Saturday, September 14, 2013

3 Reveries

Yesterday Gaurang, Vandana & I went to attend a Rashid Khan concert at the DUCTAC theatre and as we waited for the concert to begin the 3 of us were lost in our own reveries.  Here is a 1st person recount of our revery as narrated by each of us:

As narrated by Ram

I was woken up from my revery by a voice over the sound system announcing that the accompanying artistes for harmonium and tabla have suddenly had a stomach upset and have been taken to the hospital.  So is there anyone in the audience who can play the harmonium and the tabla, and would be kind enough to volunteer their services to accompany Ustad Rashid Khan?

Being my usual modest self, I kept quiet - but then several people from the audience chanted my name and pleaded with me to save the occasion by providing my harmonium services - and I was therefore forced to come on to the stage, along with my son (who plays the tabla) and accompany the famed Ustad and hold the audience spell-bound with our magnificent performance.

As narrated by Gaurang, the son

I was mulling over what should be the next topic for my poem when I was disturbed from my pleasant thoughts by my dad rudely shaking me, and telling me that the harmonium and tabla players have taken ill, and that now is our chance to shine in front of an audience by displaying our harmonium and tabla skills respectively.

We tried to make our way to the stage to take our place near Rashad Khanji - but we had to literally fight our way to the stage as there were several other harmonium and tabla players from the audience who also wanted to show off their skills in the presence of Rashid Khanji.  I just don't know from where so many harmonium and tabla players appeared.  Somehow through some adroit maneuvering by my dad we managed to outwit all other rivals and grabbed our seats next to Rashid Khanji and started playing - my dad on the harmonium, and I on the tabla.  Rashid Khan on hearing our performance suddenly developed an inferiority complex and therefore left the stage - leaving just me and my dad to regale the audience with our skills.

As narrated by Vandana, the wife

My son is as crazy as his dad.  I mean, who would be foolish enough to fight his way to the stage and grab the seats next to the great Rashid Khanji to show off their amateur harmonium and tabla  skills?  I was very embarrassed and wanted to disappear into the floor.  But fortunately the great Rashid Khanji decided that enough is enough of this tom-foolery and called off the show, and give us a full refund.  We collected the refund and walked into the nearest branch of Damas Jewellery and wisely invested the money (and some more of it) on a beautiful jewellery item.