Monday, February 02, 2004
Well, I am back in Hyderabad, for some R&R after Saarang, which I am proud to say has finally become the biggest and the best student-organized culfest in India. Anyway, I actually typed out a longish post yesterday about Saarang, but something happened which Mr. Gates would not want to acknowledge much - my Windows crashed, and the post is lost forever. Since I am in no mood to even try to reproduce the lost post, I will just stop at saying that I had a ball at Saarang.
I must mention here about the Unity Concert we had on Republic Day where the Pakistani band, Strings performed on the same stage as Euphoria. That was an awesome show, and it more than made up for the rather disappointing shows we had on the previous nights. Anyway, as happens so often in life, I just had the feeling of deja vu over the weekend.
A friend of mine from school is now in IIIT Hyderabad and it so happened that they had their fest "Felicity" this past weekend. I must say that after Saarang, it felt like kids' shows do after watching Survivor (or something like that on AXN), but I must also say that for a fest that is only three years old, Felicity is good; better than some other fests I know, and wouldn't name. Well, enough beating around the bush (wonder who coined that phrase and what exactly he/she meant then), let me get to the deja vu. Strings performed at Felicity on Saturday, the 31st of January. Unfortunately, the sound system was bad and the acoustics of the arena didn't help at all. So the show proved to be a dampener to me.....anyways, the rather modest crowd of about 900 did enjoy itself at the show. But, I guess being probably the only guy to have watched both the shows was what spoiled the experience for me at Hyderabad - I mean, we had close to 9000 people at Saarang, and the reduction by a whole order in the magnitude of the crowd was the first thing that struck me. Then the poor quality of the sound system was also a big factor I guess.
Anyway, I was talking to the lead singer, Faisal, of Strings after the Hyderabad show, and he himself said that he would rate it at 3 on a 10 point scale if he were to take the Chennai show as 10, which in other words meant "good show". Now, I don't know if anyone from IIIT Hyderabad would read this and take offence - maybe any others can take offence at me being so boastful of Saarang - well, all I can say is that we are all proud of Saarang, and whatever I said above is in no way to degrade the efforts put in by others for their fests; just that fests in Hyderabad at least have a long way to go before anybody can claim to having at least a decent level fest to boast of - personal opinion, and I don't care if I come out as feeling to be a superior being.
Anyway, I must mention here something that was in my previous post - the one which was sacrificed at the altar of Windows. The band Strings made a statement that I think must be given due consideration by the powers-that-be. They said that along with cultural exchanges India and Pakistan should also have student exchanges so that students in Pakistan can avail the higher standards of education in India, as well as to provide an insght into the life of people across the border. I think that it would indeed help ease a lot of tensions if people on either sides have more interaction on a person-to-person basis than just these shows by artists.
And, before I close for the night, I promise to return to the world of blogging once I am back in Chennai....in campus....free Net.....*sigh*.......well, I have a lot of catching up to do on others' blogs.......
I must mention here about the Unity Concert we had on Republic Day where the Pakistani band, Strings performed on the same stage as Euphoria. That was an awesome show, and it more than made up for the rather disappointing shows we had on the previous nights. Anyway, as happens so often in life, I just had the feeling of deja vu over the weekend.
A friend of mine from school is now in IIIT Hyderabad and it so happened that they had their fest "Felicity" this past weekend. I must say that after Saarang, it felt like kids' shows do after watching Survivor (or something like that on AXN), but I must also say that for a fest that is only three years old, Felicity is good; better than some other fests I know, and wouldn't name. Well, enough beating around the bush (wonder who coined that phrase and what exactly he/she meant then), let me get to the deja vu. Strings performed at Felicity on Saturday, the 31st of January. Unfortunately, the sound system was bad and the acoustics of the arena didn't help at all. So the show proved to be a dampener to me.....anyways, the rather modest crowd of about 900 did enjoy itself at the show. But, I guess being probably the only guy to have watched both the shows was what spoiled the experience for me at Hyderabad - I mean, we had close to 9000 people at Saarang, and the reduction by a whole order in the magnitude of the crowd was the first thing that struck me. Then the poor quality of the sound system was also a big factor I guess.
Anyway, I was talking to the lead singer, Faisal, of Strings after the Hyderabad show, and he himself said that he would rate it at 3 on a 10 point scale if he were to take the Chennai show as 10, which in other words meant "good show". Now, I don't know if anyone from IIIT Hyderabad would read this and take offence - maybe any others can take offence at me being so boastful of Saarang - well, all I can say is that we are all proud of Saarang, and whatever I said above is in no way to degrade the efforts put in by others for their fests; just that fests in Hyderabad at least have a long way to go before anybody can claim to having at least a decent level fest to boast of - personal opinion, and I don't care if I come out as feeling to be a superior being.
Anyway, I must mention here something that was in my previous post - the one which was sacrificed at the altar of Windows. The band Strings made a statement that I think must be given due consideration by the powers-that-be. They said that along with cultural exchanges India and Pakistan should also have student exchanges so that students in Pakistan can avail the higher standards of education in India, as well as to provide an insght into the life of people across the border. I think that it would indeed help ease a lot of tensions if people on either sides have more interaction on a person-to-person basis than just these shows by artists.
And, before I close for the night, I promise to return to the world of blogging once I am back in Chennai....in campus....free Net.....*sigh*.......well, I have a lot of catching up to do on others' blogs.......
