Indian Cricket, an Emotional Upheaval Unlike Any Other!!!

it's 10.50 PM and this is it, today finally the anger spills over...just finished watching the 5th ODI between Australia and India and if you didn't watch it, don't read this, you just won't get it...in India, we treat cricket as religion but is it really our fault?

How can you not when you have people like Sachin who perform acts that are nothing short of miraculous, to keep playing for 20 years and still have the insatiable thirst for runs? When a man who is 36, considered normally the fag end of a batsman's career (specially when you've been playing since 16) turns up on the day and scores 170+ at a rate normally reserved for the young guns of cricket, drags the whole team one 6 away from the finish line, against all odds, can you really blame us for the emotional highs and lows that govern the life of every Indian cricket follower?

But this is not an ode to Sachin, it's an outburst against Indian cricket and the mentality of the players...

'Australianism': a single-minded determination to win - to win within the laws but, if necessary, to the last limit within them. (a quote by John Arlott made in the golden years of Bradman)

'Indianism': To inspire 1.1 billion people with their acts but at the end of the day, with the exception of a few greats, play for personal glory and not for the greater good.

It's 5 matches down in the series and you have to wonder, Australia have lost half their first XI to injuries and yet they manage to win. Are we really that bad?

India almost lost the first match but came back splendidly thanks to a memorable knock by Bhajji and Praveen Kumar but when it came to the crunch, 9 runs off the last over, the team buckled under pressure. We won the 2nd and 3rd but then again in the 4th, on a belter of a track, bowled splendidly to get Aus out for 250. What happened that time? Why did we lose then? Because complacency is an Indian mentality, 250 runs on a pure batting track and everybody took it lightly, it was up to Bhajji and Praveen Kumar again to try and drag the team across but we fell short yet again.

And then today, how can you describe a match that gives you immeasurable pride in being called an Indian and yet utter disgust at the same time. We've got Aus well roped in, 160 at the end of 30 overs and they end up scoring 190 in the last 20 overs. WHY?? We chase, the top-order loses its way, Sehwag does his blitzkreig, flash-in-the-pan 30-odd run routine and gets out, time to take some accountability buddy. Sachin and Raina almost pull off a miracle, scoring at a constant 7 runs an over, throughout the middle overs but then, in one moment of glory, all is lost. Raina goes out to a shot that had no business being there, Bhajji after showing the great temperament and skill in the past 4 matches, acts stupid on the one day the team needs him, not just for India but to justify Sachin's epic knock. Jadeja has no business playing in international cricket, he can't handle the pressure, the past 4 matches have shown it, he either can't score or if he ends up scoring, he gets into the 'personal glory' mode and gets run out because he's so eager to be in the spotlight. I mean which player, commentator, spectator can justify the two times he's got run out?? Was there ever a run in there? But no, we play for ourselves. How can you? After watching one of the most memorable knocks to be played by any batsman, with odds stacked heavily against, how can you forget the big picture and live for yourself??

If the Indian team management doesn't have the sense to throw this kid out and get somebody like one of the Pathan brothers or Kaif or anybody who can handle pressure, then you know what, we deserve it, we deserve to come so close and yet lose everytime.

And then come the glorious two, the no. 10 and no. 11 of indian batting. Don't they feel humiliated by the way they bat? To watch Bhajji come across the years and improve his batting the way he has, doesn't it inspire them to do something about it? But no, they feel that if they've come out to bat, the match is over, let's just have some fun, hit a coupla shots, if they connect, our batting avg will jump from 4.5 to 7.5 and if they don't, it doesn't matter, nobody expects anything of us anyways. This is where the difference between world runners-up and the world champions comes in.

They fight, they fight, and they don't let go till the last run is made or the last wicket is gone. They believe, they believe that they can come back from any situation, it's what makes them world champions. To be defending 350, have the opposition 4 wickets down for a paltry sum and still show the kind of determination in the field that they do, can we really say that they don't deserve to win? To be playing a half second-bench team means nothing to them, because they all believe that they all belong to the first XI.

And who suffers the most in this extraordinarily volatile epic?? The Indian fan, they believe, to have 1.1 billion people believe and be treated this way is not fair. The fans who switched off the match when 4 wickets went down were deprived of one of the greatest moments in world cricket and yet spared one of the biggest heartbreaks in Indian cricket. Because for those of us who watched, we were in the lows, Raina and Sachin pulled us out of the abyss, made us believe, took us to an emotional high we didn't know we had and then we fell, fell hard. The saying holds true... "the higher you go, the harder you fall." Today exemplified it brilliantly, nothing could be truer. To watch two players play hard, play with heart, play with a single-minded determination to win and then see the rest come out and emit a vibe of purposelessness, hurts like nobody can tell. This kind of emotional upheaval shows some unseen things, the quiet and reserved fan showing fury, anger at the loss...the aggressive fan showing absolute and utter despair, the medical teams should be put on high alert everytime India gets into a close match because you know it's war, and there's gonna be collateral damage. People might ask, why, why do you behave this way, who asks you to take cricket so seriously. I have one answer for them.

BECAUSE THOSE 11 MEN IN BLUE OUT THERE, MAKE US BELIEVE.

Just an outburst of frustration by another ordinary Indian cricket fan.

Peace

gRiNcH <3 the MEN IN BLUE (irrespective of whatever happens)

failure...accepting it...

so it's 1.38 am and i'm posting two times in two days...it's kinda like a continuation of the last post...so that was about wondering how long it takes to reach the point where you stop getting punished for your mistake and you get the chance to set it right...this one is a different perspective...it's about learning when to know you can't set something right and accept it and just live with the fact that you made a mistake and such is life...

so you made a mistake, you spent the time repenting it, you made a few efforts to set it right, didn't work, time passes by and you still feel that no, the wish to set it right is still there...so you try again and then you try again and you keep trying...when do u stop?? when do you let go?? or do you let go??

i put in my bit, i spent time repenting it, 3 years is a bloody long time...i've changed as a person along d way, from having a perfect life to hating myself for what i'd become to trying hard to turn myself around and go back to being somebody i could be comfortable with, it's all happened...it's done...i tried to set things right, i did really, didn't work, only difference this time i don't feel like trying again, i think it's time to let go, let it be, accept it as a permanent failure...maybe it's best that way, maybe there is a reason to this, maybe it's supposed to be this way so it serves as a reminder to me for the future...maybe it's supposed to hurt to make sure it never happens again...whatever be the reason, it's done, it's over...

there are some mistakes u can set right and then there are mistakes that you can't...this is the latter...accepting failure...

gRiNcH

Mistakes, they just don't get off your back...

so it's 6:19 am and i've just started writing another one...it's slightly different this time though coz i've got two of my close friends in the same room and we're playing poker on facebook...but I really feel like saying this out loud so i'm just gonna go ahead an write it anyways...how long does it take to stop getting punished for ur mistake and actually get an opportunity to set it right?? the person with relation to whom this is being written is prolly never gonna read this anyways but to hell with that, this ain't about that, it's about just saying it aloud...so again, HOW LONG DOES ONE GET PUNISHED FOR THEIR MISTAKES AND HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO GET TO THE POINT WHERE YOU CAN SET IT RIGHT??

orite, so i'm i dunno how many glasses of black label down and the words are fading in front of me on the screen, but don't discount this post because of that, the thought process is still damn clear in the head...the timing of this post kinda coincides with the birthday of that relevant person but anyways, the point is again...how long??

so I made a mistake long back, been 3 years to that mistake and not one day has gone by that I haven't repented it...sure I've carried on with my life, I'm not saying I've been stuck to that and am on the point of breaking apart but still, not one night that I haven't thought about it, not one night that I haven't kicked myself for it...but seriously, it's been long enough man, gimme a chance, let me set it right?? i'm not asking for things to go back the way they were, not only would that be unreasonable, it's also not what I want, I just wanna set things right...I hate miscommunication and misunderstandings...

so if there's any power out there that has the power to do anything, do this...I deserve the chance...and if the person in question actually ends up reading this, then you know I deserve the chance, I'm not asking for anything extraordinary, just lemme set things right...I also believe I deserve an explanation for the way we left things, I never got that answer, I think I deserve it...

anyways, enough of rambling, i've lost enough money while writing this post...let's get back to what we have in hand, rather than cribbing about what we lost...

ciaos

gRiNcH

I have nothing to say!!!

so it's 5:04 am and i haven't blogged in over half a year...sometimes i wanted to but didn't have the opportunity, sometimes i had the opportunity, just didn't feel like it...sometimes i wanted to and had the net available but procrastination got the better of me...the only reason i sat down to write right now is the fact that it's 5 in d morning, i have to be out by 5.45 and i couldn't get myself to sleep tonight and have been looking for ways to kill time...normally that wouldn't seem a problem considering the plethora of TV serials and random movies at my disposal but didn't feel like that...so now i'm facing the biggest crisis to have come across my life in a while...

I HAVE STARTED WRITING A POST BUT HAVE NOTHING TO WRITE ABOUT!!!

so what are my options...

a) Write another post on how life has changed and how I have changed in the past 3 years of my life - blah blah blah blah, boring boring boring...
b) Write a post on how I am about to enter the real world and how I am scared - blah blah blah, besides do I really wanna make myself feel worse??
c) Write the next part to Music is LIFE!!! - not a bad idea actually but maybe next time (procrasination at work again, :D) plus I've kinda been out of the whole new music scene really
d) Write another post on some specific person in my life or the other, outlining the story and ending it by showing my mistake - been there, done that, and I think i've finally run out of mistakes I've made regarding other people...
e) Write something short, snappy, like make a list of something... - interesting, could be fun, something new...

so I think we managed to close it down to c and e and between the two of them, i'm gonna go with e...so the next question is, make a list of what?? answer: just keep writing down whatever thoughts come into your mind...could be fun...

a) A State of Trance Year Mix 2008 CD1 - Lost (Wanna hear it loud and very loud, like hostel loud)
b) Till the sky falls down - Dash Berlin (Listening to it right now, wanna hear it really loud, with some maddening bass)
c) Go to play squash in 30 mins - (Try and play for over an hour today, eat powerbars and don't smoke before playing, make sure it happens)
d) GTA IV - (Gotta finish the game, high time, enough is enough, 15 GB is way too much space to leave lying utilised)
e) Club 4-nought-1 (401) of the St. Xavier's College Hostel - (gonna miss my room, miss d hostel life, d loud music, d 24\7 activity, d mad hostelmates, d eating on d floor, d gross sense of humour floating around)
f) Who is watching (Cosmic Gate remix) - (Track just changed on the notebook, what an insane progression, mad track)
g) Celtic female voice on all the electronic tracks, bloody surreal - (have to once date a chick who has that kind of a voice)
h) VS4121 - (The culprit in spoiling me for music, my brilliant speakers, have to get them back from the hostel, set them up here)
i) ABCD EFGHIJ* - (need one chance to tell that person how much our friendship would mean)
j) EFGH IJKLMNO* - (have to spend some time with this person, some quality time, last opportunity)
k) Sleeping pills - (have to research about them, do they work, need something to get me to sleep at 1 am every night)
l) Insomnia - (not talking about the track, sleeplessness, is too mad, bombay's gonna be mad this time, last 5 days of college, not gonna sleep a bit)
m) Lost - Zara (A State of Trance Year Mix 2008 CD 1 at 27mins) - (what an insane track, have to attend an authentic electronic concert in Ibiza or at Rio or let's face reality, mostly at Sunburn 2009 :D)
n) Toblerone - (Having one right now, not good, shouldn't be having but what the heck, life is all about the temptations)
o) 5.36 am - (time to give my squash partner a wake-up call, i'll delay it)
p) cigarette - (need one, gonna go catch one)
q) burning eyes - (not the track, state of my eyes right now)
r) lethargy - (d most frustrating feeling in the world)
s) the internet is too addictive - (need to break my relationship with the internet or atleast make it more casual and not so clingy)
t) T20 - (yay, RR won their last match, have to win the remaining two as well, RR are IPL 2009 champions as well :D)
u) Wireless world - (hate the tangling of cables and wires everywhere, need a wireless world)
v) Victory * lol lol lol lol, hahahahahahaha - (what's up dude, haven't met in a bit, have to catch up)
w) SUARRRR - (u bitch, u been in town for a coupla days now, let's fucking meet up)
x) Aimless wandering - (have no plans for the day, just aimlessly roaming about)
y) No plans for the future??? - (gotta decide, have to make up my mind soon)
z) time to bloody head, snap out of the sofa, go play

Lol, this was supposed to be short and snappy...too funny...

NOTE - * - names have been changed to protect the original :P

ciaos
gRiNcH <3 Randomness

Change...

hey, don't exactly know what's quite happening, all I know is life is changing at a superfast pace and I am changing (or have changed) at the same speed if not faster. Weird things are happening with me, I guess the process started about 5 months back.

Normally people are bound to change when they leave their home to pursue education outside (another city, maybe another country) as it's going to put them in charge of their life in a way that living at home could never have done. You become responsible, you learn the ways of the world, you learn to take care of your belongings, random stuff like that. That is the good change that happens in a person.

Also, people also change\grow up each time they are faced with a major hurdle in life which has to be crossed. As a kid, the first hurdle is perhaps your 10th Boards, the next being the 12th Boards. Each time you come across one of these, the process of overcoming these hurdles is long and cumbersome. Maybe it would be wrong to call them hurdles, let's just call them 'days of reckoning'. Facing each of these 'days of reckoning' brings about a certain change in the person, a change which is normally labelled maturity. The gravity of the situation sinks in, you get serious about it and you grow up. Normally maturity is associated with learning to keep quiet, being able to absorb what the other person is saying, behaving in a dignified manner (or one which befits your age) and true enough, all these things normally happen when a person goes through one of these life-altering events. I guess this could also be considered a positive event.

But in my life and in my experience, none of this comes remotely close to what I am facing in my graduating year. It's brought along all the uncertainty that comes with entering uncharted territory. The uncertainty has brought about a lot of changes in me (don't exactly know which ones can be called positive and which ones negative). The uncertainty is playing on my mind so much that I've more often than not, been accused of being spaced out\lost in my own world, even when with sitting with my friends or anybody for that matter. It's not that I'm always thinking about it but it's always at the back of my mind, it's always there, it refuses to go away, it's changed me as a person and to a great extent at that. I refuse to go out of my way to be accommodating or be social with people, I still enjoy the company of my friends and people I hang out with but I refuse to spend time with as many people as I used to, I've become comfortable in my own setup so much that I make efforts to stay within that. If I ever wonder why I didn't put in the extra effort and do something else, I just put up the wall of excuse reading 'I need my peace of mind, I don't want to do anything that I don't feel comfortable with, I want to have my way, it's my graduating year, I'm giving CAT, I need my space' and continue life the way I am leading.

While I don't say that the reasons are irrelevant (they most definitely are relevant and absolutely correct), I do wonder if it's correct for me to be so self-centred. I could argue that it's correct because it's my butt that's on the line, I have to achieve something in the next few months if I want to get successful fast but there is always a nagging feeling at the back which I guess can be attributed to my conscience. Most conversations around me seem to irritate me as I try to understand how somebody can sit and discuss perhaps the next episode of heroes or their most recent shopping exploit or just want to sit and plain make small talk when there is the larger issue of our career at stake here and more often than not I don't make an effort to hide my irritation. It's led me to become a selective recluse which could be misinterpreted as growing up, becoming mature. Maybe it is that cause I seem to find most talk around me childish and irrelevant and petty but if that is the view that one starts to have of things around u as they grow up, is that the adult I wanna become? Do I want to become so grown up that I look down upon all those around me who perhaps have been able to retain some of the zest of youth and refuse to be bogged down by the responsibilities of adulthood and are able to still be happy-go-lucky? Should the fact that my friends do not feel like discussing the global recession and not discuss the presidential race in the US make me have an opinion of them which is negative?

But on the other hand, I can't help but feel irritated(i need a synonym!! I've used it too many times in this post...) when people I know who're on the same step of life as me, who themselves also have to fight to make sure they don't join the queue titled 'UNEMPLOYED' one year from now, sit and discuss about how the day went and make small talk not because they don't feel like discussing the topics above but because they're so outta sync that they have no clue of what's happening around in the world. Somehow it gets on my nerves even more when the people in question are people close to me, people I'm genuinely concerned about and who I don't want to see sit around a year from now and wonder "what if we'd actually given a shit at that time and bothered to think about life??" Do I tell them?? and if I do, how many times do I?? I don't mind the showing the irritation part when the people in question are not important to me, I just go off and couldn't care as long as they don't impede upon my peace of mind but what about the ones who do matter?? What do you do then??

Another difference is not wanting to make conversation all the time, relevant or otherwise, and being comfortable in silence or stillness, no restlessness, which is also considered an example of growing up or maturing...sometimes nowadays, more often than earlier, I want to sit and just remain quiet, for example if you're online and some friend is online as well, the need to make conversation is no longer there, you're comfortable in silence as well...in fact sometimes you want the comfort of silence and then if somebody keeps tries to make conversation for whatever reasons of their own (boredom, feeling uncomfortable in silence, effort to be social), my nerves start sending me 'GETTING ON US' signals and 'GIVE SPACE' signals which you can't ignore and end up having to act anti-social. One is also tempted to wonder why the other person, roughly the same age, is not as grown up as you and why that person acts so kiddish. Is all this part of growing up? Is lack of tolerance of jarring (also might be known as insolent\pre-pubescent\adolescent\immature) behaviour and immediate branding of people exhibiting such behaviour part of growing up??

Questions, questions and more questions...perhaps in time, the answers shall dawn upon me...

Hmmm...

gRiNcH

the gRiNcH is back...

so it's been a long while and lots has happened in the meantime, wanted to write a lot but just hasn't been happening...just checked in online coupla days back and had a question from a blogger friend asking if I was planning to update and it kinda hit me that there were people who read the blog (i'm NOT trying to be modest). I mean it's not like a person blogs because people wanna read it but you kinda feel like writing more when you know there are people out there who'd like to read some more(thanks deepshikha). So I'm gonna hopefully get back to posting regularly, even if sometimes it's just something random like a movie review or something of the kind.

Anyways, getting to this post, life's been ok, been chilling mostly, TY’s on (Third Year for the uninitiated), not like there’s much to talk about there, classes are just plain boring, there’s no compulsion to attend them and incase u happen to go for one, there’s no compulsion to pay attention in it so it kinda gives a feeling of being wasted during the day. The afternoons have become interesting as my room is now pimped up (got an insane set of 2.1 speakers) and some mad innovative wiring solutions so now even though my room’s got more stuff than it did last year, it looks even neater and hence, there is some good electronic music blasting through the afternoon\evenings (having good quality sound from your music really cheers you up). The evenings and the consequent nights are by far the best part of the day as the evenings mostly consist of CAT classes and at nights all us hostelites mostly chill out and randomly eat from some really good place. All in all I’d say life is going well but it’s all overshadowed by the pressure of doing something worthwhile in the next 7-8 months lest the monster of unemployment eat me up post graduation.

This omnipresent pressure can be felt everywhere and by everybody who’s in their graduating year. As most of the people prepare for the deluge of management entrance examinations about to hit us starting in mid-November and others look at other options like securing a placement or giving GRE, GMAT and the like to go abroad where it’s relatively easier to get into the top layer of colleges like LSE, Oxford and Cambridge, everybody’s scurrying about trying to get a plan. The uncertainty of the future a year from now overshadows all actions and all conversations nowadays.

Sometimes you wonder that you finished schooling and straight got into college, finishing college, straight getting into further studies or jobs and eventually finish post-graduation and get into the job market, waiting to be picked up by some MNC with a fancy name and a fancier pay packet and once your job starts, your life is pretty much headed on the highway with no stops. Look at it this way right now and you wonder when do you get time to do something with your life, something which you enjoy, something akin to taking a break. There really is no out from the rat race. The only people who actually end up getting outta this are the ones who’re assured of the fact that they’re gonna be handed over the mantle of the family business and hence there is no need to prove yourself in your education or prove your competence by slugging it out in the job market. Even then it’s only a temporary illusion and nowadays more and more families are asking their heir-apparent to first show some mettle and then come back to the business.
Since you cannot take a break from the routine called life, perhaps the solution lies in being able to pace yourself and being able to prioritise such that you can manage your interests along with your career\education needs. Maybe the solution lies in chilling in the first two years of your college and trying to enjoy whatever it has to offer you and then getting back into the rat race in the final year.

Either ways, life seems to be working itself out for me pretty much at the moment and been kinda fortunate in whatever’s happened with me this year, have been taking the right decisions uptil now even if only by chance sometimes. Choosing not to participate in my college fest, changing rooms in my hostel, having all emotional bonds snapped, choosing the correct CAT classes to go for , etc. It’s just all worked out perfectly uptil now and I’m hoping this streak continues for the next 8 months at the least.

Feels good to be back to writing, if only aimlessly.

Looking forward to a successful year and hope all you out there have the same.

Ciaos
gRiNcH

The Pilgrimage Part 2... God is a Dj!!!

Here I am, finally writing perhaps the post which will take the most out of me for I simply cannot afford to err on this, it has to be perfect, there can be no flaw, there can be no lack of expression. It has to be perfect, afterall it is a tribute to GOD a.k.a. Tiësto.

I felt this symbol of God was essential for starting this post, not just coz it is God's expression of freedom but also coz it is this symbol which ruled the best night of my life. So here it goes, it's been long in the pipeline, I've had some people giving me gentle feelers that this post better come fast and some not so gentle persuading but this post had to be perfect, the mood had to be there, it had to be right.

Also, I had to find all the videos to correspond with my post and I'm glad to announce that thanks to Youtube, each one of those events have been found...

This is a statutory warning for all those who are going to read this post beyond this line...

HIGH-SPEED BROADBAND REQUIRED

The above laid symbol says it all...if you're listening to something by this God, there is no way you can't feel the magic, or in God's words, Magik...

Picking up from where I left off...

I walked into the stadium and there was a feeling of calm setting over me, it was finally here, the night I'd dreamt about for almost 4 years now, the one night I would have done anything for, it was here and I was in it...As I walked down the road from the gate to the stadium, there was an awkward schoolboyish nervousness gripping me, I felt like jumping up in the air and screaming and punching the air, it was amazing.

So i walked down the road and there was this line of people standing at one entry gate into the stadium and I joined them. Then I heard somebody asking if this was the line to the VIP tickets. Somebody replied no but nobody knew where the entry for VIP tickets was. I circled around the entire stadium and found the entrance, went in, it was so empty, a coupla guys checking the ticket and that's it. He saw my ticket and allowed me to enter. I walked into the stadium and there I was, on God's dance floor tonight...

It was empty and there was a small enclosure made right in front of me which I presumed to be the enclosure for the VIP tickets and entered it. The stand was deserted but for one bald guy who I presumed was just as crazy as me to come in so early. I looked around and was slightly disappointed for these VIP enclosures were not closer to the main console, like the lady on the phone had confirmed, in fact they were on the side and the INR 2,000 tickets, the cheapest ones were infact right infront of where God would be standing in a few hours.

15 minutes went past and I happened to strike up a conversation with the bald guy who, to start my night of coincidences, happened to be from Mumbai and had come down with his friends just for this night. As we talked, he happened to mention, and I happened to behave as if I already knew, that this was not only the VIP enclosure but the Soul Gallery enclosure to which the tickets were INR 10,000, the tickets with the unlimited drinks and snacks!!! This was just getting better and better. I looked around me and sure enough, there was an entire bucket kept with ice and Power Horse cans in it and a group of guys setting up the food and drinks just on the railing to keep handing out. I walked over and asked the guy at the drinks counter to gimme a coke and we got talking and Lo and Behold!, guess what?? he turned out to be from Mumbai as well, a youngster who'd just finished his bartending school and had taken up this job only so that he could get to attend this concert!!!! bloody hell, how lucky can you get?? You get to listen to God and get PAID FOR IT!!!

anyways, people had started filling in by now and it had reached 9 PM when we heard the first sounds. turned around to look and saw that the local Dj, Moorty I think his name was, had started the opening set.

Oh, incase I forgot to mention how the stage looked, I won't go into it, I got a pic of it, take a look

Needless to say, it looked great. There was a slight pang of disappointment for I'd expected the famous disc model of the console which is so prominent in his concerts but then I reminded myself that was Amsterdam and a closed dome with the works, this was Hyderabad and an open stadium. It still looked great. The opening set was nothing great, just for warming up purposes and the sound had barely been turned up to half-levels. I whiled away the time by eating some great non veg and having coke (clean, nothing in it :P) and soon enough, IT WAS TIME...

the time had come...moorthy had gone off and God was about to come, we saw him walking to the stage, my first glimpse of God, it was amazing, it sent a rush of adrenaline to my veins, it was crazy...it was finally happening, I couldn't believe it...

he came onto the stage and a cheer was let out from the 20,000+ crowd that had assembled in that stadium to watch God play his music...the lights went out and the screens went blank...and then started the best 3 hours of my life...

it all started with the opening, watch it...



as the screens flashed on and there came the wings, the sign that denoted freedom and expression and God all together in one single shot...the effect was too much to take, it was insane...

and then the music came on, louder than what had been playing, to a level that made me truly feel like something special. God had arrived and he had decided to start the party with the title track of his tour, the hair-raising anthem 'Elements of Life' . Now i'm sure all of you reading this have heard the track (incase you haven't, go listen to his album right now and then resume reading this) but go ahead, listen to it again, and imagine an open stadium, 20,000+ fans chanting God's name in unison, pitch darkness and in the middle of it a video display with the logo flashing and the anthem starting, the beginning tune and then the kick...man, it was, can't find another word, ORGASMIC...

The party had started and God was playing, it was insane. The videos on the display were beautifully choreographed, some of the most amazing pan views of the snow mountains and deserts and forests and ice beds, all moving in unison with the music, hats off to the production department. To give you an idea of how amazing the video setup was, watch this short video...



The next crazy moment came when 15 mins into the concert, the video flashed a photo of close-up of God, it was like one pic being rotated slowly and slowly and the crowd went ballistic, I couldn't stop screaming and jumping.

The only problem was I was on the sides and the music was centred in the middle and I couldn't get a close view of God. Then I noticed a guy who'd jumped outta the VIP enclosure and had gone into the main crowd coz he couldn't get a good enough view from here. I didn't attempt to jump(not with my size I wouldn't) but I ran all around the stadium to enter from the main entrance for the lesser priced tickets and I can't remember another time when I've managed to run so fast...

Finally reached the centre, right in front of God's workplace and the music was sounding WOW, it was going through the ears and hitting the brain, doing things only God's music could've done...

As we watched, the display started flashing names of cities, the cities that were part of his EOL tour and it went on for 5 mins with all the main cities of the world being covered but there was no mention of India or Hyderabad. The crowd started to get restless and the music was slowly calming down and then outta the blue, in big bold on the screen,

HYDERABAD

the crowd lost it, they couldn't stop screaming, I myself was running outta breath from screaming out so loud. Here, watch it...





Then and there, He proved why he is and always will be the No. 1 Dj of the world and more importantly, why his music has the power to uplift any person on the face of this earth. As soon as the screen flashed Hyderabad, God shifted gears and upped the tempo of the music, took it on a high again and you learnt right there the amazing way in which he can keep a finger on the pulse of the audience and judge it perfectly, it was a stroke of genius...

so there we went, the audience, mere puppets playing along and going up and down with the tempo of the music God was dishing out, almost as if like in a trance following a Pied Piper...

As I was trying to slowly push and pull and get as head as I could, I was trying to take a video of God and this young guy next to me looked at me and said "You're never gonna forget this night!!" and I looked back at him and told him "You're telling me?? I'm the biggest fan of God you have ever seen".

He looked at me, smiled as if to forgive my innocence and pointed to a guy standing slightly ahead of us and said "Not you, it's him, he's the biggest fan of God ever". Not about to let this title get away from me, I confidently declared that I was frm Mumbai and had come down just for the concert. He looked back at me with surprise and declared that he and his friends were also, infact, from Mumbai and had come down only for the concert. Looking to go one up, he told me that they'd bought the VIP ticket but didn't get a great view from there so they had jumped over and come into the common area. I was flabbergasted yet quickly enough replied that I had done the exact same thing and the moment he heard it, the victorious smile was wiped off his face. It turned into a friendly banter and both of us started listening to God, a strange acquaintanceship created in the middle of nowhere...

In the middle of all this God decided he wasn't happy with the effect he was having on us so he decided to blow us apart for the next one hour and blow us he did. The high point of the party came when he played Love Comes Again, Just Be and Traffic all in a row. I could try my level best but I wouldn't be able to really put across to you the thought going inside my head and the rush of adrenalin I was feeling, it was crazy...

I had never thought that even in India, you could have an entire crowd sing along with Love Comes Again but that's exactly what they did, everybody was singing along, everybody knew the lyrics perfectly, it was a memorable sight...

After this peak of energy God slowly started to lower the tempo of the music and just as we were wondering when it would pick up, He came up with this track, one I've never heard before and which I can't identify still but the tune is, again, ORGASMIC...


The tune was beautiful and the effect it had on the crowd was amazing. He took off from this track and kept going and the crowd started to wonder if he would play any other tracks from EOL when, almost as if possessing a psychic connection with the crowd, the lights dimmed and he played a vocal version of 'In the Dark' to pick it up....check it out...



He again picked up the tempo with 'In the Dark' and rode it straight into 'Dance 4 Life', his anthem with a social cause. The crowd was riding on a series of waves, going through the highs and lows with the music, all control relinquished to the orchestrator, the Pied Piper, God, Tiësto...

The time had flown by at lightning speed and it had drawn close to 1 am, the deadline for the party to shut down...God slowly started to tone down the music but he must've felt that the crowd was missing something coz he then pulled out his masterstroke, the 2nd best closing\opening to a set by God...he played 'Adagio for Strings'...and this one i'm extremely lucky to get an excellent quality video with super audio....you cannot miss this, you have to watch this video even if you didn't the other ones...


As he closed the set and turned off the music, a sinking feeling swept over me, it was over, the best night of my life had just come to and end and it had lasted 3 hours...All that was left was the thought that tonight was special, it was when I came face to face with God, when I danced to God's music, tonight was simply MAGIK...

To end this, I'll say...God came, God played, God CONQUERED!!!

Here's a wallpaper which I feel is what He is truly about...

JUST BE guys, live life to the max...

I'll finish this with a few posters of God that are just awesome...



In case any of you feel you can still take a bit more of God at Hyderabad, here is a good video...



Hope you guys enjoyed it, I know whatever I've written does not even describe a small fraction of how it felt being there but I'm sure you guys understand...

Thx,

ciaos...

gRiNcH <3 Tiësto

P.S. ---> You are allowed to post comments in case you like the post... :P

*Edit* An insanely infuriating thing was the way the tickets for the concert were given out to losers. While I was in the Soul Gallery, I heard this son of a bitch talking on the phone and this were his words, I kid you not "arre, tu bhi aaja, mere ko 10 hazaar wala pass 6 mein mil gaya, tu bhi aaja, khana and drinks free hai...arre, koi party hai, koi dj hai, tiesto ya koi, kuch india ka no. 1 ya kuch, aaja, tu bhi aaja, peeyenge baith ke" OMFG, if I'd had my way that time, I would've kicked the shit outta that bastard...This is why this fucking country doesn't have good entertainment, coz the ppl who come for these things r d ones who don't value it and get their tickets for free...

oh, and a strange thing noticed, most of the crowd that was there to actually appreciate God were all outstations, the localites were those who were in the galleries who'd just come coz it had become a cool thing and wanted to be on Page 3 and be able to say they went for a concert. I'm sure there were a few localites in d crowd as well but mostly it was this bunch of posers.

Really Sad!!!