Strings, Euphoria and lil bit of Patriotism
(Title inspired by Chennai Blogger Meet 2004) :

On the republic day, the Open Air Theatre of IIT Madras took a hop for 3 hours. Strings, a guitar specialist band from Pakistan performed as a part of the Saarang 2004. Like Saiyoni fame Junoon ( not the DD megaserial), Strings have a distinct aura around them. Dhoor, their hit number was amazing. It takes a lot of attitude to perform in India on the republic day and these guys are definitely not short of that.

Then came running with the indian flag around him was ‘Euphoria’ Palash. Popularly known as Polly, this doctor-turned-pop artist, was with a white sleeveless banian and an unbuttoned shirt which seemed to fall off any time. From then for the next 2 hours he and his euphoric band kept the 8,000+ audience at their feet. So as he came running with the flag and started Jana Gana as the first song of the day, IIT rose up and stood unmoved. Polly continued to sing A.R Rahman‘s Vande Matharam. So did the crowd. We’ll keep the argument surrounding A.R.R’s Vande Matharam and patriotism to the next post. As you can imagine the decibel levels of thousands of collegers shouting at their alto voices, Vande Matharam. A spirit of patriotism swirled across us and it was a definite goose bumper.

While other bands keep singing their own compositions, Euphoria just bothers about keeping the audience happy. Their mantra is just hit numbers. Some interesting numbers they played includes Scorpion’s With or Without You, Queen’s We will Rock you, Bon Jovi’s It’s my life, Shankar Elson Loy’s Dil Chahta Hai and ofcourse ARR’s Dil Se Re.

With just a handful of albums and numerous hit within those albums, the future awaits Euphoria to create wonders. And they can really do it.

Observing Saarang :

a) Guys seemed totally geeky and girls, very freaky.

b) The Alpha and the Omega was found roaming around and I bumped over him on the second day.

c) I missed JAM finals in which I think Suds was also a jammer.

d) The Crossword show called Crossie seemed pretty much easier than I expected. Not that I crack crosswords with my left hand but I aint’ bad also.

e) Hutch introduced the public mobile phone booth. So the hutch guy outside would be sitting with a mobile phone in his hand. If you want to make a call to your honey or to your nanny, you got to pick up the mobile and get into that mobilephone sized booth, talk and give it back to that hutch guy. Good Idea, wrong execution.

f) Radio Mirchi was trying to do something very different with a couple of RJs(Radio Jockey). It was fun to see the expression of RJs from a transparent booth where he/she was talking with that same FM supersonic speed.

g) A chap who was standing beside me during the Euphoria show was replying to SMSes with full swing. While Phalash started to sing It’s my life, he was jumping heaven high and still typing sms in his mobile. I had no clue what was he trying to do. But thats the spirit of Saarang.

h) Finally, the sillier one. They sold pure mineral water with some added color and code named it as Pepsi for 15 bucks.