Hey There!!!
Yup, more than a month of classes had passed by in a blur, ok not actually a blur, it was excruciatingly boring, but still the good thing is that a month was over. By now, we had stopped treating our girl batchmates as aliens and talked pretty properly with them. Some of the lucky ones had even found "love", that elusive little bugger who's always out to ruin people's lives.
So, it happened one day that while sitting in DADH class(yes, i had attended class, i'm not making this up), one of the PG students came into the class with an urgent announcement. "Arrangements for the Orientation Day for the freshers will be starting from today. Anyone who wishes to volunteer as well as participate in the cultural programme should approach the HOD". Most of the aspiring bathroom singers, me included, jumped at the opportunity to showcase our talent. We thought it will be like an Indian Idol of sorts, but a huge surprise waited for us downstairs. We gave our names to the HOD, and after normal classes got over, we went down to the seminar hall where we had been summoned to give an audition.
About ten of us were waiting outside the gates of the seminar hall, waiting for the professors to arrive, fully expecting an empty hall where we had no reason to be embarrassed or to be laughed at by anyone. When they finally arrived and ushered us inside, we were stumped. THE WHOLE BATCH was sitting inside the hall, waiting for the show to begin, and these were just the auditions. A collective "Oh, Shit", passed through all our minds as a hundred pairs of eyes(not including the people who had glasses, because they had four each) were suddenly focused on us, and we felt as if we were criminals approaching the gallows.
We all took a big gulp and walked toward the stage where one of the professors waited, with a benign smile and a microphone. As soon as we were all om stage, the hall burst into applause and i kid u not, it made us all blush a deep cherry red. But as soon as the applause subsided, and we were faced with the prospect of singing/dancing in front of them, a shoving match ensued, with no one willing to go first. Soon, we decided that forming a mob was the best idea and we approached in a group. We each told him what all songs we were going to perform and we were each given a number. We would audition in that order.
Just as we were about to begin, someone had the bright idea of suggesting that we need guitar as well as drums to accompany us. Slash and Steve Vai left for the hostel to get their guitars, while me and a couple of guys went to the sports room to fish out an old drum kit which was used, yup you guessed it, for marching.
We lugged them back to the seminar hall, and when we finally assembled them, we found that we only had a hi-hat, a tom tom, and a bass drum. No snare, no cymbals, and not even a foot pedal to play the bass drum with. Such was the sorry state of our musical equipment. On the other hand, the guitar people had returned and soon the seminar hall was full of the sounds of tuning guitars. After all this hullabaloo was over, a clearly exasperated professor who was on the verge of a nervous breakdown, pleaded us to sing.
After me and A2 sang our respective numbers, we got some serious applause from the crowd, and now was the time for three of the girls to audition for a dance number. As soon as it was announced that the girls would be dancing, an immediate flurry of catcalls and a resounding Hooooo resounded from all of the guys. After a few minutes, and a lot of hand waving by the professor, some amount of discipline was restored(it was aa college after all). Immediately, anyone with a laptop was summoned. S, who had been in the habit of lugging around his laptop around college(for reasons only known to him) stepped up,and soon the dance was underway with a lot of clapping and cheering,
After the auditions were over, we all headed back to our hostels with a solemn promise to practice and get rid of the stage fright that was plaguing our performances. It goes without saying that our neighbours and the people in the adjacent bathrooms were treated to a free concert that night which sometimes resulted in a bucket of water being splashed over the door in order to shut us up.
That was just Part I, keep reading to find out more hilarious episodes from the next two parts....Ciao!!
Yup, more than a month of classes had passed by in a blur, ok not actually a blur, it was excruciatingly boring, but still the good thing is that a month was over. By now, we had stopped treating our girl batchmates as aliens and talked pretty properly with them. Some of the lucky ones had even found "love", that elusive little bugger who's always out to ruin people's lives.
So, it happened one day that while sitting in DADH class(yes, i had attended class, i'm not making this up), one of the PG students came into the class with an urgent announcement. "Arrangements for the Orientation Day for the freshers will be starting from today. Anyone who wishes to volunteer as well as participate in the cultural programme should approach the HOD". Most of the aspiring bathroom singers, me included, jumped at the opportunity to showcase our talent. We thought it will be like an Indian Idol of sorts, but a huge surprise waited for us downstairs. We gave our names to the HOD, and after normal classes got over, we went down to the seminar hall where we had been summoned to give an audition.
About ten of us were waiting outside the gates of the seminar hall, waiting for the professors to arrive, fully expecting an empty hall where we had no reason to be embarrassed or to be laughed at by anyone. When they finally arrived and ushered us inside, we were stumped. THE WHOLE BATCH was sitting inside the hall, waiting for the show to begin, and these were just the auditions. A collective "Oh, Shit", passed through all our minds as a hundred pairs of eyes(not including the people who had glasses, because they had four each) were suddenly focused on us, and we felt as if we were criminals approaching the gallows.
We all took a big gulp and walked toward the stage where one of the professors waited, with a benign smile and a microphone. As soon as we were all om stage, the hall burst into applause and i kid u not, it made us all blush a deep cherry red. But as soon as the applause subsided, and we were faced with the prospect of singing/dancing in front of them, a shoving match ensued, with no one willing to go first. Soon, we decided that forming a mob was the best idea and we approached in a group. We each told him what all songs we were going to perform and we were each given a number. We would audition in that order.
Just as we were about to begin, someone had the bright idea of suggesting that we need guitar as well as drums to accompany us. Slash and Steve Vai left for the hostel to get their guitars, while me and a couple of guys went to the sports room to fish out an old drum kit which was used, yup you guessed it, for marching.
We lugged them back to the seminar hall, and when we finally assembled them, we found that we only had a hi-hat, a tom tom, and a bass drum. No snare, no cymbals, and not even a foot pedal to play the bass drum with. Such was the sorry state of our musical equipment. On the other hand, the guitar people had returned and soon the seminar hall was full of the sounds of tuning guitars. After all this hullabaloo was over, a clearly exasperated professor who was on the verge of a nervous breakdown, pleaded us to sing.
After me and A2 sang our respective numbers, we got some serious applause from the crowd, and now was the time for three of the girls to audition for a dance number. As soon as it was announced that the girls would be dancing, an immediate flurry of catcalls and a resounding Hooooo resounded from all of the guys. After a few minutes, and a lot of hand waving by the professor, some amount of discipline was restored(it was aa college after all). Immediately, anyone with a laptop was summoned. S, who had been in the habit of lugging around his laptop around college(for reasons only known to him) stepped up,and soon the dance was underway with a lot of clapping and cheering,
After the auditions were over, we all headed back to our hostels with a solemn promise to practice and get rid of the stage fright that was plaguing our performances. It goes without saying that our neighbours and the people in the adjacent bathrooms were treated to a free concert that night which sometimes resulted in a bucket of water being splashed over the door in order to shut us up.
That was just Part I, keep reading to find out more hilarious episodes from the next two parts....Ciao!!
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