Metallica, the Meltdown in Delhi

Photo Courtesy: Zabeeh Afaque/ Hindustan Times

Writer's Note: This piece comes more than two weeks too late following the cancellation of Metallica concert in Gurgaon, Haryana (India). 

There is an uncanny resemblance between the flow of music and material goods from the hierarchy of the First World to the Third. Sarojini Nagar Market & the Western Music scene in India are two cases in point. Both sell market rejects.

Bear with me oh self proclaimed metal head (with the claim of knowing all discographies; also easily available in Wikipedia), for I have nothing against metal and certainly am a bigger junkie for shopping outside of showrooms. But it does eat away at my soul when mostly the ‘Has Beens’ of the music industry come and ‘grace’ us with their presence. When Prodigy successfully performed in Gurgaon earlier this year, I was just puzzled why a Coldplay, System of a Down or an Adele won’t play in town. Furthermore, I was bewildered by the number of “dedicated” Prodigy fans that cropped up as if they all decided to come out of the closet after all these years once the show was announced.

They say it takes 10 years for masses in India to catch up with international music acts and in another ten, once the act wears off from the contemporary scene of the Billboards and the Grammys, its time to relive their past glory in the land of ashrams, spirituality and suckers who call music by Aqua evergreen.

Now I won’t go into some fourfold analysis into why and how the concert was a success in Bangalore, known to host more and better rock acts than the NCR region ever has. For a deeper analysis on the factors that failed in Delhi, you may like to refer to Abhiroop Datta’s, a disgruntled yet hopeful fan, detailed account of the event, pre and post.

Sanya Rai Gupta, who attended the shows in both cities, said, “I felt that the Bangalore gig was way more organized, in terms of the waiting time, the crowds and the timing. Metallica played for about two hours, and there was a short gap between when they started playing and the opening bands stopped...but the crowds were pretty enthusiastic and patient.” Yet, no one can assume with confidence if the audience in Bangalore would have reacted the same, if the management had subjected them to the same debacle that Delhiites faced.  

There have been multiple observations and commentaries on the mobs and the vandalism, some sympathizing with their frustration, others delineating via dialects how they were, in fact, not from around town. Amongst all the arguments in the debate whether it was the management versus the crowd to be blamed or the Delhi against Bangalore rock culture, the words of Blogger Rahul Sarin most strongly agreed with me, when he said:

You on the other hand, dear band members, were sitting in your hotel room, comfortably. You did not have the courtesy to apologize to your fans. Your crew treated the audience like dogs by hurling abuses at them and insulting them. Had this been USA, UK or any other nation for that matter, you’d have not dare messed with the audience by way of insults. 

Given my apparent prejudice towards Delhiites, the failure of a Metallica concert turning into mob madness would have normally amused the sadist in me. However, in the spirit of justice and value for entertainment, I personally (despite my physical absence from the scene) felt ragged by the unapologetic attitude of the management, the band and the crew. Media reports claimed that the band refused to play out of concern for the safety and security of the audience. Accepted but in a better PR exercise, they should have issued a more consolatory press statement and reached out to their fans via Twitter. Lady Gaga, another visiting artist in India for the Formula 1, does not have the largest Twitter followers for no reason!

Photo Courtesy: Zabeeh Afaque/ Hindustan Times

We no longer inhabit a world where artists, celebrities or even the Government can maintain a snooty distance from the public and remain inaccessible to their fans. Thanks to Social Media, Jasmine revolution for democracy in the Middle East and rising fuel prices, voices don’t just come out in small circles but explode in the World Wide Web.

The NCR region has held many events on a much larger scale than any other metro in the country combined. The Metallica mishap came in an unfortunate series of events that is more of an isolated incident than routine and the culprits have been brought to task. True that such follies being committed in a Pandit Ravi Shankar concert or a ‘Daler Mehendi Live’ is less imaginable and a band like Metallica is but once in a lifetime opportunity. For all such reasons, the sentiments of the crowd are more understandable than the excuses made by the management.    

*All images are under the copyright ownership of Zabeeh Afaque. 

Why I don't "make peace"

~ Not because I wasn't born during war or post a battle victory.

~ Not because my parents came from a hippie culture and generation that came ten years too late to the North East.

Right is the Daddyster! 

My mom was a pothead! 

~ Not because my name wasn't even remotely thought of as courtesy to Sir William Makepeace Thackeray.

~ Not because my name came from a TV sitcom

~ Not because my parents thought the female detective's character, Makepeace (surname) was cool (Just like in the 90's & in my tweens, I thought Buffy was cool! Thank God, I didn't have a baby then).

Badass Makepeace! 

~ Not because my name comes from a very old lineage of the English surname.

~ Not because my name has been murdered on more than several occasions that I sometimes almost wish that I was called Jo and alternately, Yo!

• Make piece
• Make peace (who the fuck gave the space in between in the first place?)
• Cake piece
• Maybe
• Mouth piece
• Magpie
• Maggie
• Make believe
• Make love
• Make war

~ Not at all because I get such results when I google my name (without the space, you genius!)

• A non profit by my name - http://www.makepeace.org/. Shouldn't I be their rightful brand ambassador?
• An island by my name - http://makepeaceisland.com/. They charge some 8000 dollars per night as rent. Part of it should come to me as royalty at least. Also, it is heart shaped & that definitely says something about me.
• A band called The Makepeace Brothers, who play roots based rock.
• http://www.makepeacetotalpackage.com/ (url name says it all!)

~ Especially because people presume I'd be soft spoken owing to my name.

...only because I do as and when I feel like and don't always make it apparent!

Disclaimer: No, I'm not obssessed with my name. People are always very intrigued by it just like I am with the Parsi surname Sodabottleopenerwala. This post is just to put their queries and sometimes, wild imaginations to rest.

At Last: Dempsey & Makepeace in real life hooked up & got hitched & remain so till today. Yes, you Bones/Castle fans can be optimistic after all! 

The Introspective Sabatical

Okay, so I might just be too young to be taking one considering that I started working only just a year or so ago. It wasn't easy to let go, trust me. The nagging fear of seeming incompetent in today's day and age is much too much, which is precisely the reason why the world is spinning out of control. Taking time off JUST for yourself is usually either frowned upon as a selfish task or being clearly dysfunctional.

It has taken me a week to fully give my vote of confidence to this decision without any regrets and make peace (don't say I never practise my name!) with the losses left behind.

The moment when you're restrained off your duties, responsibilities and obligations to an entity, its only just a mental registration of that fact. Its a fact that you assimilate with all other kinds, related or unrelated, on a daily basis. But it takes a lot more physical and psychological, if not spiritual, detoxification from a habit, routine, role and most crucially, an identity. I'm beginning to appreciate the many twists and turns life took in the past couple of months and although they were filled with much testing, agony and led to some loss of faith, I'm glad for how they turned out. It might just be too early to say 'amen' but in a pattern it restored some faith to how the good old always say, "It will all turn out okay".

In my time "off", I have a list of things that'll keep me from being idle, hence, not giving the devil any time or space for the workshops, too many of which I've attended.

~ I will continue to write on all the platforms I'm afforded and will plunge myself into newer angles, vision and post reflective assessments which certainly will not limit itself to social development or existential crisis.

~ Learning my way around the kitchen is very high on my pursuit this month.

~ Getting help for all the excess baggage (a lot which I'm aware of & a lot more that is elusive) that has been slowly eating at me and is responsible for a lot of misgivings and misbehaviour, even.

~ Getting back to print! Got a scanty list of books lying about collecting dust but also reading literature that online publications can never really replace (so far in my imagination).

~ Goa. You know the rest :)

~   Dancing. Improving technique, clarity and letting myself get lost in the beats and the music.

~ I'm putting swimming and running here as well although they will follow my dominant interests of continuing to watch the tons of movies I do and occasionally cutting myself some slack as a couch potato.

~ Most importantly, re-assessing my near future goals and priorities in life. To mentally prepare myself for the big move that I now need more than I desire and to understand in which order is work fulfilling for me and what I am gunning for - Money, fame, recognition, identity, experience, filling a void and/or whatever else one adds after the dots.

To October!

The title is adept to the movie’s post war setting in Berlin, 1945. In the crumbles of war, trauma and hopeful pursuits’ decease the disillusioned lives of survivors while power politics is played between leaders under the garb of peace conferences. And in between falls Lena (suavely played by Cate Blanchett), the beautiful wife of a significantly wanted scientist, Emiel Brandt, who is presumed dead by all blocs. Jacob Geismar (perhaps a little less convincingly played by George Clooney) ,an American captain, journalist and Lena’s old flame, arrives on his second deputation not expecting to find her with his driver, a young and hot blooded corporal (Tobey Mc Guire). As Geismar unabashedly seeks (longs for) her, the corporal’s body is unexpectedly washed in. Only to Geismar’s curiosity, this murder means more than a mere consequence of zonal trespassing that eventually unfolds to his estranged lover, whose only goal is to survive while fulfilling a secret duty with her irresistible aura as the only means to escape.

                                         Stephen Soderbergh cuts a classic 40’s cinematographic piece coupled with the old school background score to the full effect of nostalgic cinema. And although it may take considerable cognitive effort to gather the story together, it’s worth the rental on a lazy day or even for a collector’s piece. 

Originally published in Traffic Life, a former magazine by Twenty Onwards Media Pvt. Ltd.  

Carrying All That Weight Around

I like to think I'm a bohemian artist in this generation of rat race and cut throat competition. That I'm 'Indie' and I'm only just competing with myself. Its true that it is me against myself in this world. That is, me and my ideas of being 'Bohemian' and 'Indie' versus the unresolved and perpetually stirred conflict within myself of the expectations I choose to adhere to and those I forego with high claims of individuality, principle and superior thought.

No one said that the twenties are a period of existential homeostasis. Then why the fuck are people pretending it is? And why the fuck doesn't anyone tell you how ugly it was going to get and why won't most of us admit to it? What are people done experimenting life "so fully" in their teens that the twenties are all about resolving to some sedentary concept of a suburban life? Fuck you. You went around with every Adam and Eve that barked up your tree at 16 and now you're claiming settlement at effin' 23?

Oh you go party every weekend with that safe & secure gang from your BBM, so its all good, eh? Fuck you! I agree that drinking is not the solution and that it makes you forget the question (which is just so 'effin awesome, I know!) but halt, you escapist! No, not from uninhibited drinking but believing that izz alll goood just 'cause you do that.

And don't lament some other fellow's miseries just to make yourself feel a tad more secure from your own! Empathy is a dying trait of this generation and will only be referred to merely as figurative speech by the end of this century.

Why am I so angry? Because I don't have what you do. That I don't project my imperfect life as going just as great as yours. Again, fuck you. No I don't but I'm not as angry about that as I am about all that is worth going outta the window and superficiality being the king of good times!