixit. I won’t be writing much of him here but guys mark my words just TYPE-RAGHU DIXIT on YouTube and you can hear his songs which will take you to a different world of music.
I was extremely happy, as my amigo’s were tapping their feet’s and clapping and singing. The performance got over only when the hosts announced it was close to 10:30 pm. I looked at James and Gomes. ‘Bhai this was one of the most memorable days, ultimate maza aaya!,” they said. We hi fived each other. We went to the counter and purchased a CD of Raghu Dixit’s album. The man had made our day! All three of us continued singing his songs throughout our journey back home. James and Gomes were happy. Nothing gives me more pleasure than to see my friends happy. The ordinary looking day became one of the most memorable days of our lives.
