An Ode To BST
Written on July 14th, 2020 by {"login"=>"jcbphc21", "email"=>"f20181005@hyderabad.bits-pilani.ac.in", "display_name"=>"Journal Club, BPHC", "first_name"=>"Journal Club", "last_name"=>"BPHC"}About 4 years ago
It’s a fine Sunday afternoon, and things are bustling in the Reddy household. There’s a flurry of activity going on, and every member of the family is playing a role in the larger scheme of things. And at the helm of this operation is Mrs. Reddy, who’s dictating terms from the kitchen, while multitasking. Her favorite Carnatic vocalist is performing in the city today, and there is no way she is going to allow anything, especially her family, to make her miss even a second of the concert. Karthik listens to the commotion while texting from his throne (his bed), lying on his stomach. He tries not to let all the yelling and chaos get to him; all he wants is some time on the meme group with his friends. Alas, peace does not last for long as he’s summoned to the kitchen yet again! The plants need watering, the clothes need folding, and the kitchen counter needs cleaning. Well, it seems to Karthik that a war needs to be fought before they can leave. He sits back down on the bed when a voice goes, “Karthik! Are you on that phone again? Can you please exist without it for one day and go take a bath?”
“Ma I’ll go in 5 minutes, please! The concert’s at 8. There are 7 hours to the show, Can you chill please?!”
“No! There are 6 hours. If we think we need to leave by 6, only then we’ll be able to leave by 7. It’s not cool to say no to everything your mother says. I want you to go take a bath, right now, mister.”
“Ma the auditorium’s barely 15 minutes away!!”
“So what? There will be a lot of traffic. What if we don’t find parking? I want a front-row seat tonight. And you, Karthik’s father! Could you put down that laptop and go check the car? The company won't burn down if you don't give them attention for one day.”
Present Day
It’s a fine Saturday afternoon and Karthik is in his least favorite class of the day. He scrolls through Insta stories as the professor drones on about Fourier series and transformers. Something catches his eye in between his mindless scrolling. “Music Nite at 6 pm. Be there!!” The next couple of stories are also about the same event. A quick Facebook search later, Karthik glances over the set list of songs they would perform. “What! They’re performing Toxicity!! How?? No idea what the rest of the songs are, though,” he thinks to himself, while the Professor drones on in his crony voice about God knows what. The class ends and Karthik walks out, putting his earphones on to refresh his memory of the songs that he even vaguely recognized from the set list. As he walks out of the Academic Block, his eyes slowly go down a fresher girl’s bag and come to rest as he zones out into the song…..
“Wassup bro!!” The sharp slap on his shoulder brings him out of his reverie. “Who the hell are you staring at? Neha? Aaannnn…”
“What? No! Shut up”, says Karthik, hastily pulling his earphones off. Quickly changing the topic he says, “Dude are you coming to Music Nite? Did you see the setlist? Yeah exactly. Toxicity!! Crazy right! God knows how they’ll pull it off….” The chatter continues as more of his friends show up and start walking towards the mess with him.
“By the way, what time is it at?” asks someone. Karthik thinks he saw a “6pm” somewhere on the post, but waves it off. “It’s from 8 bro. Lots of time man,” he answers and goes back to the animated chatting.
About 4 Years Ago
“Karthik you still don’t have your shoes on! I told you 10 minutes ago! I swear if we’re late today, you’ll have it from me! Get off of that damn phone first, who are you always texting?” Karthik hurriedly slides his phone into his pocket, puts his shoes on and runs out the door to get into the lift being held open by his dad.
“Why is mom being like this? Why are we going so early? What do we plan on sitting next to the artist or something??”
“It’s her plan. Ask your mom. I’m just following. I suggest we don't annoy her too much until we get there, or it’ll backfire at us.”
“Yeah sure, you’re scared of her too.”
“What did you say!?”
“Nothing” says Karthik and goes back into his phone as his mother rushes into the lift and they go down. The short drive to the auditorium is interspersed with his mother doing one of two things: asking his father to drive faster and checking her makeup in her pocket vanity mirror. “Karthik! put your phone to some use and check Maps for how long it’s gonna take us.”
“We’ll be there in five minutes baba” said his father to which she retorted, “That’s what you always say! You’ll say five minutes to get to London also. There’s no point in your five minutes at all. Look, that autowala overtook you 3 times already, challo, drive fast, even a bullock cart could cross you now!”
“Fine” sighs his father dejectedly and they all fall into an awkward silence for the rest of the drive, only to be interrupted by his mother’s taunts every now and then. He wants to ask for the aux cord but immediately stops himself, uncertain about the consequences that he’d have to face from his mother.
Present Day
“THUD THUD THUD” Karthik is jerked awake from his relaxing nap by the loud banging of his hostel door. He chooses to ignore it for a while, but it only gets louder, and he starts to hear yells from outside. He knows that if he doesn't get up now, whoever it is will end up breaking open his door. He stumbles towards the door without opening his eyes, and his hand shoots up, in search of the latch.
“Oh hello sir, what are you doing? Where the heck is your phone? Why aren't you answering any of the calls? Karthik!” At this, Karthik squints open his eyes.
“What is it Aditya, what do you want?” Karthik says groggily.
“What do you mean what is it? Don't you want to go to the Music Nite? Weren't you the one dragging us so we could listen to toxicity?”
“Oh right, what time is it?”
“6:30, dammit, get your ass moving.”
“Ha toh chill na, we’ll go to the mess at 7:15, we’ll be there by 8 what's the hurry?”
“The show started half an hour ago, smarty. Now run or we’ll miss your favorite song.”
Karthik walked back into his room and sat down. He is still too groggy to process anything. He finally gathers enough wits to pick up his phone and call a friend in DoPy.
“Haan bro shuru hua kya?”
“Nahi bro delayed hai abhi bhi soundcheck chal raha hai.”
“Kitna time lagega?”
“15-minute bol rahe hai”
“Cool” said Karthik and hung up. Then he walked out of his room and knocked on Aditya’s door who opened it with his shirt half-buttoned up, trying to text while dressing and miserably failing.
“Show’s delayed bro”
“AGAIN!!”
“Yeah mate” said Karthik with a smirk. “Not gonna start until 15 more, so let’s go to Yummpy’s before the Audi. I’m starving.”
About 4 Years Ago
After a very taxing 15 min drive and even more tense search for parking, the Reddy family has finally arrived at the venue. There is a small line at the entrance and seeing that; Mrs. Reddy has declared all her previous predictions to be true. Meanwhile Karthik wonders why his mother finds pride in predicting bad things.
As the small group makes their way into the venue, Karthik starts noticing things. The people walking with them are carrying ID cards. One of them is carrying a camera bag. Karthik thinks he saw the word “Producer” on one of the tags. As he’s wondering, they reach a landing that has directions stuck on the wall. While the audience is supposed to go through the doors on the right, the other guys walk down a long corridor labeled “BackStage.” With his consternation rising, Karthik pushes the doors open to……..darkness.
Taken aback, he waits for his eyes to adjust only to realize that the auditorium is absolutely empty. They are still carrying out sound checks on the various mics. Karthik turns around, ready to quip at his mother. Before he can say anything, his mother says, “Don’t say anything to me. Had I not hurried, we would’ve been horribly late” and returns to adjusting her makeup. His father just shakes his head and walks out to make a “call.” “Great!” thinks Karthik, “Mom’s busy in her mirror and dad’s stepped out for a smoke. What the hell am I supposed to do? Gosh it’s hot in here”.
“You guys are impossible!!” says Karthik and positions himself against a nearby window and starts debating whether he should like this girl’s picture or not.
Present Day
“Abe chill karna bro. Kyun tension le raha hai. Nahi hua hai shuru abhi tak”, says Karthik as they wait for their orders to come at Yummpy’s. After getting to know that the show was delayed beyond measure, the gang has decided to eat before pushing off to the Audi.
Their banter continues as they get their orders and start off towards the distant Acad Block. Karthik is droning on about some concept he learned in Quantum Mechanics when his phone starts ringing. “Huh? Neha’s calling me? Interesting''. He picks up and struggles to balance his Maggi and his phone while his friends start hooting and howling as if their life depends on it. He flips them off and then goes back to the call.
“Hello? Neha? Yeah what’s up?”
“Sorry what? Is it started? Not yet? Ok. Then what’s going on?”
“What? You’re alone? Ok so? Oh!! All right. Cool.”
Karthik turns back to his friends and asks them to walk faster. His friends immediately start teasing him to which he just says “Whatever!!” and then slowly leans into the darker sides of the street.
He notices a slight smile on his lips.
“Guys I’m really excited about tonight!”
And they walk on in the darkness, talking about grades and rock music in the same breath. As the loud group nears the Auditorium gates, Karthik notices Neha at the entrance, looking quite lost.
"Tonight's gonna be a lot of fun" he thinks to himself as he waves his hand and calls out to her.