Back in Bangalore

I am back in Bangalore again. The trip back from US to my home town was safe and on time (even though it was by Air India ;)). I spent three weeks at home taking rest and filling in for the missed time with family. My mother and grand mother were the happiest as I had nothing else to do other than sitting at home relaxing and doing house hold works. My younger brothers were the ones who did all these jobs but now that they are also out of home for studies, I had to follow up such things. I was busy all these days with tasks like cleaning the water tank, doing the grocery shopping, getting kerosene from ration shop (Yeah… they, both kerosene and ration shop, still exists; and people are still using kerosene for cooking stoves when LPG supply is limited), waiting at the long queues to pay electricity bills and so on.

Nothing much has changed at least in the villages in Kerala other than the impact of Harthals. There were many Harthals in the recent days and surprisingly people are cooperating with it no matter which party called for it and for what cause. Looks like all are enjoying the total stoppage of life by taking rest at home doing nothing. Soon there will be Harthal special TV shows and movies!

Bangalore is still the same with pollution and traffic chaos. The short walk from the room to office across the street is enough to start hating Bangalore. Let us see what is waiting for me here.

Bryan Adams in Bangalore

Since I started listening to those pops and rocks, it was my secret ambition to attend one of those live concerts. I had to wait for long. I missed a chance when MLTR visited Bangalore recently. So this time, the plans were made well ahead and the enthusiasm of my friends helped a lot.

The Bryan Adams' Third Time Lucky concert at Palace Grounds was the first show of its kind I was attending. Watching him live, singing my favorite songs like "Summer of 69" and "Please Forgive me" with his magical guitar works was more than what I had asked for. The 15000 plus crowd, singing along with him with overwhelming excitement was an experience I'll never forget. His deep and touching voice made the show special and the scene of thousands swaying their hands in air with lit screen mobile phones, instead of candles, singing along Adams, was breath taking.


Many a times, Adams was swept over by seeing the crowd's response, and he said "You guys are just great. This is absolutely fantastic. I just don't know what to say!” More than two hours and 25 songs later, crowd was still hesitant to part with him and kept on asking for more, till he said a sudden good-bye and disappeared behind the stage.

Cameras were not allowed inside the venue. So we had to catch our excitement from the room, after the show (See the photo above). One of the photographers from "The Hindu" knew my feelings ;) and captured a photo of mine among the crowd, though my gloomy face (wondering how to get into the first row, for a better sight of the stage) is barely visible (first photo, left most, second row).