Counting Down to 90 - Week 1572 - Concerts, Comebacks and Insults, Gen Y Parents with Brain Rot
About the Maroon 5 and Kailash Kher concerts, my inability to come up with a smart comeback and obliviot Gen Y parents
The Concept Explained
Bhavin Jankharia
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After last week’s piece, my nephew Hriday messaged in our family group, “Music is probably the only form of live entertainment you can play catch up on. Your favorite sportsmen retire and comedians are usually current affairs and culture specific.”
Bhavin Jankharia
He is so right. In January, I watched Sting perform at Lollapalooza, a good 30 plus years since I first heard him with Police, in Rang Bhavan. In the meantime, I have been an avid follower of his music and even run to his songs, especially “Every Breath You Take”. Apart from actors and movies, nothing else seems to have that kind of longevity.
Last week offered a perfect study in contrasting concerts. On Friday night, there was Kailash Kher and band Kailasa and on Tuesday night, Maroon 5. Both performances were off for the first half hour or so. Then Adam Levine got his act together for about 45 minutes from 8:45 to 9:25 at which time they turned off the lights and we left since Wednesday was a working day. The only other song he sung thereafter was Sugar, which we heard partly at the Mahalaxmi Station signal, where we found others watching the concert for free from the pavement.
Kailash Kher was “besoora” on the low notes for the first half hour or so, though his energy stayed strong all through. The problem with Shanmukhananda Hall is they lack good sound control and it was just too loud in the 10th row. While the AirPods Pro reduced the decibel levels, they also dampened different frequencies, which changed the tenor of the songs, so I finally just stopped using them, hoping I hadn't damaged some more auditory cells. The final hour was brilliant. He had the crowd dancing, got people on stage and sung his popular numbers beautifully at the end, ending with “Saiyyan”.
Just as rock concerts have opening bands, the Kailash Kher show had an opening trailer of something called Bandish Bandits 2. An irritating emcee called Abhinandan wore our patience thin, talking about this show and calling the lead pair on stage, wasting 30 minutes of our time, after we had already started 15 minutes late.
The only place where events start on time is the NCPA. Most others, like NMACC and Shanmukhananda, work pretty much on Indian Standard Time, with 5-20 minute delays being the norm.
I find it remarkable how our generation transitions between music genres. Arabic fusion the week prior (Ibrahim Maalouf), then modern rock-pop (Maroon 5) and Indian pop with a twist (Kailash Kher) this week. Regardless of what we like…from jazz to classical to rock…popular film music is so ingrained in us that we can easily relate to these numbers across decades, anytime, anywhere. No wonder the Sonu Nigam tribute to Mohd Rafi on the 24th is sold out.
At the Maroon 5 concert, I got into a scrap with a 40-something person. I was getting beer in a typical Indian setting without a defined queue. When I got to the counter, the person next to me said he was first. I said, “Sure, you go ahead.”Then he went, “You fucker, you fucking cut the line.” At that point, there were so many interesting things I could have said to counter him but all I came up with was “Why are you swearing and using the fuck word.” This upset him even more and he kept swearing until the bartender had filled his glass and he left.
It was only ten minutes later that I finally came up with a bunch of interesting comebacks: “Oops, sorry you scrapped with your spouse. Why take it out on me?”, “Did your boss make you work overtime?”, “Sorry, but are you a failed musician?” or “It must be tough being you.” Unfortunately, when I need that comeback or insult, it’s never on the tip of my tongue.
This week, though, the best insult came in a review of the film Pushpa 2 that explains KLD (if you know, you know, if you don’t, you don’t…) in a sanitized manner.
Watching the entire third act was the equivalent of going to a hotel that lures you with the promise of a hot water bath but then asks you to take a cold shower instead and later shuts off the water supply while you are in the middle of it, all lathered up.
Sajin Shrijith
Idiots will be idiots. At around 6 AM, Don Bosco International parents drop off their precious ones for sports practice in the lane parallel to Don Bosco that leads to Sahakari Bhandar. 80% are typical pest parents. They park the car on the wrong side of the road and then their precious one gets out on the road side, in the middle of the road, as the photo shows. One day, an oncoming tempo, truck, or car will run into one of these kids and we’ll have a disaster. I once made the mistake of telling one of these parents to park on the opposite side and make sure their kid gets out on the pavement side and they looked blankly at me not understanding a word of what I was saying. If rich, apparently educated 30-something Gen Y parents can’t understand how to park and how to get their kids out of the car, then what is the point of their education and money?
Bhavin Jankharia
It will take two to three more generations for people to follow basic driving rules in our country. Until then, all we can do is shake our heads at these obliviots (oblivious idiots), assume these Gen Y parents have severe brain rot, and hope their precious ones survive the morning drop-offs.
Benedict Heaton
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