This year, I happened to attend a few events lined up as part of the Times Of India Pune Festival.
Most, rather all of which I attended, were musical events. There were a couple of plays and cookery events which I didn't attend.
Anyhow, so the ones I attended were :
First one, Shaan's musical concert at Amanora Park Town
This one seemed to be promising, at the newly built Amanora Park Town. The name sounds grand and the mall looks grand, but the approach road to the ground? Doesn't that need to be grand too? Or even a normal tar road? Maybe that is not really important then. Second thing was the parking. There was no parking arrangement at the ground. Park your vehicle as and where you wish on the rocky road!
Worse, Times distributed passes, but Amanora distributed VIP passes. All those who were not VIP were supposed to stand! That was also not so bad, but then you should start the program on time. They started at 8:30! Ohh and did I tell you about the entry lines?
Yes, there were three entry lines. One VIP and the other two for "others". But no pandal mentioned which line is for VIPs, so much for VIP treatment.
And even after the hour and half long wait we were greeted by June Banerjee, yea we hadn't heard her name before. No, she did sing well, only that her voice had no throw and no one wanted to hear her singing for more than 5 minutes. Shaan did come, and he did sing, some marathi ones, some hindi and then he started singing duet with June. I was out then. No more patience.
Moral : Big names don't guarantee good organisation. Artistes do not value time!
Second, the Laxminarayana Global Music Festival at Poona Club
I hadn't heard about this musical fest before, but I must tell you this is one thing I will look out for next year too. International artistes and new musical instruments. We heard the Kora from Senegal. A difficult instrument to play, but what sweet music it produces! Worth all the effort you put into playing it. Do listen to a clipping if available, its so simple and sweet and refreshing. (I'll try to share the recording of the the festival)
Second was the koto from Japan. Its music is nice, but a bit too slow for my liking, and the instrument looked too difficult to play.
Then the violins, what melody! They played solos and all the instruments together.
I went into a trance. Magnificent is not the word!
It was an open air event, organised at Poona Club. Everything else was well organised, except that the number of chairs placed were not in proportion to the number of passes distributed. Also since all the seating was at the same level, they could have elevated the stage, would have made the experience much better.
Also, people who were not interested in experiencing some new music had also walked in. That's fine, but then you can at least keep shut. I'm sure they were engineers cracking PJs because they were so bored. No I don't mind the jokes, but not at the cost of the lovely ambiance the music created. (Of course we asked them to keep shut and then they told us you can access the recording of the songs at the TOI website..so they had to be engineers!)
Yes, Nana Patekar graced the event and meeting him was more weird than I ever imagined. It was WEIRD!
Moral : There are a few artistes who are big, creativity is huge and they do value time!
Third, Jasbir Jassi's musical concert at Shaniwarwada
No I hadn't heard about this singer, but I had heard his famous song Kudi Kudi. This was also an open air concert at Shaniwarwada, the ambiance was beautiful! I had never been to any concert here before, I had visited Shaniwarwada once as part of my school picnic, I think in 5th standard.
The artiste here was late by an hour, but there were chairs (lots actually, there weren't many people to fill them up). Once the show started it was rocking. But then I don't follow punjabi and then the beats got too repetitive and the crowd a bit too lively and rowdy and I didn't feel like staying long. But Jasbir, hats off to him. He sang for 2 hours, non-stop! Energy! Ohh and I loved his voice, what throw what texture, lovely. And his sense of humor was brilliant, he made all the people laugh and sway to his songs. All in all a lively end to the TOI pune festival.
Moral : Artistes do not value time!
P.S. And finally I write a blogpost that is soooo long! I hope I can continue doing so. Ohh and yes, I haven't used smileys! Yaay! But yes, I've used too many exclamation marks, yes?
Most, rather all of which I attended, were musical events. There were a couple of plays and cookery events which I didn't attend.
Anyhow, so the ones I attended were :
First one, Shaan's musical concert at Amanora Park Town
This one seemed to be promising, at the newly built Amanora Park Town. The name sounds grand and the mall looks grand, but the approach road to the ground? Doesn't that need to be grand too? Or even a normal tar road? Maybe that is not really important then. Second thing was the parking. There was no parking arrangement at the ground. Park your vehicle as and where you wish on the rocky road!
Worse, Times distributed passes, but Amanora distributed VIP passes. All those who were not VIP were supposed to stand! That was also not so bad, but then you should start the program on time. They started at 8:30! Ohh and did I tell you about the entry lines?
Yes, there were three entry lines. One VIP and the other two for "others". But no pandal mentioned which line is for VIPs, so much for VIP treatment.
And even after the hour and half long wait we were greeted by June Banerjee, yea we hadn't heard her name before. No, she did sing well, only that her voice had no throw and no one wanted to hear her singing for more than 5 minutes. Shaan did come, and he did sing, some marathi ones, some hindi and then he started singing duet with June. I was out then. No more patience.
Moral : Big names don't guarantee good organisation. Artistes do not value time!
Second, the Laxminarayana Global Music Festival at Poona Club
I hadn't heard about this musical fest before, but I must tell you this is one thing I will look out for next year too. International artistes and new musical instruments. We heard the Kora from Senegal. A difficult instrument to play, but what sweet music it produces! Worth all the effort you put into playing it. Do listen to a clipping if available, its so simple and sweet and refreshing. (I'll try to share the recording of the the festival)
Second was the koto from Japan. Its music is nice, but a bit too slow for my liking, and the instrument looked too difficult to play.
Then the violins, what melody! They played solos and all the instruments together.
I went into a trance. Magnificent is not the word!
It was an open air event, organised at Poona Club. Everything else was well organised, except that the number of chairs placed were not in proportion to the number of passes distributed. Also since all the seating was at the same level, they could have elevated the stage, would have made the experience much better.
Also, people who were not interested in experiencing some new music had also walked in. That's fine, but then you can at least keep shut. I'm sure they were engineers cracking PJs because they were so bored. No I don't mind the jokes, but not at the cost of the lovely ambiance the music created. (Of course we asked them to keep shut and then they told us you can access the recording of the songs at the TOI website..so they had to be engineers!)
Yes, Nana Patekar graced the event and meeting him was more weird than I ever imagined. It was WEIRD!
Moral : There are a few artistes who are big, creativity is huge and they do value time!
Third, Jasbir Jassi's musical concert at Shaniwarwada
No I hadn't heard about this singer, but I had heard his famous song Kudi Kudi. This was also an open air concert at Shaniwarwada, the ambiance was beautiful! I had never been to any concert here before, I had visited Shaniwarwada once as part of my school picnic, I think in 5th standard.
The artiste here was late by an hour, but there were chairs (lots actually, there weren't many people to fill them up). Once the show started it was rocking. But then I don't follow punjabi and then the beats got too repetitive and the crowd a bit too lively and rowdy and I didn't feel like staying long. But Jasbir, hats off to him. He sang for 2 hours, non-stop! Energy! Ohh and I loved his voice, what throw what texture, lovely. And his sense of humor was brilliant, he made all the people laugh and sway to his songs. All in all a lively end to the TOI pune festival.
Moral : Artistes do not value time!
P.S. And finally I write a blogpost that is soooo long! I hope I can continue doing so. Ohh and yes, I haven't used smileys! Yaay! But yes, I've used too many exclamation marks, yes?
